Selendroid won't start some apps

Question

I got the average setup for starting an app on a device and sometimes it works perfectly fine (the app starts and can be controlled by selendroid) sometimes (in the case of the firefox.apk) this happens:

Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.io.ShellCommand exec
INFORMATION: Executing shell command: C:\Users\Dustin Altermann\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe -s BX903DKMSR shell am instrument -e main_activity -e server_port 8080 io.selendroid.org.mozilla.firefox/io.selendroid.server.ServerInstrumentation
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.io.ShellCommand exec
INFORMATION: Shell command output
-->
usage: am [subcommand] [options]
usage: am start [-D] [-W] [-P ] [--start-profiler ]
[--R COUNT] [-S] [--opengl-trace]
am startservice
am force-stop
am kill
am kill-all
am broadcast
am instrument [-r] [-e ] [-p ] [-w]
[--no-window-animation]
am profile start
am profile stop []
am dumpheap [flags]
am set-debug-app [-w] [--persistent]
am clear-debug-app
am monitor [--gdb ]
am screen-compat [on|off]
am display-size [reset|MxN]
am to-uri [INTENT]
am to-intent-uri [INTENT]

am start: start an Activity. Options are:
-D: enable debugging
-W: wait for launch to complete
--start-profiler : start profiler and send results to
-P : like above, but profiling stops when app goes idle
-R: repeat the activity launch times. Prior to each repeat,
the top activity will be finished.
-S: force stop the target app before starting the activity
--opengl-trace: enable tracing of OpenGL functions

am startservice: start a Service.

am force-stop: force stop everything associated with .

am kill: Kill all processes associated with . Only kills.
processes that are safe to kill -- that is, will not impact the user experience.

am kill-all: Kill all background processes.

am broadcast: send a broadcast Intent.

am instrument: start an Instrumentation. Typically this target is the form /. Options are:
-r: print raw results (otherwise decode REPORT_KEY_STREAMRESULT). Use with
[-e perf true] to generate raw output for performance measurements.
-e : set argument to . For test runners a
common form is [-e [,...]].
-p : write profiling data to
-w: wait for instrumentation to finish before returning. Required for test runners.
--no-window-animation: turn off window animations will running.

am profile: start and stop profiler on a process.

am dumpheap: dump the heap of a process. Options are:
-n: dump native heap instead of managed heap

am set-debug-app: set application to debug. Options are:
-w: wait for debugger when application starts
--persistent: retain this value

am clear-debug-app: clear the previously set-debug-app.

am monitor: start monitoring for crashes or ANRs.
--gdb: start gdbserv on the given port at crash/ANR

am screen-compat: control screen compatibility mode of .

am display-size: override display size.

am to-uri: print the given Intent specification as a URI.

am to-intent-uri: print the given Intent specification as an intent: URI.

specifications include these flags and arguments:
[-a ] [-d ] [-t ]
[-c [-c ] ...]
[-e|--es ...]
[--esn ...]
[--ez ...]
[--ei ...]
[--el ...]
[--ef ...]
[--eu ...]
[--ecn ]
[--eia [, [--ela [, [--efa [, [-n ] [-f ]
[--grant-read-uri-permission] [--grant-write-uri-permission]
[--debug-log-resolution] [--exclude-stopped-packages]
[--include-stopped-packages]
[--activity-brought-to-front] [--activity-clear-top]
[--activity-clear-when-task-reset] [--activity-exclude-from-recents]
[--activity-launched-from-history] [--activity-multiple-task]
[--activity-no-animation] [--activity-no-history]
[--activity-no-user-action] [--activity-previous-is-top]
[--activity-reorder-to-front] [--activity-reset-task-if-needed]
[--activity-single-top] [--activity-clear-task]
[--activity-task-on-home]
[--receiver-registered-only] [--receiver-replace-pending]
[--selector]
[ | | ]

Error: Bad component name: server_port
<--
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.io.ShellCommand exec
INFORMATION: Executing shell command: C:\Users\Dustin Altermann\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe -s BX903DKMSR forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.io.ShellCommand exec
INFORMATION: Shell command output
-->

<--
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.android.impl.AbstractDevice startLogging
INFORMATION: starting logcat:
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.server.model.SelendroidStandaloneDriver waitForServerStart
INFORMATION: Waiting for the Selendroid server to start.
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.android.impl.AbstractDevice isSelendroidRunning
INFORMATION: Checking if the Selendroid server is running: http://localhost:8080/wd/hub/status
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RetryExec execute
INFORMATION: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when processing request to {}->http://localhost:8080: Connection reset
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RetryExec execute
INFORMATION: Retrying request to {}->http://localhost:8080
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RetryExec execute
INFORMATION: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when processing request to {}->http://localhost:8080: Connection reset
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RetryExec execute
INFORMATION: Retrying request to {}->http://localhost:8080
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RetryExec execute
INFORMATION: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when processing request to {}->http://localhost:8080: Connection reset
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RetryExec execute
INFORMATION: Retrying request to {}->http://localhost:8080
Aug 10, 2015 3:02:13 PM io.selendroid.standalone.android.impl.AbstractDevice isSelendroidRunning
INFORMATION: Can't connect to Selendroid server, assuming it is not running.

The app doesn't start and selendroid keeps trying but nothing happens. I can start the app manually without any problems. I don't understand the difference or what to do to narrow down the problem.

BTW.: I used the firefox.apk from the Google Play Store if anyone wants to try themselves.

You could try using a different port. Dunno how you are starting the selendroid server through commandline or from code. — Madis Kangro, Aug 11 '15 at 06:32
I'm starting the server from code and no i've already tried changing the port and it doesn't solve it, also other apps work fine on that port. I've been able to narrow down the issue to the "main_activity" being missing. But i still have no clue where Selendroid gets it from and how it can even be missing ...?! — dustin, Aug 11 '15 at 07:36

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 11 '15 at 13:07

Ok I finally did it:

The problem was that this particular app had an AndroidManifest.xml file (read it by using e.g. https://code.google.com/p/xml-apk-parser/) using the tag "activity-alias". Inside this tag there were the fields that Selendroid needs to determine the so called "main_activity":

<activity-alias android:label="Firefox" android:name=".App" android:targetActivity="org.mozilla.gecko.BrowserApp">
    <intent-filter android:priority="999">
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN">
        </action>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER">
        </category>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.MULTIWINDOW_LAUNCHER">
        </category>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT">
        </category>
    </intent-filter>

Unfortunately Selendroid doesn't understand this tag and therefore cant find the "main_activity".

Solution: I had to use the "SelendroidCapabilities.setLaunchActivity"-method to specifically tell Selendroid what activity to use:

SelendroidCapabilities caps = new SelendroidCapabilities("org.mozilla.firefox:39.0");
caps.setLaunchActivity("org.mozilla.gecko.BrowserApp");

Selendroid won't start some apps

1 Answers1