Building SDL2 for Android

1. Existing documentation

A lot of information can be found in SDL2/README-android.txt.

This page is more walkthrough-oriented.

2. Pre-requisites

• Install minimal Java environment. For instance, in Debian/Ubuntu:

  sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk ant

• Install NDK (tested with r9d)

• Install the latest SDK, run android and install API 12

• Configure your environment variables, e.g.:

  PATH="/usr/src/android-ndk-r9d:$PATH"          # for 'ndk-build'
  PATH="/usr/src/android-sdk-linux/tools:$PATH"  # for 'android'

3. Simple builds

3.1. SDL wrapper for simple programs

• Compile a sample app (calls ndk-build):

   cd /usr/src/SDL2/build-scripts/
   ./androidbuild.sh org.libsdl.testgles ../test/testgles.c

• Follow the instructions to install on your device:

   cd /usr/src/SDL2/build/org.libsdl.testgles/
   ant debug install

Notes:

• triple target armeabi/armeabi-v7a/x86 compilation!
• application doesn't quit

3.2. SDL wrapper + SDL_image NDK module

Let's modify SDL2_image/showimage.c to show a simple embedded image (e.g. XPM).

Then let's make an Android app out of it. To compile:

 cd /usr/src/SDL2/build-scripts/
 ./androidbuild.sh org.libsdl.showimage /usr/src/SDL2_image/showimage.c
 cd /usr/src/SDL2/build/org.libsdl.showimage/
 ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_image jni/
 ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_image/external/libwebp-0.3.0 jni/webp
 # - Edit jni/src/Android.mk
 #   LOCAL_SHARED_LIBRARIES := ... SDL2_image
 # - Edit jni/Application.mk: remove x86 where jpeg-9 doesn't build
 ndk-build -j$(nproc)
 ant debug install

Notes:

• application doesn't restart properly

4. Build an autotools-friendly environment

You use autotools in your project and can't be bothering understanding ndk-build's cryptic errors? This guide is for you!

Note: this environment can be used for CMake too.

4.1. Compile a shared binaries bundle for SDL and SDL_*

• Start with a minimal build:

  cd /usr/src/SDL2/
  cd build-scripts/
  ./androidbuild.sh org.libsdl /dev/null
  cd ../build/org.libsdl/

• Remove reference to our dummy file:

  rm -rf jni/src/

• Get the latests SDL2_* libs from Mercurial (they fix a few bugs):

  cd /usr/src/
  hg clone http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL_image SDL2_image
  hg clone http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL_mixer SDL2_mixer
  hg clone http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL_net   SDL2_net
  hg clone http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL_ttf   SDL2_ttf

• Reference SDL_image, SDL_mixer, SDL_ttf, and their dependencies, as NDK modules:

  ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_image jni/
  ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_image/external/libwebp-0.3.0 jni/webp
  ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_mixer jni/
  ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_mixer/external/libmikmod-3.1.12 jni/libmikmod
  ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_mixer/external/smpeg2-2.0.0 jni/smpeg2
  ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_net jni/
  ln -s /usr/src/SDL2_ttf jni/

• Optionnaly edit jni/Android.mk to disable some formats, e.g.:

  SUPPORT_MP3_SMPEG := false
  include $(call all-subdir-makefiles)

• Launch the build!

  ndk-build -j$(nproc)

Note: no need to add System.loadLibrary calls in SDLActivity.java, your application will be linked to them and Android's Linux loads them automatically.

4.2. Install SDL in a GCC toolchain

Now:

• Copy the NDK into a traditional GCC toolchain:

  /usr/src/android-ndk-r9d/build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh \
    --platform=android-12 --install-dir=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm --arch=arm

• Set your PATH (important, do it before any build):

  PATH=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/bin:$PATH

• Install the SDL2 binaries in the toolchain:

  cd /usr/src/SDL2/build/org.libsdl/
  for i in libs/armeabi/*; do ln -nfs $(pwd)/$i /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/lib/; done
  mkdir /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/include/SDL2/
  \cp jni/SDL/include/* /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/include/SDL2/
  \cp jni/*/SDL*.h /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/include/SDL2/

• Install pkg-config and install a host-triplet-prefixed symlink in the PATH (auto-detected by autoconf):

  VERSION=0.9.6
  wget http://rabbit.dereferenced.org/~nenolod/distfiles/pkgconf-$VERSION.tar.gz
  tar xf pkgconf-$VERSION.tar.gz
  cd pkgconf-$VERSION
  mkdir native/ && cd native/
  ../configure --prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr
  make -j$(nproc)
  make install
  ln -s ../sysroot/usr/bin/pkgconf /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-pkg-config
  mkdir /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/lib/pkgconfig/

