Installing an Android VM

This page will walk you through installing a virtual Android environment on Linux.

If you don't need Android Studio (rich IDE), you can install only what is strictly necessary to mount an Android virtual machine.

info

All the information on command line tools is available here: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line

Prerequisites

Before you install the virtual machine, you must set up a number of environment variables and install sdkmanager.

Below you will find the actions to perform depending on your distribution (generic actions, specific commands for some distributions).

Generic Linux operations

1. Install the latest version of openJDK' (cf. https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/openjdk)

2. Download the command line tool: https://developer.android.com/studio#command-tools-only

3. Create the directory tree that will host the SDK :

   sudo mkdir -p /opt/android-sdk/cmdline-tools

4. Unpack the archive contents and rename the parent directory cmdline-tools to tools

5. Move or copy this directory to the previously created directory:

   sudo cp -r tools /opt/android-sdk/cmdline-tools

6. Set up environment variables by adding the following 2 lines to the user's .profile file:

   export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT="/opt/android-sdk"
   PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/emulator"

7. Create the android-sdk group, include the current user and assign rights to the folder:

   sudo groupadd android-sdk
   sudo gpasswd -a $USER android-sdk
   sudo setfacl -R -m g:android-sdk:rwx /opt/android-sdk
   sudo setfacl -d -m g:android-sdk:rwX /opt/android-sdk
   sudo chown :android-sdk /opt/android-sdk -R
   sudo chmod u+w /opt/android-sdk

   info

   You need to relocate or run newgrp android-sdk.

8. Install tools:

   /opt/android-sdk/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=/opt/android-sdk "tools"

Now you have everything you need to use command-line tools to manage your environment.

Android Virtual Device

Managing SDKs and tools

A few useful sdkmanager commands:

sdkmanager --list
sdkmanager --update

Before continuing, make sure you have all the prerequisites in place:

• check the PATH for command access

echo $PATH
/home/marie/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/snap/bin:/opt/android-sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:/opt/android-sdk/cmdline-tools/tools/bin

• check ANDROID_SDK_ROOT

echo $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
/opt/android-sdk

• check what is installed

$ ls -al -g $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
Permissions Size User Group Date Modified Name
drwxrwxr-x@ - user android-sdk 14 Sep 13:13 emulator
drwxrwxr-x@ - user android-sdk 14 Sep 13:19 licenses
drwxrwxr-x@ - user android-sdk 14 Sep 13:11 patcher
drwxrwxr-x@ - user android-sdk 14 Sep 13:13 platform-tools
drwxrwxr-x@ - user android-sdk 14 Sep 13:19 system-images
drwxrwxr-x@ - user android-sdk 14 Sep 13:15 tools

• check the permissions for the installation folder

$ sdkmanager --list
Installed packages:=====================] 100% Computing updates...
  Path           | Version | Description                | Location
  -------        | ------- | -------                    | -------
  emulator       | 30.0.26 | Android Emulator           | emulator/
  patcher;v4     | 1       | SDK Patch Applier v4       | patcher/v4/
  platform-tools | 30.0.4  | Android SDK Platform-Tools | platform-tools/

Managing AVDs

Before you create an AVD (Android Virtual Device), you must have a system image installed on your environment.

If this is not the case, install the required platforms and platform-tools packages:

sdkmanager "platforms;android-33" "system-images;android-33;google_apis;x86_64"
sdkmanager --install platform-tools

Next, create the AVD according to the installed image:

avdmanager create avd -n avd-android33-pixel -k "system-images;android-33;google_apis;x86_64" --device "pixel"

Finally, start AVD from command line using the name given in the creation command:

emulator -avd avd-android33-pixel

To list the AVDs available in the emulator :

$ emulator -list-avds
avd-android30-pixel
avd-android33-pixel

Tips

Physical keyboard

To use your physical computer keyboard in the emulator, change the hw.keyboard variable value in the file ~/.android/avd/<your avd>/config.ini

hw.keyboard = yes

Handling the emulator

You can send commands to the emulator to simulate specific activities, such as receiving a text message, changing the gps position or gsm power.

The list of possible actions is available here: https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-console

telnet localhost 5554

Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
Android Console: Authentication required
Android Console: type 'auth <auth_token>' to authenticate
Android Console: you can find your <auth_token> in
'/home/user/.emulator_console_auth_token'
OK
auth FEHdxl/bQ4B24S2l
Android Console: type 'help' for a list of commands
OK
sms send 4085555555 hi there
OK

Opening a root shell

Create a root shell console on the current terminal. It has the following differences with shell adb:

• It creates a root shell that is used to modify multiple parts of the system.
• It works even if the emulated system's adb demon is faulty.
• When you click Ctrl+C (⌘C), the emulator stops instead of the shell.

cf. https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-commandline#advanced

Connect via ADB

adb devices
adb shell
emu64x:/ $ su
emu64x:/ # (you win!)

Screenshots

Known issues

sdkmanager error "Could not create settings"

Whatever the sdkmanager command, you get this response:

$ sdkmanager --list
Warning: Could not create settings
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
    at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCliSettings.<init>(SdkManagerCliSettings.java:428)
    at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCliSettings.createSettings(SdkManagerCliSettings.java:152)
    at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCliSettings.createSettings(SdkManagerCliSettings.java:134)
    at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCli.main(SdkManagerCli.java:57)
    at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCli.main(SdkManagerCli.java:48)

info

Resolution

You need to help the java application find the root sdk:

sdkmanager --sdk_root=/opt/android-sdk --list

Error "Warning: Failed to read or create install properties file."

Unable to write to the directory /opt/android-sdk.

info

Resolution

$ sudo chmod g+w /opt/android-sdk

Emulator error "PANIC: Broken AVD system path. Check your ANDROID_SDK_ROOT value [/opt/android-sdk]!"

cf. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39645178/panic-broken-avd-system-path-check-your-android-sdk-root-value

Emulator error

There are two binaries in the installation: /opt/android-sdk/tools/emulator and /opt/android-sdk/emulator/emulator. It's a bit obscure.

Fewer issues occur with the version installed in /opt/android-sdk/emulator (cf. sdkmanager --list). Still, according to the $PATH variable, the other binary will be used (cf. which emulator).

References

https://medium.com/michael-wallace/how-to-install-android-sdk-and-setup-avd-emulator-without-android-studio-aeb55c014264