Android Emulator

The Android SDK includes a mobile device emulator

-- a virtual mobile device that runs on your
computer. The emulator lets you prototype,
develop, and test Android applications without
using a physical device.
The Android emulator mimics all of the hardware
and software features of a typical mobile device,
except that it can not receive or place actual phone
calls. It provides a variety of navigation and control
keys, which you can "press" using your mouse or
keyboard to generate events for your application. It
also provides a screen in which your application is
displayed, together with any other Android
applications running.
To let you model and test your application more
easily, the emulator supports Android Virtual
Device (AVD) configurations. AVDs let you specify the Android platform that you want to run
on the emulator, as well as the hardware options and emulator skin files tht you want to use.
Once your application is running on the emulator, it can use the services of the Android
platform to invoke other applications, access the network, play audio and video, store and
retrieve data, notify the user, and render graphical transitions and themes.
The emulator also includes a variety of debug capabilities, such as a console from which you
can log kernel output, simulate application interrupts (such as arriving SMS messages or
phone calls), and simulate latency effects and dropouts on the data channel.
In this document:
1. Overview 1. Using the Emulator Console
2. Starting and Stopping the Emulator 1. Port Redirections
3. Android Virtual Devices and the 2. Geo Location Provider
Emulator Emulation
4. Controlling the Emulator 3. Sending Events
5. Emulator Startup Options 4. Emulating Device Power
6. Working with Emulator Disk Images Characteristics
1. Default Images 5. Network Status
2. Runtime Images: User Data and 6. Network Delay Emulation
SD Card 7. Network Speed Emulation
3. Temporary Images 8. Telephony Emulation
7. Emulator Networking 9. SMS Emulation
1. Network Address Space 10. VM State
2. Local Networking Limitations 11. Emulator Window
3. Using Network Redirections 12. Terminating an Emulator
4. Configuring the Emulator's DNS Instance
Settings 2. Using Emulator Skins
5. Using the Emulator with a Proxy 3. Running Multiple Instances of
6. Interconnecting Emulator the Emulator
Instances 4. Installing Applications on the
7. Sending a Voice Call or SMS to Emulator
Another Emulator Instance 5. SD Card Emulation
 1. Creating an SD card image
using the android tool
2. Creating an SD card image
using mksdcard
3. Copying Files to a Disk Image
4. Loading the Disk Image at
Emulator Startup
6. Troubleshooting Emulator
Problems
7. Emulator Limitations

Overview
The Android emulator is a QEMU-based application that provides a virtual ARM mobile device
on which you can run your Android applications. It runs a full Android system stack, down to
the kernel level, that includes a set of preinstalled applications (such as the dialer) that you
can access from your applications. You can choose what version of the Android system you
want to run in the emulator by configuring AVDs, and you can also customize the mobile
device skin and key mappings. When launching the emulator and at runtime, you can use a
variety of commands and options to control the its behaviors.
The Android system image distributed in the SDK contains ARM machine code for the Android
Linux kernel, the native libraries, the Dalvik VM, and the various Android package files (such
as for for the Android framework and preinstalled applications). The emulator's QEMU layers
provide dynamic binary translation of the ARM machine code to the OS and processor
architecture of your development machine.
Adding custom capabilities to the underlying QEMU services, the Android emulator supports
many hardware features likely to be found on mobile devices, including:
• An ARMv5 CPU and the corresponding memory-management unit (MMU)
• A 16-bit LCD display
• One or more keyboards (a Qwerty-based keyboard and associated Dpad/Phone
buttons)
• A sound chip with output and input capabilities
• Flash memory partitions (emulated through disk image files on the development
machine)
• A GSM modem, including a simulated SIM Card
The sections below provide more information about the emulator and how to use it for
developing Android applications.
Starting and Stopping the Emulator
During development and testing of your application, you install and run your application in
the Android emulator. You can launch the emulator as a standalone application, from a
command line, or you can use it as part of your Eclipse development environment. In either
case, you specify the AVD configuration to load and any startup options you want to use, as
described in this document.
