Hey guys, I'm new to webOS, but it already looks like a fantastic product to me.
My goal is to replace the closed source tv box from my provider by a Raspberry Pi with webOS. I have webOS installed on my Raspberry Pi, but now I need to install the app from my provider. I was expecting some kind of app store on webOS, but I can't find it. Is there a way to install an app store? Or do I need to include the provider app when I build webOS? Or is what I want not possible at all?
Hi @mike_teavee, welcome to the forum.
I think your webOS is likely webOS OSE, as you mentioned that it is installed on Raspberry Pi. webOS OSE doesn't have any app store.
However, you can install both built-in and downloadable apps. We provide sample apps for those two types. For more information, please refer to the Tutorials documents.
Thanks
Hi NERGI, thanks for the explanation and the link. I still don't really get it, though.
I'm using webOS OSE indeed. I need to install a specific app from my provider. I understand I can't install it through the Google Play Store, but I also have the pkg file on my pc. Is there a way to use that file to install the app on webOS OSE?
The 'pkg' file you have probably is not compatible with webOS OSE. Because Android is a different platform with webOS OSE.
webOS OSE supports the package files with the .ipk extension, but not all .ipk files can be installed.
As far as I know, there is no easy solution to convert Android's package into webOS OSE's package. If you really want, I can forward your package file to our dev. team. But I cannot guarantee the success of the conversion.
Thanks.
Congratulations on arriving in the webOS universe! Even though webOS is a great system, it doesn't have an open app store like others, which means, for your Raspberry Pi environment, there are more manual processes to install apps. The silver lining is that while there isn't a built-in app store, we can sideload apps to webOS. To install the provider app, you will have to bake it into the webOS build, or you can use Developer Mode, which will allow you to install the app from the command line. Getting the provider's app up is definitely doable! Just be aware there are some caveats to installing and making it work, like putting the developer's access on, and manually installing the app package. If you are somewhat technically savvy, you can follow instructions on how to sideload.