Building Android from master branch

This is a simple guide on how to build Minetest for Android on Ubuntu on a 64 bit system. Building on 32 bit systems should work too when the URLs and paths are replaced accordingly. This guide covers all preparation needed. Once everything is set up, Minetest only needs cd build/android && make to compile.

Required packages

Git, Make, and Gradle are neccessary: <br\>
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cwchien/gradle sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install make m4 subversion git-core build-essential gradle-2.13

As your architecture is 64 bit, you need additional packages:

sudo apt-get install --force-yes libgd2-xpm ia32-libs ia32-libs-multiarch

Getting the SDK and NDK

Download the latest versions of the Android SDK and NDK from https://developer.android.com/sdk and https://developer.android.com/ndk/downloads respectively. Unpack them somewhere like ~/Android/sdk and ~/Android/ndk-r11c.

Obtaining and building Minetest

Clone Minetest, and build it:

git clone https://github.com/minetest/minetest.git <br\> cd minetest/build/android <br\> make <br\>

The make file will ask you for the paths to your SDK and NDK. It will then download and build all required libraries. Finally it will build Minetest and the Java sources and pack everything into a debug-signed APK.

sfan5's Android port

Building and Running

Building

What you need:

GNU/Linux
Android NDK
Standalone toolchain made with Android NDK (with android_native_app_glue.h copied into <TOOLCHAIN_ROOT>/sysroot/usr/include)

You need to use Clang as GCC produces broken code

Android SDK
Android device
Git
CMake
Ant
ADB (optional but very useful)

Irrlicht

Clone https://github.com/sfan5/irrlicht-android.

Make sure you have arm-linux-androideabi-gcc (It's ok to use gcc for Irrlicht) and arm-linux-androideabi-g++ usable and run make in source/Irrlicht.

This will build Irrlicht as static and shared library and place it in lib/Linux

Minetest

Clone https://github.com/sfan5/minetest and switch to the android_new branch. Configure it using CMake like this:

$ cmake . \
    -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=`which arm-linux-androideabi-clang` \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=`which arm-linux-androideabi-clang++` \
    -DCMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH=<sysroot of your android toolchain> \
    -DCMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE=ONLY \
    -DCMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY=ONLY \
    -DCMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM=BOTH \
    -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=Linux \
    -DIRRLICHT_LIBRARY=<path to libIrrlicht.a> \
    -DIRRLICHT_INCLUDE_DIR=<path to include/ of Irrlicht> \
    -DANDROID=1 \
    -DANDROID_SUPPORT_LIBRARY=<path to libandroid_support.a> \
    -DANDROID_SUPPORT_INCLUDE_DIR=<patch to <NDK_DIR>/source/android/support/include> \
    -DRUN_IN_PLACE=1

Now just enter make package. After make is done go into the Android directory and run <SDK_DIR>/tools/android update project --path ..

Then copy the .so using <NDK_DIR>/ndk-build and build the apk using ant debug.

You will then have the resources in minetest-x.x.x.tar.gz and the apk at Android/bin/Minetest-debug.apk. You will only need to do the “Android update project” step once.

Running

For this step you need minetest-x.x.x.tar.gz and Minetest-debug.apk from the previous step.

Put all resource files & folders (builtin, client, ...) into /sdcard/minetest on your Android device. Install Minetest-debug.apk.

Now touch the Minetest icon and the lovely main menu should appear.

Development notes

General notes

cURL does not work

TLS support is needed too

Idea: Use GnuTLS or LibreSSL, because OpenSSL is a nightmare to cross-compile

Add Bluetooth support for local multiplayer (maybe)

see (http://people.csail.mit.edu/albert/bluez-intro/x559.html or http://people.csail.mit.edu/albert/bluez-intro/x502.html) and https://github.com/sfan5/minetest/tree/bluetooth

OpenAL with Android support: https://github.com/AerialX/openal-soft-android

Getting stuff to work without libCrystax

Frequently crashes after going through std::ios_base::~ios_base()

Probably related to removal of libCrystax

Pressing a button now roughly equals taking away a wood piece of a unstable Jenga tower
Options:

Use libc++

Currently a problem with includes

avoid destructing any streams

This is not a good idea

Go back to Crystax toolchain

Uhh… no!

References

Android

Contents