barebones-device-farm

A barebones android device farm for controlling android devices via a web browser.

Screenshot

Setting up

Pre-requisites

• A Centos 7 / Fedora 28 Workstation or Ubuntu 18.04 Deskop.
• Install kernel-modules-extra via sudo dnf install kernel-modules-extra -y .
• hats user with sudo (root without password) access.

sudo useradd -m hats
sudo usermod -aG wheel hats
echo 'hats ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' | sudo tee -a /etc/sudoers

• Set up hats-linux for Centos 7 / Fedora or Ubuntu.
• Ensure environment variables to linuxbrew, npm (for appium) and android-sdk are properly configured in /home/hats/.bashrc.

Set-up USB Server

• Go to VirtualHere Server and download VirtualHere Server.
• You can run VirtualHere Server on a separate machine. This machine will act as the USB Server
• A VirtualHere license is required to connect more than 1 android device.
• Ensure VirtualHere USB Server process / service is running.
• Refer to VirtualHere Server documentation for more information on setting up USB Server.

Set-up USB Client

• Clone or download this repo and copy it's contents to /opt/scripts.
• On the Fedora workstation, install VirtualHere Client by downloading their linux release. Note: Commercial software.
• Copy vhuit64 and vhclientx86_64 to /opt/scripts .
• Ensure the USB Client can access the USB Server running VirtualHere Server. TCP port 7575 or 17575 must be open.
• Within a Desktop Environment, run /opt/scripts/runVhui.sh . Choose the USB Server and device(s) you want to attach to the USB Client.

Set-up barebones-device-farm

• Install xpra and websokify by using sudo dnf install xpra python2-websockify -y (Fedora) or sudo apt install xpra python-websockify -y (Ubuntu).

• Additionally, for Ubuntu, apply the following fixes:

  echo "allowed_users=anybody" | sudo tee --append /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config
  wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/younglim/hats-linux/master/binaries/usr-share-xpra-www.zip
  sudo unzip usr-share-xpra-www.zip -d /usr/share/xpra/
  

• For Fedora, install scrcpy via linuxbrew by using brew install scrcpy.

• For Ubuntu,

  wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/younglim/hats-linux/master/binaries/scrcpy.zip
  sudo unzip scrcpy.zip -d /usr/local/share
  echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/share/scrcpy" >> ~/.bashrc
  source ~/.bashrc
  

Set up auto-start service script

• Copy service script sudo cp device-farm.service /etc/systemd/system .
• Run sudo systemctl daemon-reload.
• Enable the service sudo systemctl enable device-farm.service.
• Allow service to start on boot by running the following as root if [ -f /etc/systemd/system/*.wants/device-farm.service ]; then echo "On"; else echo "Off"; fi

Run

• Start the service by using sudo systemctl start device-farm.service.
• Check service is running sudo systemctl status device-farm.service.
• Browse and control your android device http://localhost:14500.

Other Usage

• Set up your own CI tool such as GoCD or Bamboo and run appium / robot framework tests.
• Check the xpra.org website for more information on usage scenarios and configuring display client.