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Xamarin.Android On Debian (22.02.2018)

Mono

  • Have latest mono installed from here
  • Make sure msbuild is working with some sample solution from any path
  • Make sure it also works with PCLs (install referenceassemblies-pcl package)

Android SDK

  • Download sdk tools from https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html (command line tools at the bottom)
  • Create directory /usr/lib/android-sdk
  • Unpack sdk tools into /usr/lib/android-sdk so that /usr/lib/android-sdk/android-sdk-tools/ exists
  • run /usr/lib/android-sdk/android-sdk-tools/bin/sdkmanager like e.g.:
    sdkmanager "build-tools;23.0.3" "platforms;android-23" "platform-tools" for Android 6.0
  • verify with sdkmanager --list that packages are installed
  • They are now all under /usr/lib/android-sdk (one directory up from the sdk tools) which is the android sdk directory
  • For some reason e.g. the aapt tool does not work with "no such file or directory" - Run: apt-get install lib32stdc++6 lib32z1

Java 8

(not 100% sure about these steps)

  • It did not work with Java 9
  • apt-get install software-properties-common
  • add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
  • apt-key add [some key file I cannot find anymore]
  • apt-get update
  • apt install oracle-java8-set-default

Xamarin.Android

  • Download Xamarin.Android Linux Build here and unpack e.g. under /tmp
  • Copy Xamarin subdirectory recursively from:
    /tmp/xamarin.android-oss_vx.x.xx.x_Linux-x86_64_HEAD_xxxxxxxx/bin/Release/lib/xamarin.android/xbuild to /usr/lib/mono/xbuild
  • Copy MonoAndroid subdirectory recursively from:
    /tmp/xamarin.android-oss_vx.x.xx.x_Linux-x86_64_HEAD_xxxxxxxx/bin/Release/lib/xamarin.android/xbuild-frameworks to /usr/lib/mono/xbuilds-frameworks

(Warning: the target directories contain mono itself. So do only copy/merge the xamarin.android files)

Build

After a lot of reading through /usr/lib/mono/xbuild/Xamarin/Android/Xamarin.Android.Common.targets two important parameters turn up:

  • TargetFrameworkRootPath must be set to /usr/lib/mono/xbuild-frameworks/ (see copy before) There is some bug in the build code which requires the trailing slash
  • AndroidSdkDirectory must be set to /usr/lib/android-sdk

Specified Target Framework in project file must be installed with android sdk tools

Change directory to where solution is and run:

msbuild /p:TargetFrameworkRootPath="/usr/lib/mono/xbuild-frameworks/" /p:AndroidSdkDirectory="/usr/lib/android-sdk"

If that works put properties into /usr/lib/mono/xbuild/Xamarin/Android/Xamarin.Android.Common.targets with:

<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFrameworkRootPath>/usr/lib/mono/xbuild-frameworks/</TargetFrameworkRootPath> <AndroidSdkDirectory>/usr/lib/android-sdk</AndroidSdkDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>

and just call msbuild without parameters. AndroidSdkDirectory must not contain any placeholder or environment variables. Also ~ for home will not work.

Build APK

  • Seems like when building for all ABIs (armv7,v8,intel and so on) Xamarin on Windows just empties the corresponding XML element which seems to be interpreted as default armv7 only on linux. Need to explicitly specify all wanted ABIs in csproj for all build types (<AndroidSupportedAbis>armeabi;armeabi-v7a;x86;arm64-v8a</AndroidSupportedAbis> Leaving x64 out in this example). Otherwise app cannot be installed on devices with some "corrupted" error message.
  • Xamarin offers /t:SignAndroidPackage which needs key store location and passwords as part of the csproj file. Security no-go for me. Better use /t:PackageForAndroid which builds APK only.
  • /t:PackageForAndroid does not run zipalign and signing.
  • Build for Debug and Release and do debug and release signing by yourself.

Debug APKs are much bigger under Linux than under Windows because assemblies get embedded. And this is because of:
" Property reassignment: $(AndroidUseSharedRuntime)="False" (previous value: "true") at /usr/lib/mono/xbuild/Xamarin/Android/Xamarin.Android.Common.targets (188,2) Property reassignment: $(EmbedAssembliesIntoApk)="True" (previous value: "false") at /usr/lib/mono/xbuild/Xamarin/Android/Xamarin.Android.Common.targets (196,2) "

which depends on

<_XASupportsFastDev Condition=" Exists ('$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)Xamarin.Android.Common.Debugging.targets') ">True</_XASupportsFastDev>

which evaluates to false because file *Debugging.targets seems not to be part of the linux package.

  • Usage of ProGuard is broken with the current version (8.3.99). Symptoms: App starts but hangs. Reason: dotnet/android#1331 > Disabled ProGuard. Difference in size for my current app is ~2kb.

Check signature

jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs my_application.apk

Remarks

  • With version 8.3.99 /t:SignAndroidPackage creates a debug keystore with a signing key which is no longer accepted as safe enough. Details here.