8 ms·

Android in Docker without QEMU/emulator

226 points by PascalW 5y ago

PascalW 5y ago
Came across this very useful project. It provides Docker images with Android running directly in Docker, without qemu or an emulator. I've never seen this before, all other solutions that I'm aware of either run the Android emulator in Docker or use qemu directly (like Anbox). Advantage of this is that it's very lightweight and does not require VT-X or AMD-V, ideal for running in cloud environments that typically do not expose this CPU capability.
- lillecarl 5y ago
  Anbox doesn't use QEMU. It uses the same underlying kernel tech as Docker, LXC and other isolation tech. This is why you need the ashmem and "binder"(?) kernel modules to run Anbox. I'm currently "trying" to get Anbox working on NixOS (It's currently broken on 5.x kernels but should be fixed by https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/102341 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/102341) so that's why I know that Anbox is the "same" as this.
  - rjzzleep 5y ago
    I personally haven't managed to get anbox to run at either acceptable performance or any kind of level I would consider stable. Someone posted waydroid as an alternative here a few months ago, but I haven't tried it yet.
    - MayeulC 5y ago
      Waydroid seems performant enough to me. SuperTuxKart is very playable (though I didn't try much as on-screen controls are hard to handle with a mouse). Microsoft excel also works. A lot of android apps only come with arm library, and need an extra emulation layer on x86, I haven't tried that.
    - NoahKAndrews 5y ago
      Waydroid is a more performant successor to anbox.
  - PascalW 5y ago
    Interesting. I've never been able to make Anbox run in a cloud environment though, don't recall the exact details. But indeed I guess it should be able to work as there's also a commercial offering targeted specifically at cloud setups. https://anbox-cloud.io/ https://anbox-cloud.io/
- blueflow 5y ago
  Consider taking a moment to look into the difference between "emulator" and "virtual machine". What the link refers to is an kind of Android emulator, but not the virtual machine kind of emulator. If you are tempted to write a rebuttal in the "reply" box, answer this question first: Why are programs like xterm and urxvt called "Terminal Emulator"? What do they emulate?
  - zaat 5y ago
    Hi blueflow, I see that today you are not tired of arguing semantics. The issue here is context. What GP means by Android Emulator refers to specific piece of software, the AVD emulator provided by Google which emulates full android device, it emulates more than just VM, it's also have skins and physcal buttons. https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator
- OJFord 5y ago
  Anbox and Waydroid are others, though they don't use Docker. https://github.com/anbox/anbox https://github.com/anbox/anbox (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684187) https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28616985 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28616985)
  - mathfailure 5y ago
    ReDroid: Requires Docker. The images seem to be based on pure Android. Multiple versions available: 8.1, 9, 10, 11, 12. Anbox: Requires 'snapd'. The image is based on AOSP based on Android 7.1.1. Waydroid: Requires Wayland. The image is based on LineageOS that is based on Android 10.
fareesh 5y ago
For development work I use the default Android emulator that comes with Android Studio. Are any of these ones superior in terms of performance, resource utilization, etc? The cloud angle is mildly interesting although in my specific use-case I'd probably just end up paying for a service that can provide access to emulators in the cloud. Is there more scope to do things like automating inputs etc this way? How would one go about that?
- j4hdufd8 5y ago
  > Is there more scope to do things like automating inputs etc this way? How would one go about that? adb or UIAutomator
  - chr 5y ago
    For tips on how to control the Android Emulator from the outside with adb, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7789826/adb-shell-input-events https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7789826/adb-shell-input-...
- mkdirp 5y ago
  This one specifically seems to run Android in the Linux Kernel using the usual suspects of container tech. It should have next to zero performance impact so it will definitely have better performance compared to the default Android emulator considering that's using qemu, even if it's qemu-kvm. Whether it's as reliable as running a VM, is something that'll need to be tested. Personally I got an error when trying to exit out of the shell (and thus was unable to exit), something I've never seen in the VM version of Android.
  - junon 5y ago
    Sounds like QEMU doing that. QEMU has a command mode - ctrl+A followed by X should kill it.
    - mkdirp 5y ago
      This isn't running on QEMU.
drran 5y ago
Will it work on WSL? It can be a good way to run Android on Windows.
- manojlds 5y ago
  Windows (11?) has the feature built in right?
  - mkl 5y ago
