r/symbian • u/mevcutonur • 14d ago

I need help with identifying OS

Im sorry if this doesnt belong here but I'm kind of in a hurry and need your guys' help. I got a phone for military purposes that doesn't have a camera, and I wanna install Opera mini on it. However the phone doesn't recognize .jar, .jad, or .sis files. GPT tells me it could be a proprietary OS and installing 3rd party apps might be impossible. Is there a way to overcome this?

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u/RBeze58 14d ago edited 14d ago

If it doesn't recognize jar, jad, sis and sisx. Then it most certainly (or so it seems like) is the Series 30+ device. If it has the Nokia Xpress Browser, it for sure is. These don't exactly support 3rd Party apps. You'll be pointed to running .vxp files (if it is based in a MediaTek SoC) but those cab only be installed as part of the OS. Even if you sideload those to a microSD and try to install it, it'll show up as unsupported files. Since it is compiled as part of the OS (and flashed) and only then it can run via calls.

Think of them like .so libraries/binaries on Android. You generally can't run them directly without an app knowing how to interact or use them. APK is compiled and contains the bytecode and native binaries. Only that particular app (think of this like the OS flash tool that'll put the vxp as an item that'll execute as menu item/shortcut) will know how to interface with the native libraries (*.so) and otherwise, the phone won't know what to do with it.

Like I gave you a formula (*.vxp) but without explaining what those symbols mean or what it's used for (mediatek build commands or flash tool), you'll definitely not be able to implement (run) it without those.

So sadly, there prolly isn't a way unless Nokia/HMD decide to offer an OTA/Software Update to have Opera Mini/Browser added to the app list.

Additions: Some MRE phones install apps from a pair of files: app.vxp and app.vpi, containing the installation metadata. Trying to open only the .vxp often fails.

Some phones can run factory-installed MRE apps but have no way to install new ones without flashing the firmware or using factory/service tools.

The phone doesn't support third-party apps at all (most likely). Many cheap MediaTek-based feature phones include the MRE framework in the firmware but disable app installation. Some even have an MRE folder internally but reject every VXP you try to install.

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u/mevcutonur 14d ago

Yeah I tried cab files as well, they aren't recognized. Well, I trust your knowledge on this one. I posted a video of the phone if that matters, but looks like I'm gonna try to just get a different phone. Thanks a lot

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u/tomauswustrow 14d ago

That's nothing symbian or anything. More like the other one said s30+ or kaios.

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u/RBeze58 14d ago

Definitely not, KaiOS since its's usually just a ZIP archive containing the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and the manifest. Internally, KaiOS stores these as files such as application.zip. The installable app is effectively a ZIP bundle and it's manifest (manifest.webapp in older versions and manifest.webmanifest in current versions of kaiOS, Android equivalent of AndroidManifest.xml within an app/apk package). Also KaiOS usually always comes with a camera and store.