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Forum Update on Monday, May 27th 2025

Unable to debug Android App (Windows + Qt Creator 12 + LLDB)

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  • C CodesInChaoss

    Yeah.. folks.. but tell you what....

    We've been also using 5.15.2 previously for our project along with the Community version of Qt.

    As you can imagine, a bit frustrated I was, so we bought a brand new Macbook with M2.

    Everything works out of the box.

    (..) with a damn Android VM.. even no need to attach a phone... the Android VM works crazy fast. Breakpoints keep spinning... no errors.... no assembly shit... no exceptions.. with out own project........

    I'll give it a try with real device later on.

    But presumably... all Qt user and development base moved to Apple hardware as of recent...

    Spend 7 days from dawn till dusk fighting with Windows and Linux.

    Buy a Macbook with M2 and have everything resolved.

    I mean... breakpoints ARE not hitting within main(), but other than that? it's f*** PERFECT.

    as if 100 bugs have been fixed. it simply works as it SHOULD.

    Breakpoitns can be dynamically inserted, removed, these fire each time.

    but yet again... not as soon as in main()

    Axel SpoerlA Online
    Axel SpoerlA Online
    Axel Spoerl
    Moderators
    wrote on last edited by
    #150

    @CodesInChaoss
    Thats good news, glad to hear!
    May I ask you, which constellation works on the Mac?
    Android SDK / NDB / ABI, Qt Creator & Qt Version?
    That will help us to narrow down the issue and fix it asap.
    Thanks in advance - and I hope you'll get some rest after 168 sleepless hours ;-)

    Software Engineer
    The Qt Company, Oslo

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • C CodesInChaoss

      Yeah.. folks.. but tell you what....

      We've been also using 5.15.2 previously for our project along with the Community version of Qt.

      As you can imagine, a bit frustrated I was, so we bought a brand new Macbook with M2.

      Everything works out of the box.

      (..) with a damn Android VM.. even no need to attach a phone... the Android VM works crazy fast. Breakpoints keep spinning... no errors.... no assembly shit... no exceptions.. with out own project........

      I'll give it a try with real device later on.

      But presumably... all Qt user and development base moved to Apple hardware as of recent...

      Spend 7 days from dawn till dusk fighting with Windows and Linux.

      Buy a Macbook with M2 and have everything resolved.

      I mean... breakpoints ARE not hitting within main(), but other than that? it's f*** PERFECT.

      as if 100 bugs have been fixed. it simply works as it SHOULD.

      Breakpoitns can be dynamically inserted, removed, these fire each time.

      but yet again... not as soon as in main()

      cristian-adamC Offline
      cristian-adamC Offline
      cristian-adam
      wrote on last edited by
      #151

      @CodesInChaoss I also moved from a Windows device to a MacBook Pro M1 Arm64 device. (I only had to change the keyboard to mimic Windows/Linux experience).

      The best part is that you get a Arm64 Android VM, which is the aarch64 architecture that most Arm Android devices use.

      Most likely the VM is faster than any Android Phone you can buy, since the Apple silicon is faster than what Qualcomm is putting out there (for now).

      C 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • C CodesInChaoss

        @JonB

        We've bought the 'cheap' startup license or I recall 600USD per year per person.

        Now, it does not come with technical support (as it tuned out).

        As we've learned the hard way that is.

        Now, I've forced GDB manually to neglect any segmentation faults (!!!) and Sig33s (..) by typing the custom arguments to QT Creator by hand as copy-pasting would result it to CRASH.

        Now I'm able to debug.. I'm not disturbed by QT's internal segmentation faults... I presume? correct me if I'm wrong

        ekkescornerE Offline
        ekkescornerE Offline
        ekkescorner
        Qt Champions 2016
        wrote on last edited by
        #152

        @CodesInChaoss said in Unable to debug Android App (Windows + Qt Creator 12 + LLDB):

        We've bought the 'cheap' startup license or I recall 600USD per year per person.
        Now, it does not come with technical support (as it tuned out).

