[Android-tools-devel] New upstream (android-tools-5.1.1+git20150904-0.1) fixes adb not listing newer devices

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

Hey Scott,

(Taking this discussion on-list so others can follow and participate).

It sounds like you have a working version of the package already.  The next
step is to integrate your work with the existing work.  With Debian packages,
you can submit updates in a few forms: as a git fork, as a complete source
package of the new version, as a patch, etc.  Since the android-tools packages
are all maintained in git, a git fork is the best route here.

You should also check out Ray Kohler's work in updating to see if there is
anything useful to also include:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=738119

.hc

Hans-Christoph Steiner:
> 
> Hey Scott,
> 
> To follow up on what seamlik said, we are working to build up the entire
> Android SDK in a consistent and practical way, which will ultimately include
> all of the parts that are included in the 'android-tools' package.  Then that
> package will be removed, since the way it is structured makes it difficult to
> maintain (i.e. a manual collection of bits of the Android SDK source code).
> 
> That said, if you have an update for 'android-tools' that is tested and ready
> to go, I'm willing to upload it to unstable as a short term update.
> 
> All of the dependencies for the work we have been doing are included in the
> android-tools team git, but they are not all yet uploaded:
> 
> http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/android-tools
> 
> .hc
> 
> Scott Wakeling:
>>> Thanks for the packaging! However we are abandoning android-tools
>>> package and adb and fastboot is included in the
>>> android-platform-system package.
>>
>> android-tools is currently the only package in Debian to provide adb
>> and fastboot - albeit older versions that no longer work with more
>> recent Android devices.
>>
>>> See <
>>> http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/android-tools/android-platform-system.git>.
>>> The version is now 5.1.1_r8.
>>
>> I searched https://packages.debian.org, but there is no
>> android-platform-system package in Debian, not even in experimental
>> (https://packages.debian.org/experimental/allpackages).
>>
>> I cloned the repo you linked to, and tried dpkg-buildpackage, but got:
>>
>>   dpkg-checkbuilddeps: Unmet build dependencies: android-libselinux-dev
>>   libf2fs-dev libf2fs-format-dev android-libunwind-dev
>>
>> I don't know where to get android-libselinux-dev. Again, there seems to
>> be no such package in Debian.
>>
>> I read at https://wiki.debian.org/AndroidTools that the following is
>> planned:
>>
>>   build adb as part of android-platform-system-core package, replacing
>>   the android-tools-adb package.
>>
>>   build fastboot as part of android-platform-system-core package,
>>   replacing the android-tools-fastboot package.
>>
>> I downloaded and built android-platform-system-core from source (sid),
>> but it does not appear to provide adb or fastboot yet.
>>
>> I agree with the sentiment expressed here:
>>
>> https://guardianproject.info/2015/04/30/getting-android-tools-into-debian/
>>
>> "many people who are not developers at all want to use tools like adb
>> and fastboot to access their Android device, or even root it. Having
>> them in Debian means they are trivial for people to install, vastly
>> easier than trying to figure out how to download and install the
>> Android SDK. What lots of people end up doing instead is downloading
>> random binaries from insecure internet forums and using those."
>>
>> If anybody needs a more up-to-date version of android-tools (adb not
>> listing your newer device?), find it here:
>>
>> https://github.com/scottwakeling/android-tools
>>
>> I think while android-tools is the only package to provide adb and
>> fastboot, it ought to be kept up-to-date and maintained.
>>
>> -scott
>>