AndroidSDK

Android SDK development environment Docker image

Goals

It contains the complete Android SDK enviroment, is able to perform all regular Android jobs.
Solves the problem of "It works on my machine, but not on XXX machine".
Some tool (e.g. Infer), which has complex dependencies might be in conflict with your local environment. Installing the tool within a Docker container is the easiest and perfect solution.
Directly being used as Android CI build enviroment.

Philosophy

Provide only the barebone SDK (the latest official minimal package) gives you the most flexibility in tailoring your own SDK tools for your project. You can maintain an external persistent SDK directory, and mount it to any container. In this way, you don't have to waste time on downloading over and over again, meanwhile, without having any unnecessary package.

Caveat

Run Android SDK update directly within the Dockerfile or inside the container would fail if the storage driver is AUFS (by default), it is due to some file operations (during updating) are not supported by this storage driver, but changing it to Btrfs would work.

What happens if the update fails?

ls $ANDROID_HOME/tools/
#=> empty, nothing is there
# tools such as: android, sdkmanager, emulator, lint and etc. are gone

android
#=> bash: android: command not found

sdkmanager
#=> bash: /opt/android-sdk/tools/bin/sdkmanager: No such file or directory

To know more about the storage driver:

Check Docker's current storage driver option

docker info | grep 'Storage Driver'

Check which filesystems are supported by the running host kernel

cat /proc/filesystems

To prevent this problem from happening, and you don't wanna bother dealing with storage driver. The only solution is to mount an external SDK volume from host to container. Then you are free to try any of below approaches.

Update SDK in the usual way but directly inside container.
Update SDK from host directory (Remember: the host machine must be the same target architecture as the container - x86_64 Linux).

If you by accident update SDK on a host machine which has a mismatch target architecture than the container, some binaries won't be executable in container any longer.

gradle <some_task>
#=> Error: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: java.lang.RuntimeException: AAPT process not ready to receive commands

$ANDROID_HOME/build-tools/x.x.x/aapt
#=> aapt: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

adb
#=> adb: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

Getting Started

# build the image
# set the working directory to the project's root directory first
docker build -t android-sdk android-sdk
# or pull the image
docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk

# below commands assume that you've pulled the image

# copy the pre-downloaded SDK to the mounted 'sdk' directory
docker stop $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk") &> /dev/null && docker rm $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk") &> /dev/null; docker run -d -v $(pwd)/sdk:/sdk thyrlian/android-sdk && docker exec -it `docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk"` bash -c 'cp -a $ANDROID_HOME/. /sdk' && docker stop $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk") &> /dev/null && docker rm $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk") &> /dev/null

# go to the 'sdk' directory on the host, update the SDK
# ONLY IF the host machine is the same target architecture as the container
# JDK required on the host
sdk/tools/bin/sdkmanager --update
# or install specific packages
sdk/tools/bin/sdkmanager "build-tools;x.y.z" "platforms;android-x" ...

# mount the updated SDK to container again
# if the host SDK directory is mounted to more than one container
# to avoid multiple containers writing to the SDK directory at the same time
# you should mount the SDK volume in read-only mode
docker run -it -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk:ro thyrlian/android-sdk /bin/bash

# you can mount without read-only option, only if you need to update SDK inside container
docker run -it -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk thyrlian/android-sdk /bin/bash

# to keep and reuse Gradle cache
docker run -it -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk -v $(pwd)/gradle_caches:/root/.gradle/caches thyrlian/android-sdk /bin/bash

# to stop and remove container
# when the image was pulled from a registry
docker stop $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk") &> /dev/null && docker rm $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk") &> /dev/null
# when the image was built locally
docker stop $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=android-sdk") &> /dev/null && docker rm $(docker ps -aqf "ancestor=android-sdk") &> /dev/null
# more flexible way - doesn't matter where the image comes from
docker stop $(docker ps -a | grep 'android-sdk' | awk '{ print $1 }') &> /dev/null && docker rm $(docker ps -a | grep 'android-sdk' | awk '{ print $1 }') &> /dev/null

SSH

It is also possible if you wanna connect to container via SSH. There are two different approaches.

