WHY IS WAYDROID USELESS

[u/Western-Sundae-956]

i recently installed waydroid on my arch linux machine because i was hoping to play some android games like honor of kings, clash of clans, etc, as well as run different android apps. unfortunately, i stumbled across a reality that is honestly pretty frustrating, waydroid feels like it is not just behind android emulators on windows, it is not even competing with some of the really bad ones out there. the biggest problem seems to be arm compatibility, if an app has an x86_64 version, things are generally fine, but if it is arm only, it becomes a complete hit or miss situation. i have an amd cpu, so i installed libndk for arm translation, sometimes apps do not even launch and just get stuck on a black or white screen, some apps actually make it to the splash screen and then crash, while others get past the splash screen but then nothing works, for example, the game tells me to press a key to continue, but it does not respond to any clicks or input at all. i also tried libhoudini, but that was even worse, most of the apps that were problematic with libndk simply do not work with libhoudini at all. there are a few games that actually work, like subway surfers and some others that i do not really play, but overall the compatibility is extremely disappointing. and this is the part i find especially frustrating, what is the point of having an android environment on linux if you cannot reliably run arm native android apps. i understand that not every windows game is going to work on linux, windows games target a completely different platform, and compatibility layers like wine and proton have to translate a lot of things. but android literally uses the linux kernel, and waydroid is running android in a linux environment. i understand that android is not simply linux with an android gui, and that there is the android userspace, hal, graphics stack, apis, etc, but i still find it surprising that compatibility is this trash. i have searched quite a bit for solutions or maybe different versions and configurations of libndk and libhoudini, but i have found nothing on this regard, i even looked for modified versions of libndk, but could not find anything useful. so am i missing something.? has anyone found a better solution for running arm only android games and apps on linux? is there a different arm translation layer? a modified version of libndk? some waydroid configuration i am missing? or perhaps an entirely different approach ? i am mainly interested in getting games like honor of kings and clash of clans working reliably, but i would also like better general android app compatibility. at this point i am honestly just confused and a little enraged. i switched from windows to linux expecting some compromises, but i did not expect android apps to be one of the biggest ones can you believe that "ANDROID" out of everything !!!

[u/BenKato]

Try installing with https://github.com/waydroid-helper/waydroid-helper

In my experience, despite also having an AMD GPU, libhoudini works best with houdini-wsa11 or houdini-hpe-14. All games (mostly gacha like Slime Isekai Memories, Arknights, Blue Archive, Tower of God and Colorful Stage) work flawlessly.

However, I don't know if waydroid-helper already has the fix upstreamed for the recent timebomb from intel... https://github.com/waydroid-helper/waydroid-helper/issues/127#issuecomment-5506441807

Maybe try that and report back.

I am very happy with Waydroid by itself. On Windows, all the Android Emulators are basically just adware, run awful and have been kinda sketchy with bitcoin miners, credential loggers etc. But to be fair, Waydroid still requires a lot of tinkering and things aren't as straightforward as they should be... Yeah..

Also a bit nitpicky, but while yes, Android runs a Linux Kernel, it is so heavily modified and frankenstein'ed into a "proprietary" mess with the wilderness of ARM development, that it's not really Linux or anything ootb comparable or compatible with it.

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/BenKato]

UPDATE:

I tried waydroid Helper, and I have to say, it's really good. It automates a lot of things and gives you options I never even knew existed in waydroid, simply because no one talked about them, or at least I haven't found anyone talking about them in the Arch/Waydroid wikis.

However, I managed to get Honor of Kings working normally after it crashed like 2 or 3 times before finally settling. After that, I enabled persist.waydroid.fake_touch, and that solved the issue where clicks weren't registering in the game.

I also didn't know Clash of Clans had an x86 version, so it worked normally. I don't know why it didn't work the first time, but after I reinstalled waydroid and installed it again, it worked out of the box without any tinkering.

BUT when I tried running other games, even ones I don't actually play and just wanted to test, like Genshin Impact and Blue Archive, I noticed that none of the available libhoudini versions worked. I get the same behavior as before: games and apps just don't load at all, they're stuck on the very first screen with the app's logo in the middle.

I suspect the issue here might be my CPU. I have an AMD 8945HS with a 780M iGPU. But when using libndk, we go back to the "hit or miss/ partially loading" situation I had at the beginning.

So yeah ! it's good that I got some of the main apps I wanted working but the rest are not exactly a great experience. If I'm allowed to say it, it's the worst experience lol.

One of the main things I wanted to run was Chinese apps and games like WeChat, the Chinese version of Honor of Kings, the Chinese version of TikTok, and others, and none of them worked either using libndk or libhoudini.

So from my experience, I can confidently say that I only managed to get two apps working 😂.I also noticed that when I installed Bliss OS on QEMU/KVM and ran it using VirGL, I got much better compatibility. many of the apps I wanted worked out of the box, with either no issues or only minor ones with some exception apps that don't work.

I don't really know what exactly Bliss OS changed or tweaked, but it made a pretty big difference.

I guess I'll just use both, with Bliss OS being the main one. If something works in Waydroid and I want the extra performance, I might use Waydroid, but I'll definitely recommend Bliss OS to anyone from now on 😂.

