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Faster android emulation

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Faster android emulation

 
It is fun to develop but not fun to test on emulator because of performance issues.

Here is what work for me after a long research ( information collected from internet source and books ). If you are running Windows 7 on an i5 processors then this might just work for you without getting into downloading virtual machine or any additional virtual images.
 

Hardware running on:

  1. i5 processor ( first generation , but any generation should do ).
  2. 3 GB main memory ( As per observation memory is not a constraint, anything more than 3 GB is enough on windows 7 )

 

Software :

  1. Android 20 SDK
  2. Windows 7 64-bit.

I have been into developing web application for mobile and wanted to test on android devices, it was not too late for me to realize that web application on the browsers on android is not any fast while my application works very fast on desktop browsers.

Here are the steps that made android emulator fast enough.

  1. Ensure your machine supports virtualization: Look into your bios settings and check if your system supports virtualization( latest intel based CPUs, mostly supports virtualization).
  2. Go to android SDK manager, Choose Extras->Intel x86 Emulator Acceleration ( HAXM) and install the package.
  3. Once installed from the SDK manager. Browse the path C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager.
  4. Click and install IntelHaxm.exe.
  5. Now open your Android virtual device manager. Its time to create a faster emulator.
  6. Click new , give it a name, choose target later than API level 18 ( earlier Levels will not work ) . Now the CPU/ABI is something we have to choose intel atom x86. And then choose your other preferences.
  7. Now start it.

 

With this you are ready to go. I tested the web application I was running on ARM CPU type and it made me search the web for solution. It was painfully slow.

Let me know if it works for you or if you face any issues

 

About Gokul Krishnan


I am very much interested in android and Wicket framework. A core android developer and working in android native app development and responsive web mobile design. I have also worked in wicket fame work and java web development. I will keep on updating you about android and wicket framework and answer your query.