Build an image on your own, with a built-in authorized_keys

# Put your `id_rsa.pub` under `android-sdk/authorized_keys` (as many as you want)

# Build an image
docker build -t android-sdk android-sdk

# Run a container
docker run -d -p 2222:22 -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk:ro android-sdk

Copy a local authorized_keys file to a container

# Create a local `authorized_keys` file, which contains the content from your `id_rsa.pub`

# Run a container
docker run -d -p 2222:22 -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk:ro thyrlian/android-sdk

# Copy the just created local authorized_keys file to the running container
docker cp $(pwd)/authorized_keys `docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk"`:/root/.ssh/authorized_keys

# Set the proper owner and group for authorized_keys file
docker exec -it `docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk"` bash -c 'chown root:root /root/.ssh/authorized_keys'

That's it! Now it's up and running, you can ssh to it

ssh root@<your_ip_address> -p 2222

And, in case you need, you can still attach to the running container (not via ssh) by

docker exec -it <container_id> /bin/bash

NFS

You can host the Android SDK in one host-independent place, and share it across different containers. One solution is using NFS (Network File System).

To make the container consume the NFS, you can try either way below:

Mount the NFS onto your host machine, then run container with volume option (-v).
Use a Docker volume plugin, for instance Convoy plugin.

And here are instructions for configuring a NFS server (on Ubuntu):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nfs-kernel-server
sudo mkdir -p /var/nfs/android-sdk

# put the Android SDK under /var/nfs/android-sdk
# if you haven't got any, run below commands
sudo apt-get install -y wget zip
cd /var/nfs/android-sdk
sudo wget -q $(wget -q -O- 'https://developer.android.com/sdk' | grep -o "\"https://.*android.*tools.*linux.*\"" | sed "s/\"//g")
sudo unzip *tools*linux*.zip
sudo rm *tools*linux*.zip
sudo mkdir licenses
echo 8933bad161af4178b1185d1a37fbf41ea5269c55 | sudo tee licenses/android-sdk-license > /dev/null
echo 84831b9409646a918e30573bab4c9c91346d8abd | sudo tee licenses/android-sdk-preview-license > /dev/null
echo d975f751698a77b662f1254ddbeed3901e976f5a | sudo tee licenses/intel-android-extra-license > /dev/null

# configure and launch NFS service
sudo chown nobody:nogroup /var/nfs
echo "/var/nfs         *(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)" | sudo tee --append /etc/exports > /dev/null
sudo exportfs -a
sudo service nfs-kernel-server start

Gradle distributions mirror server

There is still a little room for optimization: recent distribution of Gradle is around 90MB, imagine different containers / build jobs have to perform downloading many times, and it has high influence upon your network bandwidth. Setting up a local Gradle distributions mirror server would significantly boost your download speed.

Fortunately, you can easily build such a mirror server docker image on your own.

docker build -t gradle-server gradle-server
# by default it downloads the most recent 14 gradle distributions (excluding rc or milestone)

The download amount can be changed here. Preferably, you should run the download script locally, and mount the download directory to the container.

gradle-server/downloader.sh [DOWNLOAD_DIRECTORY] [DOWNLOAD_AMOUNT]
docker run -d -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -v [DOWNLOAD_DIRECTORY]:/var/www/gradle.org/public_html/distributions gradle-server

# copy the SSL certificate from gradle server container to host machine
docker cp `docker ps -aqf "ancestor=gradle-server"`:/etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt apache.crt
# copy the SSL certificate from host machine to AndroidSDK container
docker cp apache.crt `docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk"`:/home/apache.crt
# add self-signed SSL certificate to Java keystore
docker exec -it `docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk"` bash -c '$JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -import -trustcacerts -file /home/apache.crt -keystore $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts -storepass changeit -noprompt'
# map gradle services domain to your local IP
docker exec -it `docker ps -aqf "ancestor=thyrlian/android-sdk"` bash -c 'echo "[YOUR_HOST_IP_ADDRESS_FOR_GRADLE_CONTAINER] services.gradle.org" >> /etc/hosts'

Starting from now on, gradle wrapper will download gradle distributions from your local mirror server, lightning fast! The downloaded distribution will be uncompressed to /root/.gradle/wrapper/dists.

If you don't want to bother with SSL certificate, you can simply change the distributionUrl inside [YOUR_PROJECT]/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties from https to http.

