Android Xamarin.Android 6

Xamarin.Android 6.0

Xamarin.Android 6.0 fixes numerous bugs and provides a binding for Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Note: Xamarin.Android 6.0 requires JDK 1.7 to use Android Wear and API-21+. JDK 1.6 may be used when targeting previous API levels.

Note: Due to a change by Google, Android N will now only permit linking to NDK-provided native libraries. libsqlite.so is not an NDK-provided native library. Consequently, existing apps using e.g. Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll will crash when running on Android N. This may include other SQLite-using assemblies, not distributed with Xamarin.Android.

Xamarin.Android 6.0.4 ("C6SR4") updates Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll to include a custom built version of libsqlite.so, named libsqlite3_xamarin.so.

All Developers need to audit their code for P/Invoke use and ensure that referenced native libraries are either included in the Android NDK, or are included within the app.apk itself. The only Xamarin.Android-provided assembly impacted by this change is Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll.

Xamarin.Android 6.0.4

Xamarin.Android 6.0.4 fixes Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll for use on Android N.

New Features

Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll and libsqlite.so

In previous releases, Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll would P/Invoke into the OS-provided /system/lib/libsqlite.so native library. Starting with Android N, Android will no longer permit this behavior, so previous versions of Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll will throw a DllNotFoundException when attempting to use SQLite functionality when executing on Android N.

Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll will now bundle and distribute a custom SQLite, named libsqlite3_xamarin.so, which will automatically be bundled into the app.apk when Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll is referenced.

Existing users of Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll need only rebuild their app.

However, if any other assembly is P/Invoking sqlite, sqlite3, or variations thereof, these SQLite uses will not be updated. Those other assemblies will need to be updated. For example, SQLitePCL.raw 0.6.0 will not work on Android N, while the updated SQLitePCL.raw 0.8.6 has been updated to distribute its own copy of SQLite, and will work on Android N.

Integrated Mono Features/Fixes

Xamarin.Android uses Mono 4.2 commit 7e2027e0.

  • 38161: Instability/crash when using DateTime under cpu load

Xamarin.Android 6.0.3

New Features

  • Visual Studio Community Edition is now supported.

  • All editions may now make use of these features which were previously restricted:

    • Command-line builds, including headless builds
    • All types and assemblies may now be used, including System.Data.SqlClient
    • P/Invoke
    • Java interop, including .jar binding assemblies
    • No more application size limits

  • Removed the splash screen which was shown at launch for apps built with Trial edition.

Xamarin.Android 6.0.2

This is a bug-fix release.

Bug Fixes

  • 36036: error MSB4018: The GenerateJavaStubs task failed unexpectedly, error MSB4018: System.InvalidOperationException: Sequence contains no matching element
  • 37422: Release Build Still Creates .__override__ Directory

Integrated Mono Features/Fixes

Xamarin.Android uses Mono 4.2 commit d9d3a13c.

  • 38012: Using Task's under memory pressure leads to unexpected crashes inside the TPL on iOS

Xamarin.Android 6.0.1

New Features

  • ${applicationId} may now be used within AndroidManifest.xml -- or any custom attributes that contribute to AndroidManifest.xml -- and will be replaced with the value of the /manifest/@package attribute value.

Bug Fixes

  • Fix Proguard config file generation issue which would prevent the GC from working.
  • Fix NullReferenceException when linking because a custom attribute constructor has a null value for a Type[] parameter.
  • Fix @(LinkDescription) processing so that when /linker/assembly/type[@fullname='*'], all types in the specified assembly are preserved, not just "toplevel" types. (Previously, nested types would still be linked away, contrary to all expectations.)
  • 33514: Add additional properties to IntentFilterAttribute.
  • 34076: JavaCollection.CopyTo() throws an ArgumentException.
  • 34562: Fix Visual Studio hang when installing NuGet packages.
  • 34888: Install all Facade assemblies on OS X.
  • 36185: Visual Studio may freeze when opening a solution as we download assembly dependencies.
  • 36250: Preserve constructors of CollectionDataContract nested types.

Integrated Mono Features/Fixes

Xamarin.Android uses Mono 4.2 commit 996df3cb.

