Xamarin.Android task cannot find NDK with latest Azure image(s)

Android application type

Classic Xamarin.Android (MonoAndroid12.0, etc.)

Affected platform version

Azure pipeline

Description

Making use of the Xamarin.Android task we have been able to build and deploy Xamarin.Android applications. New images were released which seems to have affected this task; the NDK path is no longer found when executing the "_ResolveMonoAndroidSdks" step resulting in a build failure.

Reviewing the latest releases for these images, I see there was work around NDK paths, symlinks, and environment variable changes.
actions/runner-images#5879
actions/runner-images#5930

The image we're using is macOS-latest, here are the old and new logs showing the "_ResolveMonoAndroidSdks" step resolving the NDK path:
Old working image (20220724.1)

New broken image (20220801.1)

Do we know if the Xamarin.Android task needs to be updated to reflect this?

Steps to Reproduce

Make use of the Azure Pipeline Xamarin.Android task for a Xamarin.Android application using the macOS-latest image.
See the task eventually fails with error XA5104: Could not locate the Android NDK. Please make sure the Android NDK is installed in the Android SDK Manager, or if using a custom NDK path, please ensure the $(AndroidNdkDirectory) MSBuild property is set to the custom path.

Did you find any workaround?

No response

Relevant log output

No response

Did this start failing like last night?

I have a build yesterday that did:

Android NDK: /Users/runner/Library/Android/sdk/ndk/24.0.8215888/

https://dev.azure.com/jonathanpeppers/boots/_build/results?buildId=31&view=logs&j=a82d9e72-1de4-5bd6-c188-90296135479e&t=65080fd3-055e-56ae-0221-9a17a9cb5386&l=365

It is macOS-latest:

https://github.com/jonathanpeppers/boots/blob/7bf7e0875d8e4a19c3c51559521d7d0f1aa15f89/azure-pipelines.yml#L35

Started a new one, let's see what it does: https://dev.azure.com/jonathanpeppers/boots/_build/results?buildId=33&view=results

I think it also worked: https://dev.azure.com/jonathanpeppers/boots/_build/results?buildId=33&view=logs&j=a82d9e72-1de4-5bd6-c188-90296135479e&t=65080fd3-055e-56ae-0221-9a17a9cb5386&l=365

Thanks for the response! Our builds started failing this morning, ones running yesterday were still using the old image, due to the staggered rollout.

I do see your build is using MSBuild directly, whereas I'm using this badger for building my Xamarin Android project
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/build/xamarin-android?view=azure-devops

It seems like the bots should still have r23 and r24, can you add some ls commands to a build to find out if they are there?

Mine is also using XamarinAndroidVersion: 13.0.0-0, which it downloaded and installed.

@jonathanpeppers

Instead of the suggested mitigation of installing r21, is there a way to change the project to just use the latest version? I'm obviously having the same problem too.

@jonathanpeppers, there's something here i dont understand. I dont think we're specifying the required NDK version in our manifest or csproj file, so what's causing it to use r21 specifically instead of just $LatestVersion.

_ResolveMonoAndroidSdks:
MonoAndroid Tools: /Library/Frameworks/Xamarin.Android.framework/Libraries/xbuild/Xamarin/Android/
Android Platform API level: 31
TargetFrameworkVersion: v12.0
Android NDK:
Android SDK: /Users/runner/Library/Android/sdk/
Android SDK Build Tools: /Users/runner/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/30.0.2/
Java SDK: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/Temurin-Hotspot-11.jdk/Contents/Home/
Application Java class: android.app.Application

"/Users/runner/work/8/s/Mobile/CPSMobile/CPSMobile.Android/CPSMobile.Android.csproj" (PackageForAndroid target) (1) ->
(_BuildApkEmbed target) ->
/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/External/xbuild/Xamarin/Android/Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(1954,3): error XA5104: Could not locate the Android NDK. Please make sure the Android NDK is installed in the Android SDK Manager, or if using a custom NDK path, please ensure the $(AndroidNdkDirectory) MSBuild property is set to the custom path. [/Users/runner/work/8/s/Mobile/CPSMobile/CPSMobile.Android/CPSMobile.Android.csproj]

[Xamarin.Android.Tools.AndroidSdk] Permit NDK r25

I found something that prevents the selection of r25: dotnet/android-tools#190

Versions with Android NDK r24 or lower should work, though. As long as one of those is installed.

@Maxgamerboy1, i'm not sure i agree that is unsupported, but i have no inside knowledge. According to GitHub, the Xamarin.Android task was just updated 2 months ago. I'm not sure if it's really "unsupported". Read what i wrote up here: #7233 (comment)

@GreatBarrier86

@GreatBarrier86 no real reason, i'm seeing Pepper's builds making use of it, and with the revelation that we don't know who is maintaining that task, I think it's a smart move to hop over the MSBuild task

I don't think I use the XamarinAndroid .yaml task, where did you see that? If someone is working on lately, it isn't the Xamarin.Android team, so I'm not sure about its status.

