Droidrunco

Your Android device. Cleaner.

• Introduction
• Installation
• Usage
• Demo
• Acknowledgement

Introduction

What?

Droidrunco is a cross-platform web UI based application which utilizes adb to help remove unwanted system apps (bloatware) from on all versions of Android with x86 or ARM processors without root access. This subsequently increases storage space, reduces power consumption and hardens the user's privacy against vendor distributed spyware.

Why?

Despite the existence of projects like the UAD project, there has recently been a lot of trouble correlating package names with an app's label. Manufacturers including Oppo, Xiaomi and the like use obscure package names for their spyware apps which make it difficult if not impossible to remove them without playing Russian roulette and risking a bootloop.

How?

Droidrunco solves the aforementioned issue by fetching the package names as well as app labels using its extractor binaries. This can help the user get better insights on whether an app is safe to get rid of.

With that said, a user still risks hitting a bootloop if they have absolutely no idea of what they're doing.

Installation

Install ADB

Linux

• Debian: sudo apt install android-sdk-platform-tools
• Arch: sudo pacman -S android-tools
• Red Hat: sudo yum install android-tools
• OpenSUSE: sudo zypper install android-tools
• Termux: pkg in android-tools

macOS

Install Homebrew and run the following in the terminal:

brew install android-platform-tools

Windows

Install Chocolatey and run the following in a PowerShell window with administrator privileges:

choco install adb

Install Droidrunco

Droidrunco can be installed in either of the following ways:

Using precompiled binaries

This is what most users will use since it does not involve setting up a development environment. Download the binary for your operating system from the releases.

From source

To build from source, please install just. It's being used as a replacement for the much complicated GNU make and Makefiles.

Clone the repository and create a clean build.

git clone https://github.com/lavafroth/droidrunco.git
cd droidrunco
just build-all

From the AUR

Archlinux users can install droidrunco from the AUR. Thank you robertfoster for packaging the app.

Usage

• Backup the data on your device before you accidentally screw up
• Enable Developer Options and USB debugging on your device
• From the settings, disconnect from any OEM / vendor accounts (deleting an OEM account package could lock you on the lockscreen because the device can no longer associate your identity)
• Kill any previously running adb servers on the host

adb kill-server

• Run Droidrunco (this might need administrative rights depending on the operation system in use)
• Visit http://localhost:8080
• Start typing to search for an app
• Click the trash icon next to the app's entry to wipe it. The icon color indicated the severity of uninstalling the app.
  • Green: Recommended
  • Lime: Advanced
  • Yellow: Expert
  • Red: Unsafe
  • Gray: Untested
• If an essential system app gets accidentally removed and Droidrunco is still running, click the recycle icon next to the entry to restore it

go run droidrunco

The best part about Droidrunco is that you can run the ARM version (grab it from the latest release) in Termux and even debloat the Android 11+ devices of your friends or family.

• Backup the data on your device before you accidentally screw up

• Enable Developer Options and USB debugging on your device

• In the aforementioned Developer Options, enable wireless debugging

• Under wireless debugging, click on pair a device, note down the given IP:PORT pair and the KEY.

• Open termux and run the following:

pkg in wget adb
adb connect IP:PORT KEY

Where IP, PORT and KEY are the identifiers noted from the wireless debugging menu. Now the target device should get a notification stating that a debugger has been connected. Finally run the following in Termux:

Note: The version used here is 2.3.2 but you may use a higher version if available.

wget https://github.com/lavafroth/droidrunco/releases/download/v2.3.2/droidrunco-arm-linux
chmod +x droidrunco-arm-linux
./droidrunco-arm-linux

Open your browser and go to http://localhost:8080 and Droidrunco should be ready for use.

Help wanted

Evidently, there is no native way to run Droidrunco on a phone, like an app. Also, I am terrible at Android development. If you are an Android developer who can help me integrate dadb or Shizuku into a fully fleshed app, feel free to contact me.

Acknowledgement

A huge thank you to the UAD project for their application knowledge base that is used in this project.