  • 20186: Make sure ptr-to-structure and structure-to-ptr wrappers are unique for AOT.
  • 30018: Use "Dns.GetHostEntry" or "Dns.GetHostByName",sometime throw error "Cannot handle address family xxxxx"
  • 31432: Fix TimeZoneInfo.ParseTZBuffer() abbreviations.
  • 35545: Mono cannot marshal a parameter that is a function pointer which takes a function pointer as a parameter
  • 35828: Thread.CurrentThread doesn't return correct object in appdomain
  • 35857: NullReferenceException in SqlDataReader.GetValues()
  • 36100: DataContractSerializer broke in XI 9.2.1.51 STABLE
  • 36256: Memory leak related to `KDTree.FromData<int>(points, distance):
  • 36292: Assignment operator (+=, ++, etc.) on generic items crashes with System.InvalidProgramException: Invalid IL code
  • 36383: async / await - Custom awaiter crashing on device
  • 36414: [Mono 4.2 Regression]: ThreadPool.SetMinThreads() and ThreadPool.GetAvailableThreads() don't works as expected
  • 36418: GetProperty fails for indexer properties on instantiations of generic types
  • 36436: XslCompiledTransform causes hang during execution
  • 36646: Delegate.Remove() for combined delegate works different from Microsoft .Net
  • 37171: DataContractSerializer does not handle ISerializable at all

Xamarin.Android 6.0

New Features

Build Improvements

The Xamarin.Android Build system has been reviewed to avoid executing MSBuild targets more than is necessary.

Sample5.1.4 Rebuild Time5.1.99 Rebuild TimeImprovement
TipCalc.UI.Android 11.278727s 1.892669s -9.386058s
UrbanAirship PushSample 4.315072 1.2243065 -3.0907655
Xamarin.Forms ScaleAndRotate 9.3481605 1.445299 -7.9028615
Large proprietary application 97.479729 25.099358 -72.380371

Changing build options will now consistently cause build outputs to be rebuilt.

When using Visual Studio, MSBuild, or xbuild, a new $(InstallDependsOnTargets) MSBuild property can now be overridden to perform pre- and post-Install actions. (Bug #16553)

Add Mono.Posix.dll

A version of Mono.Posix.dll (without the obsolete Mono.Posix namespace) is now included, providing access to the Mono.Unix and Mono.Unix.Native namespaces.

Note: Android does not support Unix Real-time signals on many architectures. Attempting to use them may result throwing a NotSupportedException.

Reduced NoClassDefFoundError Generation.

In order to avoid extra NoClassDefFoundError generation, and to support properly looking up Java types located in assemblies other than Mono.Android.dll, the packaging process now generates a mapping between all bound Java types and their corresponding wrappers. This should reduce the need to use the .JavaCast<T>() extension method. (Bug #7459)

Note, however, that this only works for bound types. If a Java method returns e.g. an interface type, and the implementation returns a non-public or otherwise unbound type, then the previous behavior of following an algorithmically determined "best matching wrapper" is used.

Known Issues

We have recently discovered that enabling Proguard will break the GC, resulting in all manner of "weird" bugs. Proguard support will be fixed in a future release.

Bug Fixes

  • 1969: System.Net.NetworkInformation.GetAllNetworkInterfaces() fails.
  • 18824: For certain projects, setting the linker mode to a value other than "None" leads to incorrect line numbers when debugging
  • 23771: UTF8 Decoder's Convert does not keep internal state between calls when flush parameter is false
  • 28538: Android application crashed as soon as it launches on device/Emulator
  • 28565: ClassNotFoundException when instantiating LayerDrawable.
  • 28789: Generic fragments throw TypeLoadException. (Now they instead throw NotSupportedException.)
  • 31497: Multiple re-downloads of the same package.
  • 31527: Unable to load file or assembly 'System.Runtime' in project with both shared runtime and Link SDK enabled
  • 31875: as invocation fails if dos2unix is in %PATH%.
  • 32418: Need MSBuild output when downloading maven zip files and unzipping.
  • 32696: Android XML Resource reader tries to read extra attributes.
  • 33305: Exceptions thrown from void-returning async methods don't contain the full stack trace.
  • 33349: LinkAssemblies error from VS2015 compiled assemblies containing nested types.
  • 33554: monodroid error XA0000: Reason: An element with the same key already exists in the dictionary
  • 34139: GZipStream (DeflateStreamNative) native exception after Flush() with no buffer data: Internal error (no progress possible) Flush
  • 34391: System.DllNotFoundException: sqlcipher
  • 34548: Broken dependency chain when embedding wear applications

Integrated Mono Features/Fixes

Xamarin.Android uses Mono 4.2 commit 6dd2d0d5.

