Unable to read libvlcjni.so; cannot check device ABI

Question

I compiled libVlc for android by following the procedure from here The compiled project don't show any error in eclipse but when I run it on device, it throws the following error

05-21 14:37:50.834: D/dalvikvm(14423): GC_CONCURRENT freed 181K, 8% free 9633K/10439K, paused 17ms+7ms, total 62ms
05-21 14:37:51.034: E/VLC/LibVLC/Util(14423): WARNING: Unable to read libvlcjni.so; cannot check device ABI!
05-21 14:37:51.034: E/VLC/LibVLC/Util(14423): WARNING: Cannot guarantee correct ABI for this build (may crash)!
05-21 14:37:51.065: W/VLC/LibVLC(14423): Unable to load the iomx library: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Couldn't load iomx-ics: findLibrary returned null
05-21 14:37:51.065: E/VLC/LibVLC(14423): Can't load vlcjni library: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Couldn't load vlcjni: findLibrary returned null

Please help me to solve the issue, thanks in advance

Answer 1

You're getting this error because you haven't exported your device's abi, as mentioned in the instructions. I'm going to assume you also didn't follow the section 'Environment Setup' in the documentation. So, do as follows:

Make sure you've downloaded the NDK, and then run this(with your path) in your terminal:

export ANDROID_NDK=/path/to/android-ndk>

Then, compile the .sh file and export your device's (or emulator's abi) as well. The compilation of the .sh file is directly linked to the abi issue since the script handles the abi. You can see this in the code for the script (compile.sh):

# try to detect NDK version
REL=$(grep -o '^r[0-9]*.*' $ANDROID_NDK/RELEASE.TXT 2>/dev/null|cut -b2-)
case "$REL" in
    9*)
        GCCVER=4.8
        CXXSTL="/"${GCCVER}
    ;;
    8?*)
        # we don't use 4.4.3 because it doesn't handle threads correctly.
        # TODO : clang?
        if test -d ${ANDROID_NDK}/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.7
        # if gcc 4.7 is present, it's there for all the archs (x86, mips, arm)
        then
            # since r8d
            GCCVER=4.7
        else
            GCCVER=4.6
        fi
        CXXSTL="/"${GCCVER}
    ;;
    7|8|*)
        echo "You need the NDKv8b or later"
        exit 1
    ;;
esac

export GCCVER
export CXXSTL

# Set up ABI variables
if [ ${ANDROID_ABI} = "x86" ] ; then
    TARGET_TUPLE="i686-linux-android"
    PATH_HOST="x86"
    HAVE_X86=1
    PLATFORM_SHORT_ARCH="x86"
elif [ ${ANDROID_ABI} = "mips" ] ; then
    TARGET_TUPLE="mipsel-linux-android"
    PATH_HOST=$TARGET_TUPLE
    HAVE_MIPS=1
    PLATFORM_SHORT_ARCH="mips"
else
    TARGET_TUPLE="arm-linux-androideabi"
    PATH_HOST=$TARGET_TUPLE
    HAVE_ARM=1
    PLATFORM_SHORT_ARCH="arm"
fi

I suggest going over the Android Compile documentation again, and follow the instructions step by step.