Detox: Testing app on travis CI: -read-only error when trying to launch android.emu.release

[jn3qf]

I'm trying to set up travis CI for my application with Detox as the test suite. I'm close to achieving the final setup, but I'm currently stuck on the following error which occurs during the final step of the build (testing phase, since the android.emu.release configuration builds successfully, though slowly). Note that my android.emu.debug configuration runs tests perfectly.

Here's the error, which says that "-read-only" is not a valid option for the emulator command.

5.66s$ npx detox test --headless -c android.emu.release --gpu swiftshader --cleanup
detox[6696] INFO:  [test.js] configuration="android.emu.release" cleanup=true gpu="swiftshader" headless=true reportSpecs=true readOnlyEmu=false DETOX_START_TIMESTAMP=1578027757256 node_modules/.bin/jest --config e2e/config.json '--testNamePattern=^((?!:ios:).)*$' --maxWorkers 1 "e2e"
detox[6708] INFO:  [DetoxServer.js] server listening on localhost:38035...
detox[6708] ERROR: [Emulator.js/SPAWN_FAIL] `/usr/local/android-sdk/tools/emulator -verbose -no-audio -no-boot-anim -no-window -read-only -port 17944 @pixel9 -gpu swiftshader` failed with code 1
  err: ChildProcessError: `/usr/local/android-sdk/tools/emulator -verbose -no-audio -no-boot-anim -no-window -read-only -port 17944 @pixel9 -gpu swiftshader` failed with code 1
      at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/travis/build/uva-cp-1920/PowerShare/src/PowerShare/node_modules/child-process-promise/lib/index.js:132:23)
      at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:305:20)
      at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:1028:16)
      at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:286:5)
detox[6708] ERROR: [Emulator.js/SPAWN_FAIL] unknown option: -read-only
please use -help for a list of valid options

To reproduce the issue locally:

1. run npx detox build -c android.emu.release
2. run npx react-native start &
3. run npx detox test -c android.emu.release

To reproduce the issue in the travis environment, I follow the "script" commands:

1. npx detox build -c android.emu.release
2. npx detox test --headless -c android.emu.release --gpu swiftshader --cleanup

Environment (please complete the following information):

• Detox: 15.0.0 (had the same problem with 14.9.2)
• React Native: 0.61.5
• Node: 13.5.0
• Device: Dell XPS 13 2019
• OS: Arch Linux

For reference, my travis.yml file is

env:
  global:
    - NODE_VERSION=stable


matrix:
  include:

    - language: android
      cache: yarn
      jdk: oraclejdk8
      dist: trusty
      sudo: required
      android:
        components:
          - build-tools-28.0.3
          - android-28
          - sys-img-x86-android-28


      install:
      - echo no | android create avd --force -n pixel9 -t android-28 --abi default/x86
      - curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_13.x | sudo -E bash -
      - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

      script:
      - cd src/PowerShare/
      - yarn
      - echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p
      - npx detox build -c android.emu.release
      - npx detox test --headless -c android.emu.release --gpu swiftshader --cleanup

[jn3qf]

Is there any more information I can provide in order to speed up the resolution of this bug/error? Thanks!

[henninghall]

Also having problems with android tests on CI. Someone who knows any working android example that successfully runs on any CI at the moment?

[d4vidi]

It appears the -read-only arg is somehow passed-in to the emulator's bin by Detox even though you haven't specified parallel-execution args. That means it's an actual bug.
As a workaround, try to use a newer emulator version (28.0.16 min). I suppose that with travis, the version is selected according to the build-tools version you've specified in the .yml:

      android:
        components:
          - build-tools-28.0.3

But I can't tell for sure.