Some Android users like to run custom ROMs on their phones but unfortunately, with the added options of a custom ROM, stability is often sacrificed. For those who want many of the options of a custom ROM while maintaining the stock ROM (although root access must be possible) the Xposed Framework is a great option. The Xposed Framework allows a user to install an Xposed “module” which adds options to a specific ROM/app.
Unfortunately, each time Google update Android versions the framework needs updating, which is often difficult depending on the amount of changes Google makes to the runtime environment. The good news is that even with the changes Google made in Marshmallow, the developer of the Xposed Framework, Rovo89, has already managed to enable Xposed for Android 6.0. Today he has released the framework which, due to Google’s new security, come with some limitations.
The new version 77 of the Xposed Framework supports Android 6.0 but the old installer, version 3.0 alpha4 still works with Marshmallow. Due to the new dm-verity and the SELinux rules some modules may be affected by the access to the system partition and thus may not work if you still have dm-verity enabled and SELinux set to enabled. Rovo89 recommends you keep these enabled for full Android security but the inference is there that if you want to have full access to all modules these will have to be sacrificed for them to function properly.
To do this you will need to install a kernel that has dm-verity disabled and turn SELinux to permissive rather than enforcing.
In other news, the new updates to the Marshmallow Xposed Framework will be back-ported to the Lollipop Xposed Framework which stopped working for some devices when manufacturers updated them to 5.1. These updates and changes should enable full Xposed Framework functionality on 5.1 but it has yet to be fully tested.
I have four Marshmallow devices here ready to test this new Xposed Framework out, but currently I am yet to do so and thus I do encourage care to be taken when installing this framework. A Nandroid backup from your custom recovery is always a good idea before making any changes to your system partition and we strongly suggest you do this first. I will be testing this out this morning and will report back this evening if you’d rather wait for the Ausdroid resident guinea pig to try it first.
Are you going to install the Xposed Framework? Do you still need this sort of hack on your Android device in 2015?
I find that ever since Marshmallow included custom app privacy controls, I didn’t need xposed framework any longer.