Compatibility: redroid image × Instagram build

Which Android image runs which Instagram build on an x86_64 host, and why the stack uses the image it does. This page is the one home for that history; the README and the agent notes link here. What went wrong along the way (symptoms, log lines, recovery) is in INCIDENTS.md.

Contents

Why Android 13

Instagram ships arm64 native code only, so an x86_64 host needs a redroid image with working ARM translation. Of the images tried, one works:

  • erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS (Android 13, Google’s NDK translation as shipped in ChromeOS’s ARC++) works. Instagram installs, logs in, and scrapes successfully, tested end to end (login, a full scrape run, permalink capture, cropped media) with zero issues. This is the image in docker-compose.yml.
  • abing7k/redroid:a11_ndk_amd (Android 11, the original image) crashed Instagram at native startup across 3 tested APK versions, separate from and predating the kernel panic in INCIDENTS.md.
  • erstt/redroid:15.0.0_ndk_AVD (Android 15, a different NDK translation build; the AVD in the tag is upstream’s own naming, unrelated to this project) doesn’t boot. hwservicemanager and servicemanager, Android’s core binder-registration daemons, crashed fatally within ~3 seconds of boot, identically across two attempts, the second with mem_limit/shm_size raised well past redroid’s usual recommendations, ruling out memory as the cause. It’s a binder ABI mismatch between this image and the maintainer’s host kernel binder driver, not an Instagram compatibility issue or a resource one; the container exited cleanly and the host was unaffected both times. The service’s mem_limit/shm_size have since been re-tuned for Android 13’s measured footprint, so today’s values aren’t evidence either way for a future Android 15 retry.
  • No Android 14 NDK build exists upstream (erstt/redroid only publishes 11, 12, 13 and 15). aureliolo/redroid:14.0.0_amd64_with_gapps, the only Android 14 redroid image found, boots cleanly, is host-safe, and Instagram installs, but the image ships no ARM translation at all: ro.product.cpu.abilist claims arm64-v8a support, yet no libndk_translation.so, libhoudini.so, or native-bridge property exists on the device. Confirmed empirically: launching Instagram crashes the dynamic linker outright: dlopen failed: "libsuperpack-jni.so" is for EM_AARCH64 (183) instead of EM_X86_64 (62). A clean, host-safe app crash, and not something a config change fixes.

erstt/redroid is the only source found with confirmed, working ARM translation, and it doesn’t publish an Android 14 build, so Android 13/ChromeOS remains the image.

One known rendering quirk: under this image’s default androidboot.redroid_gpu_mode=guest, the Following-feed switcher’s bottom sheet doesn’t always open, so the scraper falls back to the Home feed (the README’s Followed-accounts allowlist filters that fallback). Host GPU mode was tried as a fix and not shipped; see Weighed and not shipped.

One Android version per /data volume

Switching docker-compose.yml to a different Android major version against the same local/data/android volume is what corrupted system state repeatedly (INCIDENTS.md), so compose now refuses: the one-shot init service (scripts/guard-android-data.sh) runs before redroid, records the image in local/data/android.image, and fails with instructions when the configured image’s Android version differs. Give another Android version its own volume instead (e.g. ./local/data/android-15).

