monodroid failed to create directory after install with adb

[pumaprod]

After having migrated our application from Xamarin -> .net8 -> .net9, we are still able to debug the app when running in Visual Studio.
However, using the same csproj, when we take the debug build from our gitlab CI/CD pipeline and install it using adb install into an emulator, the application crashes.

The application contains a number of native libraries (c++) which continue to work without any problems in the release build, as well as the debug build installed from Visual Studio.

When I inspected the logcat output, I discovered this :

01-09 09:13:26.712 11619 11619 W monodroid: Failed to create directory '/data/user/0/com.appname.debug/files/.override/x86_64'. No such file or directory
01-09 09:13:26.712 11619 11619 W monodroid: Creating public update directory: /data/user/0/com.appname.debug/files/.__override__/x86_64
01-09 09:13:26.713 11619 11619 W appname.debug: Attempt to remove non-JNI local reference
01-09 09:13:26.714 11619 11619 W monodroid: runtime args empty
01-09 09:13:26.714 11619 11619 W monodroid-assembly: Unable to open app library directory '/data/user/0/com.appname.debug/files/.override/x86_64': No such file or directory
01-09 09:13:26.714 11619 11619 F monodroid: No assemblies found in '/data/user/0/com.appname.debug/files/.override/x86_64' or ''. Assuming this is part of Fast Deployment. Exiting...
01-09 09:13:26.714 11619 11619 F monodroid: ALL entries in APK named lib/x86_64/ MUST be STORED. Gradle's minification may COMPRESS such entries.
01-09 09:13:26.715 11619 11619 F monodroid: Abort at monodroid-glue.cc:740:3 ('MonoDomain *xamarin::android::internal::MonodroidRuntime::create_domain(JNIEnv *, jstring_array_wrapper &, bool, bool)')

If I copy the signed debug apk, created directly by Visual Studio (as opposed to dotnet build), the same happens.

Some information :
Emulator : Android 15.0 - API 35, x86_64, Google Apis, 1280x800 mdpi
Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022 (64-bit) v17.14.16
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.8.09037
ASP Net and Web tools v17.14.122.59099

Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 34.0.5-10900879
Installed as C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe

I insist on the fact that the debug version runs without any problems from within Visual Studio, but not when installed with adb.

What is Visual Studio doing differently to adb ?

[pumaprod]

Please note as well that we have exactly the same issue with tablet devices.

[BrzVlad]

Does disabling android fast deployment from Visual Studio fixes the issue ? I believe this could also be achieved manually by setting the property EmbedAssembliesIntoApk in the csproj.

[pumaprod]

This is already done in the csproj.
<EmbedAssembliesIntoApk>true</EmbedAssembliesIntoApk>
As said before, all works fine when launched from within Visual Studio.
However, this is not the case when built from the command line (using the same csproj) and then installed from the command line.

[BrzVlad]

@grendello Do you have any idea what could cause this ?

[grendello]

It seems that the Debug build from VS is a FastDev build, that is it doesn't contain any assemblies and they are expected to be found on the device system in the .__override__ directory - they are pushed there by VisualStudio.

To deploy it outside Visual Studio you probably should just build the apk from command line.

[pumaprod]

This is what we are doing, as indicated above.
Whilst the apk does indeed contain the native libraries (in a lib directory), the installation process via adb install does not work.
The logcat I put at the beginning shows that there is an attempt to create the .__override__ directory, but it seems that it does not succeed.
Could this mean that the debug apk is not being built correctly ?
We had no problem before migrating to .net8 and then .net9.

[grendello]

@pumaprod yes, it means the build "thinks" it's working in the FastDev mode in which mode assemblies aren't placed in the apk. Try to reduce your .csproj to use as many default values for various .NET for Android properties as possible.

I've just noticed (sorry for missing it earlier) this error message:

01-09 09:13:26.714 11619 11619 F monodroid: ALL entries in APK named lib/x86_64/ MUST be STORED. Gradle's minification may COMPRESS such entries.

Examine your APK and check whether all .so files are STORED not DEFLATED - those files are mmapped directly from the apk and they must not be compressed.

[pumaprod]

I examined the csproj and here is how the files are added :
<AndroidNativeLibrary Include="lib\x86_64\libintuiScriptBindPrimitives.so" />

How can I see if they are stored or deflated in the resulting apk ?

[grendello]

I don't use Windows, so I'm not sure what you could use - perhaps open the apk as a ZIP archive in the Explorer (you might need to rename the file to have the .zip extension), there might be some info about the compression used.

If you have access to a Linux or macOS machine, you can run the following command on the .apk:

$ zipinfo com.your.app-Signed.apk |grep lib/
-rwxrwxr-x  6.3 unx 262783008 b- stor 25-Dec-10 10:51 lib/arm64-v8a/libassembly-store.so
-rwxrwxr-x  6.3 unx 255320608 b- stor 25-Dec-10 10:51 lib/x86_64/libassembly-store.so

If the 6th columns says store, then the entry isn't compressed. It will say something like defN otherwise.

[pumaprod]

The are indeed stored as Deflate:Maximum.
So, how can I change that ?