How can I run Android emulator for Intel x86 Atom without hardware acceleration on Windows 8 for API 21 and 19?

Question

I have not enabled Hyper V or hardware acceleration and don't want to either.

Is there any way that I can start android emulator for Intel x86 Atom Without hardware acceleration on Windows 8

I have created AVDs with every combination possible and each one has failed to start the AVD emulator instance , throwing the same error when starting

emulator: ERROR: x86 emulation currently requires hardware acceleration! Please ensure Intel HAXM is properly installed and usable. CPU acceleration status: HAX kernel module is not installed!

OR is it that, the images given for Intel Atom 86 and 64 cannot run without HARDWARE ACCELERATION AND hyper V for API 21 and 19

I have found lots of similar question and read almost all documentation, but it is not clear if they can or cannot run without hyper v and hardware acceleration, hence this direct question

How do you test on android in such cases ?

Answer 1

In current AVD manager you can't. You just have the opportunity to use ARM images which will not need hardware virtualization.

To run ARM images:

1. Open AVD manager.
2. Create a new 'Virtual Device' OR right click an existing image and select 'Duplicate'
3. Choose arm* instead of x86/x64.
4. Continue with the wizard.
5. Run!

Although this is the available solution but still a slow one !!

Answer 2

You can still force the use of the soft x86 emulator by running it from the command line and using the -no-accel option, i.e. from the SDK/tools directory:

emulator -avd AVD_NAME -memory 768 -no-accel -gpu on

BUT this still won't work with the current (V24) SDK, because the current x86 system images crash the soft x86 emulator :-(

The only way I got this working again was to downgrade the SDK tools to V22.3 from here: http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/tools_r22.3-windows.zip and to buld an AVD using a downgraded system image, for instance https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/sys-img/android/sysimg_x86-17_r02.zip. (So this is no help if you need to test on more recent versions of Android).

Google have moved on to an updated version of their emulator based on a more recent version of qemu, and provide binaries for arm and mips emulators, but have omitted to ship the x86 equivalent (there is no emulator-ranchu-x86.exe and emulator64-ranchu-x86.exe). If they did so, or if someone else went to the trouble of setting up and compiling their emulator source with the "x86" flag on, then _x86 soft emulation could conceivably be made to work again.

Answer 3

Short Answer: No. Until recently(about 1 month ago), you could do that but with the latest updates, it is not possible. (see Update to Android SDK Tools 23.0.5 and avd doesn't start).

I was doing something similar: Doing development in a virtual machine and hence couldn't use the Hardware acceleration features as they are available only in the host machine. I was using Intel x86 images with Use Host GPU option; as they were much faster than the ARM version even without hardware acceleration. But then, after this update, my emulator AVDs which were working earlier are no longer starting with the same exact error message. Also, both genymotion and Xamarin Android emulators can't be used as they also need hardware acceleration(they are actually VMs which use Hardware acceleration for speed, and hence can't be run inside another VM).

I have found this solution but haven't tried it yet. The basic idea is that to still develop inside a VM; but for testing connect to an Emulator running on the host machine(and this Emulator VM can now use the hardware acceleration feature).

Answer 4

Same issue as in Error in launching AVD:

1) Install the Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM installer) from the Android SDK Manager;

2) Run (for Windows):

{SDK_FOLDER}\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager\intelhaxm.exe

or (for OSX):

{SDK_FOLDER}\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager\IntelHAXM_1.1.1_for_10_9_and_above.dmg

3) Start the emulator.

Answer 5

Is there any way that I can start android emulator for intel x86 atom Without hardware acceleration on windows 8

Not with the standard Android SDK emulator, as it requires Intel's HAXM, and HAXM wants virtualization extensions to be enabled.

Whether Genymotion or something else from another independent developer can support your desired combination, I cannot say.

Answer 6

The usage of the Hardware acceleration depends on the System Image you choose on the emulator.

So,

1. Go to AVD manager, create virtual device, select hardware, click next.

2. Choose the System Image that does not require HAXM (hardware acceleration) for running. (That is appears at the right bottom of System image window.)

Note: for other systems that require HAXM, there no way to run them without hardware acceleration.

Answer 7

use bluestacks as a emulator for best performance. blusestack working fast without hardware based emulation

To connect bluestack to android studio.

• Close Android Studio.
• Go to adb.exe location.(Bydefault its C:\Users\Tarun\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools)
• Run adb connect localhost:5555 from this location.
• Start Android Studio and you will get Blue Stack as emulator when you run your app.

Answer 8

refer intel.com's requirements : Important: Intel HAXM cannot be used on systems without an Intel processor, or with an Intel processor that lacks the hardware features described in the "Hardware Requirements" section above.To determine the capabilities of your Intel processor

[Installation Instructions for Intel® Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager ] https://software.intel.com/en-us/android/articles/installation-instructions-for-intel-hardware-accelerated-execution-manager-mac-os-x

My PC does not support vt-x, I can not use android studio 1.0.2.

Answer 9

yes is possible to run your android emulator without have a hardware accelerator. In fact to do that, you need to open your android virtual device. When you reached to system image configure, it suggest you which version of android image you want to use. Whatever version of android system image that you select,you need to make sure that,ABI is armeabi-v7a and, you target is System image ameabi-v7a with google APIs. And then complete the rest of task and check out your emulator.

Answer 10

I've run into the same problem, I found the solution at http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html#vm-windows

Just follow this simple steps:

1. Start the Android SDK Manager, select Extras and then select Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager.

2. After the download completes, run [sdk]/extras/intel/Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager/IntelHAXM.exe

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete installation.

Answer 11

I have a pc with intel c2d without hardware accelaration i am having same problem in android studio. firstly i get bored with android studio and installed eclipse+sdk+adt then i have installed every thing and started emulator it worked then the same emulator worked in android studio for direct launching application in android studio and i have also runned the sample app that emulator so you can run android studio without virtualization technique even your processor does not sopport vt-x

Answer 12

You need "VT-x supported processor" at least to run Android emulator with Hardware acceleration.

If you have enabled or installed "Hyper-V" in your windows 8 then please remove it and disable the "Hyper threading" and enable "Virtualization".

Answer 13

When Run 'app' (green triangle): In Device Chooser select Launch emulator and click the button [...] Rigth click on Nexus (or other) click on Duplicate In the O.S. (Android 6.0 example) click change: Clic on Show downloadable system images. Look for armeabi-v7a O.S. and click download. Set this O.S. in the device. Finish, and choose this Device for the emulation.