You can run your application on a single instance of the emulator or, depending on your
needs, you can start multiple emulator instances and run your application in more than one
emulated device. You can use the emulator's built-in commands to simulate GSM phone
calling or SMS between emulator instances, and you can set up network redirections that
allow emulators to send data to one another. For more information, see Telephony
Emulation, SMS Emulation, and Emulator Networking
To start an instance of the emulator from the command line, change to the tools/ folder of the
SDK. Enter emulator command like this:
emulator -avd <avd_name>
This initializes the emulator and loads an AVD configuration (see the next section for more
information about AVDs). You will see the emulator window appear on your screen.
If you are working in Eclipse, the ADT plugin for Eclipse installs your application and starts the
emulator automatically, when you run or debug the application. You can specify emulator
startup options in the Run/Debug dialog, in the Target tab. When the emulator is running, you
can issue console commands as described later in this document.
If you are not working in Eclipse, see Installing Applications on the Emulator for information
about how to install your application.
To stop an emulator instance, just close the emulator's window.
Android Virtual Devices and the Emulator
To use the emulator, you first must create one or more AVD configurations. In each
configuration, you specify an Android platform to run in the emulator and the set of hardware
options and emulator skin you want to use. Then, when you launch the emulator, you specify
the AVD configuration that you want to load.
To specify the AVD you want to load when starting the emulator, you use the -avd argument,
as shown in the previous section.
Each AVD functions as an independent device, with its own private storage for user data, SD
card, and so on. When you launch the emulator with an AVD configuration, it automatically
loads the user data and SD card data from the AVD directory. By default, the emulator stores
the user data, SD card data, and cache in the AVD directory.
To create and manage AVDs you use the android tool, a command-line utility included in the
SDK. For complete information about how to set up AVDs, see Android Virtual Devices.
Controlling the Emulator
You can use emulator startup options and console commands to control the behaviors and
characteristics of the emulated environment itself.
When the emulator is running, you can interact with the emulated mobile device just as you
would an actual mobile device, except that you use your mouse pointer to "touch" the
touchscreen and your keyboard keys to "press" the simulated device keys.
The table below summarizes the mappings between the emulator keys and and the keys of
your keyboard.
Emulated Device Key Keyboard Key
Home HOME
Menu (left softkey) F2 or Page-up button
Star (right softkey) Shift-F2 or Page Down
Back ESC
Call/dial button F3
Hangup/end call button F4
Search F5
Power button F7
 Audio volume up button KEYPAD_PLUS, Ctrl-5
Audio volume down button KEYPAD_MINUS, Ctrl-F6
Camera button Ctrl-KEYPAD_5, Ctrl-F3
Switch to previous layout orientation (for KEYPAD_7, Ctrl-F11
example, portrait, landscape)
Switch to next layout orientation (for example, KEYPAD_9, Ctrl-F12
portrait, landscape)
Toggle cell networking on/off F8
Toggle code profiling F9 (only with -trace startup option)
Toggle fullscreen mode Alt-Enter
Toggle trackball mode F6
Enter trackball mode temporarily (while key is Delete
pressed)
DPad left/up/right/down KEYPAD_4/8/6/2
DPad center click KEYPAD_5
Onion alpha increase/decrease KEYPAD_MULTIPLY(*) /
KEYPAD_DIVIDE(/)
Note that, to use keypad keys, you must first disable NumLock on your development
computer.
Emulator Startup Options
The emulator supports a variety of options that you can specify when launching the emulator,
to control its appearance or behavior. Here's the command-line usage for launching the
emulator with options:
emulator -avd <avd_name> [-<option> [<value>]] ... [-<qemu args>]
The table below summarizes the available options.
Categ Option Description Comments
ory
Help -help Print a list of all emulator
options.
-help-all Print help for all startup
options.
-help-<option> Print help for a specific
startup option.
-help-debug- Print a list of all tags for -
tags debug <tags>.
 -help-disk- Print help for using
images emulator disk images.
-help- Print help for emulator
environment environment variables.
-help-keys Print the current mapping
of keys.
-help-keyset- Print help for defining a
file custom key mappings file.
-help-virtual- Print help for Android
device Virtual Device usage.
