Xamarin-android: Xamarin.Android can't find NDK bundle include folder when using latest NDK

[AmrAlSayed0]

Steps to Reproduce

1. Build an app, any app, in release mode.
   

   Expected Behavior

Build is successful.

Actual Behavior

Build fails with Error: Android include path not found. Tried: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundle\sysroot\usr\include (1, 1)

Version Information

Microsoft Visual Studio Comunity 2019
Version 16.8.4
VisualStudio.16.Release/16.8.4+30907.101
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.8.04084

Installed Version: Comunity

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ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools 2019 16.8.557.25636
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Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0 16.8.557.25636
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Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools 16.8.557.25636
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Xamarin 16.8.000.261 (d16-8@bb99248)
Visual Studio extension to enable development for Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android.

Xamarin Designer 16.8.0.507 (remotes/origin/d16-8@e87b24884)
Visual Studio extension to enable Xamarin Designer tools in Visual Studio.

Xamarin Templates 16.8.112 (86385a3)
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Xamarin.Android SDK 11.1.0.26 (d16-8/a36ce73)
Xamarin.Android Reference Assemblies and MSBuild support.
Mono: 5e9cb6d
Java.Interop: xamarin/java.interop/d16-8@79d9533
ProGuard: Guardsquare/proguard/proguard6.2.2@ebe9000
SQLite: xamarin/sqlite/3.32.1@1a3276b
Xamarin.Android Tools: xamarin/xamarin-android-tools/d16-8@2fb1cbc

Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac SDK 14.8.0.3 (c51fabee8)
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Log File

Possible Cause

I think the problem is here
https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android/blob/master/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tasks/NdkUtils.cs#L260-L270
and here
https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android/blob/master/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tasks/NdkUtils.cs#L224-L227
The path is hardcoded to sysroot/usr/include which is fine but my NDK bundle folder at C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundle looks like this

I recently updated my NDK to version 22.0.7026061. After downgrading to version 21.3.6528147. The issue didn't happen.

The downgraded NDK bundle looks like this

The sysroot and platforms folders are gone. The sysroot folder is moved to an inner directory in the updated version. I couldn't find any folder like the platforms one in the updated NDK.

EDIT:
After some searching I found this and this

Workaround

Downgrade your NDK version to 21.3.6528147

[kvpt]

So it means that now that Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions pushed R22 NDK in all agent images, all Xamarin Android build that use NDK are broken.
It's strange that nobody has encountered this issue before deploying this change.

[grendello]

@AmrAlSayed0 NDK r22 has a big number of incompatible changes that prevent us from building with it ATM. Also, it has a broken detection of the Windows operating system (it detects it as MINGW). Please use r21 (which is LTS) until we can get XA working with r22.

[grendello]

@kvpt Xamarin.Android downloads its own NDK during its build, so no build is broken.

[grendello]

@AmrAlSayed0 I'm going to close this issue as we are aware of the problem. Please keep an eye on the above PR and NDK issue report to track the progress, thanks!

[AmrAlSayed0]

@grendello There was no pressing reason for me to update NDK, I just like to keep all the components updated so working with r21 is fine.

[grendello]

@AmrAlSayed0 that was also the motivation behind my PR, but alas - the changes are aplenty. Most of them are already in the PR, we just need the NDK issue fixed to move on.

[kvpt]

@kvpt Xamarin.Android downloads its own NDK during its build, so no build is broken.

@grendello Are you sure of that ?

Aot-compiler use C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk path and work.

[aot-compiler stdout] Executing the native assembler: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk\arm-linux-androideabi-as" -mfpu=vfp3 -o obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\System.Data.dll\temp.s.o obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\System.Data.dll\temp.s
[aot-compiler stdout] Executing the native linker: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk\arm-linux-androideabi-ld" -Bsymbolic -shared -o obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\libaot-System.Data.dll.so.tmp obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\System.Data.dll\temp.s.o
[aot-compiler stdout] Stripping the binary: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk\arm-linux-androideabi-strip" --strip-symbol=\$a --strip-symbol=\$d obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\libaot-System.Data.dll.so.tmp

But mkbundle use C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundle path and fail.