Emulator

ARM emulator is host machine independent, can run anywhere - Linux, macOS, VM and etc. While the performance is a bit poor. On the contrary, x86 emulator requires KVM, which means only runnable on Linux.

According to Google's documentation:

VM acceleration restrictions

Note the following restrictions of VM acceleration:

You can't run a VM-accelerated emulator inside another VM, such as a VM hosted by VirtualBox, VMWare, or Docker. You must run the emulator directly on your system hardware.

You can't run software that uses another virtualization technology at the same time that you run the accelerated emulator. For example, VirtualBox, VMWare, and Docker currently use a different virtualization technology, so you can't run them at the same time as the accelerated emulator.

Preconditions on the host machine (for x86 emulator)

Read How to Start Intel Hardware-assisted Virtualization (hypervisor) on Linux for more details.

Read KVM Installation if you haven't got KVM installed on the host yet.

Check the capability of running KVM

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
# or
egrep -c ' lm ' /proc/cpuinfo
# when output > 0 it means the host CPU supports hardware virtualization.

sudo kvm-ok
# seeing below info means you can run your virtual machine faster with the KVM extensions
INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used

Load KVM module on the host

modprobe kvm_intel

Check if KVM module is successfully loaded

lsmod | grep kvm

How to run emulator

Check available emulator system images from remote SDK repository (on the host machine)

sdkmanager --list --verbose

Download emulator system image(s) (on the host machine)

sdkmanager "system_image_1" "system_image_2"
# e.g.:
# system-images;android-24;android-tv;x86
# system-images;android-24;default;arm64-v8a
# system-images;android-24;default;armeabi-v7a
# system-images;android-24;default;x86
# system-images;android-24;default;x86_64
# system-images;android-24;google_apis;arm64-v8a
# system-images;android-24;google_apis;armeabi-v7a
# system-images;android-24;google_apis;x86
# system-images;android-24;google_apis;x86_64
# system-images;android-24;google_apis_playstore;x86

Run Docker container in privileged mode (not necessary for ARM emulator)

# required by KVM
docker run -it --privileged -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk:ro thyrlian/android-sdk /bin/bash

Check acceleration ability (not necessary for ARM emulator)

emulator -accel-check

# when succeeds
accel:
0
KVM (version 12) is installed and usable.
accel

# when fails (probably due to unprivileged mode)
accel:
8
/dev/kvm is not found: VT disabled in BIOS or KVM kernel module not loaded
accel

Create a new Android Virtual Device

echo "no" | avdmanager create avd -n <name> -k <sdk_id>
# e.g.:
echo "no" | avdmanager create avd -n test -k "system-images;android-24;default;armeabi-v7a"

List existing Android Virtual Devices

avdmanager list avd
# ==================================================
Available Android Virtual Devices:
    Name: test
    Path: /root/.android/avd/test.avd
  Target:
          Based on: Android 7.0 (Nougat) Tag/ABI: default/armeabi-v7a
# ==================================================

# or

emulator -list-avds
# 32-bit Linux Android emulator binaries are DEPRECATED
# ==================================================
test
# ==================================================

Launch emulator in background

# use different command per architecture
emulator64-arm -avd <virtual_device_name> -noaudio -no-boot-anim -no-window -accel on &

# or
emulator64-mips -avd <virtual_device_name> -noaudio -no-boot-anim -no-window -accel on &

# or
emulator64-x86 -avd <virtual_device_name> -noaudio -no-boot-anim -no-window -accel on &

# if the container is not running in privileged mode, you should see below errors:
#=> emulator: ERROR: x86_64 emulation currently requires hardware acceleration!
#=> Please ensure KVM is properly installed and usable.
#=> CPU acceleration status: /dev/kvm is not found: VT disabled in BIOS or KVM kernel module not loaded
# or it's running on top of a VM
#=> CPU acceleration status: KVM requires a CPU that supports vmx or svm

Check the virtual device status

adb devices
# ==================================================
List of devices attached
emulator-5554	offline
# "offline" means it's still booting up
# ==================================================

# ==================================================
List of devices attached
emulator-5554	device
# "device" means it's ready to be used
# ==================================================

Now you can for instance run UI tests on the emulator (just remember, the performance is POOR):

<your_android_project>/gradlew connectedAndroidTest

Android Device

You can give a container access to host's USB Android devices.