AVD -avd Required. Specifies the You must create an AVD configuration
<avd_name> or AVD to load for this before launching the emulator. For
@<avd_name> emulator instance. information, see Android Virtual
Devices.
Disk -cache <filepath> Use <filepath> as the Optionally, you can specify a path
Image working cache partition relative to the current working
s image. directory. If no cache file is specified,
the emulator's default behavior is to
use a temporary file instead.
For more information on disk images,
use -help-disk-images.
-data <filepath Use <filepath> as the Optionally, you can specify a path
> working user-data disk relative to the current working
image. directory. If -data is not used, the
emulator looks for a file named
"userdata-qemu.img" in the storage
area of the AVD being used (see -avd).
-initdata <filep When resetting the user- Optionally, you can specify a path
ath> data image (through -wipe- relative to the current working
data), copy the contents of directory. See also -wipe-data.
this file to the new user- For more information on disk images,
data disk image. By use -help-disk-images.
default, the emulator
copies
the <system>/userdata.im
g.
-nocache Start the emulator without See also -cache <file>.
a cache partition.
-ramdisk <filep Use <filepath> as the Default value
ath> ramdisk image. is <system>/ramdisk.img.
Optionally, you can specify a path
relative to the current working
directory. For more information on
 disk images, use -help-disk-images.
-sdcard <filepa Use <file> as the SD card Default value
th> image. is <system>/sdcard.img.
Optionally, you can specify a path
relative to the current working
directory. For more information on
disk images, use -help-disk-images.
-wipe-data Reset the current user-data See also -initdata.
disk image (that is, the file For more information on disk images,
specified by -datadir and - use -help-disk-images.
data, or the default file).
The emulator deletes all
data from the user data
image file, then copies the
contents of the file at -
inidata data to the image
file before starting.
Debug -debug <tags> Enable/disable debug <tags> is a space/comma/column-
messages for the specified separated list of debug component
debug tags. names. Use -help-debug-tags to print
a list of debug component names that
you can use.
-debug-<tag> Enable/disable debug Use -help-debug-tags to print a list of
messages for the specified debug component names that you can
debug tag. use in <tag>.
-debug-no- Disable debug messages
<tag> for the specified debug tag.
-logcat Enable logcat output with If the environment variable
<logtags> given tags. ANDROID_LOG_TAGS is defined and
not empty, its value will be used to
enable logcat output by default.
-shell Create a root shell console You can use this command even if the
on the current terminal. adb daemon in the emulated system
is broken. Pressing Ctrl-c from the
shell stops the emulator instead of the
shell.
-shell-serial <d Enable the root shell (as <device> must be a QEMU device
evice> in -shell and specify the type. See the documentation for '-
QEMU character device to serial dev'
use for communication with at http://www.bellard.org/qemu/qemu-
the shell. doc.html#SEC10 for a list of device
types.
Here are some examples:
• -shell-serial stdio is identical to -
 shell
• -shell-serial
tcp::4444,server,nowait lets you
communicate with the shell
over TCP port 4444
• -shell-serial fdpair:3:6 lets a
parent process communicate
with the shell using fds 3 (in)
and 6 (out)
• -shell-serial fdpair:0:1 uses the
normal stdin and stdout fds,
except that QEMU won't tty-
cook the data.
-show-kernel Display kernel messages.
<name>
-trace <name> Enable code profiling (press
F9 to start), written to a
specified file.
-verbose Enable verbose output. Equivalent to -debug-init.
You can define the default verbose
output options used by emulator
instances in the Android environment
variable ANDROID_VERBOSE. Define
the options you want to use in a
comma-delimited list, specifying only
the stem of each option: -debug-
<tags>.
Here's an example showing
ANDROID_VERBOSE defined with the -
debug-init and -debug-modem options
:
ANDROID_VERBOSE=init,modem
For more information about debug
tags, use <-help-debug-tags>.
Media -audio Use the specified audio
<backend> backend.
-audio-in Use the specified audio-
<backend> input backend.
-audio-out Use the specified audio-
<backend> output backend.
-noaudio Disable audio support in
the current emulator
instance.
-radio Redirect radio modem
 <device> interface to a host
character device.