    That feature's still in beta (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/android/wsa/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/android/wsa/). You can use it by joining the Windows Insider Program.
    - csdvrx 5y ago
      Or you can manually install it following the various guides explaining how to do so without joining Insiders
- AkshitGarg 5y ago
  According to its README, it does run (and is tested) on WSL 2 (Ubuntu) (amd64).
Tepix 5y ago
This could be useful for running WhatsApp inside a vm instead of your phone for those rare instances where it is needed.
- yetanother-1 5y ago
  Frankly I just install Island, and then run Whatsapp (and all not-always-needed apps) inside it. Plus bonus: you can freeze the apps you don't need and keep the island running.
  - ivanche 5y ago
    TIL about the Island app. Thank you!
    - mathfailure 5y ago
      Shelter. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://github.com/PeterCxy/Shelter https://github.com/PeterCxy/Shelter
      - ivanche 5y ago
        Also very useful, thank you!
- j4hdufd8 5y ago
  What do you mean? Where is it needed?
  - flatiron 5y ago
    i believe they are referring to the whatsapp bug that the saudi prince used on jeff bezos. simply sending bezos a message gave the saudi prince root access on his phone and he dumped all his messages and photos and released them to the press. running in a vm would just have whatsapp so they can send and receive messages without exposing all the private information on their phone in case of some 0day
cranx 5y ago
This is interesting, but I don’t see this as something for use in development of Android apps. Given all Android’s quarks and fragmentation the use of real devices and Google’s emulators will provide a better surface to catch bugs during dev. What’s the primary use case for these containerized versions of Android?
- PascalW 5y ago
  I'm using it myself to run Whatsapp for the Matrix Whatsapp bridge [1] on a VPS. [1] https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/whatsapp/android-vm-setup.html https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/whatsapp/android-vm-setup.htm...
- paulcarroty 5y ago
  Software, websites testing?
goodpoint 5y ago
I'd rather use waydroid to avoid the attack surface of docker and its complexity.
0x0 5y ago
Interesting concept but seems to require custom android-specific kernel modules (ashmem, binderfs), which means the android containers aren't very containerized but leak into the host kernel.
- captn3m0 5y ago
  All Linux containers leak the host kernel no? The Anbox project relies on the exact same 2 modules: https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install_kernel_modules.html https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install_kernel_modules.html. While these are "android-specific", they are present in the linux kernel tree, and even come pre-installed in Ubuntu 19.04 (and probably more distros).
  - j4hdufd8 5y ago
    > All Linux containers leak the host kernel no? Curious in what way?
    - captn3m0 5y ago
      See any explanation of what a linux container is[0]. Containers in linux are a patchwork of various features that "contain" a process group in different ways while sharing the kernel with the rest of the system. Running either of docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/uname alpine:latest -a or uname -a gives you the same kernel version. The only difference will be in the hostname. [0]: https://embeddedbits.org/introduction-linux-containers/ https://embeddedbits.org/introduction-linux-containers/
    - IceWreck 5y ago
      That's the difference between a container and a VM. VM runs its own kernel. A container relies on the host kernel and the host machine's kernel does all the scheduling, memory management, etc.
    - pmontra 5y ago
      See the other replies and if you're on Linux run ps -ef on the host and you'll see the processes in the containers too. That doesn't happen if those processes run in a VM.
jeroenhd 5y ago
How is this accomplished? Is this using Anbox or something similar I don't understand how the Dockerfiles linked here end up running an instance of Android.
- domenukk 5y ago
  It runs an Android userspace on the host kernel, inside a container
- j4hdufd8 5y ago
  That Dockerfile is just an image to _build_ the Android container See instructions to build it (or pull the published version) https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-doc/tree/master/android-builder-docker https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-doc/tree/master/an... Then you can run the Android container
marcodiego 5y ago
Don't forget waydroid: https://waydro.id/ https://waydro.id/ . Last time I tried, it worked reasonably well.
wwwhizz 5y ago
required params (already added in docker image) qemu=1 How is that without qemu?
- tgtweak 5y ago
  Yeah not reading anywhere in the docs that it works without qemu. Also the need for kennel modules to be available on the host and passed through makes it less portable than most containers.
  - testtesttestte 5y ago
