Python Kivy/KivyMD App(.apk) crashing after showing loading screen on one android device but runs fine on another android device

Question

I am fairly new in using kivy and kivymd to develop python apps. I have been working on a personal app that will be used to store daily expenses. For that I am a using cloud MySQL Database. The python program works absolutely fine on Windows like the way I intended. For testing purposes and to make sure that kivy can actually work on android, I created a "Hello World" display app with kivy and kivymd in python and converted it into apk file using Buildozer in GoogleColab to be tested on my android device. It worked just fine on all my devices running on different android versions. I have created the accounts tracker app, and in the similar way in Google Colab I converted it into apk file. I tested the app on my device and it crashed past the loading screen. But surprisingly it worked just fine on another android device that I have.

Specification of Device 1(App Crashed):

• Model: realme 9 5G Speed Edition,
• Android Version: 13.

Specification of Device 2(App Working):

• Model: Samsung Galaxy M30s,
• Android Version: 11.

The "Hello World" simple app worked absolutely fine in both the devices mentioned above.

---

I am providing my source code of the accounts app in a Google Drive Link because it's a large file. Although It won't run on other Windows devices until and unless python mysql connector is installed and configured and the default database is feed in to that system.

Link:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_81YTYqYW6g2cjMW8UUmb9Rs5A6KC1Vm?usp=drive_link

Note:- For security and privacy reasons I have changed the MySQL server connection configuration in my Python file from my hosting server to local host. But my apps are built using connection configured to be used with my hosting server database.

---

I have used logcat in Android Studio and connected my mobile to get error/crash logs.