# on Linux
docker run -it --privileged -v /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk thyrlian/android-sdk /bin/bash

# or
# try to avoid privileged flag, just add necessary capabilities when possible
# --device option allows you to run devices inside the container without the --privileged flag
docker run -it --device=/dev/ttyUSB0 -v $(pwd)/sdk:/opt/android-sdk thyrlian/android-sdk /bin/bash

Note:

Connect Android device via USB on host first;
Launch container;
Disconnect and connect Android device on USB;
Select OK for "Allow USB debugging" on Android device;
Now the Android device will show up inside the container (adb devices).

Don't worry about adbkey or adbkey.pub under /.android, not required.

Docker for Mac FAQ says:

Unfortunately it is not possible to pass through a USB device (or a serial port) to a container.

Android Commands Reference

Check installed Android SDK tools version

cat $ANDROID_HOME/tools/source.properties | grep Pkg.Revision
cat $ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools/source.properties | grep Pkg.Revision

The "android" command is deprecated. For command-line tools, use tools/bin/sdkmanager and tools/bin/avdmanager.

List installed and available packages

sdkmanager --list
# print full details instead of truncated path
sdkmanager --list --verbose

Update all installed packages to the latest version

sdkmanager --update

Install packages

The packages argument is an SDK-style path as shown with the --list command, wrapped in quotes (for example, "extras;android;m2repository"). You can pass multiple package paths, separated with a space, but they must each be wrapped in their own set of quotes.

sdkmanager "extras;android;m2repository" "extras;google;m2repository" "extras;google;google_play_services" "extras;google;instantapps" "extras;m2repository;com;android;support;constraint;constraint-layout;1.0.2" "build-tools;26.0.0" "platforms;android-26"

Stop emulator

adb -s <device_sn> emu kill

Change Log

1.7

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.7

What's New

Upgraded Gradle from 4.0.1 to 4.1
Upgraded Kotlin compiler from 1.1.3-2 to 1.2-M2
Applied emulator fix

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.2 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_131
Gradle	4.1
Kotlin compiler	1.2-M2
AndroidSDK	26.0.1
OpenSSH	7.2p2

1.6

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.6

What's New

Added Kotlin compiler

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.2 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_131
Gradle	4.0.1
Kotlin compiler	1.1.3-2
AndroidSDK	26.0.1
OpenSSH	7.2p2

1.5

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.5

What's New

Applied emulator fix

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.2 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_131
Gradle	4.0
AndroidSDK	26.0.1
OpenSSH	7.2p2

1.4

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.4

What's New

Upgraded Ubuntu from 16.04.1 to 16.04.2
Upgraded Gradle from 3.5 to 4.0

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.2 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_131
Gradle	4.0
AndroidSDK	26.0.1
OpenSSH	7.2p2

1.3

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.3

What's New

Upgraded Gradle from 3.3 to 3.5
Upgraded AndroidSDK from 25.2.3 to 26.0.1

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.1 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_131
Gradle	3.5
AndroidSDK	26.0.1
OpenSSH	7.2p2

1.2

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.2

What's New

Upgraded Gradle from 3.2.1 to 3.3

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.1 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_121
Gradle	3.3
AndroidSDK	25.2.3
OpenSSH	7.2p2

1.1

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.1

What's New

Added SSH server and configurations

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.1 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_121
Gradle	3.2.1
AndroidSDK	25.2.3
OpenSSH	7.2p2

1.0

docker pull thyrlian/android-sdk:1.0

Component	Version
Ubuntu	16.04.1 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Java	1.8.0_121
Gradle	3.2.1
AndroidSDK	25.2.3

License

By continuing to use this Docker Image, you accept the terms in below license agreement.

andrewgiang / AndroidSDK

AndroidSDK

Goals

Philosophy

Caveat

Getting Started

SSH

NFS

Gradle distributions mirror server

Emulator

Preconditions on the host machine (for x86 emulator)

How to run emulator

Android Device

Android Commands Reference

Change Log

1.7

1.6

1.5

1.4

1.3

1.2

1.1

1.0

License

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