Android how do I wait until a service is actually connected?

I ended up with something like this:

1) to give the auxiliary stuff some scope, I created an internal class. At least, the ugly internals are separated from the rest of the code. I needed a remote service doing something, therefore the word Something in class name

private RemoteSomethingHelper mRemoteSomethingHelper = new RemoteSomethingHelper();
class RemoteSomethingHelper {
//...
}

2) there are two things necessary to invoke a remote service method: the IBinder and the code to execute. Since we don't know which one becomes known first, we store them:

private ISomethingService mISomethingService;
private Runnable mActionRunnable;

Each time we write to one of these fileds, we invoke _startActionIfPossible():

    private void _startActionIfPossible() {
        if (mActionRunnable != null && mISomethingService != null) {
            mActionRunnable.run();
            mActionRunnable = null;
        }
    }
    private void performAction(Runnable r) {
        mActionRunnable = r;
        _startActionIfPossible();
    }

This, of course, assumes that the Runnable has access to mISomethingService, but this is true for runnables created within the methods of the RemoteSomethingHelper class.

It is really good that the ServiceConnection callbacks are called on the UI thread: if we are going to invoke the service methods from the main thread, we do not need to care about synchronization.

ISomethingService is, of course, defined via AIDL.

3) Instead of just passing arguments to methods, we create a Runnable that will invoke the method with these arguments later, when invocation is possible:

    private boolean mServiceBound;
    void startSomething(final String arg1) {
        // ... starting the service ...
        final String arg2 = ...;
        performAction(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    // arg1 and arg2 must be final!
                    mISomethingService.startSomething(arg1, arg2);
                } catch (RemoteException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }

4) finally, we get:

private RemoteSomethingHelper mRemoteSomethingHelper = new RemoteSomethingHelper();
class RemoteSomethingHelper {
    private ISomethingService mISomethingService;
    private Runnable mActionRunnable;
    private boolean mServiceBound;
    private void _startActionIfPossible() {
        if (mActionRunnable != null && mISomethingService != null) {
            mActionRunnable.run();
            mActionRunnable = null;
        }
    }
    private ServiceConnection mServiceConnection = new ServiceConnection() {
        // the methods on this class are called from the main thread of your process.
        @Override
        public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) {
            mISomethingService = null;
        }
        @Override
        public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName name, IBinder service) {
            mISomethingService = ISomethingService.Stub.asInterface(service);
            _startActionIfPossible();
        }
    }
    private void performAction(Runnable r) {
        mActionRunnable = r;
        _startActionIfPossible();
    }

    public void startSomething(final String arg1) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(context.getApplicationContext(),SomethingService.class);
        if (!mServiceBound) {
            mServiceBound = context.getApplicationContext().bindService(intent, mServiceConnection, 0);
        }
        ComponentName cn = context.getApplicationContext().startService(intent);
        final String arg2 = ...;
        performAction(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    mISomethingService.startSomething(arg1, arg2);
                } catch (RemoteException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }
}

context is a field in my class; in an Activity, you can define it as Context context=this;

I did not need queuing actions; if you do, you can implement it.

You likely will need a result callback in startSomething(); I did, but this is not shown in this code.

I had the same problem. I didn't want to put my bound service dependent code in onServiceConnected, though, because I wanted to bind/unbind with onStart and onStop, but I didn't want the code to run again every time the activity came back to the front. I only wanted it to run when the activity was first created.

I finally got over my onStart() tunnel vision and used a Boolean to indicate whether this was the first onServiceConnected run or not. That way, I can unbindService in onStop and bindService again in onStart without running all the start up stuff each time.

How can I wait for ServiceConnection.onServiceConnected being called reliably?

You don't. You exit out of onCreate() (or wherever you are binding) and you put you "needs the connection established" code in onServiceConnected().

Are all the event handlers: Activity.onCreate, any View.onClickListener.onClick, ServiceConnection.onServiceConnected, etc. actually called in the same thread

Yes.

When exactly is ServiceConnection.onServiceConnected actually going to be called? Upon completion of Activity.onCreate or sometime when A.oC is still running?

Your bind request probably is not even going to start until after you leave onCreate(). Hence, onServiceConnected() will called sometime after you leave onCreate().