        The Small Business License is $499 per year per developer.
        On QtWS23 there was an announcement from Qt Keynotes about some improvements in 2024: same price, higher revenue possible and - if I remember right - up to 5 tech support issues.
        got an info, that this will be published in march or so.

        ekke ... Qt Champion 2016 | 2024 ... mobile business apps
        5.15 --> 6.8 https://t1p.de/ekkeChecklist
        QMake --> CMake https://t1p.de/ekkeCMakeMobileApps

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • C CodesInChaoss

          Yeah.. folks.. but tell you what....

          We've been also using 5.15.2 previously for our project along with the Community version of Qt.

          As you can imagine, a bit frustrated I was, so we bought a brand new Macbook with M2.

          Everything works out of the box.

          (..) with a damn Android VM.. even no need to attach a phone... the Android VM works crazy fast. Breakpoints keep spinning... no errors.... no assembly shit... no exceptions.. with out own project........

          I'll give it a try with real device later on.

          But presumably... all Qt user and development base moved to Apple hardware as of recent...

          Spend 7 days from dawn till dusk fighting with Windows and Linux.

          Buy a Macbook with M2 and have everything resolved.

          I mean... breakpoints ARE not hitting within main(), but other than that? it's f*** PERFECT.

          as if 100 bugs have been fixed. it simply works as it SHOULD.

          Breakpoitns can be dynamically inserted, removed, these fire each time.

          but yet again... not as soon as in main()

          TomZT Offline
          TomZT Offline
          TomZ
          wrote on last edited by
          #153

          @CodesInChaoss said in Unable to debug Android App (Windows + Qt Creator 12 + LLDB):

          But presumably... all Qt user and development base moved to Apple hardware as of recent...

          That hardware uses the ARMv8.6-A instruction set, which is what you'll find in most phones too. At least Android, I have no clue about iOs.

          Which basically means that you're no longer debugging inside an (CPU) emulator, but basically doing it natively. And indeed I can understand that solves a host of issues.

          I'm quite happy for you that this makes you're life a lot easier!

          @ekkescorner said in Unable to debug Android App (Windows + Qt Creator 12 + LLDB):

          On QtWS23 there was an announcement

          As someone that hasn't been in contact with sales since the Trolltech / Nokia days, I'm curious if customers "inform" Qtio about which platform they develop on. My thinking here is that if they have an actual insight into the revenue-stream for Android, management can calculate the profit/loss of paying a(nother) developer to in-house work on Android and actually use this stuff. Dogfooding and fixing issues.

          I mean, issues like QTBUG-121561 are clearly the result of devs not having enough time for this stuff. It literally is the result of a bugfix being reverted and the old bug showing up again.
          This thread shows similarly that dogfooding is not happening, unless Qt devs have no need to run a debugger.

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • cristian-adamC cristian-adam

            @CodesInChaoss I also moved from a Windows device to a MacBook Pro M1 Arm64 device. (I only had to change the keyboard to mimic Windows/Linux experience).

            The best part is that you get a Arm64 Android VM, which is the aarch64 architecture that most Arm Android devices use.

            Most likely the VM is faster than any Android Phone you can buy, since the Apple silicon is faster than what Qualcomm is putting out there (for now).

            C Offline
            C Offline
            CodesInChaoss
            wrote on last edited by
            #154

            @cristian-adam

            True.

            Just wanted to update you folks that debugging latest real hardware Android devices from MacOS is impossible as well.

            I ended up having the very same issues as on Windows.

            Sigfaults and straight-into-assembly experience.

            For now the best thing we came up with is debugging on Android Simulator running atop of M2.. but for now we cannot get around UDP data exchange limitations as our app uses UDT which runs atop of UDP and we are unable to maintain connectivity.

            haven't managed to run on iOS simulator as well due to some strange error throwing which I would repost soon.