Error Logs from my app:-

22:05:41.294 32206-32206 p.myaccountsapp                    pid-32206                            E  Invalid ID 0x00000000.
2023-06-19 22:05:41.294 32206-32206 ResourcesImplExt        pid-32206                            E  the AssetManager's apkAsset: ApkAssets{path=<empty> and /system/framework/framework-res.apk}
2023-06-19 22:05:41.294 32206-32206 ResourcesImplExt        pid-32206                            E  the AssetManager's apkAsset: ApkAssets{path=/my_bigball/overlay/GmsConfigOverlayASI_Infrastructure/GmsConfigOverlayASI_Infrastructure.apk}
2023-06-19 22:05:41.294 32206-32206 ResourcesImplExt        pid-32206                            E  the AssetManager's apkAsset: ApkAssets{path=/my_bigball/overlay/GmsConfigOverlayCommonEx/GmsConfigOverlayCommonEx.apk}
2023-06-19 22:05:41.294 32206-32206 ResourcesImplExt        pid-32206                            E  the AssetManager's apkAsset: ApkAssets{path=/my_bigball/overlay/GmsConfigOverlayComms/GmsConfigOverlayComms.apk}
2023-06-19 22:05:41.325 32206-32206 p.myaccountsapp         org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp      E  sysOpen failed with error=Permission denied
2023-06-19 22:05:41.473   750-750   SELinux                 hwservicemanager                     E  avc:  denied  { find } for interface=vendor.oplus.hardware.performance::IPerformance sid=u:r:untrusted_app:s0:c246,c257,c512,c768 pid=32206 scontext=u:r:untrusted_app:s0:c246,c257,c512,c768 tcontext=u:object_r:hal_performance_hwservice:s0 tclass=hwservice_manager permissive=0
2023-06-19 22:05:41.488  1892-4210  SensorService           system_server                        E  Required app org.libsdl.app.SDLSurface, uid 10502, pid 32206
2023-06-19 22:05:41.514 32206-32206 SurfaceSyncer           org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp      E  Failed to find sync for id=0
2023-06-19 22:05:41.522  8548-8549  IHansComunication       hans                                 E  HANS printMessageBody: RCV message: type = 4,port = 86870,caller_pid = -1,caller_uid = -1,target_pid = -1,target_uid = 10071,pkg_cmd = -1,rpc = PKG/-1
2023-06-19 22:05:41.558 32206-32206 SurfaceSyncer           org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp      E  Failed to find sync for id=0
2023-06-19 22:05:42.459 32259-32259 .link:link.data         pid-32259                            E  Unknown bits set in runtime_flags: 0x40000000
2023-06-19 22:05:42.462 32259-32259 .link:link.data         pid-32259                            E  Not starting debugger since process cannot load the jdwp agent.
2023-06-19 22:05:46.733 32206-32251 libc                    org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp      A  exiting due to SIG_DFL handler for signal 11, ucontext 0x791f4c4e20
2023-06-19 22:05:46.734 32206-32251 libc                    org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp      A  Fatal signal 6 (SIGABRT), code -1 (SI_QUEUE) in tid 32251 (SDLThread), pid 32206 (SDLActivity)
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  Process name is org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp, not key_process
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  keyProcess: 0
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  Build fingerprint: 'realme/RMX3461/RE54BFL1:13/TP1A.220905.001/R.105741b-5f5a-5f59:user/release-keys'
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  Revision: '0'
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  ABI: 'arm64'
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  Timestamp: 2023-06-19 22:05:46.895663675+0530
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  Process uptime: 7s
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  Cmdline: org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  pid: 32206, tid: 32251, name: SDLThread  >>> org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp <<<
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  uid: 10502
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  signal 6 (SIGABRT), code -1 (SI_QUEUE), fault addr --------
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  Abort message: 'exiting due to SIG_DFL handler for signal 11, ucontext 0x791f4c4e20'
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A      x0  0000000000000000  x1  0000000000007dfb  x2  0000000000000006  x3  000000791f4c4c60
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A      x4  0000008080808080  x5  0000008080808080  x6  0000008080808080  x7  8080808080000000
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A      x8  00000000000000f0  x9  00000079060eae60  x10 0000000000000001  x11 0000007906150a44
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A  backtrace:
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A    NOTE: Function names and BuildId information is missing for some frames due
                                                                                                      NOTE: to unreadable libraries. For unwinds of apps, only shared libraries
                                                                                                      NOTE: found under the lib/ directory are readable.
                                                                                                      NOTE: On this device, run setenforce 0 to make the libraries readable.
                                                                                                      NOTE: Unreadable libraries:
                                                                                                      NOTE:   /data/data/org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp/files/app/_python_bundle/site-packages/kivy/_event.so
                                                                                                      NOTE:   /data/data/org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp/files/app/_python_bundle/site-packages/kivy/graphics/compiler.so
                                                                                                      NOTE:   /data/data/org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp/files/app/_python_bundle/site-packages/kivy/graphics/instructions.so
                                                                                                      NOTE:   /data/data/org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp/files/app/_python_bundle/site-packages/kivy/graphics/vbo.so
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A        #00 pc 000000000007da34  /apex/com.android.runtime/lib64/bionic/libc.so (abort+168) (BuildId: 59222d1015276d9a9031ee1ea28c0bcd)
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A        #01 pc 00000000000024c8  /apex/com.android.art/lib64/libsigchain.so (art::SignalChain::Handler(int, siginfo*, void*)+1084) (BuildId: c2eed67ad222447f39d6878846f202fc)
2023-06-19 22:05:47.814 32426-32426 DEBUG                   pid-32426                            A        #02 pc 00000000000005d0  [vdso] (__kernel_rt_sigreturn+0)

Same error continues

---

I have used -s python command in logcat to filter out python logs. Here are the logs that I got from my app:-

