SDK applications are portable between MIPS-based, ARM-based and x86-based Android devices. The SDK tools include an emulator, debugger, Android kernel, and system image that are dependent on the target cpu.  Different SDK toolsets are needed for MIPS or ARM or x86, and also for different major Android releases. These toolsets can be used directly as command-line tools, or applied indirectly and automatically via the Eclipse IDE programming environment. Besides those toolsets, the SDK includes plugin extensions to Eclipse called the Android Development Tools (ADT). Installing the ADT and toolset are separate steps.

Google’s generic methods to download the SDK, install the Eclipse ADT, and install a starter toolset are currently limited to ARM devices only, they do not yet work with the MIPS SDK. This page describes alternate methods that must now be used to download and install the MIPS version.

The overall steps for setting up the MIPS Android SDK from scratch are:

1. Install prerequisite software on a suitable host machine.
2. Install Eclipse.
3. Download Eclipse ADT plugin from Google.
4. Download SDK toolset directly from MIPS.
5. Install the ADT plugin into Eclipse.
6. Add the MIPS SDK toolset to Eclipse via the SDK Manager.
7. Add ARM SDK toolsets from Google via the SDK Manager (optional).
8. Create one or more AVDs specifying MIPS or ARM target devices.Load, compile, and run a sample Android application.

If you are not using Eclipse, do steps 1 and 4 only.

If you have an existing Eclipse installation already holding Android applications and ARM tool-sets, you can upgrade with MIPS support by starting at step 3. But this only works if the current ADT was at level 17 or earlier. Otherwise, you must start fresh with a new Eclipse installation and re-load your application sources.

Step 1. Preparing Your Development Computer

Your development host computer must meet the SDK System Requirements.

JDK 6 must be installed.

Step 2. Installing Eclipse

Use of Eclipse is optional. The version of Eclipse must be 3.6.2 (Helios) or greater; Eclipse 4.x has issues and is not recommended by Google. MIPS has tested with the 3.6.2 version. Any flavor of Eclipse with Java support (the JDT plugin) will do.

When re-installing Eclipse, please save your current sources, then delete or rename its project workspaces, and also delete its hidden per-user ADT information. On Linux, the per-user ADT information is at ~/.android/ . Also, kill the current adb process, if any.

Step 3. ADT Download

Download the MIPS-extended ADT plugin for Eclipse from

Versions of ADT earlier than ADT-17 will not work with MIPS SDK toolsets. Versions of ADT later than ADT-17 are untested and might depend on Google toolsets that lack MIPS tools.

Unzip the file to some temporary place.

Step 4. MIPS SDK Downloads

Download your host’s MIPS SDK toolset for Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 from

MIPS Toolsets for Gingerbread and prior Android releases are not currently available. MIPS Toolsets for Honeycomb are not yet hosted on MacOS.

Unzip the file to some permanent place for Eclipse’s SDK Manager. The directory name will be <somepath>/android-sdk_mips_linux-x86, android-sdk_mips_windows, or android-sdk_mips_mac-x86.

This toolset acts as both a “SDK starter package” and as an SDK Manager upgrade package.

Step 5. Install the MIPS-extended ADT plugin into Eclipse

1. Start up Eclipse.
2. Click on Help -> Install New Software.
3. Click on Work with -> Add -> Local.
4. Browse to your local unzipped copy of ADT-17.0.1.zip.
5. Click OK; Select All; Next; Next; I Accept; Finish.
6. On the Security Warning pop-up about unsigned content, click OK.
7. Click Restart Now.

This sequence will fail if Eclipse already has a later version of ADT installed. Down-rev’ing ADT can only be done by starting over with a fresh, empty install of Eclipse.

When installed, ADT will immediately pop up a “Welcome to Android Development” window to configure an initial SDK toolset.  We recommend using an older method below rather than this wizard. Click on Cancel to abort this step.

Step 6. Add the MIPS SDK toolset to Eclipse

1. Start up Eclipse.
2. Click on Windows -> preferences -> Android.
3. Dismiss the Google Privacy Policy pop-up by clicking Proceed (you may optionally un-check the “Send usage statistics to Google”).
4. In SDK Location, browse to your local unzipped copy of android-sdk_r17m-*.zip, which is a directory named android-sdk_mips_linux-x86 or android-sdk_mips_windows or android-sdk_mips_mac-x86.
5. Click OK; and Apply.
6. SDK Targets Android 3.2 and Android 4.0.3 will appear, click OK.

Click on Window -> Android SDK Manager.
It will show the installed MIPS System Image, other installed SDK components, and additional optional components and targets available for download from Google.

Step 7. Add ARM SDK toolsets from Google

This step is optional when testing applications only on MIPS-based devices. Installing ARM SDKs allows you to compare the application’s behaviors on ARM and MIPS devices and their emulators.

1. Click on Window -> Android SDK Manager.
2. Un-check any automatic updates chosen by SDK Manager, especially any later-rev versions of Platform Tools or 4.0.3 SDK Platform from Google. Those replacements will lack MIPS components.
3. Add check marks to “ARM EABI v7a System Image” for the target Android releases of interest.
4. Click on “Install N Packages”.
5. Click on “Accept All”; then Install.
6. The screen of installed packages may now be stale and incorrect. Close and re-open the SDK Manager to see the revised list of installed things.

Step 8. Create AVDs specifying MIPS or ARM target devices

1. Click on Window -> AVD Manager.
2. For each desired target configuration: Click New.
3. Type in some non-blank AVD Name.
4. Click on the Target (some specific Android release)
5. If Eclipse has more than one CPU/ABI combo installed for that release, click on the CPU/ABI, selecting MIPS or ARM or x86.
6. Adjust the screen size ans SD Card size, if needed.
7. Click on Create AVD.

Step 9. Load, compile, and run a sample Android application

1. Start Eclipse.
2. Click File -> New -> Project.
3. In the New Project wizard, expand the Android heading, click on Android Sample Project, then Next.
4. Choose a target Android release level, then Next.
5. Choose one of the samples, eg Snake, then Finish.
6. In the Package Explorer panel, click on the Snake project, then Run -> Run or Run -> Run Last Launched.
7. In ‘Run As’ pop-up, choose Android Application, then OK.

The emulator will then open an instance of the MIPS Android emulator.  At the conclusion of Android’s boot up, click on OK to Android’s first-time user prompts and unlock the device.  If the sample program does not launch itself automatically, find it installed under APPs and launch it manually.

If there are multiple AVDs, run will choose one of them by default. To control this, do

1. Run -> Run Configurations.
2. Click on the Target tab.
3. Choose which AVD should be preferred.
4. Click on Run.