Magisk v15.1 Makes it More Modular, Updates the Module Template and More (Updated)

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Updated 12/29/2017: We’ve edited the article to reflect the release of Magisk v15.1, which fixes a bootloop issue in Magisk v15.

It was less than a week ago when we talked about the big update that was pushed for Magisk that brought its version up to 14.6. While that version didn’t really add any new and exciting functionality, it was great for adding polish and optimizing various features. Late last night XDA Recognised Developer announced a new version that would bring Magisk up to version 15.1 and an update that makes it more modular, improves methods of hiding Magisk, updating to a new module template and launches a server for Magisk repo submissions.

With the Pixel phones utilizing Treble, topjohnwu feels that Android is becoming a more modular platform and they want to utilize those advantages with Magisk. This will be especially true as more devices are launched with full Treble support, so it makes sense to start getting work done ahead of time. So for this update the developer has spent time backporting changes and features to make sure they run on these new devices.

There has also been some work done on the way Magisk tries to hide itself from other applications and services on our devices. Various hints/signal/traces of the existence of Magisk are now removed, and Magisk Manager supports repackaging to completely hide from naive package name detections. On versions 14.5 and higher of Magisk, the developer has made sure that modules which are built upon the vanilla 1400 template should work properly.

However, module developers may need to update their code to use the template for version 15.1 so that it properly supports this new version. This will all depend on how the module developer has implemented the features of their module though. The new template strips out even more logic within the module, making it nearly a stub to just call functions from the external util_functions.sh. This will go a long way with future versions of Magisk as it will give topjohnwu the ability to fix issues and do adjustments without modules needing to be adapted for those changes.

The last new piece of news paired with this update is a new server that will handle Magisk repo submissions. The server is currently running on the developer’s laptop (so it may not be online 100% of the time), but should monitor and process requests within seconds while also acting as a moderator to make sure all submitted and existing repos are setup properly.