I am trying to port Android apps to Linux (don't laugh :) and I have come across a problem. When trying to execute an Android executable (app_process) after adding the executable permission with ./app_process it says it doesn't exist although cat ./app_process works.
Also in my file manager (Pantheon Files) the executable shows the shared library icon.
Is there any way to get these execute on Linux.
Android and Linux are two different operating systems. You can't just take an executable from one and run it on the other.
The first hurdle is the kernel. Android and Linux are based on the same kernel, but they have a few different features. In particular, Android provides binders, which only exist in the mainstream kernel (the one found in Linux distributions) since version 3.19. A pure native-code application might not use binders but most Java apps do.
The second hurdle is the dynamic libraries. If you have a dynamically-linked executable, it invokes the dynamic linker. Android and Linux have different dynamic linkers, and if the dynamic linker is not present, you get the same error as if the executable itself was not present.
If you copy the dynamic linker, and the configuration files that it needs, and the native libraries, then you should be able to run most native programs. You'll need to copy most of /system, and the copy needs to be located at /system.
If you want to run Java apps, it's more complicated. You need the Java runtime environment (Dalvik/ART), and most apps require some Android daemons as well (some native-code apps also require those demons).
The upshot is that while the two systems can cohabit on one kernel, this needs to be a recent enough kernel, or an Android kernel (an Android kernel can run most Linux applications), and both operating systems need be installed — you can't just run an application from one on the other.
I'm not aware of any ready-made installer for Android on top of Linux. There are installers for the other way round, however, in particular LinuxonAndroid.
If the objective is to run an Android app on a Linux system, then the easiest way by far is to run it inside the emulator which is part of the Android development tools.
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 ./app_process32 gives me a segmentation fault
– Suici Doga
May 21 '16 at 01:35
/lib/ld-linux.so/2 is the Linux dynamic linker. You need to use the Android dynamic linker. On ARM that's /system/bin/linker, I don't know if x86 uses the same name.
– Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
May 21 '16 at 13:45
/system/bin/linker ./app_process. Note that I'm not guaranteeing it'll work (in fact as I explain in my answer it probably won't), it'll just bring you to the next hurdle.
– Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
May 24 '16 at 12:19
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. 0x5655c540 in __dl___linker_init () `
– Suici Doga May 31 '16 at 10:15./app_process32 gives libc: Fatal signal 4 (SIGILL), code 2, fault addr 0xf745d23d in tid 12532 (app_process32) libc: Unable to open connection to debuggerd: Connection refused Illegal instruction (core dumped)
– Suici Doga
May 31 '16 at 10:22
file app_processreturn? – Centimane May 20 '16 at 14:31./app_process: symbolic link to 'app_process32'– Suici Doga May 20 '16 at 14:33file ./app_process32says./app_process32: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped– Suici Doga May 20 '16 at 14:34strace -f -e trace=open,read,stat ./app_process32and post the output (it might be long) – Centimane May 20 '16 at 14:45strace: exec: No such file or directory +++ exited with 1 +++. The file does exist andcatworks – Suici Doga May 21 '16 at 01:26