• Install pkg-config .pc files for SDL:

  cat <<'EOF' > /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/lib/pkgconfig/sdl2.pc
  prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr
  exec_prefix=${prefix}
  libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
  includedir=${prefix}/include
  Name: sdl2
  Description: Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer.
  Version: 2.0.3
  Requires:
  Conflicts:
  Libs: -lSDL2
  Cflags: -I${includedir}/SDL2   -D_REENTRANT
  EOF
  
  cat <<'EOF' > /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/lib/pkgconfig/SDL2_image.pc
  prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr
  exec_prefix=${prefix}
  libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
  includedir=${prefix}/include
  Name: SDL2_image
  Description: image loading library for Simple DirectMedia Layer
  Version: 2.0.1
  Requires: sdl2 >= 2.0.0
  Libs: -L${libdir} -lSDL2_image
  Cflags: -I${includedir}/SDL2
  EOF
  
  cat <<'EOF' > /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/lib/pkgconfig/SDL2_mixer.pc
  prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr
  exec_prefix=${prefix}
  libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
  includedir=${prefix}/include
  Name: SDL2_mixer
  Description: mixer library for Simple DirectMedia Layer
  Version: 2.0.1
  Requires: sdl2 >= 2.0.0
  Libs: -L${libdir} -lSDL2_mixer
  Cflags: -I${includedir}/SDL2
  EOF
  
  cat <<'EOF' > /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/lib/pkgconfig/SDL2_net.pc
  prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr
  exec_prefix=${prefix}
  libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
  includedir=${prefix}/include
  Name: SDL2_net
  Description: net library for Simple DirectMedia Layer
  Version: 2.0.1
  Requires: sdl2 >= 2.0.0
  Libs: -L${libdir} -lSDL2_net
  Cflags: -I${includedir}/SDL2
  EOF
  
  cat <<'EOF' > /usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr/lib/pkgconfig/SDL2_ttf.pc
  prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr
  exec_prefix=${prefix}
  libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
  includedir=${prefix}/include
  Name: SDL2_ttf
  Description: ttf library for Simple DirectMedia Layer with FreeType 2 support
  Version: 2.0.13
  Requires: sdl2 >= 2.0.0
  Libs: -L${libdir} -lSDL2_ttf
  Cflags: -I${includedir}/SDL2
  EOF

4.3. Building other dependencies

You can add any other libraries (e.g.: SDL2_gfx, freetype, gettext, gmp...) using commands like:

mkdir cross-android/ && cd cross-android/
../configure --host=arm-linux-androideabi --prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr \
  --with-some-option --enable-another-option \
  --disable-shared
make -j$(nproc)
make install

Static builds (--disable-shared) are recommended for simplicity (no additional .so to declare).

Example with SDL2_gfx:

VERSION=1.0.1
wget http://www.ferzkopp.net/Software/SDL2_gfx/SDL2_gfx-$VERSION.tar.gz
tar xf SDL2_gfx-$VERSION.tar.gz
mv SDL2_gfx-$VERSION/ SDL2_gfx/
cd SDL2_gfx/
mkdir cross-android/ && cd cross-android/
../configure --host=arm-linux-androideabi --prefix=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/sysroot/usr \
  --disable-shared --disable-mmx
make -j$(nproc)
make install

You can compile YOUR application using this technique, with some more steps to tell Android how to run it using JNI.

4.4. Build your autotools app

First, prepare an Android project:

• Copy and adapt the /usr/src/SDL2/android-project skeleton as explained in README-android.txt. You can leave it as-is in a first step.

• Make links to the SDL binaries as well:

  for i in /usr/src/SDL2/build/org.libsdl/libs/armeabi/*; do ln -nfs $i libs/armeabi/; done

Make your project Android-aware:

• Add /usr/src/SDL2/src/main/android/SDL_android_main.c in your project (comment out the line referencing "SDL_internal.h")

• In your configure.ac, detect Android:

  AM_CONDITIONAL(ANDROID, test "$host" == "arm-unknown-linux-androideabi")

• In your Makefile.am, tell Automake you'll build executables as libraries, using something like:

  if ANDROID
    # Build .so JNI libs rather than executables
    AM_CFLAGS = -fPIC
    AM_LDFLAGS += -shared
    COMMON_OBJS += SDL_android_main.c
  endif

• Cross-compile your project using the GCC toolchain environment we created:

  PATH=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/bin:$PATH
  mkdir cross-android/ && cd cross-android/
  ../configure --host=arm-linux-androideabi \
    --with-your-option --enable-your-other-option ...
  make

• Do this again for any additional arch you want to support (TODO: see how to support armeabi-v7a and document what devices support it)

Now you can install your pre-built binaries and build the Android project:

• Copy your program in android-project/libs/armeabi/libmain.so.

• Build your Android .apk:

  android update project --name your_app --path . --target "android-12"
  ant debug
  ant installd

• You can run the application remotely:

  adb shell am start -a android.intenon.MAIN -n org.libsdl.app/org.libsdl.app.SDLActivity  # replace with your app package

• Your SDL2 Android app is running!

4.5. Build your CMake app

(Work In Progress)

You can use our Android GCC toolchain using a simple toolchain file:

# CMake toolchain file
SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)  # Tell CMake we're cross-compiling
include(CMakeForceCompiler)
# Prefix detection only works with compiler id "GNU"
CMAKE_FORCE_C_COMPILER(arm-linux-androideabi-gcc GNU)
SET(ANDROID TRUE)

You then call CMake like this:

PATH=/usr/src/ndk-standalone-12-arm/bin:$PATH
cmake \
  -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../android_toolchain.cmake \
  ...