Building Jami on Android

Please make sure Android SDK and NDK are installed, and their paths are properly set. If you need more information, please visit https://github.com/savoirfairelinux/ring-client-android
These instructions are for Ubuntu, check equivalent if you use a different distribution

Prepare environment

Install Java JDK 7 or 8 (Oracle or OpenJDK)

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html

sudo apt install openjdk

Install Android Studio: https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html

You can install all dependecies like ndk (side by side), lldb with android-studio in settings > appearance & behavior > system settings > android sdk > sdk tools

Install the Android NDK: https://developer.android.com/ndk/downloads/index.html

Install required tools

sudo apt install autoconf automake libtool autopoint swig python

Add these variables to your bash profile:

export JAVA_HOME=<path_to_java_JDK>
export ANDROID_HOME=<path_to_root_folder_sdk>
export ANDROID_SDK=$ANDROID_HOME
export ANDROID_NDK=<path_to_root_folder_ndk>
export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=$ANDROID_NDK
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$ANDROID_NDK:$JAVA_HOME/bin

ie for Ubuntu :

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64/jre/
export ANDROID_HOME=/home/{username}/Android/Sdk
export ANDROID_SDK=/home/{username}/Android/Sdk
export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=/home/{username}/Android/Sdk/ndk-bundle/
export ANDROID_NDK=/home/{username}/Android/Sdk/ndk-bundle/
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$ANDROID_NDK:$JAVA_HOME/bin

Build and install locally

Clone whole project repository

git clone --recurse-submodules https://review.jami.net/ring-project

Initialize project

cd ring-project
./make-ring.py --init --distribution=Android

Compile

ANDROID_ABI="armeabi-v7a arm64-v8a" ./make-ring.py --install --distribution=Android

Output: You can find the .apk file in the ./client-android/ring-android/app/build/outputs folder.

Errors

configure: error: source directory already configured; run "make distclean" there first

It means you build for another distro like x86_64-pc-linux-gnu and builds are conflicting. The simpliest solution is to make another ring-project only for Android to avoid this conflict.

Troubleshooting

Check case in your sdk path. Since api 26, /home/user/Android/sdk have become /home/user/Android/Sdk

You can check each path with echo. e.g : echo $JAVA_HOME

sudo will use root’s bash profile. And you don’t need it.

If build fails, you can try to clean contribs with:

cd ring-project/ && git clean -xdf
cd ../daemon && git clean -xdf

Makeinfo issue makeinfo: command not found WARNING: ‘makeinfo’ is missing on your system. Solution: Install texinfo package containing makeinfo dep.

Unable to locate tools.jar Solution: Your java installation is not pointing to a JDK. Install one, or make JAVA_HOME point to it.

When building the apk error in build-tools error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.6 Solution: Install lib32stdc++6 lib32z1-dev

When compiling on Fedora error while loading shared libraries: libtinfo.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Solution*: sudo dnf install ncurses-compat-libs

When building, you may get a Gradle error. You should install Gradle 5.4.1 by running apt-get install or installing directly on android-studio.