Compiling Android .apk on Linux Server

Question

I want to be able to build .apk files programmatically given Android projects (folders, .java, .xml, etc files) with ant on my Ubuntu 10.04 i386 Server. I'm not using Eclipse or even a GUI.

1) I have already followed these instructions: http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html

2) I downloaded/unpacked the Android Linux SDK here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

3) Now when I navigate to /home/myusername/www/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools and type in ./android I get this error:

myusername@myserver:~/www/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools$ ./android
Starting Android SDK and AVD Manager
No command line parameters provided, launching UI.
See 'android --help' for operations from the command line.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no swt-pi-gtk-3550 or swt-pi-gtk in swt.library.path, java.library.path or the jar file
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Library.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Library.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Converter.wcsToMbcs(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Converter.wcsToMbcs(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
    at com.android.sdkmanager.Main.showMainWindow(Main.java:297)
    at com.android.sdkmanager.Main.doAction(Main.java:281)
    at com.android.sdkmanager.Main.run(Main.java:99)
    at com.android.sdkmanager.Main.main(Main.java:88)

Any ideas on what is going wrong?

what version of java is on your path? java -version ? is JAVA_HOME set to anything in your env? — slund, Apr 19 '11 at 20:28
Check the answers here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2157089/android-update-sdk-on-headless-linux — Aleadam, Apr 19 '11 at 20:34
@slund when running `java -version` it says "1.5.0_22" even though I apt-get installed 1.6. how should I fix this? — lollercoaster, Apr 19 '11 at 20:53
@Aleadam looks very similar, thanks! sorry i didnt find this before...my apologies — lollercoaster, Apr 19 '11 at 20:54
@lollercoaser no worries. I did not flag it as dupe since it's the same error, but different circumstances. I just linked it to you. Did it help? — Aleadam, Apr 20 '11 at 02:55

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 19 '11 at 20:33

2

If you are expecting to run headless android issue some command line options, like --help.

However, if this is not your intention and you want to use your display to show android GUI use ssh -X to enable X11 forwarding, install libswt-gtk-3.5-java and set ANDROID_SWT to /usr/lib/java.

answered Apr 19 '11 at 20:33

Diego Torres Milano

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oh i see. so when I ssh into my server, I can enable GUI functionality with the -X flag. cool. – lollercoaster Apr 19 '11 at 20:50
how do I set ANDROID_SWT though? – lollercoaster Apr 19 '11 at 20:51
Isn't your aim just to build .apks? Enabling X11 forwarding only makes sense if you want to play with the emulator. – nunaxe Apr 19 '11 at 21:01
ANDROID_SWT should be set in your environment. – Diego Torres Milano Apr 19 '11 at 21:32
@nunaxe, yes my aim is solely to build apps. I could care less about the emulator – lollercoaster Apr 20 '11 at 04:45

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 19 '11 at 20:54

When you run the ./android binary without arguments it tries to open a GUI window.

From the output you presented, it seems that the ./android binary is working great, but since you are running a headless server it crashes.

Here are the command-line steps to build an Android .apk:

android create project --name ExampleProj --activity ExampleProj --path ./ --package com.example.project --target 2
ant debug

This will create an ExampleProj-debug.apk.

A great source of help is the --help argument of the ./android binary, combined with the action you want to take. For instance:

android --help create project

Hope this helps.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 26 '12 at 09:11

Thanks to dtmilano I managed to find a solution. First, if not installed, install libswt-gtk-3.5-java if on debian machine, swt if on archlinux. If on a i686 machine, enter in terminal:

export ANDROID_SWT=path-to-android-sdk/tools/lib/x86

If on a x86_64 (you may need some extra 32bit libraries, I dunno)

export ANDROID_SWT=path-to-android-sdk/tools/lib/x86_64

Then android will run. If you want to make this permanent, one simple way is to put the above line to your ~/.bashrc. After login/logout the change will be permanent :)

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

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Also - my apologies, I dug a little deeper and found a very similar thread here: "android update sdk" on headless linux

edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

Community

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answered Apr 20 '11 at 04:44

lollercoaster

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Compiling Android .apk on Linux Server

4 Answers4