-useaudio Enable audio support in the Enabled by default.
current emulator instance.
Netwo -dns-server Use the specified DNS The value of <servers> must be a
rk <servers> server(s). comma-separated list of up to 4 DNS
server names or IP addresses.
-http-proxy Make all TCP connections The value of <proxy> can be one of
<proxy> through a specified the following:
HTTP/HTTPS proxy http://<server>:<port>
http://<username>:<password>@<se
rver>:<port>
The http:// prefix can be omitted. If
the -http-proxy <proxy>command is
not supplied, the emulator looks up
the http_proxyenvironment variable
and automatically uses any value
matching the<proxy> format
described above.
-netdelay Set network latency Default value is none. See the table
<delay> emulation to <delay>. in Network Delay Emulation for
supported <delay> values.
-netfast Shortcut for -netspeed full
-netdelay none
-netspeed Set network speed Default value is full. See the table
<speed> emulation to <speed>. in Network Speed Emulation for
supported <speed> values.
-port <port> Set the console port The console port number must be an
number for this emulator even integer between 5554 and 5584,
instance to <port>. inclusive. <port>+1 must also be free
and will be reserved for ADB.
-report-console Report the assigned <socket> must use one of these
<socket> console port for this formats:
emulator instance to a tcp:<port>[,server]
remote third party before [,max=<seconds>]
starting the emulation. unix:<port>[,server]
[,max=<seconds>]
Use -help-report-console
to view more information about this
topic.
Syste -cpu-delay Slow down emulated CPU Supported values for <delay> are
m <delay> speed by <delay> integers between 0 and 1000.
Note that the <delay> does not
 correlate to clock speed or other
absolute metrics — it simply
represents an abstract, relative delay
factor applied non-deterministically in
the emulator. Effective performance
does not always scale in direct
relationship with <delay> values.
-gps <device> Redirect NMEA GPS to Use this command to emulate an
character device. NMEA-compatible GPS unit connected
to an external character device or
socket. The format of<device> must
be QEMU-specific serial device
specification. See the documentation
for 'serial -dev'
athttp://www.bellard.org/qemu/qemu-
doc.html#SEC10.
-nojni Disable JNI checks in the
Dalvik runtime.
-qemu Pass arguments to qemu.
-qemu -h Display qemu help.
-radio Redirect radio mode to the The format of <device> must be
<device> specified character device. QEMU-specific serial device
specification. See the documentation
for 'serial -dev'
athttp://www.bellard.org/qemu/qemu-
doc.html#SEC10.
-timezone Set the timezone for the <timezone> must be specified in
<timezone> emulated device to zoneinfo format. For example:
<timezone>, instead of the "America/Los_Angeles"
host's timezone. "Europe/Paris"
-version Display the emulator's
version number.
UI -dpi-device <dpi> Scale the resolution of the The default value is 165. See also -
emulator to match the scale.
screen size of a physical
device.
-no-boot-anim Disable the boot animation Disabling the boot animation can
during emulator startup. speed the startup time for the
emulator.
-no-window Disable the emulator's
graphical window display.
-scale <scale> Scale the emulator window. <scale> is a number between 0.1 and
 3 that represents the desired scaling
factor. You can also specify scale as a
DPI value if you add the suffix "dpi" to
the scale value. A value of "auto" tells
the emulator to select the best
window size.
-raw-keys Disable Unicode keyboard
reverse-mapping.
-noskin Don't use any emulator
skin.
-keyset <file> Use the specified keyset The keyset file defines the list of key
file instead of the default. bindings between the emulator and
the host keyboard. For more
information, use -help-keyset to print
information about this topic.
-onion Use overlay image over No support for JPEG. Only PNG is
<image> screen. supported.
-onion-alpha Specify onion skin Default is 50.
<percent> translucency value (as
percent).
-onion-rotation Specify onion skin rotation. <position> must be one of the values
<position> 0, 1, 2, 3.
-skin <skinID> This emulator option is Please set skin options using AVDs,
deprecated. rather than by using this emulator
option. Using this option may yield
unexpected and in some cases
misleading results, since the density
with which to render the skin may not
be defined. AVDs let you associate
each skin with a default density and
override the default as needed. For
more information, see Android Virtual
Devices.
