[Question] Is it possible to make EdXposed work without Magisk?

Hey guys, great thanks for your amazing work. I’m pretty new to EdXposed and I'm sorry to make an issue here but I could not find the answer anywhere else. I am interested - is it possible to make EdXposed work without Magisk?

I know that previous versions of Xposed up to android 8 were flashable and I could just sideload them on device as any other zip file in TWRP. What is the problem to do the same thing with new EdXposed for android 9 and 10?

What I am trying to achieve is to take my OnePlus 5T, flash it with LOS16 and then flash it with EdXposed zip. Currently I can flash the LOS16, flash magisk, and then in Magisk Manager install Riru Core and Riru EdXposed modules (I use RiruCore v21.0 and EdXposed v0.4.6.2 YAHFA). It works perfect. But I would like to try to replace magisk modules with flashable zip files.

I’m not trying to hide the fact of installed EdXposed on device. It’s complitley ok if its files will be persisted and visible in /system. I’m also not worried that I will not be able to pass SafetyNet as well.

I have taken a brief look at the structure of magisk modules. RiruCore module contains modified versions of libmemtrack.so for /system/lib and /system/lib64 and zygote_restart binary. EdXposed module contains a few jars for /system/framework and a few more libs for /system/lib and /system/lib64. I have made a TWRP-flashable zip that replaces libmemtrack.so and puts the necessary files of EdXposed in lib, lib64 and framework. When I load into the system EdXposed Manager shows me a yellow warning saying that "EdXposed is installed but not activated". I have checked the EdXposed Manager app under debugger and XposedApp.getActiveXposedVersion() return -1 (which means that the method call is not hooked by Xposed framework). I have suspicions that it happens because EdXposed tries to locate RIRU_PATH which is /data/misc/riru and because of that it doesn’t work. That RIRU_PATH folder contains only a small pieces of metadata. Nothing seems to be important there except for "zygote_restart" binary. I have tried to create those directories and copy files in /data/misc/riru manually but for some reason my device falls into a bootloop. It happened when I created and copied the files by flashable zip in TWRP and also when I did so by adb shell in normally loaded system.

So, maybe some of you have tried to make the same stuff and succeeded? Or perhaps you know why modifying /data/misc causes the system to bootloop? My final goal is to install EdXposed straight into /system. I will be very grateful for any useful information. Thanks!