muesli

Java tooling in 2026:

"Install JDK 21."
"Actually keep JDK 26."
"Also set JAVA_HOME to something."
"Gradle will ignore it unless it won't."

Jeez, I just wanted to compile an app not perform an ancient ritual.

Mar 20 at 10:29pmWeb
Show threadmuesliMar 20

In all seriousness, how hard can it be to compile Gadgetbridge?! Their docs refer to an sdkmanager that just crashes on start up and the Docker image they point to has been out-of-date for about 8 years now.

How do people work like that 😕

Show threadmuesliMar 20

"The SDK directory is not writable (/opt/android-sdk)"

Well I sure hope it's not. Are you suggesting you need this to be writable to compile a simple app?!

Show threadBear Jew 2.0 Mar 20
@fribbledom Well no, but actually ... yes
Show threadgudenauMar 21
@fribbledom This is mostly Android stuff, my own Java experiences outside of Android are great...
Show threadmuesliMar 21

@gudenau

Agreed, I'm being a bit unfair to Java itself, even though it plays a major role in all the issues I'm facing.

Show threadgudenauMar 21
@fribbledom Once enterprise touches Java, it turns to a mess...
Show threadBear Jew 2.0 Mar 20
@fribbledom They don't
Show threadSoftwarewolfMar 21
@fribbledom Updated documentation? Pfff, we don't need that.
Show threadR FMar 20
@fribbledom you missed burning an ogre's toenail
Show threadFlorian 'floe' EchtlerMar 20
@fribbledom ah yes, be prepared to sacrifice another black rooster when there's a Gradle update 🙄
Show threadJohn Francis 🇨đŸ‡ĻđŸĻĢ🍁đŸ’ĒâŦ†ī¸Mar 20
@fribbledom never set and export JAVA_HOME globally, that's an ancient JDK 1.1 curse. Never add a jre to a system or user PATH for a non-OS package or development environment, leave that to the OS to manage for OS packages. Set PATH and JAVA_HOME locally within scriots, if necessary.
Show threadDigital Mark Îģ ☕ī¸ 🌮 🚀 🌗Mar 20
@fribbledom And everything official tells you to use Oracle. NEVER. Use OpenJDK.
Show threadRonnie SoakMar 21

@fribbledom
Setting up the build environment is 80% of the projects effort and we still, after decades, have not come up with a good and standardized way of preserving that within the actual repo.

dockerfiles (if build on top of a vanilla base image) are actually a way in the right direction. (Not because of docker itself, but because they explain the setup)

Show threadPixelcode đŸ‡ēđŸ‡ĻMar 21

@fribbledom I'd strongly recommend installing Java using a package manager or using SDKMAN, so that you don't need to touch the PATH variable or any environment variables.

For example, Azul provide their JDK through an APT repo: https://docs.azul.com/core/install/linux-ca-deb#install-from-azul-apt-repository

With SDKMAN, you can install several JDKs (and each one in different versions) and manage which one is used by default. It also allows you to install Maven similarly: https://sdkman.io

Installing Azul Zulu CA DEB-Packages on Linux

docs.azul.com