dtourolleandClaude Opus 5
f9e331eed2
`adb shell run-as` refuses on a release build — "package not debuggable" — and the app's private storage is then unreachable from the host. That storage is where the face shards, the thumbnail store and the catalog live, so when a device disagrees with the desktop about what it has synced there is no way to find out which of them is right. An evening was spent guessing at exactly that. `DARKROOM_DEBUGGABLE=1 ./docker/android/package.sh --install` now sets `android:debuggable` through aapt2's `--debug-mode`, and nothing else changes. Set through aapt2 rather than written into `AndroidManifest.xml` on purpose: the flag then exists only for the build that asked for it, and a release build cannot inherit it because somebody forgot to take it out again. A debuggable APK lets any process on the device read this app's files, so it belongs on a test tablet and nowhere else. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Android build environment
Reproducible container for cross-compiling DarkRoom to Android. CI and local builds use the same image, so a break appears in one place rather than two.
Use
# Cross-compile for a device ABI
./docker/android/build.sh cargo ndk -t arm64-v8a build --release
# All four ABIs
./docker/android/build.sh cargo ndk -t arm64-v8a -t armeabi-v7a -t x86_64 -t x86 build --release
# Type-check without linking
./docker/android/build.sh cargo check --target aarch64-linux-android
# Interactive shell
./docker/android/build.sh
# After editing the Dockerfile
./docker/android/build.sh --rebuild
Prefers podman, falls back to docker. First run builds the image, which takes several minutes;
after that it is cached.
In CI
.gitea/workflows/android-image.yml builds this image and pushes it to
gitea.tourolle.paris/dtourolle/darkroom-android, which the Android job then runs inside. It is
called on every push and finishes in seconds unless something here changed — the image is tagged
with the git tree hash of docker/android/, so a rebuild happens when and only when a file in this
directory does.
Nothing needs pushing by hand. Editing the Dockerfile is the trigger; latest follows
automatically. To force a rebuild without a content change, run the workflow from the Gitea UI with
force set to true.
The job runs on the host runner rather than in a container, because it needs the Docker daemon and the runner host's cached registry credentials.
Face models
package.sh bundles models/face/ into the APK, and the entry point unpacks it on first launch.
That directory is shared with the Arch package rather than owned by this platform. The models are in LFS, so a clone without git lfs pull has 130-byte
pointers there; the build detects that and stops rather than shipping them.
This exists because Android offers no other route to a model: the directory the app reads from is
inside app-private storage, run-as needs a debuggable build, and the app has no picker and no
fetch. docs/faces.md §2.2a is the decision and its limits — these files come back out before anything
is published.
Pinned versions
| Component | Version | Why this one |
|---|---|---|
| JDK | 17 | AGP's stable target. The host's JDK 25 breaks Gradle. |
| Compile SDK | API 36 | Required for Play distribution |
| Min API | 28 (Android 9) | Floor where Vulkan support is dependable (NFR-COMPAT-1) |
| Build tools | 36.0.0 | Matches compile SDK |
| NDK | 27.2.12479018 (r27c) | Current LTS |
| Rust | 1.92.0 | Slint 1.17 requires it; cargo-ndk 4.1.x needs ≥ 1.86 |
| cargo-ndk | 4.1.2 |
Bumping any of these is a reviewable change, not silent drift.
Compile SDK versus min API
These are different and both matter. ANDROID_API (36) is what the SDK compiles against — the
newest APIs available. MIN_API (28) is what native code links against, and determines the
oldest device that can run the result.
cargo-ndk defaults to API 21 if not told otherwise, which is far below what this app needs.
CARGO_NDK_PLATFORM and the per-target linker paths both pin it to MIN_API. Verify with:
file target/aarch64-linux-android/release/*.so
# → "... for Android 28, built by NDK r27c"
Caching
The cargo registry and target directory persist in ~/.cache/darkroom-android, so rebuilds do not
re-download the crate index. Clear with:
rm -rf ~/.cache/darkroom-android
The Android target dir is kept separate from the host's target/ — sharing one directory between
host and container builds causes constant rebuilds as they invalidate each other's fingerprints.
What is not here
No emulator, no adb device access. This image cross-compiles; it does not run or deploy. Device
testing (spikes S2 and S10, which need two GPU vendors) happens on real hardware — the emulator's
GPU behaviour is not representative of Adreno or Mali, which is precisely what those spikes exist
to test.