1.19.0¶

The Anbox Cloud team is pleased to announce the release of Anbox Cloud 1.19.0.

Please see Component versions for a list of updated components.

New features & improvements¶

The Anbox Management Service (AMS) API documentation created using OpenAPI specification (Swagger 2.0) is available on the AMS host at /1.0/swagger.json and at https://canonical.github.io/anbox-cloud.github.com/latest/ams/.
Pagination and filtering support is enabled for containers and applications in the AMS API. You can use it by directly interacting with the AMS using API calls.
A cgroup v1 emulation layer is added for cgroup v2-only hosts. This is required by Android for resource tracking and management.
Enhanced configuration of failure domain of LXD nodes to ensure LXD makes its database highly available across multiple availability zones.
The Android watchdog can now be enabled or disabled via amc application set. For example, amc application set my-app watchdog.disabled=true
An alias (app) is added for the application command in AMS. For example, you can use amc app ls in place of amc application ls to list all applications in AMS.
The default CPU limit mode is set to pinning for a better streaming experience.

When the Anbox Application Registry (AAR) is configured, you can view and manage applications and their versions in the registry. If you have configured the AAR in manual mode, you can also manually push apps to and delete apps from registry. Use the Registry option on the left menu to explore more about this feature.

The streaming statistics for sessions are enhanced. When you click on the Statistics button, the right pane displays the stream statistics and relevant graphs.
The sessions list Search and filter feature is enhanced for easier filtering based on status and the region.
You can now use the Sharing button on the session page to invite users without an account to join the stream using a link.

An application detail page is added where you can see the details of the application and its versions. Click on the application name in the list of applications to view the application detail page.
You can manage application versions through the dashboard now. On the Versions tab of the application detail page, there’s an Actions button that allows you to manage versions of the application.

You can perform bulk actions on containers on the containers list page. Select one or more containers for the Start/Stop buttons to appear on top.
The container list Search and filter feature is enhanced for easier filtering based on status, type of containers, running applications, and the node on which it is running.

Android security updates for August 2023 (see Android Security Bulletin - August 2023 for more information).
The Android WebView has been updated to 115.0.5790.138.
The Mesa driver/VirGL renderer have been updated to the latest upstream version 23.1.
License information for used software components is available in the NOTICE file in the root file system.
A verification for secure boot and machine owner key is added to avoid appliance installation failures.
The wait-for-if.sh script in the LXD charm now uses ip instead of ifconfig.
Improved anbox-cloud-tests so that it does not delete containers/sessions other than those that it owns.

Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) images that were deprecated in 1.16.0 are no longer supported and are removed.
The qemu-props binary from the Android image was dropped as it is unnecessary and not energy efficient if the service is unused yet running during Android runtime.
The outdated ashmem module was originally removed in the 1.17.2 release but AMS still attached the ashmem device by default when starting a container. This could cause start up failures and hence with 1.19.0, ashmem module is completely removed from AMS and Anbox Cloud.
The following services that consumed unnecessary CPU time when launching a container are masked:

e2scrub@.service
e2scrub_all.service
e2scrub_all.timer
e2scrub_fail@.service
e2scrub_reap.service

Android 11 images are deprecated since 1.19.0 and are planned to be removed when they no longer get security patches from Google. This is expected to happen around the Anbox Cloud 1.21 release. See provided images for the current list of supported and deprecated images.
Support for Ubuntu 20.04 (focal) hosts is deprecated and will be removed when Ubuntu 24.04 is available.

Forcing software rendering for applications in the manifest.yaml via video-encoder: software does not work and as a result, the Anbox runtime fails to start. This issue is planned to be fixed in the upcoming 1.19.1 release.

LP 2028337 Launching a container fails because Anbox IME process is not started.
LP 2028028 The stream stack dashboard reports incorrect statistics.
LP 2027534 The evony game has a long startup time because of slowness in file loading.
Emulation in the kernel for the Arm SWP instruction that is required to be enabled by Android was not enabled by default.
Anbox Cloud stream failed because exception handling was not implemented for the setRemoteDescription method.
Message loss issue when using websocket for ICE candidate exchange.
Websocket client crashes when responding to ping message due to concurrent usage of the socket.
Added missing licenses for Mesa driver.
CPU pinning is not applied until the LXD daemon is reloaded after initialisation.
Creation of fence gets stuck and causes the system to stop responding.
All runtime permissions are granted to an application irrespective of the permissions specified in the application manifest.

See How to upgrade Anbox Cloud or How to upgrade the Anbox Cloud Appliance for instructions on how to update your Anbox Cloud deployment to the 1.19.0 release.