How can I get the Android Market installed on my Kindle Fire?

Question

There are a couple of apps I'd like to install that aren't available in Amazon's store. Is there a way I can get the normal Android Market app set up on this thing, so I can get apps (and updates for those apps...) without involving Amazon?

Answer 1

You can use Kindle Fire Utility to easily get root and Market with Google Apps.

It would automatically perform steps described in the above answers and even more.

Answer 2

You can set up the Market on a Fire, but only if you have root by doing the following (guide originally from this XDA thread):

Prerequisites

Root your Kindle Fire

Download the following apks
GoogleServicesFramework.apk
Vending.apk (Latest Version 3.3.11)
See HERE for .apk downloads (complete GApps zip file)

Root Explorer App (or similar that lets you change ro/rw permissions)

Side Loading Apps activated on Kindle Fire On the Kindle Fire Settings screen, go to “Device” and turn On “Allow Installation of Application From Unknown Sources”

Instructions

1. Transfer the .apk files to your Kindle Fire via PC / Mac (remember where you put them)

2. Open Root Explorer App, and navigate to the transferred .apk files

3. Select the GoogleServiceFramework.apk and install

4. When complete, click "Done" and return to the file location for Vending.apk

5. Long-press Vending.apk and select the "Move" option on pop-up menu Navigate to /system/app folder

6. Change mount option from RO to RW (read-only to read-write) Paste Vending.apk into the /system/app folder

7. Long-press Vending.apk and select "Permissions" from pop-up menu Change permissions to match all other apps in this folder (rw-r--r--)

8. Install Vending.apk

9. Reboot your Kindle Fire

You can also use adb instead of a file manager to perform all of these steps. Simply use adb install <apk> to install an apk file. To move Vending.apk to /system/app you'd probably need to first push it to the sdcard (adb push Vending.apk /sdcard) and then copy it over from a root shell (cp /sdcard/Vending.apk /system/app). When changing permissions you would need to use chmod 0644 /system/app/Vending.apk from a root shell. To remount the system partition as read/write you would need to execute

mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/platform/mmci-omap-hs.1/by-name/system /system

from a root shell.

After performing the above steps the Market won't appear in your apps list or on your carousel. You can work around this by either installing a 3rd party launcher or by using the Market Opener app, which basically just bootstraps it.

Answer 3

eldarerathis's answer got me going on the right track... Since I already had the Android SDK installed on my Windows PC, I configured it to recognize the Fire:

• Edit <sdk location>\extras\google\usb_driver\android_winusb.inf to add the following to the [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] sections:

  ;Kindle Fire
  %SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_1949&PID_0006
  %CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_1949&PID_0006&MI_01
  

  Then plug in the Kindle, and update the driver.

• Edit %USERPROFILE%\.android\adb_usb.ini to add the following line:

  0x1949
  

  Then restart the adb server: adb kill-server

Then rooted the device, and ran the following commands to push the market onto it:

adb root
adb remount
adb push GoogleServicesFramework.apk /system/app/GoogleServicesFramework.apk
adb push Vending.apk /system/app/Vending.apk

Finally threw on that handy Market Opener app eldarerathis pointed out, launched it, logged into my Google account, and away I went...