Personally, I don't see what value it has over the regular MSBuild task. If there is some value, we should just put that logic in Xamarin.Android/.NET 6 instead?

Unless i misunderstand, he's saying he saw that you do NOT use Xamarin.Android, but instead use MSBuild.

Unless i misunderstand, he's saying he saw that you do NOT use Xamarin.Android, but instead use MSBuild.

Yes, that's correct. Sorry for the confusion; XamarinAndroid task- I've stopped using, MSBuild task - I've now switched over to use :D

Could someone post an example of how the MSBuild task should be configured to get the same result as this basic XamarinAndroid task?

We are having the same problem and I don't really mind using one or the other as long as it works, but all the docs for Azure DevOps use the XamarinAndroid task, and I'm totally unfamiliar with the MSBuild task 😢

@salgiza

@salgiza sure! Although, see my response here #7233 (comment) the issue is relating more to the build image itself rather than the task used to build.

to switch over, in your case, it should look something like this;

  - task: MSBuild@1
    inputs:
      solution: '**/*Droid*.csproj'
      configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
      msbuildArguments: '-p:OutDir="$(outputDirectory)" -t:SignAndroidPackage'

@jonathanpeppers

Thanks a lot @Maxgamerboy1 , with all the messages in the thread, I had missed the one that said that changing the vmImage from macos-latest to macos-12 should fix the problem. Seeing the comments from @jonathanpeppers, though, I decided to do both (change the vmImage, and migrate from the XamarinAndroid task to MSBuild), and our pipeline is working again!

Ok, so I think we've solved this one -- the macos-12 image has Xamarin.Android 13.x, which supports up to Android NDK 24.

Let me know if I missed anything outstanding here, thanks!

@Maxgamerboy1, one thing I noticed, and I'm not sure what I should be using here, but the Xamarin.Android step's msbuild line shows /t:PackageForAndroid instead of /t:SignAndroidPackage. My next step after this is the Android signing task, so I'm not sure which to use. For now, i'm going with `/t:PackageForAndroid' to mimic what the original task had.

Ah, sorry, didn't know you were doing signing in a separate step. Yes, you'll need to use the PackageForAndroid target in that case.

I certainly don't have to sign in a different step. Does the msbuild task also zipalign? If so, i don't see why i can't use the msbuild task for both.

If using the /t:SignAndroidPackage it should zipalign, then keysign for you, here's a snippet from one of my old builds showing the _Sign step;

2022-09-05T14:26:12.3762630Z _Sign:
2022-09-05T14:26:12.3763980Z   /Users/runner/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/32.0.0/zipalign -p 4 "obj/release/android/bin/com.[---].apk" "/Users/runner/work/1/b/release//com.[---]-Signed.apk" 
2022-09-05T14:26:13.1999960Z   /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/Temurin-Hotspot-11.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java -jar /Library/Frameworks/Xamarin.Android.framework/Libraries/xbuild/Xamarin/Android/apksigner.jar sign --ks "/Users/runner/.local/share/Xamarin/Mono for Android/debug.keystore" --ks-pass pass:android --ks-key-alias androiddebugkey --key-pass pass:android --min-sdk-version 26 --max-sdk-version 30  /Users/runner/work/1/b/release/com.[---]-Signed.apk

you'll also note prior to this step, MSBuild creates a debug keystore under the _CreateAndroidDebugSigningKey step.

essentially, if you wanna zipalign and sign using your own keys, use /t:PackageForAndroid, else let the /t:SignAndroidPackage do it for you

@Maxgamerboy1, I'm leaving this here for anyone else that happens to run across this same question. You can pass in MSBuild arguments to sign the APK file, regardless of whether its your key or not. Maybe it will help someone in the future because i did need to research how to do this.

/p:OutputPath=$(build.binariesdirectory)/$(BuildConfiguration)/$(TestOutputFolder) /t:SignAndroidPackage /p:AndroidKeyStore=true /p:AndroidSigningKeyAlias=$(KeystoreAlias) /p:AndroidSigningKeyPass=$(CertificatePassword) /p:AndroidSigningKeyStore=$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/MyKeystore.file /p:AndroidSigningStorePass=$(CertificatePassword)

Taken from here: https://www.jenx.si/2020/04/05/xamarin-forms-developers-how-to-sign-android-apk/

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Xamarin.Android task cannot find NDK with latest Azure image(s) #7233

Android application type

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Xamarin.Android task cannot find NDK with latest Azure image(s) #7233

Description

Android application type

Affected platform version

Description

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Did you find any workaround?

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jonathanpeppers commented on Aug 4, 2022

jonathanpeppers commented on Aug 4, 2022

jonathanpeppers commented on Aug 4, 2022

thomasphillipsgb commented on Aug 4, 2022

jonathanpeppers commented on Aug 4, 2022

jonathanpeppers commented on Aug 4, 2022

GreatBarrier86 commented on Aug 4, 2022

jonathanpeppers commented on Aug 4, 2022

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GreatBarrier86 commented on Sep 1, 2022

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salgiza commented on Sep 5, 2022

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GreatBarrier86 commented on Sep 7, 2022

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