wiki:PyOtherSideForAndroid

Version 18 (modified by Martin Kolman, 9 years ago) (diff)

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PyOtherSide for Android

This article describes current progress towards being able to run applications using Python 3 & QtQuick 2.0 using the PyOtherSide Python <-> QtQuick bindings.

Current Status

  • Qt 5 & QtQuick 2.0 - available & working
  • Python 3 (3.2) - available & working
  • PyOtherSide - WiP
    • compilation - working
    • basic deployment - working
    • using PyOtherSide without crashing - not yet working
  • standalone APK package - doable, not yet working

PyOtherSide

Setting up

This are the version of software versions I have used for my experiments, it is possible other versions might also work, but this is what I have worked with.

Get PyOtherSide 1.3 source code

wget https://thp.io/2011/pyotherside/pyotherside-1.3.0.tar.gz

Get & install the Qt 5.3 Android SDK

Basically just follow the guide on the Qt wiki to get the Qt 5 Android SDK & it's dependencies installed.

Configure an Android device to be accessible by ADB I've tested the resulting software on my HP TouchPad? running Cyanogenmod Android 4.0, accessible with ADB. So this 'guide/howto' expect that you also have an Android device accessible over ADB. The Android emulator might also work, but I haven't tried that.

Compiling for Android

Preparing the PyOtherSide QtCreator project

If you don't care and just want the project tarball, skip to the end of this section. :)

Unpack the PyOtherSide tarball and enter the resulting directory:

tar -xvf pyotherside-1.3.0.tar.gz
cd pyotherside-1.3.0

Next you need a Python 3 compiled for Android, so you can build PyOtherSide against it. I have found such Python 3 distribution on the Python 2.6 for Android project website and used it drop in library bundle for compiling PyOtherSide.

So download the lib bundle tarball to the Pyotherside folder and unpack it here:

wget http://www.modrana.org/platforms/android/pyotherside/guide/python3_android_libs_bundle.tar.gz
tar xvf python3_android_libs_bundle.tar.gz

When you are done, there should be a libs folder in your pyotherside-1.3.0 folder.

In the next step we need to tell the project to use the Android compiled libraries instead of the system ones, so edit the src/src.pro file and replace the line reading:

INCLUDEPATH += .

With this:

INCLUDEPATH += $$PWD/../libs/python32/build_dependencies/ .
LIBS += -L$$PWD/../libs/python32 -lpython3.2 -ldl

Then in tests/tests.pro replace:

INCLUDEPATH += . ../src

With:

INCLUDEPATH += $$PWD/../libs/python32/build_dependencies/ . ../src
LIBS += -L$$PWD/../libs/python32 -lpython3.2

This tells the project to use our locally available Python 3 compiled for Android instead of the system-wide Python 3 when building PyOtherSide.

We also need to prevent fetching some other local Python stuff. Therefore in python.pri (directly in the pyotherside-1.3.0 folder) comment out these lines:

isEmpty(PYTHON_CONFIG) {
    PYTHON_CONFIG = python3-config
}

And these lines:

QMAKE_LIBS += $$system($$PYTHON_CONFIG --ldflags)
QMAKE_CXXFLAGS += $$system($$PYTHON_CONFIG --includes)

The resulting python.pri file should look like this:

#isEmpty(PYTHON_CONFIG) {
#    PYTHON_CONFIG = python3-config
#}

message(PYTHON_CONFIG = $$PYTHON_CONFIG)

#QMAKE_LIBS += $$system($$PYTHON_CONFIG --ldflags)
#QMAKE_CXXFLAGS += $$system($$PYTHON_CONFIG --includes)

And for the last step, we need to edit the src/global_libpython_loader.cpp file:

  • changing #ifdef __linux__ into #ifndef __linux__ (so that the stuff we need will be used on Android)
  • remove a GNU macro an linh.h file (both are broken on Android and break the build):
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <link.h>
  • add a few headers file needed for compilation on Android (found by studying compile errors):
#include <dlfcn.h>
#include <link.h>

The resulting file looks like this:

