When your device lies about its compatibility
Posted on May 09, 2024 by paulaliTWIF generated on Thursday, 09 May 2024, Week 19
Community News
SimpleX Chat was updated to 5.6.1
but only for armv7
compatible devices. That “only … compatible” sounded odd to you? Well, it’s a interesting story.
First, the arm64
build failed, upstream fixed it and next version builds as we speak. Second, we touched upon arm64
-only devices at the end of December 2023 when we talked about how we had to rebuilt Silence, the encrypted SMS app, to make it compatible and available for them too. We are bringing at least one more app into this arm64
future, so stay tuned for more!
Back to SimpleX, the F-Droid team was pinged this week in an issue thread as devs and users thought F-Droid Client might behave unexpectedly. While we saw an issue regarding how F-Droid sorts package versions, that was quickly fixed for the soon to be released 1.20
, the real issue was elsewhere… in the reporting users Android version.
F-Droid Client logic is not that complicated, it reads the device information, like Android version, processor architecture and some other features, and decides based on this which package to install. For an app that has no architecture depending libraries, like F-Droid itself, it will always install the same package, for apps that have them, like SimpleX, it matches the right package with the device architecture.
In the case of Silence, before our rebuild, F-Droid saw that some devices could do only arm64
, had no package to install, so it marked the app as incompatible and the user could not install it.
The user that reported the SimpleX issue told F-Droid to install the best package, it chose arm64
, and that was crashing. The user tried to manually install the other package, armv7
, and that one worked fine. Surely there’s a bug in F-Droid as it did not install the ‘compatible’ package, right? I spoiled it above, that’s wrong. It appears that, while the device processor is fine and runs in a myriad of other devices in a compatible way with both armv7
and arm64
, the device manufacturer provides an Android version that, infuriatingly, announces it as arm64
but it is not always compatible. The user could install other arm64
apps just fine, but not SimpleX, making debugging confusing at least.
This reminds me of SimpleX’s efforts along the way to bring their app to more devices, as they started as Android 10+ and arm64
only back in 2022, and future 5.7.1
will be available on Android 8+ and both arm64
and armv7
.
/PS: As with past TWIFs we ask you, the users, to get the newest Android version available for your device, and to explore if projects like Calyx, Divest and Lineage support it. Android development is frustrating enough for developers to navigate between versions, architectures and targets, having an old and buggy Android base system is not helpful to anyone.
Newly Added Apps
4 apps were newly added
- Kitsune - Discover new anime & manga and manage your Kitsu.io library
- Open Biking - Bluetooth application for generating training on an indoor bike
- Self Attendance Tracker - Attendance Tracker for students with focus on UI and usability
- mensen - Access the menu of Dresden’s canteens
Updated Apps
105 more apps were updated
- AAT Another Activity Tracker was updated from
v1.24
tov1.25
- ANOTHERpass was updated from
1.9.2
to1.9.3
- Accelerrace was updated from
0.6
to0.7
- AgoraDesk: buy BTC anonymously was updated from
1.1.34
to1.1.35
- AndBible: Bible Study was updated from
5.0.805
to5.0.806
- Andor’s Trail was updated from
0.8.9
to0.8.10
- Aria for Misskey was updated from
0.6.1
to0.7.0
- Asteroid’s Revenge was updated from
0.10.4
to0.10.5
- BLE Radar was updated from
0.24.1-beta
to0.25.1-beta
- BTC Map was updated from
0.7.1
to0.7.2
- BonjourBrowser was updated from
1.13
to1.14
- Chaldea was updated from
2.5.8
to2.5.9
- Chrono was updated from
0.4.2
to0.4.3
- Clipious was updated from
1.19.5
to1.19.7
- Clock You was updated from
7.1
to8.0
- Closet-Archive was updated from
1.0.4
to1.0.5
- Cofi - Brew Timer was updated from
1.20.1
to1.21.1
- Commons was updated from
4.2.1
to5.0.1
- Conversations was updated from
2.15.2+free
to2.15.3+free
- Cuscon was updated from
4.0.2.0
to4.0.2.1
- Disroot app was updated from
