Android: a stale emulator crash dump makes every boot wait on a crash-report dialog until the lease times out #1183

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1. V3RON

   added

   bug:newReported. An agent may triage it (rule 8); the fast track may set it ready (rule 17).Reported. An agent may triage it (rule 8); the fast track may set it ready (rule 17).

   on Nov 1, 2026
2. V3RON

   added a commit that references this issue on Nov 1, 2026

   feat(tunnel): simlock tunnel forward reaches a leased device's port f…

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   9c3f869
3. V3RON

   self-assigned this

   on Nov 1, 2026
4. V3RON commented on Nov 1, 2026

   

   V3RON

   on Nov 1, 2026

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   Reproduction

   Confirmed. Gap: the driver never tells the emulator how to handle crash reports, so the emulator falls back to asking a person. The test's expected flag is a proposal.

   src/drivers/android/index.test.ts, "starts the cold boot and the restart from the baseline with -crash-report-mode never, so a stale crash dump asks no one", on bug/1183-repro (d84762a).

   pnpm exec vitest run --project unit src/drivers/android/index.test.ts -t "crash-report-mode never"
   
   - { "boot": "-no-snapshot-load",      "crashReportMode": "never" }
   + { "boot": "-no-snapshot-load",      "crashReportMode": undefined }
   - { "boot": "simlock_clean_baseline", "crashReportMode": "never" }
   + { "boot": "simlock_clean_baseline", "crashReportMode": undefined }
   

   What I read on the host (emulator 36.5.11): emulator -help-all and the strings in qemu-system-aarch64.

   -crash-report-mode <option list>   Override crash reporting mode. Available options: disabled, never, always, ask
   "No consent for crashreport %s, deleting."
   "Failed to get consent, keeping %s for now."
   "Showing crashdialog to get consent."
   

   Root cause

   src/drivers/android/index.ts:2227 (#startEmulator) builds every emulator command line from fixed flags plus emulatorLaunchFlags (:2835), and none of them sets -crash-report-mode. With no override, the emulator uses the user's saved setting, which defaults to ask. At startup it opens a modal consent dialog for each dump in emu-crash-<version>.db/completed/. The dialog blocks the main thread, so the console and gRPC ports never open. The symptom is BootTimeoutError in #waitForReadiness, with no reason in the log, because the emulator runs with stdio: "ignore" (:2241).

   Simplest fix

   Add "-crash-report-mode", "never" to the fixed flags in #startEmulator. Then update the tests that compare the full argv (baselineBuildExpectations, the cold-boot, baseline and launch-option tests). Going by the binary's strings, never also deletes the stale dump.

   Alternatives rejected

   • disabled: no dialog, but the dump stays forever and new crashes are not recorded.
   • Deleting /tmp/android-$USER/emu-crash-*.db/completed/*: that is the user's crash database, outside the owned root (ADR 0001).
   • Setting ANDROID_EMU_CRASH_REPORTING_DATABASE per root: the default mode is still ask.

   Risk

   • never is untested on hardware. A slow-lane boot with a .dmp in completed/ should confirm no dialog and that the dump is deleted.
   • Only the argv changes, so baselines should be unaffected. Check that baselineLaunchInputs stays as it is.
   • Older emulators may not know the flag. requirements.mdx sets no minimum emulator version.

   Written by an agent.
5. V3RON

   removed their assignment

   on Nov 1, 2026
6. V3RON

   added

   bug:readyAn agent may fix it.An agent may fix it.

   and removed

   bug:newReported. An agent may triage it (rule 8); the fast track may set it ready (rule 17).Reported. An agent may triage it (rule 8); the fast track may set it ready (rule 17).

   on Nov 1, 2026
7. V3RON

   self-assigned this

   on Nov 1, 2026
8. V3RON commented on Nov 1, 2026

   

   V3RON

   on Nov 1, 2026

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   Decision taken

   Question: -crash-report-mode never alone makes the emulator delete every pending dump in the user's shared crash database (/tmp/android-<user>/emu-crash-<version>.db). Android Studio and the user's own emulators write there too. Review finding R1 says this touches files Simlock did not write.

   Options:

   1. never alone. No dialog. The emulator deletes the user's dumps from Android Studio and other emulators too, without asking.
   2. never plus ANDROID_EMU_CRASH_REPORTING_DATABASE set to a folder in Simlock's root. No dialog. Simlock's emulators record and drop crash dumps only in Simlock's folder. The user's shared folder is not read or touched.
   3. disabled. No dialog, but crashes are not recorded at all.

   Taken: option 2. It keeps Simlock inside its own root (ADR 0001) and still fixes the boot hang. The triage rejected the variable only on its own, without never.

   Reverting: drop the env var from the emulator spawn (one line) to get option 1.

   The fast tests can't prove the emulator honours the variable. A hardware check will: a .dmp in the shared completed/ folder, a lease boots with no dialog, and the .dmp is still there.

   Written by an agent.
9. V3RON

   added 3 commits that reference this issue on Nov 1, 2026

   fix(android): give the emulator a crash database under the Simlock ro…

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   b189e5a

   test(e2e): a lease leaves a dump in the user's shared emulator crash …

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   eb2de31

   test(e2e): plant a crash dump crashpad recognises (xattrs) so the smo…

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   3301085
10. V3RON

    closed this as completedin 20c3640on Nov 1, 2026
11. V3RON commented on Nov 1, 2026

    

    V3RON

    on Nov 1, 2026

    ContributorAuthor

    More actions

    Delivery run

    Merged: #1186 (#1183)
    Decided: #1183 — -crash-report-mode never alone deletes the user's shared crash dumps → also point the emulator at a crash database inside Simlock's root

    Written by an agent.
12. V3RON

    added a commit that references this issue on Nov 3, 2026

    fix(android): start the emulator with -crash-report-mode never (calls…

    ...

    This issue will close once commit 20c3640 is merged into the 'main' branch.

    20c3640