            Axel SpoerlA 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • C CodesInChaoss

              @cristian-adam

              True.

              Just wanted to update you folks that debugging latest real hardware Android devices from MacOS is impossible as well.

              I ended up having the very same issues as on Windows.

              Sigfaults and straight-into-assembly experience.

              For now the best thing we came up with is debugging on Android Simulator running atop of M2.. but for now we cannot get around UDP data exchange limitations as our app uses UDT which runs atop of UDP and we are unable to maintain connectivity.

              haven't managed to run on iOS simulator as well due to some strange error throwing which I would repost soon.

              Axel SpoerlA Online
              Axel SpoerlA Online
              Axel Spoerl
              Moderators
              wrote on last edited by
              #155

              @CodesInChaoss
              I fully understand, that the Android debugging issue at hand is frustrating. The only thing I can assure is that we are busily working to stabilize it again. You may want to look at the bugreport for some updates.

              Switching Ndk versions does change the debug behavior, so there is likely an external dependency as well. 25.1.8937393 has brought me a small improvement over 25.2...., albeit not a solution. It'll be helpful to know, which SDK / Ndk and Qt Creator versions are running on the M2 you have mentioned.

              As regards your iOS simulator issue, feel free to post a separate thread and tag me. I've got a working environment here. Maybe I can help troubleshooting.

              Software Engineer
              The Qt Company, Oslo

              JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • Axel SpoerlA Axel Spoerl

                @CodesInChaoss
                I fully understand, that the Android debugging issue at hand is frustrating. The only thing I can assure is that we are busily working to stabilize it again. You may want to look at the bugreport for some updates.

                Switching Ndk versions does change the debug behavior, so there is likely an external dependency as well. 25.1.8937393 has brought me a small improvement over 25.2...., albeit not a solution. It'll be helpful to know, which SDK / Ndk and Qt Creator versions are running on the M2 you have mentioned.

                As regards your iOS simulator issue, feel free to post a separate thread and tag me. I've got a working environment here. Maybe I can help troubleshooting.

                JoeCFDJ Offline
                JoeCFDJ Offline
                JoeCFD
                wrote on last edited by JoeCFD
                #156

                @Axel-Spoerl Just tested a simple group box example.
                QtCreator 12.0.2
                Ubuntu 22.04
                Qt 6.6.2
                JDK-17
                NDK 21 or 25
                Device: Samsung tablet A-8 with Android 13

                Problem 1: break into disassembler binary with JDK 17. The test case runs fine without breakpoints.
                Problem 2: JDK 11 is not supported anymore. If JDK 11 and Qt 5.15.2 are applied, NDK can not be set-up. For Android 13, JDK 11 is the right selection.

                Axel SpoerlA 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                  @Axel-Spoerl Just tested a simple group box example.
                  QtCreator 12.0.2
                  Ubuntu 22.04
                  Qt 6.6.2
                  JDK-17
                  NDK 21 or 25
                  Device: Samsung tablet A-8 with Android 13

                  Problem 1: break into disassembler binary with JDK 17. The test case runs fine without breakpoints.
                  Problem 2: JDK 11 is not supported anymore. If JDK 11 and Qt 5.15.2 are applied, NDK can not be set-up. For Android 13, JDK 11 is the right selection.

                  Axel SpoerlA Online
                  Axel SpoerlA Online
                  Axel Spoerl
                  Moderators
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #157

                  @JoeCFD
                  Does that mean, things break with JDK 17?

                  Software Engineer
                  The Qt Company, Oslo

                  JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • Axel SpoerlA Axel Spoerl

                    @JoeCFD
                    Does that mean, things break with JDK 17?

                    JoeCFDJ Offline
                    JoeCFDJ Offline
                    JoeCFD
                    wrote on last edited by JoeCFD
                    #158

                    @Axel-Spoerl Nope. No break stop in the code, instead in disassembler.