-skindir <dir> This emulator option is See comments for -skin, above.
deprecated.

Working with Emulator Disk Images

The emulator uses mountable disk images stored on your development machine to simulate
flash (or similar) partitions on an actual device. For example, it uses disk image containing an
emulator-specific kernel, the Android system, a ramdisk image, and writeable images for user
data and simulated SD card.
To run properly, the emulator requires access to a specific set of disk image files. By default,
the Emulator always looks for the disk images in the private storage area of the AVD in use. If
no images exist there when the Emulator is launched, it creates the images in the AVD
directory based on default versions stored in the SDK.
Note: The default storage location for AVDs is in ~/.android/avd on OS X and
Linux, C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\.android\ on Windows XP,
and C:\Users\<user>\.android\ on Windows Vista.
To let you use alternate or custom versions of the image files, the emulator provides startup
options that override the default locations and filenames of the image files. When you use the
options, the emulator searches for the image file under the image name or location that you
specify; if it can not locate the image, it reverts to using the default names and location.
The emulator uses three types of image files: default image files, runtime image files, and
temporary image files. The sections below describe how to override the location/name of
each type of file.
Default Images
When the emulator launches but does not find an existing user data image in the active
AVD's storage area, it creates a new one from a default version included in the SDK. The
default user data image is read-only. The image files are read-only.
The emulator provides the -system <dir> startup option to let you override the location under
which the emulator looks for the default user data image.
The emulator also provides a startup option that lets you override the name of the default
user data image, as described in the table below. When you use the option, the emulator
looks in the default directory, or in a custom location (if you specified -system <dir>).
Name Description Comments
userdata The initial user-data disk image Override using -initdata <file>. Also see -data
.img <file>, below.
Runtime Images: User Data and SD Card
At runtime, the emulator reads and writes data on two disk images: a user-data image and
(optionally) an SD card image. This emulates the user-data partition and removable storage
media on actual device.
The emulator provides a default user-data disk image. At startup, the emulator creates the
default image as a copy of the system user-data image (user-data.img), described above. The
emulator stores the new image with the files of the active AVD.
The emulator provides startup options to let you override the actual names and storage
locations of the runtime images to load, as described in the table below. When you use one of
these options, the emulator looks for the specified file(s) in the current working directory, in
the AVD directory, or in a custom location (if you specified a path with the filename).
Name Description Comments
userdata An image to which the emulator Override using -data <filepath>,
- writes runtime user-data for a where <filepath> is the path the image,
qemu.im unique user. relative to the current working directory. If you
g supply a filename only, the emulator looks for
the file in the current working directory. If the
file at <filepath> does not exist, the emulator
creates an image from the default
userdata.img, stores it under the name you
specified, and persists user data to it at
shutdown.
sdcard.i An image representing an SD card Override using -sdcard <filepath>,
 mg inserted into the emulated device. where <filepath> is the path the image,
relative to the current working directory. If you
supply a filename only, the emulator looks for
the file in the current working directory.
User-Data Image
Each emulator instance uses a writeable user-data image to store user- and session-specific
data. For example, it uses the image to store a unique user's installed application data,
settings, databases, and files.
At startup, the emulator attempts to load a user-data image stored during a previous session.
It looks for the file in the current working directory, in the AVD directory as described above,
and at the custom location/name that you specified at startup.
• If it finds a user-data image, it mounts the image and makes it available to the system
for reading/writing of user data.
• If it does not find one, it creates an image by copying the system user-data image
(userdata.img), described above. At device power-off, the system persists the user
data to the image, so that it will be available in the next session. Note that the
emulator stores the new disk image at the location/name that you specify in -
data startup option.
Note: Because of the AVD configurations used in the emulator, each emulator instance
now gets its own dedicated storage. There is no need to use the -d option to specify an
instance-specific storage area.
SD Card
Optionally, you can create a writeable disk image that the emulator can use to simulate
removeable storage in an actual device. For information about how to create an emulated SD
card and load it in the emulator, see SD Card Emulation
You can also use the android tool to automatically create an SD Card image for you, when
creating an AVD. For more information, see Command-line options for AVDs.
