I previously had a trial of Theft Aware which I was able to install on my HTC Hero, running Floyo 1.2 (custom ROM based on Android 2.2). It worked fine with no problems.
I recently tried to update to the Avast Anti-Theft software. I go through the installation process, choosing a rooted installation and the direct write method. I get no errors, and the last message tells me to reboot to enable Anti-Theft. I reboot, but nothing happens. The app does not appear in my drawer, and when I open Avast and go the Anti-Theft menu, it says that it is not installed and takes me through the whole process again. The same installation process worked fine previously with Theft Aware.
I even tried the alternative method, using UPDATE.ZIP. I generated an EDIFY zip of binary type 1. I flashed it from my recovery, again with no errors. It said it was successful. I reboot. Again, no sign of the anti-theft software on my phone and Avast still reports it as uninstalled.
Do you have any other information? Are there any workarounds for me? Like I said, Theft Aware installed just fine on exactly the same ROM.
UPDATE: Did some more experimenting. As long as I avoid choosing a root installation, the app installs fine. I tried this, and then used Titanium Backup to make it a system app, but Titanium Backup hung trying to perform this operation, which I have never ever seen before. It works fine with other apps. I also tried to manually copy the APK from /data/app to /system/app which I can do, but then the app doesn’t work.
Make this sticky!!!
Titanium backup has a setting to integrate the dalvik cache into the ROM.
I just disabled this setting because I was getting a force close every time I tried to start the
Anti theft part of avast!!!
No more force closes now =)
Hope this helps someone else