Anbox for native mobile Linux gaming?

[triple_agent]

Recently I have learned about the existence of such an entity as ANBOX. It is an Android system running under Linux, comparable to Bluestacks probably {not speaking of the software infrastructure}, but what is interesting, is that Anbox is said to run Android applications directly on the existing Linux kernel, treating them as natives. That sounds most astounding, the native mobile gaming on desktop Linux! The problem seems to be, though, the access to any sensible Android repositories - initially the Google Play - is null, at least apparently without further trickery, which anyway should eventually meet the question of owning a registered device. Has anyone used Anbox thusfar to any success and if so, with what applications? Should I ask as well, what are the performance limits of Anbox, if anyone is familiar with it?

[triple_agent]

Found some step-by-step article addressing the case of making the thing to go, link HERE[www.reallinuxuser.com]. Perhaps THIS[apkcombo.com] site could be a useful alternative to getting a browser extensions for obtaining of the free Android app files. What about the paid ones, though? Come on, we need Monument Valley and more of that. For now, I guess Hocus. will do.

[sairuk]

Played around with it a month or so ago, was hit and miss, most games i've tried, pubg, clash of clans etc crash out due to what appears to be a missing audio device or network error, i haven't looked much further into it tbh

openarena ran with sound but corrupt graphics if run in accelerated mode, you can run in software but its slow beyond reason

contra killed anbox

last day on earth works ok though,, first game that has worked

was installing apps through apkpure as a test

[triple_agent]

The thing is still in alpha phase, but I hope one day it will reach representative state, because it is a decent opportunity for at least theoretically native Linux gaming in a rolling world of software, which is important, also making for an extra buffer to the Linux infrastructure. Actually, if so, it might even happen that Anbox could come preinstalled on some Linux distributions eventually, because hitting repositories, seems natural, if the project is confirmed solid. But back to reality.

Anbox needs testing and more feedback is needed. We need to confirm whether the problems you describe are samewise for majority of users on various distributions and machines. Particular games may also be the case, as you even mention. Here are a handful of titles I have grabbed browsing through various websites. I did not check them, do not know whether they are worth to press the "install" button, but most of them were mentioned as decent enough places around:

Altos Adventure
Altos Odyssey
Ancestor
Asphalt 9: Legends
Badland
Card Thief
Carmageddon
Circle Affinity {umm, Circa Infinity?}
Cubway
Data Wing
Does Not Commute
Fallout Shelter
First Strike
Galaxy on Fire
Lara Croft: Relic Run
Modern Combat V
Modern Combat Versus
Modern Strike Online
Orbit Simulator
Paradox Artifact
PinOut
Polywarp
Racing: Traffic Rider
Shadowgun Legends
Sky Force Reloaded
Sneak Ops
Stranger Things
Thumb Drift
Time Locker
Vampire's Fall: Origins

and some other:

Command and Conquer Rivals
Dead Earth
Dead Effect
Dead Effect 2
Dead Target
Gloomy Dungeons
Into the Dead 2: Zombie Survival
The Walking Zombie 2

The case with mobile devices is all about the experience of a touchscreen. If you are not the type of person who likes to get intimate with the screen, what point does it make to buy such a whatnot expensive device? If you are already a Linux user, with Anbox, you have nothing to loose. That is why it would be pity if the project failed, especially that we remain in the Linux environment. There is also a lot of nice gratis software coming from the Android part of the world. Maybe Chromebook could be a solution, but compare prices versus regular laptops. I would rather see AndrOS.

When it comes to my problem with the Anbox, I have trouble installing the PPA:

Install DKMS package from PPA:

In order to add the PPA to your Ubuntu system please run the following commands:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:morphis/anbox-support
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install linux-headers-generic anbox-modules-dkms

These will add the PPA to your system and install the anbox-modules-dkms package which contains the ashmem and binder kernel modules. They will be automatically rebuild every time the kernel packages on your system update.

https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install_kernel_modules.html

After hitting the first command, this is what I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 326, in get_ppa_info
    ret = get_ppa_info_from_lp(user, ppa)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 101, in get_ppa_info_from_lp
    return get_info_from_lp(lp_url)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 95, in get_info_from_lp
    return get_info_from_https(lp_url, True)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 88, in get_info_from_https
    data = _get_https_content_py3(url, accept_json)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 120, in _get_https_content_py3
    lp_page = urllib.request.urlopen(request, cafile=LAUNCHPAD_PPA_CERT)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/urllib/request.py", line 213, in urlopen
    capath=capath)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/ssl.py", line 512, in create_default_context
    context.load_verify_locations(cafile, capath, cadata)
ssl.SSLError: unknown error (_ssl.c:3715)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/add-apt-repository", line 136, in <module>
    shortcut = shortcut_handler(line)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 1020, in shortcut_handler
    ret = factory(shortcut)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 398, in shortcut_handler
    return PPAShortcutHandler(shortcut)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 355, in __init__
    info = get_ppa_info(self.shortcut)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 338, in get_ppa_info
    _get_suggested_ppa_message(user, ppa))
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 295, in _get_suggested_ppa_message
    lp_user = get_info_from_lp(LAUNCHPAD_USER_API % user)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 95, in get_info_from_lp
    return get_info_from_https(lp_url, True)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 88, in get_info_from_https
    data = _get_https_content_py3(url, accept_json)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py", line 120, in _get_https_content_py3
    lp_page = urllib.request.urlopen(request, cafile=LAUNCHPAD_PPA_CERT)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/urllib/request.py", line 213, in urlopen
    capath=capath)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/ssl.py", line 512, in create_default_context
    context.load_verify_locations(cafile, capath, cadata)
ssl.SSLError: unknown error (_ssl.c:3715)

[Aoi Blue]

Those two kernel modules are Android extensions found in the Linux kernel tree.