Temporary Images
The emulator creates two writeable images at startup that it deletes at device power-off. The
images are:
• A writable copy of the Android system image
• The /cache partition image
The emulator does not permit renaming the temporary system image or persisting it at
device power-off.
The /cache partition image is initially empty, and is used by the browser to cache downloaded
web pages and images. The emulator provides an -cache <file>, which specifies the name of
the file at which to persist the /cache image at device power-off. If <file> does not exist, the
emulator creates it as an empty file.
You can also disable the use of the cache partition by specifying the -nocache option at
startup.
Emulator Networking
The emulator provides versatile networking capabilities that you can use to set up complex
modeling and testing environments for your application. The sections below introduce the
emulator's network architecture and capabilities.
Network Address Space
Each instance of the emulator runs behind a virtual router/firewall service that isolates it from
your development machine's network interfaces and settings and from the internet. An
emulated device can not see your development machine or other emulator instances on the
network. Instead, it sees only that it is connected through Ethernet to a router/firewall.
The virtual router for each instance manages the 10.0.2/24 network address space — all
addresses managed by the router are in the form of 10.0.2.<xx>, where <xx> is a number.
Addresses within this space are pre-allocated by the emulator/router as follows:
Network Address Description
10.0.2.1 Router/gateway address
10.0.2.2 Special alias to your host loopback interface (i.e., 127.0.0.1 on your
development machine)
10.0.2.3 First DNS server
10.0.2.4 / 10.0.2.5 / Optional second, third and fourth DNS server (if any)
10.0.2.6
10.0.2.15 The emulated device's own network/ethernet interface
127.0.0.1 The emulated device's own loopback interface
Note that the same address assignments are used by all running emulator instances. That
means that if you have two instances running concurrently on your machine, each will have
its own router and, behind that, each will have an IP address of 10.0.2.15. The instances are
isolated by a router and can not see each other on the same network. For information about
how to let emulator instances communicate over TCP/UDP, see Connecting Emulator
Instances.
Also note that the address 127.0.0.1 on your development machine corresponds to the
emulator's own loopback interface. If you want to access services running on your
development machine's loopback interface (a.k.a. 127.0.0.1 on your machine), you should
use the special address 10.0.2.2 instead.
Finally, note that each emulated device's pre-allocated addresses are specific to the Android
emulator and will probably be very different on real devices (which are also very likely to be
NAT-ed, i.e., behind a router/firewall)
Local Networking Limitations
Each emulator instance runs behind a virtual router, but unlike an actual device connected to
a physical router, the emulated device doesn't have access to a physical network. Instead it
runs as part of a normal application on your development machine. This means that it is
subject to the same networking limitations as other applications on your machine:
• Communication with the emulated device may be blocked by a firewall program
running on your machine.
• Communication with the emulated device may be blocked by another (physical)
firewall/router to which your machine is connected.
The emulator's virtual router should be able to handle all outbound TCP and UDP
connections/messages on behalf of the emulated device, provided your development
machine's network environment allows it to do so. There are no built-in limitations on port
numbers or ranges except the one imposed by your host operating system and network.
Depending on the environment, the emulator may not be able to support other protocols
(such as ICMP, used for "ping") might not be supported. Currently, the emulator does not
support IGMP or multicast.
Using Network Redirections
To communicate with an emulator instance behind its virtual router, you need to set up
network redirections on the virtual router. Clients can then connect to a specified guest port
on the router, while the router directs traffic to/from that port to the emulated device's host
port.
To set up the network redirections, you create a mapping of host and guest ports/addresses
on the the emulator instance. There are two ways to set up network redirections: using
emulator console commands and using the ADB tool, as described below.
Setting up Redirections through the Emulator Console
Each emulator instance provides a control console the you can connect to, to issue
commands that are specific to that instance. You can use the redir console command to set
up redirections as needed for an emulator instance.