2023-06-19 23:39:20.085 25923-26010 python                  org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp      I  os.environ is environ({'PATH': '/product/bin:/apex/com.android.runtime/bin:/apex/com.android.art/bin:/system_ext/bin:/system/bin:/system/xbin:/odm/bin:/vendor/bin:/vendor/xbin', 'ANDROID_BOOTLOGO': '1', 'ANDROID_ROOT': '/system', 'ANDROID_ASSETS': '/system/app', 'ANDROID_DATA': '/data', 'ANDROID_STORAGE': '/storage', 'ANDROID_ART_ROOT': '/apex/com.android.art', 'ANDROID_I18N_ROOT': '/apex/com.android.i18n', 'ANDROID_TZDATA_ROOT': '/apex/com.android.tzdata', 'EXTERNAL_STORAGE': '/sdcard', 'ASEC_MOUNTPOINT': '/mnt/asec', 'MY_CUSTOM_ROOT': '/my_custom', 'MY_SPECIAL_PRELOAD_ROOT': '/special_preload', 'MY_CARRIER_ROOT': '/my_carrier', 'MY_REGION_ROOT': '/my_region', 'MY_COMPANY_ROOT': '/my_company', 'MY_ENGINEER_ROOT': '/my_engineering', 'MY_ENGINEERING_ROOT': '/my_engineering', 'MY_PRODUCT_ROOT': '/my_product', 'MY_VERSION_ROOT': '/my_version', 'MY_OPERATOR_ROOT': '/my_carrier', 'MY_COUNTRY_ROOT': '/my_region', 'MY_ODM_ROOT': '/odm', 'MY_PRELOAD_ROOT': '/my_preload', 'MY_HEYTAP_ROOT': '/my_heytap', 'MY_STOCK_ROOT': '/my_stock', 'MY_MANIFEST_ROOT': '/my_manifest', 'MY_BIGBALL_ROOT': '/my_bigball', 'DOWNLOAD_CACHE': '/data/cache', 'BOOTCLASSPATH': '/apex/com.android.art/javalib/core-oj.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/core-libart.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/okhttp.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/bouncycastle.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/apache-xml.jar:/system/framework/framework.jar:/system/framework/framework-graphics.jar:/system/framework/ext.jar:/system/framework/telephony-common.jar:/system/framework/voip-common.jar:/system/framework/ims-common.jar:/system/framework/tcmiface.jar:/system/framework/telephony-ext.jar:/system/framework/qcom.fmradio.jar:/system/framework/QPerformance.jar:/system/framework/UxPerformance.jar:/system/framework/WfdCommon.jar:/system/framework/oplus-framework.jar:/system/framework/oplus-support-wrapper.jar:/system/framework/subsystem-framework.jar:/apex/com.android.i18n/javalib/core-icu4j.jar:/apex/com.android.adservices/javalib/framework-adservices.jar:/apex/com.android.adservices/javalib/framework-sdksandbox.jar:/apex/com.android.appsearch/javalib/framework-appsearch.jar:/apex/com.android.conscrypt/javalib/conscrypt.jar:/apex/com.android.ipsec/javalib/android.net.ipsec.ike.jar:/apex/com.android.media/javalib/updatable-media.jar:/apex/com.android.mediaprovider/javalib/framework-mediaprovider.jar:/apex/com.android.ondevicepersonalization/javalib/framework-ondevicepersonalization.jar:/apex/com.android.os.statsd/javalib/framework-statsd.jar:/apex/com.android.permission/javalib/framework-permission.jar:/apex/com.android.permission/javalib/framework-permission-s.jar:/apex/com.android.scheduling/javalib/framework-scheduling.jar:/apex/com.android.sdkext/javalib/framework-sdkextensions.jar:/apex/com.android.tethering/javalib/framework-connectivity.jar:/apex/com.android.tethering/javalib/framework-connectivity-t.jar:/apex/com.android.tethering/javalib/framework-tethering.jar:/apex/com.android.uwb/javalib/framework-uwb.jar:/apex/com.android.wifi/javalib/framework-wifi.jar', 'DEX2OATBOOTCLASSPATH': '/apex/com.android.art/javalib/core-oj.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/core-libart.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/okhttp.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/bouncycastle.jar:/apex/com.android.art/javalib/apache-xml.jar:/system/framework/framework.jar:/system/framework/framework-graphics.jar:/system/framework/ext.jar:/system/framework/telephony-common.jar:/system/framework/voip-common.jar:/system/framework/ims-common.jar:/system/framework/tcmiface.jar:/system/framework/telephony-ext.jar:/system/framework/qcom.fmradio.jar:/system/framework/QPerformance.jar:/system/framework/UxPerformance.jar:/system/framework/WfdCommon.jar:/system/framework/oplus-framework.jar:/system/framework/oplus-support-wrapper.jar:/system/framework/subsystem-framework.jar:/apex/com.android.i18n/javalib/core-icu4j.jar', 'SYSTEMSERVERCLASSPATH': '/system/framework/com.android.location.provider.jar:/system/framework/services.jar:/system/framework/oplus-services.jar:/system/framework/oplus-servi
2023-06-19 23:39:24.760  1892-2456  WindowManager           system_server                        W  Failed to deliver inset state change to w=Window{e0ec1c4 u0 org.myaccountsapp.myaccountsapp/org.kivy.android.PythonActivity EXITING}
                                                                                                    android.os.DeadObjectException
                                                                                                        at android.os.BinderProxy.transactNative(Native Method)
                                                                                                        at android.os.BinderProxy.transact(BinderProxy.java:672)
                                                                                                        at android.view.IWindow$Stub$Proxy.insetsControlChanged(IWindow.java:473)
                                                                                                        at com.android.server.wm.WindowState.notifyInsetsControlChanged(WindowState.java:4288)

