How easy it is to create your own Android device farm on Linux
Within the current post, I will try to guide you to build your device farm. The solution is based on a software called STF (Smartphone Test Farm). The guide provided on their web page is described how simple it is to use it on Mac OS. Here, I will help you to make the same thing on Linux without any additional cost.
What is a device farm
A device farm is actually a software collection which helps you test and interact, using a browser, with real Android devices. The control is remote and it allows you to install/uninstall APKs, control the device, take screenshots and also check the storage content in real time.
Prerequisite
The only thing that you must have is a Linux machine, it doesn’t matter if it is local, remote or virtual. In this example I used an Ubuntu OS instance.
Installation steps
sudo apt-get install curl
Adding the NodeSource APT repository for Debian-based distributions repository and the PGP key for verifying packages
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash -
Install Node.js from the Debian-based distributions repository
sudo apt-get install nodejs
Add RethinkDB key
source /etc/lsb-release && echo “deb http://download.rethinkdb.com/apt $DISTRIB_CODENAME main” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rethinkdb.list
wget -qO- https://download.rethinkdb.com/apt/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
Install packages
sudo apt-get install npm
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y git nodejs nodejs-legacy npm rethinkdb android-tools-adb python autoconf automake libtool b
Install additional packages via npm
sudo npm install -g bower karma gulp
sudo apt-get install stow
sudo apt install git-core
sudo apt install libtool
Install ZeroMQ
cd ~/Downloads && wget http://download.zeromq.org/zeromq-4.1.2.tar.gz && tar -zxvf zeromq-4.1.2.tar.gz && cd zeromq-4.1.2 && ./configure — without-libsodium — prefix=/usr/local/stow/zeromq-4.1.2
make && sudo make install && cd /usr/local/stow && sudo stow -vv zeromq-4.1.2
Install Google Protobuf
cd ~/Downloads && git clone https://github.com/google/protobuf.git && cd protobuf && ./autogen.sh && ./configure — prefix=/usr/local/stow/protobuf-`git rev-parse — short HEAD`
if you receive the error: “./autogen.sh: autoreconf: not found” run the following command:
Update library path
sudo ldconfig
If you encounter problems running the following command, please open a new terminal and re-run the command
rm –rf .node-gyp
sudo apt-get install yasm
sudo npm install -g stf -–unsafe-perm
ADB
sudo apt update
sudo apt install adb
Rethinkdb
Download it from
https://github.com/srh/rethinkdb/releases/tag/v2.3.6.srh.1
file “rethinkdb_2.3.6.srh.1.0bionic_amd64.deb”
then navigate to downloads folder and run the following commands
sudo dpkg –i rethinkdb_2.3.6.srh.1.0bionic_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
At this point, you should have all dependencies available. Now, let’s install STF software:
sudo npm install -g stf — unsafe-perm
RUN THE SOFTWARE
The expected moment is here:
rethinkdb & adb start-server
stf local
Now accessing http://127.0.0.1:7100 you should be able to access the STF server.
Everything is up and running, connect how many devices you want and play with them.
Benefits
In order to access the web interface, you have to make a login using a name and a valid email address. You will be able to see the device within the farm, the ones that are taken (busy) and the ones that are available.
The devices’ details are also available including the details about the user who is using currently the device.
Playing with them is very easy and straightforward. Even the command to connect to the current device is available on the bottom-right. All control is in your hands (actually in your mouse).
Just code it!