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD referenced this topic on
                    • cristian-adamC Offline
                      cristian-adamC Offline
                      cristian-adam
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #159

                      At https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/actions/runs/8161009528 I have artifacts for a fix for the Android debugger issue.

                      It's one line of code that brings Qt Creator 13 to the level of Qt Creator 10.

                      In my case of MacBook Pro M1 I am getting breakpoints hits and no longer "Waiting for debugger".

                      JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • cristian-adamC cristian-adam

                        At https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/actions/runs/8161009528 I have artifacts for a fix for the Android debugger issue.

                        It's one line of code that brings Qt Creator 13 to the level of Qt Creator 10.

                        In my case of MacBook Pro M1 I am getting breakpoints hits and no longer "Waiting for debugger".

                        JoeCFDJ Offline
                        JoeCFDJ Offline
                        JoeCFD
                        wrote on last edited by JoeCFD
                        #160

                        @cristian-adam Good news. We have to use 13? No fix in 12?

                        cristian-adamC 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                          @cristian-adam Good news. We have to use 13? No fix in 12?

                          cristian-adamC Offline
                          cristian-adamC Offline
                          cristian-adam
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #161

                          @JoeCFD At https://wiki.qt.io/Qt_Creator_Releases there is no 12.0.3 release planed.

                          But, you can backport the change, is just one liner. Just clone Qt Creator on GitHub, cherry-pick the change and push a release tag to your fork. You will get releases automatically.

                          cristian-adamC 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • cristian-adamC cristian-adam

                            @JoeCFD At https://wiki.qt.io/Qt_Creator_Releases there is no 12.0.3 release planed.

                            But, you can backport the change, is just one liner. Just clone Qt Creator on GitHub, cherry-pick the change and push a release tag to your fork. You will get releases automatically.

                            cristian-adamC Offline
                            cristian-adamC Offline
                            cristian-adam
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #162

                            https://download.qt.io/snapshots/qtcreator/13.0/13.0.0-rc1/78/ has the needed fixes for the working Android debugging.

                            JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • cristian-adamC cristian-adam

                              https://download.qt.io/snapshots/qtcreator/13.0/13.0.0-rc1/78/ has the needed fixes for the working Android debugging.

                              JoeCFDJ Offline
                              JoeCFDJ Offline
                              JoeCFD
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #163

                              @cristian-adam just downloaded it and had a try. The problem is still there.
                              Ubuntu 22.04
                              Qt 6.6.2
                              JDK-17
                              NDK 21 or 25

                              cristian-adamC 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                                @cristian-adam just downloaded it and had a try. The problem is still there.
                                Ubuntu 22.04
                                Qt 6.6.2
                                JDK-17
                                NDK 21 or 25

                                cristian-adamC Offline
                                cristian-adamC Offline
                                cristian-adam
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #164

                                @JoeCFD I just gave it a try on my MacBook Pro M1 with:

                                • Qt 6.6.1
                                • Android arm64-v8 emulator image
                                • Android SDK 33
                                • Android NDK 25
                                • OpenJDK-17

                                See the recording at qtcreator13-android33.mp4.

                                Axel SpoerlA 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • cristian-adamC cristian-adam

                                  @JoeCFD I just gave it a try on my MacBook Pro M1 with:

                                  • Qt 6.6.1
                                  • Android arm64-v8 emulator image
                                  • Android SDK 33
                                  • Android NDK 25
                                  • OpenJDK-17

                                  See the recording at qtcreator13-android33.mp4.

                                  Axel SpoerlA Online
                                  Axel SpoerlA Online
                                  Axel Spoerl
                                  Moderators
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #165

                                  @JoeCFD
                                  Note the following:

                                  • if you have legacy break points, remove them all.
                                  • if you want to set a break point into main(), add a QThread::sleep(1) on top. It has to be the first instruction in main.
                                  • if you set no break points at all, the debugger will still jump to the disassembler. It looks as if the bug was still present. If you hit "continue" many times (18 in my case), the debuggee will start normally.