---

As far as I understood from the error crash logs from backtracing that few libraries are unreadable on my device. But if Google Colab has created an corrupted apk then it should have crashed on every device. But it works on other devices(Not to mention that the layout is broken but thats another troubleshoot for another day)

While doing my resarch about the troubleshoot I got to know that the error might be because of lower targetSDK. Apparently Buildozer created the apk using api-31. Since my device is running on Android 13 it needed an target sdk of above 33. So,upon doing the necessary changes(using API-34) I created the apk again and it crashed again giving the same error logs on logcat.

---

My Buildozer.specs file:-

[app]

# (str) Title of your application
title = My Accounts App

# (str) Package name
package.name = myaccountsapp

# (str) Package domain (needed for android/ios packaging)
package.domain = org.myaccountsapp

# (str) Source code where the main.py live
source.dir = .

# (list) Source files to include (let empty to include all the files)
source.include_exts = py,png,jpg,kv,atlas

# (list) List of inclusions using pattern matching
#source.include_patterns = assets/*,images/*.png

# (list) Source files to exclude (let empty to not exclude anything)
#source.exclude_exts = spec

# (list) List of directory to exclude (let empty to not exclude anything)
#source.exclude_dirs = tests, bin, venv

# (list) List of exclusions using pattern matching
# Do not prefix with './'
#source.exclude_patterns = license,images/*/*.jpg

# (str) Application versioning (method 1)
version = 0.1

# (str) Application versioning (method 2)
# version.regex = __version__ = ['"](.*)['"]
# version.filename = %(source.dir)s/main.py

# (list) Application requirements
# comma separated e.g. requirements = sqlite3,kivy
requirements = sdl2,hostpython3==3.10.0,python3==3.10.0,kivy==2.2.1,kivymd==1.1.1,pillow,datetime,mysql-connector-python

# (str) Custom source folders for requirements
# Sets custom source for any requirements with recipes
# requirements.source.kivy = ../../kivy

# (str) Presplash of the application
#presplash.filename = %(source.dir)s/data/presplash.png

# (str) Icon of the application
#icon.filename = %(source.dir)s/data/icon.png

# (list) Supported orientations
# Valid options are: landscape, portrait, portrait-reverse or landscape-reverse
orientation = portrait

# (list) List of service to declare
#services = NAME:ENTRYPOINT_TO_PY,NAME2:ENTRYPOINT2_TO_PY

#
# OSX Specific
#

#
# author = © Copyright Info

# change the major version of python used by the app
osx.python_version = 3

# Kivy version to use
osx.kivy_version = 1.9.1

#
# Android specific
#

# (bool) Indicate if the application should be fullscreen or not
fullscreen = 0

# (string) Presplash background color (for android toolchain)
# Supported formats are: #RRGGBB #AARRGGBB or one of the following names:
# red, blue, green, black, white, gray, cyan, magenta, yellow, lightgray,
# darkgray, grey, lightgrey, darkgrey, aqua, fuchsia, lime, maroon, navy,
# olive, purple, silver, teal.
#android.presplash_color = #FFFFFF

# (string) Presplash animation using Lottie format.
# see https://lottiefiles.com/ for examples and https://airbnb.design/lottie/
# for general documentation.
# Lottie files can be created using various tools, like Adobe After Effect or Synfig.
#android.presplash_lottie = "path/to/lottie/file.json"

# (str) Adaptive icon of the application (used if Android API level is 26+ at runtime)
#icon.adaptive_foreground.filename = %(source.dir)s/data/icon_fg.png
#icon.adaptive_background.filename = %(source.dir)s/data/icon_bg.png

# (list) Permissions
# (See https://python-for-android.readthedocs.io/en/latest/buildoptions/#build-options-1 for all the supported syntaxes and properties)
android.permissions = android.permission.INTERNET, (name=android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE;maxSdkVersion=18)

# (list) features (adds uses-feature -tags to manifest)
#android.features = android.hardware.usb.host

# (int) Target Android API, should be as high as possible.
#android.api = 31
android.api = 34

# (int) Minimum API your APK / AAB will support.
#android.minapi = 21

# (int) Android SDK version to use
#android.sdk = 20

# (str) Android NDK version to use
#android.ndk = 23b
android.ndk = 25b

# (int) Android NDK API to use. This is the minimum API your app will support, it should usually match android.minapi.
#android.ndk_api = 21

I have changed the Android api version to 34 and ndk version to 25b which is latest according to p4a documentation and Android Documentation. I have tried both with and without the sdk changes and each time the app crashed after loading screen on my android device but ran perfectly on another android device.

