Skip to content

FTS-UI Installation with Android

FTS-UI is installed with python's pip. One way to get pip on Android is with Pydroid3, available here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.iiec.pydroid3.

If you've installed Pydroid3 open the App and navigate to the terminal: - In the upper right corner of Pydroid3, touch the 3 horizontal bars. - Select "Terminal" - Enter the following commands: 

pip3 install FreeTAKServer-UI==0.1.6.5
pip3 install SQLAlchemy==1.3.23
pip3 install requests
pip3 install eventlet
pip3 show eventlet

After eventlet installs we need to update a file to hardcode the tcp/udp protocol numbers due to incompatibilities with Android - The output of pip3 show eventlet Location should be similar to /data/user/0/ru.iiec.pydroid3/files/arm-linux-androideabi/lib/python3.11/site-packages - The file we need to update with the tcp/udp protocol numbers is located in dns/rdtypes/IN/WKS.py - The full path of the file to edit using the eventlet Location output: /data/user/0/ru.iiec.pydroid3/files/arm-linux-androideabi/lib/python3.11/site-packages/dns/rdtypes/IN/WKS.py

Now edit WKS.py and update as indicated below:

BEFORE: 

_proto_tcp = socket.getprotobyname('tcp')
_proto_udp = socket.getprotobyname('udp')

AFTER: 

_proto_tcp = 6
_proto_udp = 17

FTS-UI config.py assumes a Linux environment, we need to update this for Android by replacing the appropriate paths with /sdcard for the following: - SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI - certpath - If you are not running FTS and FTS-UI on the same device you will need to update IP - The config file is located here: /data/user/0/ru.iiec.pydroid3/files/arm-linux-androideabi/lib/python3.11/site-packages/FreeTAKServer-UI/config.py

Now edit config.py and update as indicated below:

BEFORE: 

# This will connect to the FTS db
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'sqlite:///' + '/root/FTSDataBase.db'

# certificates path
certpath = "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/dist-packages/FreeTAKServer/certs/"

AFTER: 

# This will connect to the FTS db
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'sqlite:///' + r'/sdcard/FTSDataBase.db'

# certificates path
certpath = "/sdcard/FreeTAKServer/certs/"

Run FTS-UI

  • Make sure your FTS is already up and running.
  • From the pydroid3 terminal 
    FLASK_APP=/data/user/0/ru.iiec.pydroid3/files/arm-linux-androideabi/lib/python3.11/site-packages/FreeTAKServer-UI/run.py nohup python3 /data/user/0/ru.iiec.pydroid3/files/arm-linux-androideabi/lib/python3.8/site-packages/FreeTAKServer-UI/run.py

Now open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000 and login with the default creds (admin/password).

Troubleshooting

Error: ImportError: cannot import name '_ColumnEntity' from 'sqlalchemy.orm.query'
Solution: You didn't downgrade SQLAlchemy correctly

Error: Protocol not found
Solution: You didn't update WKS.py correctly

Notes

  • All testing was performed with a RaspPi4 8GB running LineageOS 18.1 32bit and Pydroid3
  • These instructions assume you are running FTS and FTS-UI on the same device
  • We downgrade SQLAlchemy because versions 1.4+ were not compatible with SQLAlchemy-utils
  • You need root access to update the tcp/udp protocol numbers (if you are using a RaspPi4 and LineageOS it is trivial to enable)