First, determine the console port number for the target emulator instance. For example, the
console port number for the first emulator instance launched is 5554. Next, connect to the
console of the target emulator instance, specifying its console port number, as follows:
telnet localhost 5554
Once connected, use the redir command to work with redirections. To add a redirection, use:.
add <protocol>:<host-port>:<guest-port>
where <protocol> is either tcp or udp, and <host-port> and <guest-port> sets the mapping
between your own machine and the emulated system, respectively.
For example, the following command sets up a redirection that will handle all incoming TCP
connections to your host (development) machine on 127.0.0.1:5000 and will pass them
through to the emulated system's 10.0.2.15:6000.:
redir add tcp:5000:6000
To delete a redirection, you can use the redir del command. To list all redirections for a
specific instance, you can use redir list. For more information about these and other console
commands, see Using the Emulator Console.
Note that port numbers are restricted by your local environment. this typically means that
you cannot use host port numbers under 1024 without special administrator privileges. Also,
you won't be able to set up a redirection for a host port that is already in use by another
process on your machine. In that case, redir generates an error message to that effect.
Setting Up Redirections through ADB
The Android Debug Bridge (ADB) tool provides port forwarding, an alternate way for you to
set up network redirections. For more information, see Forwarding Ports in the ADB
documentation.
Note that ADB does not currently offer any way to remove a redirection, except by killing the
ADB server.
Configuring the Emulator's DNS Settings
At startup, the emulator reads the list of DNS servers that your system is currently using. It
then stores the IP addresses of up to four servers on this list and sets up aliases to them on
the emulated addresses 10.0.2.3, 10.0.2.4, 10.0.2.5 and 10.0.2.6 as needed.
On Linux and OS X, the emulator obtains the DNS server addresses by parsing the
file /etc/resolv.conf. On Windows, the emulator obtains the addresses by calling
theGetNetworkParams() API. Note that this usually means that the emulator ignores the
content of your "hosts" file (/etc/hosts on Linux/OS X, %WINDOWS%/system32/HOSTS on
Windows).
When starting the emulator at the command line, you can also use the -dns-server
<serverList> option to manually specify the addresses of DNS servers to use, where
<serverList> is a comma-separated list of server names or IP addresses. You might find this
option useful if you encounter DNS resolution problems in the emulated network (for
example, an "Unknown Host error" message that appears when using the web browser).
Using the Emulator with a Proxy
If your emulator must access the Internet through a proxy server, you can use the -http-proxy
<proxy> option when starting the emulator, to set up the appropriate redirection. In this
case, you specify proxy information in <proxy> in one of these formats:
http://<machineName>:<port>
or
http://<username>:<password>@<machineName>:<port>
The -http-proxy option forces the emulator to use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy for all
outgoing TCP connections. Redirection for UDP is not currently supported.
Alternatively, you can define the environment variable http_proxy to the value you want to
use for <proxy>. In this case, you do not need to specify a value for <proxy> in the -http-
proxy command — the emulator checks the value of the http_proxy environment variable at
startup and uses its value automatically, if defined.
You can use the -debug-proxy option to diagnose proxy connection problems.
Interconnecting Emulator Instances
To allow one emulator instance to communicate with another, you must set up the necessary
network redirections as illustrated below.
Assume that your environment is
• A is you development machine
• B is your first emulator instance, running on A
• C is your second emulator instance, running on A too
and you want to run a server on B, to which C will connect, here is how you could set it up:
1. Set up the server on B, listening to 10.0.2.15:<serverPort>
2. On B's console, set up a redirection
from A:localhost:<localPort> to B:10.0.2.15:<serverPort>
3. On C, have the client connect to 10.0.2.2:<localPort>
For example, if you wanted to run an HTTP server, you can select <serverPort> as 80
and <localPort> as 8080:
• B listens on 10.0.2.15:80
• On B's console, issue redir add tcp:8080:80
• C connects to 10.0.2.2:8080
Sending a Voice Call or SMS to Another Emulator Instance
The emulator automatically forwards simulated voice calls and SMS messages from one
instance to another. To send a voice call or SMS, you use the dialer application and SMS
application (if available) installed on one emulator
To initiate a simulated voice call to another emulator instance:
1. Launch the dialer application on the originating emulator instance.
2. As the number to dial, enter the console port number of the instance you'd like to call.
You can determine the console port number of the target instance by checking its
window title, where the console port number is reported as "Android Emulator
(<port>).