Also I have changed the requirements and declared all the packages that I have used in my build. I have also uncommented the android permissions part since I would be needing Internet access to connect to the cloud database. I have tried using both kivy and kivymd master files yet no luck. It runs absolutely fine on the Samsung Device but crashes on my realme device

Please help me, its been almost a week I am stuck at this problem trying to figure out. Else I am thinking of just abandoning it and start fresh with flutter. But I really wanted to move with python as I have a good experience and knowledge with python.

Answer 1

Well after a lot of digging and research, I was kind of able to eliminate half of the initial problem. I got my hands over several devices with different versions of Android and in all of them it works without any problem. At first it didn't run properly on my realme device and few other devices(I tested it after I posted my above question). So, after doing a lot of finding and research I was able to fix my problem somewhat but still, it does not run on my realme device. However, it runs on all other devices on which it did not run earlier. Also, I tested with a device of the same Android version(V-13), and apparently, it works without any problem. So, it might be something to with my device, with realme blocking my app since its untrusted or not verified by Google Play(Maybe).

During my research I came across several posts where people are facing problem in converting python kivy app to apk for android. So, I thought of sharing my research, so that I can also contribute to the community.

Steps to follow are:-

Firstly create a new notebook in Google Colab and paste each of the below code separately in a new cell. Do not paste the whole code in one cell

!pip install buildozer

!pip install -U cython

!pip install kivymd

!pip install python-for-android

!sudo apt install lld

!sudo apt-get install -y \
    python3-pip \
    build-essential \
    git \
    python3 \
    python3-dev \
    ffmpeg \
    libsdl2-dev \
    libsdl2-image-dev \
    libsdl2-mixer-dev \
    libsdl2-ttf-dev \
    libportmidi-dev \
    libswscale-dev \
    libavformat-dev \
    libavcodec-dev \
    zlib1g-dev

!sudo apt-get install -y \
    libgstreamer1.0 \
    gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \
    gstreamer1.0-plugins-good

!sudo apt-get install libffi7

!sudo apt-get install build-essential libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 bzip2 libbz2-dev zlib1g-dev libssl-dev openssl libgdbm-dev libgdbm-compat-dev liblzma-dev libreadline-dev libncursesw5-dev libffi-dev uuid-dev libffi7

!sudo apt-get install libffi-dev

!buildozer init

!buildozer -v android debug

The apk will be available in the bin folder in the same directory, if it does not appears just refresh the colab notebook.

The above code for Google Colab works perfectly in packing and building your apk to be run on android. It downloads all the dependencies and pre requests that the apk needs to run perfectly. Although I don't know why the apk does not run on my realme device. Maybe someday I'll know. I have personally tested the above code for creating different apk's and each time it runs perfectly without giving any error.

One thing to note here is that after running !buildozer init, a buildozer.spec file will be created in which the requirements part need to be edited and their one needs to declare all the libraries that one has used in python to create the program. If you have used kivymd then it is mandatory to declare pillow library along with kivymd. Also remember to change the API version to higher version like 33 which is latest as on 24-06-2023 so to make the app run on new android version devices.

Hope I can help the kivy community by this, and the people who stumble upon my query for their questions. Although I would still like to keep my query active so that someone can help me out as to why my apk is not running on my particular device. Happy Coding!!

Answer 2

The app was also crashing big time at startup on my Samsung Galaxy S22... so after a lot of trials and reading here is how I managed to fix it by picking the right versions of both kivy and kivymd libraries

These links helped me to solve the issue related to this message (you can see it in logcat):

Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1 (SEGV_MAPERR), fault addr 0x40 in tid 3963 (SDLThread), pid 3902 (SDLActivity)

References:

• detail about specific issue here (I know, it seems at first to be related to MDDialog but in fact the important part is the logcat very first line talking about Fatal signal 11)
• the Android APK build recipe that fixed the issue: How to fix a shader bug on an android device

Answer 3

Try changing the target API to 33.