AndroidCompile

This page is an introduction to compilation of VLC for Android on Linux.

Eclipse, SDK and NDK installation

Android SDK

1. Create a working directory android.
2. Go to Android SDK page and download android-sdk_r10-linux_x86.tgz.
3. Decompress into android folder.
4. Run tools/android.
5. In the tool, install "SDK Platform Android 2.3, API 10", and follow the instructions.

You can have more details, if needed.

Android NDK

1. Check that the SDK installation is correct.
2. Go to Android NDK page.
3. Download http://dl.google.com/android/ndk/android-ndk-r5b-linux-x86.tar.bz2.
4. Decompress into android folder, next to your android-sdk-linux_x86 folder.

Eclipse

As used by your distribution, install eclipse with your package manager:

apt-get install eclipse (debian)
yum install eclipse (Fedora)
pacman -S eclipse (Arch)
emerge -av eclipse-sdk (Gentoo)
...

And run it, at least once, and then quit eclipse.

ADT

The ADT plugin is required to compile on Android.

1. Go to ADT page.
2. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software....
3. Add the "ADT Plugin" repository with https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ as URL
4. Validate and select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next, Next, Finish.
5. Restart Eclipse.
6. Go to Menu > Window > Preferences... and then Android from the left pane.
7. Point the SDK Location in to your downloaded SDK directory.
8. Ok, and quit Eclipse.

See extra information here.

Environment setup

Be sure to have installed git and the usual build tools, like autotools, or gcc.

Set $ANDROID_SDK to point to your android SDK directory

export ANDROID_SDK=/path/to/android-sdk

Set $ANDROID_NDK to point to your android NDK directory

export ANDROID_NDK=/path/to/android-ndk

Add some useful binaries in your path

export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK/tools:$ANDROID_SDK/platform-tools

If you plan to use the emulator, you need a build without neon

export NO_NEON=1

Those exports must be set at all times, notably for the contribs and the configure.

Get VLC Source

Use the VLC git repository to get the source!

In your android folder, run:

git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc/vlc-android.git

Contribs

We need 3rd party libraries. We will fetch them from the Internetz.

cd extras/contrib
./bootstrap -t arm-eabi -d android
make
cd -

This will take time. This is perfectly normal.

Configure VLC

Run:

./bootstrap

If this step fails, you are missing some build tools. See Compile.

mkdir build
cd build
../extras/package/android/configure.sh

Compile VLC

Just run:

./compile -k

Package VLC

JNI

Build the JNI interface for libvlc

cd ../extras/package/android
VLC_BUILD_DIR=../../../build VLC_CONTRIB=../../contrib make

Package in eclipse

1. In Eclipse, create a new Android project from existing source by giving the extra/platform/android/vlc-android path.
2. Compile your project using Eclipse.

Run

Run it and enjoy!

Debug

DDMS

Logcat