> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://committ.mintlify.site/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # December 5th, 2025 > 6 hours of debugging. Zero successful builds. One painful lesson. * [6:00 PM - Starting Fresh](#600-pm--starting-fresh) * [6:10 PM - Setting Up WSL](#610-pm--setting-up-wsl) * [6:40 PM - Preparing to Build](#640-pm--preparing-to-build) * [6:50 PM - Gradle Download](#650-pm--gradle-download-starts) * [7:15 PM - Break](#715-pm--break) * [8:00 PM - Build Attempt 1](#800-pm--build-attempt-1) * [8:40 PM - Stuck at 83%](#840-pm--stuck-at-83) * [9:20 PM - No Movement](#920-pm--no-movement) * [9:45 PM - Restart](#945-pm--restarting-the-attempt) * [10:00 PM - Build Attempt 2](#1000-pm--build-attempt-2) * [10:30 PM - BIOS Accident](#1030-pm--bios-accident) * [11:00 PM - Stuck Again](#1100-pm--stuck-again) * [11:30 PM - Realization](#1130-pm--realization) * [12:00 AM - Final Failure](#1200-am--the-final-failure) * [Root Cause](#root-cause) # December 5th, 2025 **The Android Build That Refused to Build** Today was supposed to be the day I finally got the Android build working. Six hours later, I'm writing this with zero successful builds and a very clear understanding of why. Let me walk you through the entire disaster. *** ## 6:00 PM — Starting Fresh I was already frustrated with the old environment. Nothing was working properly, so I decided to nuke everything and start clean. Deleted folders. Reset native code. Reinstalled dependencies. The classic "maybe if I start fresh it'll magically work" approach. Spoiler: it did not magically work. *** ## 6:10 PM — Setting Up WSL Opened Ubuntu on WSL. First task: get my Android phone detected. ```bash theme={null} adb devices ``` Nothing. Empty list. Great start. So I went through the whole ritual: * Installed ADB * Enabled USB debugging on phone * Added USB rules * Restarted the adb server Eventually the device showed up. Small win. At least something was working. *** ## 6:40 PM — Preparing to Build Navigated to the project folder: ``` /mnt/c/CommitT/mono/apps/native ``` Ran the build command: ```bash theme={null} bun x expo run:android ``` And so began the long chain of build processes that would consume my entire evening. *** ## 6:50 PM — Gradle Download Starts Gradle started downloading: ``` gradle-8.14.3.zip ``` This took forever. The download crawled. Sometimes it just sat there doing nothing. After about 20 minutes, it finally finished and the actual Android build started. I thought the hard part was over. I was wrong. *** ## 7:15 PM — Break Took a break. Came back later with the intention of finishing everything tonight. Famous last words. *** ## 8:00 PM — Build Attempt 1 Restarted the command: ```bash theme={null} bun x expo run:android ``` Gradle started building from scratch. Progress bar moved: 30%... 40%... 60%... 80%... Then the warnings started appearing: ``` Hard link failed. Doing a slower copy instead. ``` This happened over and over. CMake tasks. NDK-related stuff. All complaining about hard links. I ignored it. Surely it would still work, right? *** ## 8:40 PM — Stuck at 83% The build hit 83% and just... stopped. Slowly crawled to 90%. Terminal kept showing: ``` IDLE IDLE IDLE ``` Gradle was not progressing. I sat there for 15-20 minutes watching nothing happen. This is the developer equivalent of watching paint dry, except the paint is also on fire. *** ## 9:20 PM — No Movement Still stuck: ``` 90% EXECUTING [32m ...] ``` By now it was obvious something in the native build was blocked. Those hard-link warnings weren't just warnings — they were the problem. Working inside `/mnt/c` on WSL means Windows filesystem. Windows filesystem doesn't properly support hard links. Every hard link operation was falling back to slow copies. *** ## 9:45 PM — Restarting the Attempt Killed the stuck process. Restarted Ubuntu. Tried everything again: * Verified `adb devices` * Reconnected phone * Checked debugging was on Everything looked fine. The problem wasn't the device. *** ## 10:00 PM — Build Attempt 2 Ran it again: ```bash theme={null} bun x expo run:android ``` Same slow process. Same warnings: ``` Hard link failed. Doing slower copy instead. ``` This confirmed it. WSL + Windows filesystem was the root problem. Not my code. Not Expo. Not my phone. The environment itself was broken for this use case. *** ## 10:30 PM — BIOS Accident While switching between screens, I accidentally entered BIOS. Panicked for a second. Exited safely. Continued. Just another thing to add to the chaos of this evening. *** ## 11:00 PM — Stuck Again Build reached the exact same state: ``` 90% EXECUTING [43m ...] ``` Frozen. Repeated "IDLE" messages. This proved the issue was consistent. Not random. Not a fluke. The same thing happened every single time at the same point. *** ## 11:30 PM — Realization I started questioning everything. Every step felt like it was working against me. The setup inside `/mnt/c` was never going to allow this build to complete. The filesystem limitations were fundamental, not fixable with workarounds. Six hours in, and I was no closer to a working build than when I started. *** ## 12:00 AM — The Final Failure Gradle finally gave up: ``` Gradle build daemon disappeared unexpectedly ``` The daemon timed out and crashed. Final confirmation that this environment is not stable enough for Android native builds. I just stared at the screen. Six hours. Nothing to show for it. *** ## Root Cause Here's what actually went wrong: 1. Project was inside `/mnt/c` on WSL 2. Android NDK requires hard links 3. Hard links don't work properly on `/mnt/c` (Windows filesystem) 4. WSL converts hard links into slow fallback copies 5. Native builds take forever and freeze around 90% 6. Gradle daemon eventually times out and crashes **Nothing was wrong with my code.** **Nothing was wrong with Expo.** **Nothing was wrong with my device.** The environment setup was the only thing blocking the build. *** ## 12:30 AM — End of Day After more than six hours of trying, deleting, reinstalling, debugging, reconnecting devices, analyzing logs, and sitting through multiple freezes — the build did not complete. But now I finally know exactly why. Tomorrow's plan: move the project to the native Linux filesystem inside WSL, not `/mnt/c`. That should fix everything. Today was painful. But at least it wasn't wasted. I learned something. That's the whole point of building in public. Even the failures get documented. See you tomorrow.