Tested pairs

redroid image Android Instagram build Profile Result Last tested Notes
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 446.0.0.49.77 v424 ⚠️ crashes on launch since 2026-09-15 2026-09-15 Worked on 2026-09-14 (photos, carousels, Reels, stories, permalinks), then crashed natively in RenderThread on every launch after a 424 test; 445 on the same data works. See RUNLOG.md. The image in docker-compose.yml.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 445.0.0.45.83 v424 ✅ works 2026-09-14 Baseline run: stories, a Reel and a carousel with permalinks and captions.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 444.0.0.46.85 v424 ✅ works 2026-09-14 Capture-mode baseline: stories, a Reel and a photo with permalinks and full captions; every required selector key on every captured screen.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 443.0.0.48.82 v424 ✅ works 2026-09-14 Same.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 442.0.0.46.79 v424 ✅ works 2026-09-14 Same.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 441.0.0.43.81 v424 ✅ works 2026-09-14 Same.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 440.1.0.46.86 v424 ✅ works 2026-09-14 Same.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 430.0.0.36.80 v424 ✅ launches 2026-09-14 Install-and-launch test only (no scrape; not validated, so it runs with a warning): stays open, keeps the login, reaches the Home feed.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 425.0.0.47.61 v424 ✅ launches 2026-09-14 Same as 430.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 424.0.0.49.64 v424 ✅ works 2026-09-15 The oldest version that runs on this image, and the supported floor. Capture-mode baseline: stories, a carousel and a Reel with permalinks, every required selector key matched.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 423.0.0.47.66 — ❌ Instagram crashes at native startup 2026-09-14 Same crash as 400 and 420; 421 and 422 weren’t tested, being below it.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 420.0.0.55.74 — ❌ Instagram crashes at native startup 2026-09-14 Same crash as 400: could not hook fn signal: mprotect: errno: 13, Permission denied in libstartup.so.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 400.0.0.49.68 — ❌ Instagram crashes at native startup 2026-09-14 Installs, then every launch dies in libstartup.so: could not hook fn signal: mprotect: errno: 13, Permission denied. Below the supported floor anyway.
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS 13 (build not recorded) — ✅ works 2026-09-10 First end-to-end install, login and scrape, before builds were recorded per run.
erstt/redroid:15.0.0_ndk_AVD 15 any — ❌ image doesn’t boot 2026-09-10 hwservicemanager/servicemanager fatal within ~3s, twice: a binder ABI mismatch with the host kernel. Instagram never ran.
aureliolo/redroid:14.0.0_amd64_with_gapps 14 (build not recorded) — ❌ Instagram crashes on launch 2026-09-10 No ARM translation at all: dlopen failed: ... EM_AARCH64 ... instead of EM_X86_64. No Instagram build can work.
abing7k/redroid:a11_ndk_amd 11 3 builds (not recorded) — ❌ Instagram crashes at native startup before 2026-09-10 Same crash on all three builds.

No Android 14 image with ARM translation was found (erstt/redroid publishes 11, 12, 13 and 15 only). Instagram builds older than 424 aren’t supported by any profile (igprofiles.MIN_MAJOR), and don’t launch on this image anyway. The profile column shows today’s names: the root profile was v440 until 2026-09-15. A fresh install gets 445.0.0.45.83 (igprofiles.DEFAULT_BUILD) while 446 crashes.

Weighed and not shipped

Options that were tried or considered and deliberately left out, with the reason, so they aren’t re-proposed without something new:

  • Host GPU mode (androidboot.redroid_gpu_mode=host, with /dev/dri passed through), tried as a fix for the switcher quirk above. It did engage the real host GLES renderer, but boot went from ~35s to ~340s with a BOOT TIMEOUT, and the maintainer stopped the investigation: FreshRSS and other clients consuming this feed may not support whatever that mode changes. docker-compose.yml stays on guest; don’t retry =host unless the maintainer raises it again. Write-up: INCIDENTS.md.
  • Android 15 (erstt/redroid:15.0.0_ndk_AVD): doesn’t boot on the maintainer’s host (see Why Android 13). Not worth retrying without a new hypothesis.
  • Android 14: no image with ARM translation exists, so no Instagram build can work on one.
  • Instagram builds older than 424: they crash at native startup on this image, so no profile covers them (RUNLOG.md).

Keeping this current

Every scrape run records the Instagram versionName, the redroid image and the active profile (runs.ig_version, runs.redroid_image, runs.selector_profile). To see every pair a database has actually run:

docker compose exec app python scraper.py compat

redroid image | Instagram | profile | runs (ok, clean) | new posts | last run
erstt/redroid:13.0.0_ndk_ChromeOS | 445.0.0.45.83 | v424 | 1 (1, 1) | 6 | 2026-09-14

ok runs finished without an error; clean runs also had no warning (a memory-guard stop, selector drift, a mismatch between the installed build and the profile, …). A pair with clean runs that stored posts is worth a ✅ row here; a pair whose runs all fail belongs here too, with the error. When a new Instagram major version gets a profile (see Version profiles), add its row once the validation run is in.

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