IDA Dalvik Debugger doesn't work with official Android emulator

Question

I try to use IDA to debug application with official Android ARM emulator. I set up debugger, installed APK and run application, it starts, writes "waiting for debugger", and debugger writes that "connection has been gracefully closed", and I see following message in IDA log: ADB error: listener 'tcp:23915' not found

The application is for sure debuggable; I have sources and debug the same APK with Android Studio. I can also debug C++ code with IDA remove ARM on the same emulator and the same APK.

So why does Dalvik debugger not work?

Answer 1

I found solution myself. The thing is easy. It is one more Android Studio bug. I found that when IDA tries to connect to Dalvik debugger, I see following message in log:

Ignoring second debugger -- accepting and dropping

In not doubts no second debugger existed. Next, I found that this AVD doesn't work even with Android Studio and gives the same error.

I found that other people have similar issue: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3735450/ignoring-second-debugger-and-service-hang-in-android

The problem disappeared when I rebooted Windows.

Answer 2

maybe this helps: https://github.com/strazzere/android-scripts/blob/master/shell/ida_android

Another possibility could be, that you have serveral adb installations in your system and the ida debugger is using a different one.