Is there a way to run Android TV in VirtualBox? - virtualbox

I want to try out Android TV and possibly develop an app for it. I want to see the OS first though. Is there a way to run Android TV in as a virtual machine, for instance with VirtualBox?

As mentioned in a comment to the OP, your best bet is to install the Android SDK and fetch the Android TV system images. Then, create an Android Virtual Device (AVD) with the TV image and run the emulator.
You won't have any of the apps that are preinstalled in, say, a Nexus Player, but you will get the idea around how this version of Android runs and what it is capable of.
[PRO TIP: if you're on OSX, using the x86 one results in HAXM acceleration enabled --> the emulator runs really smooth]

Related

ERROR: x86 emulation currently requires hardware acceleration!` in android studio on google cloud virtual machine

Currently new to google cloud
and working on vm.
Can anyone help me how can i use android emulator on vm.
it shows me
Emulator: emulator: ERROR: x86 emulation currently requires hardware acceleration!
now how can i enable hardware acceleration on vm??
First of all you can not access BIOS on Google Compute Engine VM. When you restart the instance you will be automatically disconnected from the SSH session. As soon as you open another SSH session again you will be already logged in to the os.
Android Studio Emulator is another Virtual Machine that emulates the operation of an Android device. So what you are looking for is VM nested inside a Google Compute Engine VM, you can refer to the Enabling Nested Virtualization for VM Instances documentation, for further information.
However, you can use arm64-v8a or armeabi-v7a ABI. They are pretty slow but you will be able to test your applications there. You can make them faster, but it will require a powerful VM that will cost a lot of money. To use those images in Android Studio emulator:
Go to Tools > AVD Manager.
On the bottom left corner click on + Create Virtual Device ....
In Choose a device definition, choose any device you want and click Next
In Select a system image go to Other images tab
Choose any arm64-v8a or armeabi-v7a ABI. (Download if you don't have one)
Click on Next, give a name and click Finish
Run the Virtual Device and give it some time, according to how powerful is your VM it will take some time to load. You will see an Android logo loading and after few minutes you will see the Home Screen. If it takes too long, try restarting the AVD and the Android Studio, then leave it some time to load. It is pretty slow, but it is working, I tested it myself.
Try below steps -
Open SDK Manager (In Android Studio, go to Tools > Android > SDK Manager) and Download Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM installer) if you haven't.
Now go to your SDK directory C:\users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager\ and run the file named intelhaxm-android.exe.
In case you get an error like "Intel virtualization technology (vt, vt-x) is not enabled". Go to your BIOS settings and enable Hardware Virtualization.
Restart Android Studio and then try to start the AVD again.

Connectivity problems with Glass

I've created a small Glass app and am trying to help someone else side load the .apk file directly on on their Glass as part of internal testing. I had them install the Eclipse + ADT Bundle, run the SDK Manager, etc (i.e. the basic instructions from here). They verified that the Google USB driver does show up in the SDK Manager.
With the device plugged in, running "adb wait-for-device" hangs. So it doesn't appear device communication is working. The device also does not show up in DDMS in Eclipse.
They verified that USB debugging is enabled on the Glass itself under settings.
I also tried having them follow the instructions here but this also did not help. They are able to see the Glass removable storage device in windows.
Any suggestions on what else to try? I do recall that with my Glass device at one point I put it on and it asked me if I wanted to allow debugging from the computer where it was plugged in. I'm not sure if this could be a roadblock here or not but I'm also not sure how to get to that prompt.
Once you get the correct values into android_winusb.inf it works fine, see
Google Glass ADB devices doesn't find. OMAP4430 driver not installed (can't find it!)
Here's an example on a Win7 box:
(edited to include screen capture)
The easiest workaround is to find a Mac, Chromebook or Linux computer. Windows with ADB and Glass is nothing but pain.

How can I test my Windows app in multiple monitor setup?

I code for Windows desktop platform and I need to test my desktop app in a multiple monitor configuration. What is the easiest way to do that? (Well, besides me buying the needed hardware...) I guess I'm asking about a virtual platform to do that. (It seems like VMware workstation does not support such feature.)
VirtualBox can emulate a system with up to eight monitors.

