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86 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
### PoC for a translation layer that would execute the abolute minimum of android-specific code necessary in order to run an android app on a Linux system
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---
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build instructions:
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`make`: compile everything (except dalvik, which is precompiled from https://gitlab.com/Mis012/dalvik_standalone)
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usage:
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`./launch_activity.sh <path_to_apk> <path_to_activity>`
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example: `./launch_activity.sh test_apks/org.happysanta.gd_29.apk org/happysanta/gd/GDActivity`
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NOTE: you might need to copy some files out from the apk under `data/`, e.g the `assets` folder
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when it doesn't work:
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if you are trying to launch a random app, chances are that we are missing implementations for some
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stuff that it needs, and we also don't have (sufficiently real looking) stubs for the stuff it says
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it needs but doesn't really.
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the workflow is basically to see where it fails (usually a Class or Method was not found) and to create
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stubs which sufficiently satisfy the app so that it continues trying to launch.
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once the app launches, you may find that some functionality (UI elements, ...) is missing; to enable
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such functionality, you need to convert the relevant stubs to actual implementation.
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you can look at simple widgets (e.g. TextView, or ImageView which is extremely simple since it's
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currently displaying an image-not-found icon instead of the actual image) to see how to implement a
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widget such that it shows up as a Gtk Widget. for layout widgets, you can cheat by duplicating
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LinearLayout or RelativeLayout, which are currently implemented in an extremely simplistic manner
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(it might not look correctly, but it should *work*)
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for more specific instructions, see `doc/QuickHelp.md`
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for general description of the architecure, see `doc/Architecture.md`
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screenshot:
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note: running two or more different apps at the same time needs a tiny bit of luck, since the data directory path is currently hardcoded to `./data/` no matter the app
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note: the GLSurfaceView widgets currently start out with zero width, which is somewhat helpful for debugging so it wasn't fixed yet; to get the app to start rendering, enable hexpand on the Wrapper widget around the GtkGLArea using Gtk Inspector
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##### FAQ:
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Q:
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did you ever notice that most apps nowadays use at least some .so libraries?
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some apps even use them for 99% of their functionality!
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A:
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recently, support for loading bionic-linked libraries was added, and two games which use
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GLSurfaceView (rendered to from native code) as their main UI element - Angry Birds 3.2.0
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and Worms 2 Armageddon - are currently fully playable
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Q:
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this seems pretty basic, most apps don't work at all...
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A:
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we have three apps working for now, how fast that number grows depends on how many
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people work on reimplementing stuff :)
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there are probably more than enough people in the world with the required skills who don't have
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anything better to do for the number of implemented APIs to grow appreciably fast, maybe you are
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one of them? ;)
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Q:
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ok, so this can sorta run three apps. What's the catch?
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A:
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well, first things first, technically I compiled Gravity Defied myself and removed
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some bug-reporting-init-related code which I got frustrated with stubbing out. however,
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adding more stubs should make that unnecessary.
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now for the second issue: `./data/` contains some stuff that should instead be read from the apk,
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and some of this stuff is also externally converted (e.g Xml from binary form to actual Xml).
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obviously this is not ideal for user experience. NOTE: it seems that the binary form *might* be
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protobuf-based, which would make reading it directly easier.
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and the third issue: Gravity Defied is still extremely simple compared to most android apps,
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doesn't acknowledge compat layers, and the most intricate UI element is completely custom drawn
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using the canvas interface, in a manner that makes it easy to implement with cairo.
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angry birds (old version) and worms 2 armageddon were chosen because they similarly don't use
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compat layers, and basically the entire UI is custom drawn with OpenGL calls from native code.
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##### Roadmap:
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- fix issues mention above
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- fix ugly hacks
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- don't assume apps only have one (relevant) activity
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- figure out a way to avoid hardcoding resolution, at minimum allow setting it on launch
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- implement more stuff (there is a lot of it, and it won't get done if nobody helps... ideally pick a simple-ish application and stub/implement stuff until it works)
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- implement the alternatives to GLSurfaceView (using SurfaceView to get an EGL surface, native activity, not sure if there are others?)
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