apktool build apk fails - build

Question

I am experiencing very annoying problems with the application apktool problem.
I do not understand what i am doing wrong, or what the problem is.
I tried this on debian , and on linux mint. I used different versions of apktool,
resulting in the same error:
I: Checking whether sources has changed...
I: Checking whether resources has changed...
I: Building resources...
Exception in thread "main" brut.androlib.AndrolibException: brut.common.BrutException: could not exec command: [aapt, p, -F, /tmp/APKTOOL3630495287059303807.tmp, -I, /home/awesomename/apktool/framework/1.apk, -S, /home/awesomename/out/./res, -M, /home/awesomename/out/./AndroidManifest.xml]
at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.aaptPackage(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.buildResourcesFull(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.buildResources(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.build(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.build(Unknown Source)
at brut.apktool.Main.cmdBuild(Unknown Source)
at brut.apktool.Main.main(Unknown Source)
Caused by: brut.common.BrutException: could not exec command: [aapt, p, -F, /tmp/APKTOOL3630495287059303807.tmp, -I, /home/windows/apktool/framework/1.apk, -S, /home/windows/out/./res, -M, /home/windows/out/./AndroidManifest.xml]
at brut.util.OS.exec(Unknown Source)
... 7 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "aapt": error=2, No such file or directory
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1041)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:617)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:485)
... 8 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
at java.lang.UNIXProcess.forkAndExec(Native Method)
at java.lang.UNIXProcess.<init>(UNIXProcess.java:135)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:130)
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1022)
... 10 more
It seems it can not use aapt , but i read about apktool.
And it seems that aapt is build inside apktool , why is it not working ?

Answer 1

It seems there's some problem in building the resources while recompiling the apk.
what you can do is, when you decompile your apk use this command
apktool d -f -r apkfilename.apk
here -f is to replace previous decompiled apk's code and -r is to ignore the decompiling of resources.
this would prevent the resources from being decompiled and will simply copy the same resources when you recompile the apk.

Answer 2

In case you've been using v1 and now upgraded to v2, try manually deleting the framework file.
On windows 8 it's normally at C:\Users\YourName\apktool\framework\1.apk.
The file should be regenerated once you try to build something.

Answer 3

My problem was solved by deleting the \framework\1.apk, making a backup on the files I modified, ereasing the dir and decompiling the *.apk again, etc... (on linux, the path is home/[user]/apktool/...). After the update, apktool always loaded the old resource table. N

Answer 4

For me, I solved this problem by first clearing apktool's framework directory by typing in the terminal.
$ apktool empty-framework-dir
Afterwards I uninstalled apktool and related files by typing
$ sudo apt purge apktool
Then i went to https://bitbucket.org/iBotPeaches/apktool/downloads/ to get the latest jar file for apktool(apktool_2.5.0.jar as at the time of writing this).
On first run
$ java -jar apktool_2.5.0.jar b <MyAPP.apk> #Without ><
it works.
since I work with apktool most of the times I needed a situation where I can run apktool from anywhere so I gave the jar file execute permissions by typing
$ sudo chmod +x apktool_2.5.0.jar
Afterwards I moved it /usr/bin/ by typing
$ sudo apktool_2.5.0.jar /usr/bin/

Answer 5

Definitely seems like the aapt PATH problem I had awhile back. Have you added aapt to PATH? If you still have problems, I have made a good apk kit in bash to avoid all these dependency problems. It supports apktool, signapk, zipalign,adb, fastboot, and heimdall. Check it out. All you need is a current java install.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/toolkit-apk-munky-rench-t3026757/post58747626#post58747626

Answer 6

There isn’t really enough information to give you a definite answer.
How ever you mentioned using different versions but the aapt issue was solved in version 2.4. Dependencies have been reduced to java version 1.8 or greater and the framework.
I use Debian and have the following:
Apktool 2.4
java version 11
Android framework
That’s all it took to get rid of the aapt path error.
The last error I came across was unrelated to aapt but was on the framework so I ran this command
apktool empty-framework-dir
And it solved it.

Answer 7

try to put the dir which include aapt file to your PATH. for example, export PATH=$PATH:./ ./apktool b

Answer 8

try to install ia32-libs and update latest version of apktool. (if possible restart)
apktool requires "ia32-libs" which is not available after Ubuntu 12.04. install ia32-libs
sudo apt-get install lib32z1 lib32ncurses5 lib32bz2-1.0 lib32stdc++6
Download latest version of apktools.jar - https://bitbucket.org/iBotPeaches/apktool/downloads
apktool complete installation guide - http://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/install/

Answer 9

I just encounter same problem when run apktool d foo.apk(decompiled success) and then apktool b foo(recompile failed with similar error).
The apktool tool above was installed via sudo apt-get install apktool on Kali Linux.
So, the solution was visits apktool's official site, e.g. https://connortumbleson.com/2017/01/23/apktool-v2-2-2-released/ (it's latest version at this time of writing), download it, md5sum it, e.g. md5sum apktool_2.2.2.jar to verify, then rename that apktool_2.2.2.jar to apktool.jar.
Then do java -jar ./apktool.jar b foo to recompile, it success without error (the generated apk located at ./foo/dist/foo.apk).

Answer 10

The main issue is apktool version you need 2.4.0
You must manually install it from ibotpeaches git hub
here some good info
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB6s10Uwpcs
and a automated script for kali
https://github.com/catenatedgoose?tab=repositories

Answer 11

In my mind the problem is how you install apktool...
I had the same problem and I did this and it worked very well:
For installation you first have to remove any installed apktool by the command:
sudo apt purge apktool
Then you'll have to install apktool but in a different way.
To continue save the link bellow as apktool in a directory.
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iBotPeaches/Apktool/master/scripts/linux/apktool]
Then open this link below and download the latest apktool.jar file: https://bitbucket.org/iBotPeaches/apktool/downloads/
Then rename the file as apktool.jar
After that give both files the permission by the command:
Sudo chmod -x apktool.jar
And for the saved script:
Sudo chmod -x apktool
At the end copy both files in the directory:
/usr/local/bin
By the command:
Sudo cp apktool.jar /usr/local/bin
And the script file:
Sudo cp apktool /usr/local/bin
After that try running apktoolin the terminal.

Answer 12

The solution is to include your apktool directory into your system PATH.