[Android-tools-devel] New Android SDK/NDK Rebuilds

Mon Nov 26 12:53:07 GMT 2018

Hey Sylvain,

To cover how apps use the Android SDK, there needs to be an
NDK/"platform"/build-tools package for every release.  For something
like "build-tools" and "platform", Debian Android Tools aims to provide
one relatively recent release.  That covers use cases where users just
want fastboot, for example.

F-Droid would like to be able to build all free software apps, so that
means building with whatever build-tools, platform, NDK, etc that is
specified by that app.  In that case, the Debian packages cannot cover
all those cases.

I see you're starting to do the rebuilds on gitlab-ci!  If you need a
large runner, I give you access to the FDroid one.  It is a 30 core VM
with 32GB RAM and plenty of disk space.  I could also give you root/ssh
to a dedicated VM on that box, but with 16GB RAM.

.hc

beuc at beuc.net:
> Hi Hans-Christoph,
> 
> 
> Great to hear there is activity!
> 
> 
> Nice job isolating, checking and recompiling the base tools :)
> 
> 
> I'm surprised by: "it doesn't make sense to include in a distro
> (e.g. "platforms", NDK, support libs, etc).".
> 
> The DAT project scope is confusing to me now:
> 
>   "In the long run, the Android Tools Team aims to cover more use
>   cases well, and also building the Android NDK."
>   https://bits.debian.org/2017/03/build-android-apps-with-debian.html
> 
>   "apps targeted at android-23 can be built with only Debian
>   packages. We will add more API platform packages via backports
>   afterwards.
>   https://wiki.debian.org/AndroidTools
> 
> Did it change?
> 
> Cheers!
> Sylvain
> 
> On Mon, Nov 26, 2018 at 10:29:59AM +0100, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>
>> Hey Sylvain,
>>
>> Thanks for your work!  I'm part of the Debian Android Tools Team
>> (CC'ed), I also added seamlik in CC.  We are still working on things.
>> seamlik almost has v8.1.0 of the core parts of the SDK in Debian.  We
>> could definitely use help, its a big project.
>>
>> One thing that I think would be good to think about is how to most
>> efficiently use our time.  One way would be to standardize on your
>> rebuilds for all of the things that it doesn't make sense to include in
>> a distro (e.g. "platforms", NDK, support libs, etc).  And then
>> standardize on the Debian packages as the core provider of free SDK
>> tools ("tools", "platform-tools", etc).  The Debian packaging is
>> actually mostly custom Makefiles, so it could be easily adopted by other
>> distros.  We use absolutely no prebuilts, so we've achieved that
>> already.  That was indeed quite a large part of the work (lombok,
>> gradle, kotlin, etc).
>>
>> The biggest blocker right now is finishing the Kotlin packaging.  That
>> would be a great place for contributors to join in.
>>
>> Perhaps a better place to check the status of the Debian Android Tools
>> Team packages is here, where you can see most are updated to
>> https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=android-tools-devel%40lists.alioth.debian.org
>>
>> Also, FYI, almost all the Debian packages can be reproducibly built:
>> https://salsa.debian.org/android-tools-team/admin/wikis/home
>>
>> .hc
>>
>> beuc at beuc.net:
>>> Oh, if you questionned my worry about Debian & Replicant, I'm mostly
>>> worried I'm the only person on earth doing free builds of the SDK/NDK.
>>> Which is not a sustainable situation ;)
>>>
>>> - Sylvain
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 23, 2018 at 11:22:01PM +0100, beuc at beuc.net wrote:
>>>> Hi!
>>>>
>>>> Basically I don't want to accept this agreement
>>>> https://developer.android.com/studio/terms
>>>> but I have to if I want to download any Android tool binary.
>>>>
>>>> See also:
>>>> https://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/2013/01/03/android-sdk-is-now-proprietary-replicant-to-the-rescue/
>>>> https://code.paulk.fr/article0008/what-s-up-with-the-android-sdk
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Moreover I got reports of such downloads being blocked in e.g. Iran.
>>>> https://medium.com/@AliBehzadian/pain-of-being-android-developer-in-iran-390fb3190cb3
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Rebuilding everything including the "prebuilts" binaries would be the
>>>> next step (and great!).  Help is needed and appreciated :)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> - Sylvain
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Nov 23, 2018 at 10:09:00PM +0000, Joonas Kylmälä wrote:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> is the SDK code free if you build it from AOSP source code?
>>>>>
>>>>> The license list at
>>>>>
>>>>> https://android.googlesource.com/platform/development/+/master/sdk/
>>>>>
>>>>> is overwhelming me but at least
>>>>>
>>>>> https://android.googlesource.com/platform/sdk/
>>>>>
>>>>> looks to be simply Apache License 2.0 licensed.
>>>>>
>>>>> What are your worries about the current situation? Is it that it
>>>>> wouldn't be available on a free operating system because it is hard to
>>>>> package it to small packages because all the different parts of source
>>>>> code depend on each other? Something else?
>>>>>
>>>>> On a side note: what I don't like about the AOSP SDK code is that some
>>>>> of the things are already in binary form in the source code (though,
>>>>> they are free) and if you want to trust actually the binary you are
>>>>> getting you need to re-build also the binary blobs in the source code
>>>>> yourself from their respective source code.
>>>>>
>>>>> Joonas
>>>>>
>>>>> beuc at beuc.net:
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The Android SDK license agreement changed but it remains non-free.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I recompiled SDK 9.0.0, NDK r18b and SDK Tools 26.1.1
>>>>>> (without this non-free EULA):
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   https://android-rebuilds.beuc.net/
>>>>>>   https://gitlab.com/android-rebuilds/auto
>>>>>>
>>>>>> NDK is significantly easier to recompile now; new tools are present
>>>>>> such as the Android Gradle Plugin (though I didn't manage to produce a
>>>>>> useable repository for it); Android Studio claims it comes with
>>>>>> non-free components such as CLion so I don't redistribute it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Feedback welcome!
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm a bit worried about the current situation by the way:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - AFAICS Replicant delegated all SDK work to Debian Android Tools
>>>>>>   https://blog.replicant.us/2017/04/there-wont-be-a-replicant-6-0-sdk-because-there-is-already-something-better/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Debian Android Tools provided initial SDK 6 support
>>>>>>   https://wiki.debian.org/AndroidTools
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Debian Android Tools didn't update the SDK, and plus SDK 6 doesn't
>>>>>>   compile with newer tools and was removed from the upcoming release:
>>>>>>   https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=android-sdk-platform
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Are there other efforts for free SDK/NDK/Studio ?

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