    Those kernel modules (`ashmem` and `hwbinder`) are standard when building the Linux kernel for Android and they are already part of the upstream Linux kernel tree [1][2]. Because this solution uses containers (which share the same kernel with the host OS), these additional modules are needed. From the ReDroid kernel modules readme: >Custom Kernel >If use custom kernel (5.0+), you can enable binderfs and ashmem configs; So the kernel modules in this repo are not needed any more. https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-modules#custom-kernel https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-modules#custom-ker... More info here on Android-specific kernel modules here: https://elinux.org/Android_Kernel_Features#List_of_kernel_features_unique_to_Android https://elinux.org/Android_Kernel_Features#List_of_kernel_fe... [1] ashmem https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/staging/android/ https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/stagin... [2] hwbinder https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/android https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/androi...
- testtesttestte 5y ago
  It's just a parameter to let the Android OS know that it's running in an emulated environment as opposed to running natively on a physical device. For example, the GPU stack has to be somehow emulated using a custom OpenGL driver (in this case `mesa3d`). There's software emulation (swiftshader) and host GPU mode (GLES). For performance reasons when using the host GPU, the GLES commands from the guest have to be serialized and sent over a kernel pipe to the QEMU and to the host OS. The commands are deserialized on the host and executed on the physical host GPU through the Shader Translator library (taken from the Google ANGLE project). The Google's QEMU fork (aka Android Emulator) usually loads this library and then takes care of proper rendering, such that users can see the rendering output of the emulated OS properly inside the emulator window on the host machine. You can do the same for the docker, otherwise you'd have to implement some other trick to share the GPU. `virtio-gpu` is a Linux kernel facility that is meant to replace QEMU pipe in the future. The high-level details of this OpenGL emulation mechanism are described here: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/qemu/+/master/distrib/android-emugl/DESIGN https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/qemu/+/ma... You can find the implementation of the QEMU OpenGL pipe mechanism here: https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/+/master:device/generic/goldfish-opengl/ https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/+/maste...
junon 5y ago
Perhaps a simple question, but... why?
- mathfailure 5y ago
  Because alternatives have some requirements that may not suite some people. 1. VMs have relatively big resources overhead and this approach requires you to download some Android image first. Of course you'd want some clean distribution and there simply aren't many such ones (that I know of) that are easily available. The ones I tried - were a 2-in-1 shitshow+slideshow for me. Maybe it's because I used ISO (for QEMU/KVM), as I didn't want to run proprietary crapware (VirtualBox/VMWare). 2. Going with Anbox requires having crapware snapd and their Android image is quite old (Android 7.1.1). 3. Going with Waydroid requires having Wayland, which if you don't use it - is an overkill to install just to have Android on your PC. 4. Going with Android from AndroidSDK - is probably an even harder way to get access to some Android on your PC (I don't really know, I haven't investigated that option).
pengaru 5y ago
What exactly is Docker enabling here beyond a Docker workflow, which is quite orthogonal to the presence of a vm or emulator? Isn't the enabling technology here just kernel-level android bits? Docker is fluff, yet ends up dominating the headline.
- nine_k 5y ago
  Does it not provide the mobile-like environment that apps expect? I mean, cgroups, firewall rules, and chroot are also already provided by the kernel, but using them for running containers without Docker, or Podman, or LXD, or other piece of "fluff" is slightly unergonomic.
  - pengaru 5y ago
    If it were Docker providing the secret sauce, Docker would be all you need to make it happen on non-Linux hosts. It's the Linux kernel, configured with the appropriate Android modules, not Docker making this happen.
exdsq 5y ago
Trying to fix some Rust docker builds that are being killed by QEMU on Apple Silicon right now. I always believed Docker was cross platform, I had no idea how much of a pain it can be to use with buildx and --platform to get stuff working. SIGSEGV errors at random points, non-deterministic errors, GAH!
- 0x0 5y ago
  That you (and many others apparently) had the impression that docker was cross platform says a lot about docker's markering, considering docker as far as I know it is a wrapper for a series of extremely linux-kernel-specific APIs. :-/
  - exdsq 5y ago
    Yep! Amusing to think I used to think cross-platform just meant running on Windows and Linux and that was fixed with Docker. Had no idea the rabbit hole was deeper until Mac released the new CPUs.

