Building instruction on github page aren't working

LeOS-GSI · April 27, 2022, 3:44pm

OK, with this NDK it is working. Would be nice if this will be written in the Readme

link2xt · April 27, 2022, 3:59pm

I am not sure where this version is pinned, is it in

deltachat/deltachat-android/blob/f426f7ceaee9127637bfee623eb4d7e542660700/Dockerfile#L26

      
        
            ARG UID=1000
            ARG GID=1000
            
            
RUN groupadd -g $GID -o $USER
            RUN useradd -m -u $UID -g $GID -o $USER
            USER $USER
            
            
ENV ANDROID_SDK_ROOT /home/${USER}/android-sdk
            RUN mkdir ${ANDROID_SDK_ROOT}
            WORKDIR $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
            RUN wget -q https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-6200805_latest.zip && \
              unzip commandlinetools-linux-6200805_latest.zip && \
              rm commandlinetools-linux-6200805_latest.zip
            
            
RUN yes | ${ANDROID_SDK_ROOT}/tools/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=${ANDROID_SDK_ROOT} --licenses
            
            
ENV PATH ${PATH}:${ANDROID_SDK_ROOT}/tools/bin
            
            
# Install NDK manually. Other SDK parts are installed automatically by gradle.
            RUN sdkmanager --sdk_root=${ANDROID_SDK_ROOT} ndk-bundle

or somehow derived from build.gradle config.

Don’t know much about Android build system. @Hocuri any idea how can NDK version be updated?

LeOS-GSI · April 27, 2022, 4:00pm

I can’t edit the first post. Is some able to change it to [SOLVED] ? Thx

link2xt · April 27, 2022, 4:05pm

You can mark any post in the thread as a solution.

If there is no such button, maybe it’s because it’s “Guides” category and guides are not supposed to have a solution?

LeOS-GSI · April 27, 2022, 4:07pm

SOLUTION: Use the very old 21b NDK

Hocuri · April 27, 2022, 8:30pm

Yes, it’s probably somewhere in the 6200805_latest:

The download page at https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html#command-tools#command-tools under “Command line tools only” links 8092744_latest.zip today, so obviously these versions change
AFAIK think that the build.gradle isn’t used at all at this point of building yet, and also I can’t find anything hinting to an NDK version in it.

No idea how fix the build problems with the newer versions so that we can upgrade.

Nice, finally !! And thanks @link2xt for chiming in and having the right intuition (or knowledge)!

Totally. We already have

Currently ndk20b is the minimum required version. Newer versions will likely work, however, are not tested and not used in official releases, in general, changes on the ndk-version should be done with care.

which we can improve; alternatively, we could add a Troubleshooting entry.

Sth. like:

+Use NDK version r22b (22.1.7171670). Versions that are a bit newer
+or older will also work, but if your version is too new or too old, you will get
+a build error like TODO which of your error messages was caused by the wrong NDK?
 Currently ndk20b is the minimum required version.
-Newer versions will likely work, however, are not tested and not used
-in official releases, in general, changes on the ndk-version should be
-done with care.

Hocuri · May 1, 2022, 9:30am

@LeOS-GSI What do you think about the proposed readme change, and which of your error messages was caused by the wrong NDK?

Edit: I also already created a PR on GitHub, you can also comment there: Improve readme by Hocuri · Pull Request #2285 · deltachat/deltachat-android · GitHub

Hocuri · May 17, 2022, 8:33am

@LeOS-GSI ping - do you think that with Improve readme by Hocuri · Pull Request #2285 · deltachat/deltachat-android · GitHub the this problem wouldn’t have occured?

link2xt · May 28, 2022, 8:16pm

Support for NDK r23c (current LTS release) has been added:

github.com/deltachat/deltachat-android

Update to Android NDK r23c

deltachat:master ← deltachat:android-ndk-r23c-lts

opened 11:46PM - 26 May 22 UTC

link2xt

+29 -12

Android NDK is updated from legacy ndk-bundle stuck at unsupported r22b to LTS …NDK r23c (23.2.8568313). Since GNU binutils have been removed from NDK since r23 (see https://github.com/android/ndk/wiki/Changelog-r23), ndk-make.sh now uses TARGET_AR=llvm-ar and uses a workaround for `-lgcc` requirement. Android command line tools used in the Dockerfile are updated to build 8512546 Preview APKs now use NDK r23c too.

Newer NDKs do not work because of dropped androideabi16-clang compilers. Using newer NDK means dropping support for Android 4 and it’s not an option for Delta Chat.