[gentoo-user] A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[gentoo-user] A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[Mick]

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Increasingly more and more services I prefer to access online keep asking me 
to download and use some app to be able to enjoy the goodness of their 
offering in the future.  Invariably these are Android apps they think their 
customers will want to use.  I don't have an android phone, but have QEMU 
installed.  I was wondering if I can run some/any of these apps as VM guests 
within QEMU, on my amd64 Gentoo.

I had a look at this wiki page, but I'm not sure if all this is required just 
to run some arm binary, when I don't need/want to compile software on ARM:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Embedded_Handbook/General/
Compiling_with_qemu_user_chroot

I assume if I follow the instructions on the page I should be able to install 
some Android image as a guest, then install the requisite app in the guest and 
run it?  Or is it more complicated than this and it won't run unless I install 
it in a real smart phone, I'm connected to a cell tower at the time and give 
them my phone number too?

My understanding of emulating an altogether different CPU arch in QEMU is non-
existent, I've always run x86 guest OS'/apps on x86 gentoo hosts.  Do you have 
any relevant experience you could share?

-- 
Regards,

Mick

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[gentoo-user] Re: A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 19/08/2019 21:36, Mick wrote:
> I was wondering if I can run some/any of these apps as VM guests
> within QEMU, on my amd64 Gentoo.

You can, although it seems very complicated to make it work. Projects 
like Anbox (https://github.com/anbox/anbox) exist for that reason. 
Unfortunately, Anbox is not in portage so you'll have to build from source.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[Mick]

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On Monday, 19 August 2019 20:00:36 BST Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 19/08/2019 21:36, Mick wrote:
> > I was wondering if I can run some/any of these apps as VM guests
> > within QEMU, on my amd64 Gentoo.
> 
> You can, although it seems very complicated to make it work. Projects
> like Anbox (https://github.com/anbox/anbox) exist for that reason.
> Unfortunately, Anbox is not in portage so you'll have to build from source.

This looks simpler than creating an ARM chroot on an x86 box.  :-)

Thanks Nikos, I'll give this a spin when I get minute.

-- 
Regards,

Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[Jarry]

On 21-Aug-19 17:49, Mick wrote:
> On Monday, 19 August 2019 20:00:36 BST Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> On 19/08/2019 21:36, Mick wrote:
>>> I was wondering if I can run some/any of these apps as VM guests
>>> within QEMU, on my amd64 Gentoo.
>>
>> You can, although it seems very complicated to make it work. Projects
>> like Anbox (https://github.com/anbox/anbox) exist for that reason.
>> Unfortunately, Anbox is not in portage so you'll have to build from source.
> 
> This looks simpler than creating an ARM chroot on an x86 box.  :-)
> 
> Thanks Nikos, I'll give this a spin when I get minute.
> 

Just curious: Is ARM for you a "must"? I'm running android-x86.org
in virtualbox and the only problem is non-accelerated graphics
(there are no virtualbox-additions for android). Appart from that,
all works as expected. Network is emulated as "wifi", Google
services are integrated and I can install apps as on any other
android device...

Jarry
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[Mick]

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On Wednesday, 21 August 2019 17:19:58 BST Jarry wrote:
> On 21-Aug-19 17:49, Mick wrote:
> > On Monday, 19 August 2019 20:00:36 BST Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> >> On 19/08/2019 21:36, Mick wrote:
> >>> I was wondering if I can run some/any of these apps as VM guests
> >>> within QEMU, on my amd64 Gentoo.
> >> 
> >> You can, although it seems very complicated to make it work. Projects
> >> like Anbox (https://github.com/anbox/anbox) exist for that reason.
> >> Unfortunately, Anbox is not in portage so you'll have to build from
> >> source.
> > 
> > This looks simpler than creating an ARM chroot on an x86 box.  :-)
> > 
> > Thanks Nikos, I'll give this a spin when I get minute.
> 
> Just curious: Is ARM for you a "must"? I'm running android-x86.org
> in virtualbox and the only problem is non-accelerated graphics
> (there are no virtualbox-additions for android). Appart from that,
> all works as expected. Network is emulated as "wifi", Google
> services are integrated and I can install apps as on any other
> android device...
> 
> Jarry

Ahh!  I had forgotten about this project.  Last time I used an x86 port it was 
some early alpha and pretty much unusable.

I have a look - thanks!

-- 
Regards,

Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[Petric Frank]

Hello,

not exactly. But in Android Studio (which uses Android SDK) is bundled an
emulator using qemu. Android Studio allows you to download an Android image
(Android 2.0 up to Android 9) compiled for x86 and run it.
This is mainly used for testing apps developed under Android Studio.
Maybe this could also be used standalone.

regards
  Petric

Am Montag, 19. August 2019, 20:36:01 CEST schrieb Mick:
> Increasingly more and more services I prefer to access online keep asking me
> to download and use some app to be able to enjoy the goodness of their
> offering in the future.  Invariably these are Android apps they think their
> customers will want to use.  I don't have an android phone, but have QEMU
> installed.  I was wondering if I can run some/any of these apps as VM
> guests within QEMU, on my amd64 Gentoo.
>
> I had a look at this wiki page, but I'm not sure if all this is required
> just to run some arm binary, when I don't need/want to compile software on
> ARM:
>
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Embedded_Handbook/General/
> Compiling_with_qemu_user_chroot
>
> I assume if I follow the instructions on the page I should be able to
> install some Android image as a guest, then install the requisite app in
> the guest and run it?  Or is it more complicated than this and it won't run
> unless I install it in a real smart phone, I'm connected to a cell tower at
> the time and give them my phone number too?
>
> My understanding of emulating an altogether different CPU arch in QEMU is
> non- existent, I've always run x86 guest OS'/apps on x86 gentoo hosts.  Do
> you have any relevant experience you could share?

Re: [gentoo-user] A bit O/T: Running android apps in QEMU

[Mick]

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On Monday, 19 August 2019 20:31:00 BST Petric Frank wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> not exactly. But in Android Studio (which uses Android SDK) is bundled an
> emulator using qemu. Android Studio allows you to download an Android image
> (Android 2.0 up to Android 9) compiled for x86 and run it.
> This is mainly used for testing apps developed under Android Studio.
> Maybe this could also be used standalone.
> 
> regards
>   Petric

Thank you Petric, I've used Android SDK in the past and it was so slow I soon 
gave up on it.  On my current laptop I have not installed Java and will 
probably keep it Java free, but if I were to install it I will give Android 
SDK another go to see if it runs any faster on this PC.
-- 
Regards,

Mick

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