Android version of demo crashes at startup-- urgent for GDC

[sonictoad]

Hello, I'm having trouble with the Android version of my demo and am at a loss on how to fix it, and worse yet my GDC flight leaves early Friday morning so I hope I can fix this before Thursday night!

I followed the Android directions in the documentation after I put my new Galaxy Tab A into developer mode and enabled USB debugging, got all the recommended packages. Running latest version of Ren'Py on my ancient desktop PC that runs Windows 7. PC and Mac builds function beautifully. Made splash screen and icon, though the icon didn't show up when I finally got the build to install on the tablet. But that splash screen does, and it appears for about 2 seconds before it just quits itself.

I figure I can't be the only one who's had this problem but how do I fix it? My back is already screaming in protest at the thought of lugging my heavy laptop throughout GDC so I *really* need this Android build to function so help me Toad. I'm not sure what I should be looking for in the log or anything, any advice is appreciated thanks!

[Ghuraok]

Hey ! If you're in a hurry, I'd suggest to go ask on the forum's discord, they're usually very quick. https://discord.gg/6ckxWYm
Concerning your issue, if it's possible, I'd suggest to try the apk on another device. If it works you will know it's probably a version incompatibility.
Also I never had to put on developer mode or to enable USB debugging to make an apk I did to work. Make sure your apk name finishes by "(...)release.apk".

Best of luck and I hope you'll find a solution until then.

[sonictoad]

Hey ! If you're in a hurry, I'd suggest to go ask on the forum's discord, they're usually very quick. https://discord.gg/6ckxWYm
Concerning your issue, if it's possible, I'd suggest to try the apk on another device. If it works you will know it's probably a version incompatibility.
Also I never had to put on developer mode or to enable USB debugging to make an apk I did to work. Make sure your apk name finishes by "(...)release.apk".

Best of luck and I hope you'll find a solution until then.

Oy, another program for my already-crowded tech keychain...ha it was inevitable I'd have to make a Discord account.

Alas, this Galaxy tab is my only Android device. That I ran out special to buy at the last minute since Windows tablets were both limited in selection and crazy expensive by me. I was under the impression that I had to enable USB debugging and go into dev mode to pretty much get it to do anything, but since I put the build on the tablet manually and opened with a file manager, at least I was able to see the error log this time that told me something more conclusive:

File "long file name", line 283, in load_module
raise Exception("Module %s could not be loaded." % name)
Exception: Module _errorhandling could not be loaded.

While loading the script.
Exception: Module _errorhandling could not be loaded.

Anyone have any idea how to make the error handling module load since it looks like that's the problem?

[Ghuraok]

You can run discord on browser
Also, the emulator worked ? In Ren'py android emulator I mean.

[sonictoad]

Didn't use an emulator-- put the build right on the Galaxy Tab-- but welp, no need for the Discord because whew, IT WORKS!!!!!!!!

So it turns out that the build.classify rules are a problem if you're getting "Module _errorhandling could not be loaded." errors in Android builds. Found this old post that described the exact problem I was having.

I went into options.rpy and found this little block under init python:


build.classify('**~', None)
build.classify('**.bak', None)
build.classify('**/.**', None)
build.classify('**/#**', None)
build.classify('**/thumbs.db', None)

## To archive files, classify them as 'archive'.

# build.classify('game/**.png', 'archive')
# build.classify('game/**.jpg', 'archive')

## Files matching documentation patterns are duplicated in a mac app build,
## so they appear in both the app and the zip file.

build.documentation('*.html')
build.documentation('*.txt')

If you remove build.documentation rules, nothing will launch at all and it's a no-go. But I removed all the build.classify rules and now it functions beautifully on my Android tablet!! Just in time for GDC too, yay!

I guess this thread can close now but should be left up here in case anyone else is running into this problem with Android builds.