226 points by PascalW 5y ago

Came across this very useful project. It provides Docker images with Android running directly in Docker, without qemu or an emulator. I've never seen this before, all other solutions that I'm aware of either run the Android emulator in Docker or use qemu directly (like Anbox). Advantage of this is that it's very lightweight and does not require VT-X or AMD-V, ideal for running in cloud environments that typically do not expose this CPU capability.

lillecarl 5y ago
Anbox doesn't use QEMU. It uses the same underlying kernel tech as Docker, LXC and other isolation tech. This is why you need the ashmem and "binder"(?) kernel modules to run Anbox. I'm currently "trying" to get Anbox working on NixOS (It's currently broken on 5.x kernels but should be fixed by https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/102341 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/102341) so that's why I know that Anbox is the "same" as this.
- rjzzleep 5y ago
  I personally haven't managed to get anbox to run at either acceptable performance or any kind of level I would consider stable. Someone posted waydroid as an alternative here a few months ago, but I haven't tried it yet.
  - MayeulC 5y ago
    Waydroid seems performant enough to me. SuperTuxKart is very playable (though I didn't try much as on-screen controls are hard to handle with a mouse). Microsoft excel also works. A lot of android apps only come with arm library, and need an extra emulation layer on x86, I haven't tried that.
  - NoahKAndrews 5y ago
    Waydroid is a more performant successor to anbox.
- PascalW 5y ago
  Interesting. I've never been able to make Anbox run in a cloud environment though, don't recall the exact details. But indeed I guess it should be able to work as there's also a commercial offering targeted specifically at cloud setups. https://anbox-cloud.io/ https://anbox-cloud.io/
blueflow 5y ago
Consider taking a moment to look into the difference between "emulator" and "virtual machine". What the link refers to is an kind of Android emulator, but not the virtual machine kind of emulator. If you are tempted to write a rebuttal in the "reply" box, answer this question first: Why are programs like xterm and urxvt called "Terminal Emulator"? What do they emulate?
- zaat 5y ago
  Hi blueflow, I see that today you are not tired of arguing semantics. The issue here is context. What GP means by Android Emulator refers to specific piece of software, the AVD emulator provided by Google which emulates full android device, it emulates more than just VM, it's also have skins and physcal buttons. https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator
OJFord 5y ago
Anbox and Waydroid are others, though they don't use Docker. https://github.com/anbox/anbox https://github.com/anbox/anbox (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684187) https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28616985 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28616985)
- mathfailure 5y ago
  ReDroid: Requires Docker. The images seem to be based on pure Android. Multiple versions available: 8.1, 9, 10, 11, 12. Anbox: Requires 'snapd'. The image is based on AOSP based on Android 7.1.1. Waydroid: Requires Wayland. The image is based on LineageOS that is based on Android 10.

fareesh 5y ago

For development work I use the default Android emulator that comes with Android Studio. Are any of these ones superior in terms of performance, resource utilization, etc? The cloud angle is mildly interesting although in my specific use-case I'd probably just end up paying for a service that can provide access to emulators in the cloud. Is there more scope to do things like automating inputs etc this way? How would one go about that?

j4hdufd8 5y ago
> Is there more scope to do things like automating inputs etc this way? How would one go about that? adb or UIAutomator
- chr 5y ago
  For tips on how to control the Android Emulator from the outside with adb, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7789826/adb-shell-input-events https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7789826/adb-shell-input-...
mkdirp 5y ago
This one specifically seems to run Android in the Linux Kernel using the usual suspects of container tech. It should have next to zero performance impact so it will definitely have better performance compared to the default Android emulator considering that's using qemu, even if it's qemu-kvm. Whether it's as reliable as running a VM, is something that'll need to be tested. Personally I got an error when trying to exit out of the shell (and thus was unable to exit), something I've never seen in the VM version of Android.
- junon 5y ago
  Sounds like QEMU doing that. QEMU has a command mode - ctrl+A followed by X should kill it.
  - mkdirp 5y ago
    This isn't running on QEMU.

drran 5y ago

Will it work on WSL? It can be a good way to run Android on Windows.

manojlds 5y ago
Windows (11?) has the feature built in right?
- mkl 5y ago
  That feature's still in beta (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/android/wsa/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/android/wsa/). You can use it by joining the Windows Insider Program.
  - csdvrx 5y ago
    Or you can manually install it following the various guides explaining how to do so without joining Insiders
AkshitGarg 5y ago
According to its README, it does run (and is tested) on WSL 2 (Ubuntu) (amd64).