Attaching Unity's integrated profiler to Mobile Devices

Has anyone successfully used the Unity profiler with a physical mobile device? (i.e. the Unity 3.4 IDE tool that provides real-time stats on Unity calls, not the iOS or Android internal profilers). And if so, can you post the details about your setup and your experience?
I'm starting to get the feeling that people aren't using the profiler to test their games on real devices, given how little I can find in the Unity documentation and forums or on the web in general. In particular, dreamora is the only person I have heard of who has successfully attached the Unity profiler to a real device running a game (and then, only on iPhone not Android). It is also suspicious to me that the Android remote tool for Unity 3.4 which I downloaded form the marketplace requires a cable to connect to the Unity IDE and doesn't seem to have a wireless option; I see this as a red flag that wireless profiling by attaching the Unity profiler to an Android device may be impossible (please correct me someone if I'm wrong).
I would like to know your experiences (good or bad) with this tool, and assuming you have been able to profile a device, specifically I would like to know:
1) Did you connect to and Android or iOS?
2) What device and API version (i.e. Nexus S1 AndroidAPI=2.3.7 Kernel=2.6.35.14 running Cyanogen MOD 7.10)
3) What type of computer are you using (Windows or Mac, and OS)?
4) What is the nature of the connection you were able to make between your computer and the device?
4.1) Wired or wireless?
4.2) If wireless, ad-hoc from computer to device, tethering from device to computer, or both connected to the same WLAN router?
4.3) If wireless, what is the setup (DHCP, Static IP, ttl=4, etc?)
5) What are the Unity build settings (i.e. Development Build checked/unchecked, Autoconnect Profiler checked/unchecked, etc?)
6) What were the specific steps you took to connect to the device? (i.e. Build and run on device, then restart Unity twice, then offer up a prayer to the gods by sacrificing a Symbian phone, then connect via the Active Profiler pull-down, etc.)
Let's get to the bottom of this together, I will repost any information this community can provide me with in the Unity forums as well.
Well, I am going to partially answer my own questions here: By following these steps I was able to connect to and profile my Android Nexus running the Cyanogen Mod (7.1) using my MacBook pro (running 10.6.8 "Snow Leopard") on both Unity 3.4.1 and 3.4.2:
Create a WiFi Hotspot using Internet sharing on your Mac. Use the "Share your connection from: Ethernet" and "To computers using AirPort (AirMac)" options. I did not password protect my network.
Connect to this the WiFi network on your Android.
Quit Unity.app (if you already launched it).
Disable the Ethernet interface under System Preferences -> Network (select 'Off' from the Configure IPv4 pull-down menu)
Launch Unity.app
Enable Ethernet interface under System Preferences -> Network (select 'Using DHCP' from the Configure IPv4 pull-down menu)
Now Your Android should be in the list of the Profiler window. Of course, you will need to launch a Unity application that was built with the 'Development Build' and 'Autoconnect Profiler' checkboxes selected under Build Settings (that's what I did at least).
Happy Hunting!
-Arun
If the above don't work or you need to profile specifically on a Windows Phone, try the following...
1.) Make sure in Build Settings you set it to 'Development Build'.
2.) Connect your phone to your Wifi Network, then click on the wifi connection to see your phone's IP address
3.) Enter the phone's IP address in the profiler, and press the 'Record' button and the profiler will begin profiling on your phone.
4.) Run your game from Visual Studio, wait and you will see the profiling will begin.
If you don't see your phone in the profiler, try this alternate method
1.) Connect the phone to your PC
2.) Make sure in Build Settings you set it to 'Development Build'.
3.) Build the game to Visual Studio
4.) Run the game in 'Debug' mode from Visual Studio
5.) When the game is running on the device and is past any loading screens, click on the 'Active Profiler' dropdown in the profiler, and the device should be listed there

Linux as a guest on MacOS X: VirtualBox or Parallels?

I'm going to develop mostly Django sites on a MacBook Pro and would like to use Ubuntu VMs for testing purposes.
Which product is better suited for this purpose?
Can I connect to the VM via TCP/IP (so I can have apache running on the VM and access it from Safari on my MBP)?
Thanks!
It should be possible using VMWARE FUSION. It has a good network management, and you should be able to access easily your vm via network.
I've successfully used both VirtualBox and VMWare Fusion for this. On both systems, you can set the guest up so that it has its own IP address, and connect to it via HTTP, SSH and even native file sharing, so you can mount the guest's drive as a network drive from the Mac, and vice versa. This makes it possible to do the editing on the Mac in eg Textmate, but run the server on the VM.
I can only tell you about my experiences with a Core2Quad Q6600 on VMWare Fusion 3.0. I have three boot partitions on this system (ahem yes it is a hackintosh running with the E-Fix USB).
So i can do performance measurements. I use it for sometimes very large compiler sessions. And the amazing fact was that Linux as a Guest runs without any measureable time difference on virtualised and native Linux. Windows7 on the other hand only runs with 40% on my machine and GUI is allmost non useable while the GNOME Desktop from latest Ubuntu still works fine.
Check this out. Virtual Box is free so there is nothing to loose.