2.0.8
to2.0.9
- Easter Eggs was updated from
2.4.1
to2.5.0
- Element - Secure Messenger was updated from
1.6.12
to1.6.14
- F-Droid Build Status was updated from
5.3.0
to5.4.0
- FairEmail was updated from
1.2176
to1.2178
- Feeder was updated from
2.6.23
to2.6.24
- Finamp was updated from
0.6.22
to0.6.23
- Flexify was updated from
1.0.61
to1.0.69
- FluffyChat was updated from
1.19.2
to1.20.0
- Geto was updated from
1.15.4
to1.15.5
- GraphHopper Maps was updated from
1.5.0
to1.5.1
- Green Pass PDF Wallet was updated from
4.0.0
to4.1.0
- Gugal was updated from
0.8.1
to0.8.2
- Image Toolbox was updated from
2.8.0
to2.8.1
- Inner Breeze was updated from
1.3.0
to1.3.1
- Inure App Manager (Trial) was updated from
Build100.4.1
toBuild100.4.2
- Jami was updated from
20240419-01
to20240426-01
- Jellyfin - your media in your hands! was updated from
2.6.0
to2.6.1
- Jellyfin for Android TV was updated from
0.16.9
to0.16.10
- Joplin was updated from
3.0.2
to3.0.3
- LibreOffice Viewer was updated from
7.6.5.2
to7.6.6.3
- LocalMonero: buy XMR privately was updated from
1.1.34
to1.1.35
- Loud Bang was updated from
0.49
to0.50
- M3U was updated from
1.14.0-beta10
to1.14.0-beta11
- Material Files was updated from
1.7.1
to1.7.2
- MedTimer was updated from
1.7.3
to1.7.5
- Mill was updated from
4.1.0
to4.2.0
- Money Manager Ex was updated from
2024.04.21
to2024.04.29
- Musify was updated from
2024.3.24
to7.6.3
- Myne: Download & Read eBooks was updated from
3.5.1
to3.6.0
- Next Player was updated from
0.10.2
to0.11.0
- Nextcloud Dev was updated from
20240424
to20240430
- Nunti was updated from
v2.5.0
tov2.5.1
- Offi was updated from
12.1.18-aosp
to12.1.19-aosp
- Oinkoin was updated from
1.0.56
to1.0.57
- OpenAthena™ for Android was updated from
0.20.3
to0.20.4
- OpenTracks was updated from
v4.12.2.
tov4.12.3
- Orgzly Revived was updated from
1.8.19
to1.8.21
- Orion Viewer - Pdf & Djvu was updated from
0.91.3
to0.92.0
- Peristyle was updated from
1.42_beta
to1.43_beta
- Persian Calendar was updated from
9.1.2
to9.1.5
- Petals was updated from
3.21.2
to3.21.5
- Phonograph Plus was updated from
1.6.1
to1.6.2
- PiliPalaX was updated from
1.0.19
to1.0.20
- PlainApp: File & Web Access was updated from
1.2.47
to1.2.49
- Planes Android was updated from
0.4.2
to0.4.3
- Podcini - Podcast instrument was updated from
4.9.2
to4.9.6
- Podverse was updated from
4.16.1
to4.16.2
- Quacker was updated from
3.4.2
to3.4.3
- QuickWeather was updated from
2.6.9
to2.6.10
- Quicksy was updated from
2.15.2+free
to2.15.3+free
- Rethink: DNS + Firewall + VPN was updated from
v0.5.5g
tov0.5.5h
- RiMusic was updated from
0.6.31
to0.6.32
- Robot36 was updated from
1.48
to2.3
- SCEE was updated from
57.2
to57.3
- SMS to URL Forwarder was updated from
2.2.3
to2.3.0
- Screen Time was updated from
1.2.0
to1.3.0
- Simple Counter was updated from
1.1.4
to1.2.1
-
Simple Time Tracker was updated from
1.39
to1.41
- SlimSocial for Facebook was updated from
10.0.11
to10.0.12
- SpamBlocker (Call & SMS) was updated from
1.2
to1.4
- Squawker was updated from
3.8.0
to3.8.1
- StreetComplete was updated from
57.2
to57.3
- Table Habit was updated from
1.12.0
to1.12.2
- Tarock Palčka was updated from
1.0.4
to1.0.6
- Tempus Romanum was updated from
2.4.6
to2.5.0
- TorrServe was updated from
MatriX.132.2.F-Droid
toMatriX.133.F-Droid
- Tuta Mail was updated from
225.240417.0
to227.240429.0
- Unciv was updated from
4.11.7-patch1
to4.11.8
- Unstoppable Wallet was updated from
0.38.2
to0.38.3
- Vinyl Music Player was updated from
1.10.1
to1.10.2
- Wikipedia was updated from
r/2.7.50481-r-2024-04-01
tor/2.7.50484-r-2024-04-19
- Wulkanowy was updated from
2.5.7
to2.5.8
- Xournal++ viewer was updated from
1.2
to1.3
- Xray was updated from
6.5.0
to6.6.0
- Xtra was updated from
2.31.1
to2.31.2
- Zulip was updated from
27.226
to27.227
- droidVNC-NG was updated from
2.2.0
to2.3.0
- e1547 - e621 browser was updated from
19.0.0
to19.0.1
- floccus bookmark sync was updated from
5.0.11
to5.0.12
- mLauncher - Minimal and Clutter Free launcher was updated from
1.5.5
to1.5.8
- mTUO was updated from
6.5.1-r0
to6.5.1-r4
- maid was updated from
1.2.5
to1.2.6
- ntodotxt was updated from
0.8.0
to0.8.1
- sing-box was updated from
1.8.11
to1.8.12
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