  • 1856: Wrong stack trace when exception is re-thrown
  • 2917: XslCompiledTransform.Load() ignoring xsl:output properties
  • 4148: JavaScriptSerializer invalid JSON primitive
  • 10268: Linker issue with horizontallistview project in release mode
  • 16475: Method not found: System.Web.Routing.RouteCollection.get_AppendTrailingSlash
  • 17817: Convert.ToUInt64() with base 10 does not check range
  • 18171: XElement implements IXmlSerializable, but lacks parameterless constructor, and has incorrect QName in KnownTypeCollection
  • 18558: XML Serializer does not match .NET behavior when using subclasses with multiple XmlElement tags
  • 19334: BeginWrite failure at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.BeginWrite
  • 19697: WCF SendTimeout not working in Xamarin
  • 19823: InvalidOperationException in ServicePoint.RemoveConnectionGroup()
  • 20048: Socket ctor missing
  • 20764: WebMessageFormatter crashes with void return type OperationContract
  • 21810: Method not implemented System.Web.HttpApplication.RegisterModule
  • 23119: Remove npgsql from mono (or at least update)
  • 24086: Runtime test - TestDaylightSavingsTime fails against Asia/Amman for 2012 DateTimes
  • 24647: ExceptionDispatchInfo::Throw() does not replace capture stack trace
  • 25717: Calling a created delegate for value type fails in Mono but works in Windows
  • 26205: System.IO.Package.LoadRelationships() throws null reference for some NuGet packages with PCLs generated on Windows
  • 26362: [Process] Exited event raised while process still running
  • 26546: Issue when using null value for integer and datetime in SqlParameter
  • 26858: HttpListeners scheme parser is case sensitive
  • 26998: Issue with DataContractJsonSerializer - Deserialize type incorrect on iOS
  • 27348: Deadlock in WebConnectionGroup.Close() / WebConnection.Close()
  • 27352: HttpRequestMessage: adding Accept header with multiple values fails
  • 27386: HttpClient doesn't honor BaseAddress with the Get*Async() methods
  • 27614: Native interop: out LPArrays cause crash
  • 27697: Debugger crash: error: * Assertion at ../../../../../mono/mono/mini/debugger-agent.c:2475, conditiontls' not met``
  • 27725: Missing day names in ar-EG culture
  • 27982: Inconsistent behavior in DynamicAttribute.Equals() method
  • 28014: Type is not serializable with a type-forwarded SerializableAttribute
  • 28181: * Assertion: should not be reached at debugger-agent.c:5957
  • 28184: ParameterInfo.GetCustomAttributes() returns null in some cases
  • 28235: System.Type change to reference source broke IronPython
  • 28290: Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem() does not throw OutOfMemoryException on alloc failure
  • 28331: Custom Attributes incompatability
  • 28369: mono runtime crash assertion 'hash != NULL' failed
  • 28383: Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(0) incorrectly returns null
  • 28398: * Assertion: should not be reached at class.c:6405
  • 28692: GetCustomAttributes() seems to return attributes in a different order than in windows.
  • 28777: GZipStream (DeflateStreamNative) native exception after Flush() with no buffer data: Internal error (no progress possible) Flush
  • 28793: SynchronizationContext.SetSynchronizationContext() leaks back inappropriately into caller
  • 28857: Nursery-canaries and AOT causes assertion failure
  • 28876: Satellite assembly finder fails for memory-loaded assemblies with GetDirectoryName(): Invalid path
  • 28961: AOT error when upgrading to Unified API
  • 29039: CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures) returns broken ar-SA culture
  • 29183: Array constructor fails to construct multi bound array
  • 29625: Unable to extract certain archives using ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory
  • 29667: Mono v4.0 crashes after a while
  • 29679: Mono crashes with Assertion at class.c:5748 when getting custom attributes from corefx contract assembly
  • 29823: 4.0 Regression - SqlConnectionBuilder broken after migrating to System.Data reference source
  • 29906: Static method TimeZoneInfo.GetSystemTimeZones() is not thread safe.
  • 29927: Http Response doesn't UnescapeDataString