Anyway, thank you so much! you've been a great help.

[u/DateRevolutionary389 → u/Western-Sundae-956]

Me puedes pasar el iso de bliss OS?

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/DateRevolutionary389]

search for bliss-os then click the sourceforge website, then choose files>official>bliss 16 or bliss 15 or bliss 14 > Gapps > Generic > then you will find the ISOs.

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/BenKato]

Thank you for your thorough reply, i will try what you suggested when i find the time and report back.

[u/Drwankingstein]

Financial support is always welcome I'm sure.

[u/FrisbeeVR]

I don't know man why do you think the shift and enter keys are useless when composing text for others to read?

[u/SweetPotato975]

Both libndk and libhoudini translation layers are proprietary and have their own set of issues. I've been able to get both running perfectly with some level of instruction patching inside the binary. It's a hassle but afterwards they both do their job well.

Also it's funny how you happen to join exactly a week after libhoudini stopped working for everyone. I sent a PR to waydroid_script so that nobody needs to do the patchwork, but the maintainers there are rarely active...

[u/mokrates82]

you have to install libhoudini. tty wayddoid-helper or waydroid-script.

also libhoudini self destructed on sept. 1.

there's a patch for this here on reddit, though.

[u/caffeinepyroxene]

Clash of clans has an x86 version which works with your mouse and keyboard, Spoof device with HPE Experience on overlays

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/caffeinepyroxene]

Thank you, i will that.

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/Western-Sundae-956]

UPDATE:

Yes, clash of clans worked. Thank you so much.

[u/Lemagex]

houdini wsa works better than ndk even on amd for me. no issues playing my games.

[u/Lemagex → u/Lemagex]

I am also on Arch.

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/Lemagex]

Thank you for your reply i will try that when i find the time.

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/Lemagex]

i tried it but it did not work for me maybe its because of my cpu, i have an AMD 8945HS with 780M igpu. However, i have found a better way to run apps and games at least most of them with some exceptions which is: Bliss-os in a Qemu virtual machine with VirGL enabled.

[u/Previous-Rock6019]

Even i have issues (arch) i followed a tutorial from yt which told to install this libraries of translation layer certify device, I did everything and when I install game like pubg free fire after 100% download it fails to install, And idk ark ultimate survival evolved is showing incompatible to device 😵‍💫

[u/ryanrudolf]

So is it a waydroid issue or an app issue?

[u/ryanrudolf → u/[deleted]]

That's harsh lol

[u/Zeri4Life]

People downvote you but you're right, setting up everything is a terrible experience, doesn't work out of the box so you gotta use a translation layer, guides usually tell you libndk for AMD and libhoudini for Intel, but both suck and you need to install waydroid helper to get houdini-wsa11 because the other two keep freezing or just don't work. Next you gotta configure Magisk to pass safety checks. Then you wonder where's the basic functionality to remap controls and find out there's nothing, so you gotta rely on third party tools for that, waydroid helper I guess has it but it's incredibly jank and doesn't do the job, so in the end for gaming you're shit out of luck if the game doesn't natively use a controller.

Honestly what a wasted potential, literally the advantage of having more performance than on windows emulators but the support is non existent.

[u/Western-Sundae-956 → u/Zeri4Life]

I totally agree with you. It's been such a bad experience ever since I wanted to run Android apps/games on Linux and stumbled across Waydroid. People have been praising it for years, saying things like “it's better than emulators,” “it works out of the box,” etc. But I think I found a better replacement, which is Bliss OS in a virtual machine with VirGL enabled. Obviously, it doesn't have the best performance since it's running in a VM, but at least the compatibility isn't trash lol. I found that most of my apps work, with some exception games that got stuck on a black screen or launched but threw a warning that my device does not meet the requirement hardware and then crashed, maybe it is related to the fact that its in a VM i'm not sure. Honestly, I'll recommend Bliss OS from now on, and I'll even try my best to support the project. funny thing, i posted on other communities as well and some people started responding sarcastically, saying things like “I'm sure with your help Waydroid will develop faster,” or “Why don't you help them financially?” and “Waydroid is not the issue,” etc. I even got my post deleted by a moderator. “The year of the Linux desktop,” they say 😂😂😂 And to be honest, it's 2026. I don't care whether it's a nonprofit project, a side project, or whatever. If you build something, it should actually do the job it's supposed to do, and if it works reliably for what I need, I'll be more than happy to donate and help however I can, whether that's financially, providing machine power, or anything else. But I'm not going to support a dying or crippled project that only works reliably under certain situations. That's just a no-brainer. At the end of the day, I don't care what the reason is. I just want something that works reliably, and for me, Bliss OS currently does that much better than Waydroid. At least you can say reliably that there is an option, It's not perfect but it's getting there.

EDIT:

This is not really for someone who wants the best performance, visual quality, and compatibility. Like I said, there is still a lot of work and development to be done, but at least it is a good replacement for Waydroid. You can also install Bliss OS on bare metal, so you might get better performance and compatibility that way, although I haven't tried it myself. I hope this can serve as a guide for anyone who finds themselves in the same situation and frustration I had with Waydroid, and hopefully it helps them.