Install Aegis Hack

ℹ️ Prerequisite: enabled Developer Mode.

What this is

The N9’s Aegis security framework rejects unsigned packages that ask for system-level permissions (rebooting, packet capture, etc.). Some OpenRepos apps need those permissions to work — without this step they may install but their privileged features won’t function.

Aegis Installer (by Coderus) is the community-standard workaround. It patches the install process so unsigned community packages can claim a trusted origin. Installing it requires trusting a GPG signing key, since the patched installer comes from a signed repository.

Step 1: Become root

devel-su
# password is rootme

Step 2: Trust the community signing key

wget -q -O - http://n9.mpw.sh/apt-repo/wunderwungiel.key | apt-key add -

You should see OK printed. This tells apt to trust packages signed by this key.

Step 3: Enable the signed repository

echo "deb http://n9.mpw.sh/apt-repo unstable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/n9-apt-repo.list
apt-get update

You should see the new repository fetched without GPG warnings.

Step 4: Install Aegis Installer

apt-get install hack-installer

You’ll see output like this — that’s the installer patching itself:

Setting up hack-installer ...
# Backuping installer package status
# Backuping original sources lists
# Backuping original apt lists
# Injecting local repository
# Refreshing hack repository
# Installing patched aegis-install
# Removing local repository
# Restoring original apt lists
# Restoring original sources lists
# Returning installer package status
# Aegis-installer hacked. You can remove hack-installer package now =)

Step 5: Remove the installer package (optional)

The patch is applied — the hack-installer package itself isn’t doing anything anymore:

apt-get remove hack-installer

The patched aegis-install stays in place. This is just cleanup.

You’re done

From now on, plain apt-get install works for any OpenRepos package. Lets try installing reboot so you take care of that lock button.

apt-get install reboot

How this works

The patched aegis-install sits in front of dpkg (via a dpkg-divert), so every package install runs through it. It sets the origin to com.nokia.maemo and then calls the real dpkg. Aegis allows the AEGIS_FIXED_ORIGIN override specifically because it’s coming from this whitelisted binary path.

This works on closed-mode devices — no kernel reflash, no Open Mode required.

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Next: browse the package catalog for community apps, or check out the other guides.