IntelliJ SQLite permission denied on Android Lollipop, worked before

Question

I updated Nexus 7 with Android Lollipop and now i can't access SQLite db from IntelliJ IDEA 14. Everything was working fine before Lollipop update, even though Android wasn't rooted i could access db from IntelliJ (but not pull it via ADB). The error i am getting when i try to connect is:

Data Source Synchronization Error
Cannot synchronize 'SQLite': run-as: exec failed for /data/local/tmp/intellij_native_tools/get_modification_time Error:Permission denied

I am aware that SQLite was updated in lollipop from 3.7 to 3.8. What could cause this kind of error? Wrong DB creation, old DB drivers, something else?

Answer 1

adb root doesn't resolve anything, there's numerous issues depending on environment. Here's how I got it working on emulator where I spend a lot of my development time.

First we need to resolve the error only position independent executables (PIE) are supported with the binary.

get the source of android ultimate plugin tool:

git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/tools/adt/idea
cd idea/android/ultimate/get_modification_time/jni

Apply the following patch:

diff --git a/android/ultimate/get_modification_time/jni/Application.mk b/android/ultimate/get_modification_time/jni/Application.mk
index a252a72..bdf815d 100644
--- a/android/ultimate/get_modification_time/jni/Application.mk
+++ b/android/ultimate/get_modification_time/jni/Application.mk
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 APP_ABI := all
+APP_PLATFORM := android-16

You'll need to setup a recent version of NDK to build, I had ndk-r10d installed already.

# ndk-r10d
ndk-build
cd ..
cp -R libs native_tools
# update the intellij plugin with whatever arch you plan to use
# adjust the path here to where your copy of IntelliJ is located
zip -u ~/local/apps/idea/plugins/android/lib/android-ultimate.jar native_tools/*/get_modification_time

Note that you need to update the path in that last line to point to your local IntelliJ installation. For example, on MacOS, it'll be:

zip -u /Applications/IntelliJ\ IDEA\ 14.app/Contents/plugins/android/lib/android-ultimate.jar native_tools/*/get_modification_time

Restart IntelliJ.

Next, we'll be replacing /system/bin/run-as on the emulator. Create the following script locally and name it run-as.

#! /system/bin/sh
INTELLIJ_NATIVE="/data/local/tmp/intellij_native_tools/get_modification_time"
if [ "$2" = "$INTELLIJ_NATIVE" ]; then
        cd /data/local/tmp/intellij_native_tools
        ./get_modification_time "$3"
else
        /system/bin/run-as.org "$@"
fi

Start the emulator. After it has booted, update it.

# update run-as after start
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /system
adb shell mv /system/bin/run-as /system/bin/run-as.org
adb push ./run-as /system/bin/run-as

Now you can synchronize to your heart's content.

Note, you may also want to follow progress on the bug upstream which just had priority bumped after posting this: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-137606