[mkbundle stderr]

[error]C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2135,3): Error : Android include path not found. Tried: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundlesysroot\usr\include

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2135,3): error : Android include path not found. Tried: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundlesysroot\usr\include

I use the Xamarin.Android build task in a windows-2019 agent in Azure Pipeline, since the deployment of NDK R22 it fail.
Can I pass a parameter to force using the right version or we have to wait the PR with the fix ?

[grendello]

@kvpt Xamarin.Android downloads its own NDK during its build, so no build is broken.

@grendello Are you sure of that ?

You said "Xamarin Android build" so I assumed you meant XA itself and, yes , I'm sure that Xamarin Android builds using its own NDK. If you mean an application which needs NDK, then in this case it uses whatever it can find. Which will usually be whatever VS installs and I don't suppose VS2019 installs NDK r22 - so if it's using an r22 on Azure, then the VS installation there must have been overridden with a new version of the NDK.

Aot-compiler use C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk path and work.

[aot-compiler stdout] Executing the native assembler: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk\arm-linux-androideabi-as" -mfpu=vfp3 -o obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\System.Data.dll\temp.s.o obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\System.Data.dll\temp.s
[aot-compiler stdout] Executing the native linker: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk\arm-linux-androideabi-ld" -Bsymbolic -shared -o obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\libaot-System.Data.dll.so.tmp obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\System.Data.dll\temp.s.o
[aot-compiler stdout] Stripping the binary: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\ndk\arm-linux-androideabi-strip" --strip-symbol=$a --strip-symbol=$d obj\Release\110\aot\armeabi-v7a\libaot-System.Data.dll.so.tmp

But mkbundle use C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundle path and fail.

[mkbundle stderr]

[error]C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2135,3): Error : Android include path not found. Tried: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundlesysroot\usr\include

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2135,3): error : Android include path not found. Tried: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\ndk-bundlesysroot\usr\include

I use the Xamarin.Android build task in a windows-2019 agent in Azure Pipeline, since the deployment of NDK R22 it fail.
Can I pass a parameter to force using the right version or we have to wait the PR with the fix ?

you can set the AndroidNdkDirectory MSBuild property to point it to somewhere else. The PR may take a while to complete, unfortunately, I'd suggest filing an issue with Azure regarding the NDK r22 rollout (we'll try to escalate it internally too). Thanks!

[jvalkyrie]

you can set the AndroidNdkDirectory MSBuild property to point it to somewhere else. The PR may take a while to complete, unfortunately, I'd suggest filing an issue with Azure regarding the NDK r22 rollout (we'll try to escalate it internally too). Thanks!

Hi @grendello! How can I obtain the directory to a different NDK? I'm using the "macos-latest" image for my DevOps pipeline (macos-10.15) but I can't find an example anywhere on how to get it. I'm specifically looking for the directory of the NDK "21.3.6528147" to use with AndroidNdkDirectory. Thanks!

[grendello]

@jvalkyrie I don't know the next thing about Azure images, but you could download the NDK (it's huge, alas) from https://developer.android.com/ndk/downloads and unzip it anywhere (it's a self-contained zip archive without location preferences), then point to that directory.

[kvpt]

@jvalkyrie I had the same problem but on Windows.
They give the command to install but not the install directory, the log of the installer is truncated and don't permit to know where the ndk is uncompressed.
After many failed builds, I found that the ndk 22 path was $(ANDROID_HOME)\ndk-bundle and the path of the ndk 21 was $(ANDROID_HOME)\ndk\21.3.6528147.
I don't know if the path if the same on a Windows agent, you can try.

[jvalkyrie]

Thank you @kvpt & @grendello, your suggestions worked!

Here are the changes I made in my yaml file just in case someone else stumbles on this page:

- script: ${ANDROID_HOME}/tools/bin/sdkmanager --install "ndk;21.3.6528147"
  displayName: 'Download NDK r21'

- task: XamarinAndroid@1
  inputs:
    projectFile: '**/*.Android.csproj'
    outputDirectory: '$(outputDirectory)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
    msbuildArguments: '/p:AndroidNdkDirectory="$(ANDROID_HOME)/ndk/21.3.6528147"'
    jdkOption: 'JDKVersion'
    createAppPackage: true

Before I run XamarinAndroid@1, I first download the NDK 21.3.6528147. Then inside the build task, I point the AndroidNdkDirectory to this version.

I'll revert these changes once XamarinAndroid@1 has been updated to be compatible with NDK r22.

Thanks again!