Anonymous Shared Memory access and Android Binder IPC.

They are both perfectly safe IPC modules used to allow android packages to communicate with each other.

Newer Debian unstable branch kernels have this enabled by default.

[triple_agent]

I have a problem installing this software. It seems that even if I force my way through the unfortunate PPA by adding the required kernel modules manually, the snap will kill it with "x509: certificate signed by unknown authority" error, as it does consistently with the snapstore.

[Aoi Blue]

Цитата допису Triple_Agent_AAA:

I have a problem installing this software. It seems that even if I force my way through the unfortunate PPA by adding the required kernel modules manually, the snap will kill it with "x509: certificate signed by unknown authority" error, as it does consistently with the snapstore.

You don't need both the snap and the PPA, just one or the other.

[triple_agent]

On the main website - link HERE[docs.anbox.io] - the instructions go like this:

The installation of Anbox consists of two steps.

{1.} Install necessary kernel modules
{2.} Install the Anbox snap

For the first point, it says:

In order to add the PPA to your Ubuntu system please run the following commands:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:morphis/anbox-support
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install linux-headers-generic anbox-modules-dkms

These will add the PPA to your system and install the anbox-modules-dkms package, which contains the ashmem and binder kernel modules.

After you installed the anbox-modules-dkms package, you have to manually load the kernel modules {or} the next time your system starts, they will be automatically loaded.

You should have two new nodes in your systems /dev directory:

/dev/ashmem
/dev/binder

For the second point:

The second step will install the Anbox snap from the store and will give you everything you need to run the full Anbox experience.

Installing the Anbox snap is very simple:

$ sudo snap install --devmode --beta anbox

At the moment we require the use of –devmode, as the Anbox snap is not yet fully confined. Work has started with the upstream snapd project to get support for full confinement.

As a side effect of using –devmode, the snap will not automatically update. In order to update to a newer version, you can run:

$ sudo snap refresh --beta --devmode anbox

Information about the currently available versions of the snap is available via:

$ snap info anbox

Seems simple enough, but for some reason, it just does not work for me the way as instructed, while it tells one needs to go through both the steps in order to make thing go.

EDIT:

For the sake of completion, about uninstallation:

If you want to remove Anbox from your system, you first have to remove the snap:

$ snap remove anbox

Once the snap is removed, you have to remove the installed kernel modules as well:

$ sudo apt install ppa-purge
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:morphis/anbox-support

Once done, Anbox is removed from your system.

PS.

Confirmed, snap refuses to cooperate.

[CodeTrooper]

Thought I'd pop on here and say Anbox is freaking awesome and give a few tips.

I have Manjaro installed so it's not difficult to get Anbox, Gapps, and root permissions.
It's as easy to install as installing an AUR helper like "yay" and

yay -S anbox-git anbox-image-gapps-rooted anbox-modules-dkms-git anbox-bridge

Before launching Anbox, make sure to run

anbox-bridge

first.

Start the container service:

sudo systemctl start anbox-container-manager.service

Then start the session-manager:

anbox session-manager

A basic launcher should appear with some basic apps (including Google Play).

In all apps, the ESC key works as a back-button. Press it enough times and you'll get to the home menu. I currently don't know of a home key, but this works for now.

I use it mainly for Clash of Clans, but it needs a small tweak.
When trying to use fullscreen games or apps, you need to launch the session-manager with the --single-window flag. So:

anbox session-manager --single-window

However you can't resize the window, so figure out the dimensions you want for the window and specify it like so:

anbox session-manager --single-window --window-size=1366,742

You can install APKs using ADB, which is installed from the "android-tools" package.

adb install myapk.apk

You can also uninstall:

adb uninstall com.me.myapp

The fish shell's tab-completion works well with ADB, by the way.

I have an issue with my laptop's touchscreen that I'm trying to work on right now, which is that every time I tap, it double-clicks. Which is because Linux, the OS, sends a click, but Anbox seems to have it's own built-in touchscreen capabilities, so it registers a tap.click twice. But using Anbox with a touchpad or mouse works fine.

I'm trying to figure out how this "Houdini" thing works. Supposedly it allows you to run apps made for different hardware, but I haven't figured it out yet. ARM64/ARMv7 apps don't work on my x86_64 laptop, at least yet.

So far it blows me away. Bluestacks (on my Windows install) seems obsolete at this point. I kinda miss the keybindings but the performance is worth it.