                                  Software Engineer
                                  The Qt Company, Oslo

                                  cristian-adamC 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • Axel SpoerlA Axel Spoerl

                                    @JoeCFD
                                    Note the following:

                                    • if you have legacy break points, remove them all.
                                    • if you want to set a break point into main(), add a QThread::sleep(1) on top. It has to be the first instruction in main.
                                    • if you set no break points at all, the debugger will still jump to the disassembler. It looks as if the bug was still present. If you hit "continue" many times (18 in my case), the debuggee will start normally.
                                    cristian-adamC Offline
                                    cristian-adamC Offline
                                    cristian-adam
                                    wrote on last edited by cristian-adam
                                    #166

                                    I have tested the "dice" Qt example and I was able to land into "disassembly" only the first time that the application was installed on the device.

                                    If I click continue it will skip all the SIGSEGVS and would hit my breakpoints.

                                    See the recording: qtcreator13-disassembly.

                                    The Java exceptions are implemented with signals and it looks like the lldb-server is picking up and giving them further down the chain.

                                    Android Studio users also have this problem see Android Studio keeps pausing with SIGSEGV (signal SIGSEGV: invalid address (fault address: 0x0)) at random [240007217] - Issue Tracker (google.com)

                                    I have tried telling the debugger to ignore the signal:

                                    process handle SIGSEGV --pass true --stop false --notify true 
                                    

                                    but it didn't work.

                                    This doesn't look like a Qt Creator bug.

                                    cristian-adamC 1 Reply Last reply
                                    1
                                    • cristian-adamC cristian-adam

                                      I have tested the "dice" Qt example and I was able to land into "disassembly" only the first time that the application was installed on the device.

                                      If I click continue it will skip all the SIGSEGVS and would hit my breakpoints.

                                      See the recording: qtcreator13-disassembly.

                                      The Java exceptions are implemented with signals and it looks like the lldb-server is picking up and giving them further down the chain.

                                      Android Studio users also have this problem see Android Studio keeps pausing with SIGSEGV (signal SIGSEGV: invalid address (fault address: 0x0)) at random [240007217] - Issue Tracker (google.com)

                                      I have tried telling the debugger to ignore the signal:

                                      process handle SIGSEGV --pass true --stop false --notify true 
                                      

                                      but it didn't work.

                                      This doesn't look like a Qt Creator bug.

                                      cristian-adamC Offline
                                      cristian-adamC Offline
                                      cristian-adam
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #167

                                      As a workaround one can paste (plus Enter):

                                      pro hand -p true -s false SIGSEGV
                                      

                                      In the debugger console at the first assembly hit, and then all the rest are ignored!

                                      See qtcreator13-only-one-dissassembly-hit.mp4

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • E Offline
                                        E Offline
                                        esnosy
                                        wrote on last edited by esnosy
                                        #168

                                        I had luck with using ADB over Wi-Fi, debugging with QtCreator works at least once with ADB over Wi-Fi, in Android Studio debugging worked for me over USB and Wi-Fi, at least for a hello world app

                                        EDIT: I take it back

                                        Axel SpoerlA 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • E esnosy

                                          I had luck with using ADB over Wi-Fi, debugging with QtCreator works at least once with ADB over Wi-Fi, in Android Studio debugging worked for me over USB and Wi-Fi, at least for a hello world app

                                          EDIT: I take it back

                                          Axel SpoerlA Online
                                          Axel SpoerlA Online
                                          Axel Spoerl
                                          Moderators
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #169

                                          @esnosy said in Unable to debug Android App (Windows + Qt Creator 12 + LLDB):

                                          EDIT: I take it back

                                          Does that mean, you are still struggling?

                                          Software Engineer
                                          The Qt Company, Oslo

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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