Tepix 5y ago

This could be useful for running WhatsApp inside a vm instead of your phone for those rare instances where it is needed.

yetanother-1 5y ago
Frankly I just install Island, and then run Whatsapp (and all not-always-needed apps) inside it. Plus bonus: you can freeze the apps you don't need and keep the island running.
- ivanche 5y ago
  TIL about the Island app. Thank you!
  - mathfailure 5y ago
    Shelter. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://github.com/PeterCxy/Shelter https://github.com/PeterCxy/Shelter
    - ivanche 5y ago
      Also very useful, thank you!
j4hdufd8 5y ago
What do you mean? Where is it needed?
- flatiron 5y ago
  i believe they are referring to the whatsapp bug that the saudi prince used on jeff bezos. simply sending bezos a message gave the saudi prince root access on his phone and he dumped all his messages and photos and released them to the press. running in a vm would just have whatsapp so they can send and receive messages without exposing all the private information on their phone in case of some 0day

cranx 5y ago

This is interesting, but I don’t see this as something for use in development of Android apps. Given all Android’s quarks and fragmentation the use of real devices and Google’s emulators will provide a better surface to catch bugs during dev. What’s the primary use case for these containerized versions of Android?

PascalW 5y ago
I'm using it myself to run Whatsapp for the Matrix Whatsapp bridge [1] on a VPS. [1] https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/whatsapp/android-vm-setup.html https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/whatsapp/android-vm-setup.htm...
paulcarroty 5y ago
Software, websites testing?

goodpoint 5y ago

I'd rather use waydroid to avoid the attack surface of docker and its complexity.

0x0 5y ago

Interesting concept but seems to require custom android-specific kernel modules (ashmem, binderfs), which means the android containers aren't very containerized but leak into the host kernel.

captn3m0 5y ago
All Linux containers leak the host kernel no? The Anbox project relies on the exact same 2 modules: https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install_kernel_modules.html https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install_kernel_modules.html. While these are "android-specific", they are present in the linux kernel tree, and even come pre-installed in Ubuntu 19.04 (and probably more distros).
- j4hdufd8 5y ago
  > All Linux containers leak the host kernel no? Curious in what way?
  - captn3m0 5y ago
    See any explanation of what a linux container is[0]. Containers in linux are a patchwork of various features that "contain" a process group in different ways while sharing the kernel with the rest of the system. Running either of docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/uname alpine:latest -a or uname -a gives you the same kernel version. The only difference will be in the hostname. [0]: https://embeddedbits.org/introduction-linux-containers/ https://embeddedbits.org/introduction-linux-containers/
  - IceWreck 5y ago
    That's the difference between a container and a VM. VM runs its own kernel. A container relies on the host kernel and the host machine's kernel does all the scheduling, memory management, etc.
  - pmontra 5y ago
    See the other replies and if you're on Linux run ps -ef on the host and you'll see the processes in the containers too. That doesn't happen if those processes run in a VM.

jeroenhd 5y ago

How is this accomplished? Is this using Anbox or something similar I don't understand how the Dockerfiles linked here end up running an instance of Android.

domenukk 5y ago
It runs an Android userspace on the host kernel, inside a container
j4hdufd8 5y ago
That Dockerfile is just an image to _build_ the Android container See instructions to build it (or pull the published version) https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-doc/tree/master/android-builder-docker https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-doc/tree/master/an... Then you can run the Android container

marcodiego 5y ago

Don't forget waydroid: https://waydro.id/ https://waydro.id/ . Last time I tried, it worked reasonably well.

wwwhizz 5y ago

required params (already added in docker image) qemu=1 How is that without qemu?