  • 29970: [MonoNativeFunctionWrapper] doesn't work with methods that return structures on 32bit device
  • 30043: Disposing a FileSystemWatcher object causes ArgumentOutOfRangeException
  • 30171: BinaryReader.ReadChar() returns incorrect result on 8.10
  • 30502: AssemblyName.CultureName implementation differs from .NET.
  • 30551: Potential race in do_rehash
  • 30604: HttpClient times out when redirected on a Post request
  • 30617: Stepping over foreach exits method
  • 30698: Build fails when building for device using --aot-options=-O=float32 and performing a calculation on float or nfloat variables
  • 30741: MemoryMappedFiles from reference source is causing segfaults
  • 30825: Null string to mono_mmap_open_handle() Regression between 4.1.0.1738 and 4.3.0.109
  • 30851: Incorrect (Swedish) date format since version 3.4.0
  • 30868: ObjectDisposedException in mono 4.0.1.28, but not mono 3.12.1
  • 30869: HttpClient authentication not working
  • 30880: IPv4Mask property produces a Not Implemented Exception
  • 30897: App crashes with Thai locale selected
  • 30972: System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive disregards provided encoding
  • 31020: Order of interfaces in GetInterfaces() is random
  • 31231: Crash with generics makeref
  • 31336: HttpClient adds comma in User-Agent
  • 31398: Cultures zh-Hans and zh-CHS are equal when they should not be
  • 31451: mono_trace_set_printerr_handler() calls g_set_print_handler() instead of g_set_printerr_handler()
  • 31507: ObjectDisposedException when canceling postAsync
  • 31557: Sockets with ReuseAddress does not seem to be working as expected
  • 31635: UnixMarshal.PtrToString() fails with UTF32Encoding
  • 31877: SendChunked() - "Method must be implemented"
  • 31932: Regression: Stack Overflow with native P/Invoke Callback
  • 31996: AOT compiler fails if path to project has a comma
  • 32137: System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.EncodingName not the returning human-readable description of the current encoding
  • 32179: Consistent crash in mini-arm.c when running FSharp on Raspberry Pi 2
  • 32539: Process.ProcessName value fetched using Process.GetProcesses() is trimmed to 15 characters
  • 32579: System.Diagnostics.Process.MainModule.FileName does not return full path of the executable and returns 15 chars trimmed value which is same as Process.ProcessName
  • 32685: NullReferenceException in ServicePoint.CheckAvaliableForRecycling
  • 32815: PropertyInfo.Module throws System.NotImplementedException
  • 32886: [Mono 3.12] Some WCF methods that do not use ref parameters fail with nvalidOperationException during ClientRuntimeChannel.EndProcess when called via a ChannelFactory channel
  • 32918: StackTrace() missing original exception - ExceptionDispatchInfo
  • 32931: NullReferenceException in KeyValuePair.get_Key when using generic method and Linq
  • 32955: Random crash at aot-runtime.c:3144
  • 33080: JIT error only on ARMV7
  • 33218: Action ReflectedType differs from Delegate ReflectedType
  • 33591: AOT compilation fails with condition field->type->attrs & FIELD_ATTRIBUTE_HAS_DEFAULT not met
  • 33723: Null propagation operator produces incorrect IL
  • 33754: Invalid IL Code when using elvis operator to call extension struct methods
  • 33952: Debugger.Break() causes app to crash if Debugger is not attached,
  • 34047: System.Globalization.CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("es") returns incorrect NumberFormatInfo.NumberGroupSeparator
  • 34147: Serious AOT bug
  • 34334: System.NotImplementedException: The requested feature is not implemented from Microsoft.Scripting.Interpreter.EqualInstruction.Create (System.Type type)
  • 34604: Compiler Crash in Mono.CSharp.CallEmitter.EmitPredefined with NRE
  • 34750: Debugger crash very often - debugger-agent.c:2587, condition 'res' not met
  • 34926: AOT issue with await Task<bool> on Visual Studio 2015

API Changes

Xamarin Workbook

If it's not already installed, install the Xamarin Workbooks app first. The workbook file should download automatically, but if it doesn't, just click to start the workbook download manually.