Google Play on Akuvox C315

This how to describes installation of Google Play (and other basic Google services) on Akuvox C315. I have Akuvox C315W specifically, however I believe that below steps should work for all C31x series.

As a base for installation I used minimal Open GApps version (i.e. pico). You can probably use different ones as well (not tested). It appeared that Akuvox recovery partition don't have option to install ZIP updates as required by Open GApps project. To workaround it I installed all apps manually following this guide.

This guide describes steps on Linux machine. You should be able to use Windows or macOS as well after finding appropriate alternatives to commands from step 9 onwards.

Note that you will be required to dismantle monitor's case and that you are doing everything at your own risk. You've been warned so let's begin :)

1. Change permission mode to admin to be able to access applications as described here
2. In monitor's web config go to Phone->Key/Display and configure one of areas to run Setings

Type: Cusom APK
Value: com.android.settings
Label: Settings

3. Open android settings via configred area (to close it later you can kill it via "Applications" menu)
4. Go to "System Information" and tap "Model Number" until "Developer's Options" will be enabled
5. Go up and enter "Developer's Options" menu
6. Check if "USB Debugging" is enabled
7. Dismantle monitor case. Insert micro USB cable to your monitor and attach it to your computer. After confirming pop-up on the monitor screen you should be able to use ADB with your Akuvox.
8. Download prebuilt Open GApps here. Architecture: ARM, Android Version: 6.0 (I used open_gapps-arm-6.0-pico-20210123.zip)
9. Prepare temporary directories

mkdir ~/gapps
mkdir ~/gapps/pkg
mkdir ~/gapps/tmp
mkdir ~/gapps/sys

10. Unzip the downloaded gapps archive with

unzip [name of gapps zip file].zip -d gapps/pkg

11. Enter gapps directory and extract all the relevant packages

find -name "*.tar.[g|l|x]z" -o -name "*.tar" | xargs -n 1 tar -xC tmp -f

12. Create script.sh in gapps directory

#!/bin/bash
for dir in tmp/*/
    do
      pkg=${dir%*/}
      dpi=$(ls -1 $pkg | head -1)

      echo "Preparing $pkg/$dpi"
      rsync -aq $pkg/$dpi/ sys/
    done

13. Execute the script

chmod +x script.sh
./script.sh

14. Push prepared binaries to monitor

adb root
adb remount
adb push sys/. /system/.

15. Remove second package installer and existing runtime permissions (permissions will be recreated after reboot)

adb shell
rm -rf /system/priv-app/PackageInstaller /data/system/users/0/runtime-permissions.xml
exit

16. Reboot the board.

adb reboot

17. Open applications on your Akuvox monitor and enjoy Google Play!