/**
 * PyOtherSide: Asynchronous Python 3 Bindings for Qt 5
 * Copyright (c) 2013, Thomas Perl <m@thp.io>
 *
 * Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
 * purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
 * copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH
 * REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
 * FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT,
 * INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM
 * LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR
 * OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
 * PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 **/

#include "global_libpython_loader.h"

namespace GlobalLibPythonLoader {

#ifndef __linux__

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#include <dlfcn.h>
#include <link.h>

static int load_python_globally_callback(struct dl_phdr_info *info, size_t size, void *data)
{
    int major, minor;
    const char *basename = strrchr(info->dlpi_name, '/');
    int *success = (int *)data;

    if (basename != NULL) {
        if (sscanf(basename, "/libpython%d.%d.so", &major, &minor) != 2) {
            if (sscanf(basename, "/libpython%d.%dm.so", &major, &minor) != 2) {
                return 0;
            }
        }

        void *pylib = dlopen(info->dlpi_name, RTLD_GLOBAL | RTLD_NOW);
        if (pylib != NULL) {
            *success = 1;
        } else {
            fprintf(stderr, "Could not load python library '%s': %s\n",
                    info->dlpi_name, dlerror());
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

bool loadPythonGlobally()
{
    int success = 0;
    dl_iterate_phdr(load_python_globally_callback, &success);
    return success;
}


#else /* __linux__ */

bool loadPythonGlobally()
{
    /* On non-Linux systems, no need to load globally */
    return true;
}

#endif /* __linux__ */

}; /* namespace GlobalLibPythonLoader */

This last change makes PyOtherSide compile with the crippled Bionic C library used on Android.

The resulting project should look like contents of this tarball:

http://www.modrana.org/platforms/android/pyotherside/guide/pyotherside-1.3.0_android_project.tar.gz

Building the PyOtherSide project in QtCreator

Now the PyOtherSide project should be ready to be opened in QtCreator (make sure you are running the one corresponding to the Qt 5.3 Android SDK you have downloaded and installed previously). So start the right QtCreator and open the pyotherside-1.3.0/pyotherside.pro file.

You should be able to build the PyOtherSide project by pressing the "rebuild" button in QtCreator.

Basic deployment

Theory

For a Python program using PyOtherSide to work it needs these things present on the Android device:

  • the application files
  • Qt 5
  • a Python 3 bundle
  • the PyOtherSide library

We don't need to care about Qt - its deployment is handled automatically by the Qt SDK Android support (it is either bundled in the APK, automatically copied to the device or provided by the Ministro library manager) and we don't need to care about it. The SDK also handles the deployment of the application files.

But we need to get Python 3 & PyOtherSide on the android device our self. For now we will just copy the files to a fixed location on the device with adb and hardcode a path pointing to them in the example application. This should be enough for getting a proof of concept of (hopefully) working PyOtherSide on Android.

In the future it should be possible deploy these files from a standalone APK without any need for manual intervention or rooting - either by using the new asset mechanism or the old method (used by the PySide for Android port) of bundling zip files that are unpacked on first start by modified Java boilerplate.

Deploying Python 3 & PyOtherSide to the Android device

Download the pre-prepared tarball with Python 3 and PyOtherSide:

wget ...

Then unpack it:

tar xvf ...

And push the complete poside directory directly to the /data directory on your Android device:

adb push ...

This is where the hello world example will expect it. Also, we can't deploy to the /data/sdcard directory as it isi usually mounted noexec which breaks the library loading we need to do.

Deploying & running a hello world application

Next download the hello world project tarball and unpack it:

wget ...
tar xvf ...

It is just a normal QtQuick Controls Android project template modified to load the needed libraries from /data/poside and with all the needed environmental variables set.

Now open the project in the QtCreator provided by the Qt for Android SDK, configure device deployment and press the Run button and make sure your device with the deployed libs is selected. QtCreator should do its thing and the application should successfully start on the device. Now look on the main.qml file in QtCreator and note that while it has the import io.thp.pyotherside 1.0 line, the Python {} line that actually instantiates the Python element provided by PyOtherSide is commented out.

Now uncomment Python {} line and try to deploy the application again. This time the deployment fails and the applications crashes as soon as it is started.

So this how & how far I got - any help with finding out how to fix the crash would be much appreciated! :)