Repository navigation
[Bug] Wine crashes on Android 9/API 28: missing ASurfaceTransaction_create #151
Description
Device and app
- Device: Amazon Fire HD 10 (KFTRWI, 9th generation), MediaTek MT8183 / Mali-G72 MP3
- Android: 9, API 28
- GameHub Lite: 5.1.8 (versionCode 65)
- ABI: arm64-v8a
Steps to reproduce
- Import a local Windows installer.
- Open its game details and press Play Now (the configured executable is
.../GameHub/Install/AOE3/setup.exe).
Expected
Wine starts and runs the selected installer.
Actual
gamehub.lite:wine crashes while creating WineActivity, before the Windows installer starts:
E AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E AndroidRuntime: Process: gamehub.lite:wine, PID: 11865
E AndroidRuntime: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: dlopen failed: cannot locate symbol "ASurfaceTransaction_create" referenced by ".../lib/arm64/libwinemu.so"
at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:1016)
at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:1669)
at com.winemu.core.gamepad.GamepadServerManager.<clinit>(Unknown Source:10)
...
at com.xj.winemu.WineActivity.onCreate(...)
The GameHub Wine log identifies the same local executable path and reports Android 9 / SDK 28. The Android NDK reference says ASurfaceTransaction_create is available since API 29: https://developer.android.com/ndk/reference/group/native-activity#ASurfaceTransaction_create
Could the native engine either guard/dynamically resolve this API and provide a fallback for API 28, or gracefully disable the optional gamepad server on older Android? If Android 10+ is required, please raise/document the effective minimum API because the installed APK advertises minSdk 26.
I have the full local logs and can provide the relevant files if maintainers need them. I have intentionally omitted unrelated device logcat entries and device identifiers here.
Activity
TDAHzeirenses commentedon Nov 3, 2026
Additional research: Android documents this NDK symbol as API 29+, and notes that native symbols are eagerly resolved when a library loads; direct strong references to unavailable APIs can prevent the whole .so from loading on older Android. It recommends
dlopen/dlsymor weak API references for newer APIs: https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/sdk-versionsA concrete Android 9-safe pattern exists in GameNative's public native renderer: it checks the device API level, loads
libandroid.so, resolves the SurfaceControl/SurfaceTransaction functions withdlsym, and returns “unavailable” below API 29 or when symbols are missing, allowing the rest of the app to continue: https://github.com/utkarshdalal/GameNative/blob/master/app/src/main/cpp/asurfacerenderer/ASurfaceRendererContext.cppThis is a reference implementation rather than a drop-in
libwinemu.soreplacement; the failing library here still needs its strong reference removed/guarded, or its optional GamepadServerManager load skipped on API 28.TDAHzeirenses commentedon Nov 3, 2026
Relevant lines from GameHub's own Wine log (device serials and unrelated system/app logs are excluded):
The crash logcat timestamp for that launch is 21:26:39.980 and the process dies immediately after the failed native library load. The complete local collection remains available if maintainers request more detail.