tgtweak 5y ago
Yeah not reading anywhere in the docs that it works without qemu. Also the need for kennel modules to be available on the host and passed through makes it less portable than most containers.
- testtesttestte 5y ago
  Those kernel modules (`ashmem` and `hwbinder`) are standard when building the Linux kernel for Android and they are already part of the upstream Linux kernel tree [1][2]. Because this solution uses containers (which share the same kernel with the host OS), these additional modules are needed. From the ReDroid kernel modules readme: >Custom Kernel >If use custom kernel (5.0+), you can enable binderfs and ashmem configs; So the kernel modules in this repo are not needed any more. https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-modules#custom-kernel https://github.com/remote-android/redroid-modules#custom-ker... More info here on Android-specific kernel modules here: https://elinux.org/Android_Kernel_Features#List_of_kernel_features_unique_to_Android https://elinux.org/Android_Kernel_Features#List_of_kernel_fe... [1] ashmem https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/staging/android/ https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/stagin... [2] hwbinder https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/android https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/androi...
testtesttestte 5y ago
It's just a parameter to let the Android OS know that it's running in an emulated environment as opposed to running natively on a physical device. For example, the GPU stack has to be somehow emulated using a custom OpenGL driver (in this case `mesa3d`). There's software emulation (swiftshader) and host GPU mode (GLES). For performance reasons when using the host GPU, the GLES commands from the guest have to be serialized and sent over a kernel pipe to the QEMU and to the host OS. The commands are deserialized on the host and executed on the physical host GPU through the Shader Translator library (taken from the Google ANGLE project). The Google's QEMU fork (aka Android Emulator) usually loads this library and then takes care of proper rendering, such that users can see the rendering output of the emulated OS properly inside the emulator window on the host machine. You can do the same for the docker, otherwise you'd have to implement some other trick to share the GPU. `virtio-gpu` is a Linux kernel facility that is meant to replace QEMU pipe in the future. The high-level details of this OpenGL emulation mechanism are described here: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/qemu/+/master/distrib/android-emugl/DESIGN https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/qemu/+/ma... You can find the implementation of the QEMU OpenGL pipe mechanism here: https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/+/master:device/generic/goldfish-opengl/ https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/+/maste...

junon 5y ago

Perhaps a simple question, but... why?

mathfailure 5y ago
Because alternatives have some requirements that may not suite some people. 1. VMs have relatively big resources overhead and this approach requires you to download some Android image first. Of course you'd want some clean distribution and there simply aren't many such ones (that I know of) that are easily available. The ones I tried - were a 2-in-1 shitshow+slideshow for me. Maybe it's because I used ISO (for QEMU/KVM), as I didn't want to run proprietary crapware (VirtualBox/VMWare). 2. Going with Anbox requires having crapware snapd and their Android image is quite old (Android 7.1.1). 3. Going with Waydroid requires having Wayland, which if you don't use it - is an overkill to install just to have Android on your PC. 4. Going with Android from AndroidSDK - is probably an even harder way to get access to some Android on your PC (I don't really know, I haven't investigated that option).

pengaru 5y ago

What exactly is Docker enabling here beyond a Docker workflow, which is quite orthogonal to the presence of a vm or emulator? Isn't the enabling technology here just kernel-level android bits? Docker is fluff, yet ends up dominating the headline.

nine_k 5y ago
Does it not provide the mobile-like environment that apps expect? I mean, cgroups, firewall rules, and chroot are also already provided by the kernel, but using them for running containers without Docker, or Podman, or LXD, or other piece of "fluff" is slightly unergonomic.
- pengaru 5y ago
  If it were Docker providing the secret sauce, Docker would be all you need to make it happen on non-Linux hosts. It's the Linux kernel, configured with the appropriate Android modules, not Docker making this happen.

exdsq 5y ago

Trying to fix some Rust docker builds that are being killed by QEMU on Apple Silicon right now. I always believed Docker was cross platform, I had no idea how much of a pain it can be to use with buildx and --platform to get stuff working. SIGSEGV errors at random points, non-deterministic errors, GAH!

0x0 5y ago
That you (and many others apparently) had the impression that docker was cross platform says a lot about docker's markering, considering docker as far as I know it is a wrapper for a series of extremely linux-kernel-specific APIs. :-/
- exdsq 5y ago
  Yep! Amusing to think I used to think cross-platform just meant running on Windows and Linux and that was fixed with Docker. Had no idea the rabbit hole was deeper until Mac released the new CPUs.