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Android Development Environment on Containarium

Run a full Android development environment inside an Incus container with hardware-accelerated emulator via KVM.

Two Modes

Mode Stack Use Case Access
Headless android CI/CD, automated testing, command-line builds SSH + ADB
GUI android-studio App UI development, manual testing, full IDE SSH + VNC

Prerequisites

  • Container must have security.nesting=true (Containarium sets this by default when Podman is enabled)
  • Host must support KVM (grep -c vmx /proc/cpuinfo > 0)
  • Recommended: 8+ CPU cores, 16GB+ RAM, 50GB+ disk

Quick Start

Headless (CI/CD & Command-Line)

containarium create android-dev \
  --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub \
  --cpu 8 --memory 16GB --disk 100GB \
  --stack android \
  --backend-id tunnel-node-b-gpu

After creation, SSH in and use:

ssh android-dev

# Build a project
cd /path/to/project
./gradlew assembleDebug

# Start emulator (headless)
emulator -avd default -no-window -no-audio -gpu swiftshader_indirect &

# Wait for boot
adb wait-for-device
adb shell getprop sys.boot_completed  # Returns "1" when ready

# Run tests
./gradlew connectedAndroidTest

# Stop emulator
adb emu kill

GUI (Android Studio)

containarium create android-studio-dev \
  --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub \
  --cpu 8 --memory 16GB --disk 100GB \
  --stack android-studio \
  --backend-id tunnel-node-b-gpu

After creation:

ssh android-studio-dev

# Start VNC server (first time sets up desktop)
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24

# VNC is now listening on port 5901

Access the desktop:

Option A — VNC client (recommended for low latency):

# From your laptop, create SSH tunnel:
ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 android-studio-dev

# Connect VNC client to localhost:5901
# Password: containarium

Option B — Browser via noVNC (no client install):

# Inside the container:
sudo apt install novnc websockify
websockify --web /usr/share/novnc 6080 localhost:5901 &

# From your laptop, tunnel port 6080:
ssh -L 6080:localhost:6080 android-studio-dev

# Open browser: http://localhost:6080/vnc.html

Then launch Android Studio:

# In the VNC desktop terminal:
studio.sh &

What's Installed

android stack (headless)

  • OpenJDK 17 (headless)
  • Android SDK command-line tools
  • Android SDK platform tools (adb, fastboot)
  • Android build tools 35.0.0
  • Android platform API 35
  • Android Emulator with x86_64 system image
  • Pre-created AVD: default (Pixel 6, Android 15)
  • QEMU/KVM for emulator acceleration

android-studio stack (GUI)

  • Everything in android stack, plus:
  • OpenJDK 17 (full, with GUI support)
  • Android Studio (latest stable)
  • XFCE4 desktop environment
  • TigerVNC server
  • Noto fonts

Emulator Usage

Start Emulator

# Headless (no GUI needed)
emulator -avd default -no-window -no-audio -gpu swiftshader_indirect &

# With VNC (visible in VNC desktop)
emulator -avd default -gpu swiftshader_indirect &

GPU Acceleration

For better emulator performance on GPU-equipped peers:

# If the container has GPU passthrough:
emulator -avd default -gpu host &

# Software rendering (always works, slower):
emulator -avd default -gpu swiftshader_indirect &

Create Additional AVDs

# List available system images
sdkmanager --list | grep system-images

# Install a different API level
sdkmanager "system-images;android-34;google_apis;x86_64"

# Create AVD
avdmanager create avd -n android34 \
  -k "system-images;android-34;google_apis;x86_64" \
  -d pixel_6

# List AVDs
avdmanager list avd

ADB Commands

# List connected devices/emulators
adb devices

# Install APK
adb install app-debug.apk

# Logcat
adb logcat

# Shell into emulator
adb shell

# Screenshot
adb exec-out screencap -p > screenshot.png

# Record screen
adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/demo.mp4
adb pull /sdcard/demo.mp4

CI/CD Example

Example script for automated builds and tests:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

# Start emulator
emulator -avd default -no-window -no-audio -gpu swiftshader_indirect &
EMU_PID=$!

# Wait for boot (up to 5 minutes)
adb wait-for-device
timeout 300 bash -c 'while [ "$(adb shell getprop sys.boot_completed 2>/dev/null)" != "1" ]; do sleep 5; done'

# Disable animations for faster tests
adb shell settings put global window_animation_scale 0
adb shell settings put global transition_animation_scale 0
adb shell settings put global animator_duration_scale 0

# Run tests
./gradlew connectedAndroidTest

# Cleanup
kill $EMU_PID 2>/dev/null

Troubleshooting

Emulator fails with "KVM is required"

The container needs nested virtualization:

# Check from inside container
kvm-ok

# If not supported, the container needs security.nesting=true
# Containarium sets this by default with --podman flag

Emulator extremely slow

  • Use -gpu swiftshader_indirect (software GPU)
  • Ensure KVM is working: emulator -accel-check
  • Increase container CPU/memory

"ANDROID_HOME not set"

source ~/.bashrc
# Or set manually:
export ANDROID_HOME=/opt/android-sdk
export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$ANDROID_HOME/emulator:$PATH

VNC connection refused

# Check if VNC is running
vncserver -list

# Start if not running
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24

# Kill and restart
vncserver -kill :1
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24