Android Debug Bridge Released For The Raspi

Over on the XDA developers forums, something really cool is happening. Android hacker extraordinaire [AdamOutler] has managed to port the Android Debug Bridge to the Raspberry Pi.

The Android Debug bridge allows hardware tinkerers full access to their Android device. This feature has been used to build everything from telepresence robots to connecting a MIDI keyboard to a phone. With this port of the Android Debug Bridge, anyone can take advantage of the existing hacks and hardware written around the ADB to build something completely new.

Of course, the port of the Android Debug Bridge is only useful if your Raspi is running Android. Current Android builds for the Raspberry Pi are janky at best, but the current rate of progress does look encouraging. Hopefully with the most useful Android tool ported to everyone’s favorite credit-card sized computer, the progress of the Raspi/Android builds will pick up their pace.

12 thoughts on “Android Debug Bridge Released For The Raspi

  1. Neat, but the RasPi has GPIOs and serial ports… the interfacing is kinda taken care of, no?

    (Incidentally, I’d like to point out that we did the whole android telepresence robot thing first, in 2010 — it was even featured here)

  2. What I dont understand is WHY anyone would want to run android on the RasPi? You already have a full linux there, so unless you want to run mobile apps there is zero reason to run Android on it. I have more power and capabilities with a full Linux install than a android install for robotics.

    1. This is pretty well the conclusion I reached with my N900… and why I still don’t have any desire to move down in the food chain to Android.

      That said, I feel both full Linux and android aren’t really suited to robotics. At least personally I think it should remain the domain of real time systems.

  3. No no no…

    I started the work and TrevD completed it. The binary is now updated to handle the latest exploits for Android 4.1.1 and previous.

    Trevd’s build files are good for compiling any AOSP tools on Raspi.

    Also, the binary us statically compiled so it runs on Raspi Linux regardless of sub OS.. it will work on raspian.

  4. @adamoutler can you confirm for us that this is the adb tool that installs as /usr/bin/adb on a RPi running linux, so that it can be used to run the debugger against an android device plugged into (for example) the RPi’s usb port? I think there’s a bit of confusion going on here, some people think this is about the android OS itself being installed on the RPi. (Perhaps I’m the one confused)

  5. “Of course, the port of the Android Debug Bridge is only useful if your Raspi is running Android”

    See that’s where I think a big misunderstanding is happening. I’ve already made good use of an arm-linux port of the adb binary on my RPi, and it’s running ArchLinux, not Android. It’s waaay useful for instance using the forward option and SSHing from the Pi through my HTC dInc2’s 3G internet.

  6. Are we talking about ADB client or host? I think that’s part of the confusion.

    (To wit: The adb HOST lives on the phone, the adb CLIENT lives on, usually your development box that you write android apps on)

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