3. Press "Dial". A new inbound call appears in the target emulator instance.
To send an SMS message to another emulator instance, launch the SMS application (if
available). Specify the console port number of the target emulator instance as as the SMS
address, enter the message text, and send the message. The message is delivered to the
target emulator instance.
You can also connect to an emulator instance's console to simulate an incoming voice call or
SMS. For more information, see Telephony Emulation and SMS Emulation.
Using the Emulator Console
Each running emulator instance includes a console facility that lets you dynamically query
and control the simulated device environment. For example, you can use the console to
dynamically manage port redirections and network characteristics and simulate telephony
events. To access the console and enter commands, you use telnet to connect to the
console's port number.
To connect to the console of any running emulator instance at any time, use this command:
telnet localhost <console-port>
An emulator instance occupies a pair of adjacent ports: a console port and an adb port. The
port numbers differ by 1, with the adb port having the higher port number. The console of the
first emulator instance running on a given machine uses console port 5554 and adb port
5555. Subsequent instances use port numbers increasing by two — for example, 5556/5557,
5558/5559, and so on. Up to 16 concurrent emulator instances can run a console facility.
To connect to the emulator console, you must specify a valid console port. If multiple
emulator instances are running, you need to determine the console port of the emulator
instance you want to connect to. You can find the instance's console port listed in the title of
the instance window. For example, here's the window title for an instance whose console port
is 5554:
Android Emulator (5554)
Alternatively, you can use the adb devices command, which prints a list of running emulator
instances and their console port numbers. For more information, see Querying for
Emulator/Device Instances in the adb documentation.
Note: The emulator listens for connections on ports 5554-5587 and accepts connections
only from localhost.
Once you are connected to the console, you can then enter help [command] to see a list of
console commands and learn about specific commands.
To exit the console session, use quit or exit.
The sections below describe the major functional areas of the console.
Port Redirection
You can use the console to add and remove port redirections while the emulator is running.
After connecting to the console, you can manage port redirections in this way:
redir <list|add|del>
The redir command supports the subcommands listed in the table below.
Subcommand Description Comments
list List the current port
redirections.
add <protocol>:<host Add a new port redirection.  <protocol> must be either "tcp"
-port>:<guest-port> or "udp"
 <host-port> is the port number
to open on the host
 <guest-port> is the port
number to route data to on the
emulator/device
 del <protocol>:<host- Delete a port redirection. See above for meanings of
port> <protocol> and <host-port>.
Geo Location Provider Emulation
The console provides commands to let you set the geo position used by an emulator
emulated device. You can use the geo command to send a simple GPS fix to the emulator,
without needing to use NMEA 1083 formatting. The usage for the command is:
geo <fix|nmea>
The geo command supports the subcommands listed in the table below.
Subcommand Description Comments
fix <longitude> Send a simple GPS fix to the Specify longitude and latitude in
<latitude> emulator instance. decimal degrees. Specify altitude in
[<altitude>] meters.
nmea <sentence> Send an NMEA 0183 sentence <sentence> must begin with '$GP'.
to the emulated device, as if it Only '$GPGGA' and '$GPRCM'
were sent from an emulated sentences are currently supported.
GPS modem.
You can issue the geo command to fix the GPS location as soon as an emulator instance is
running. The emulator creates a mock location provider that sends it to GPS-aware
applications as soon as they start and register location listeners. Any application can query
the location manager to obtain the current GPS fix for the emulated device by calling:
LocationManager.getLastKnownLocation("gps")
For more information about the Location Manager, see LocationManager and its methods.
Hardware Events Emulation
You can use the event command to send various events to the emulator.The usage for the
command is:
event <send|types|codes|text>
The event command supports the subcommands listed in the table below.
Subcommand Description Comments
send Send one or more events to theYou can use text names or integers
<type>:<code>:<valu Android kernel. for <type> and<value>.
e> [...]
types List all <type> string aliases
supported by
theevent subcommands.
codes <type> List all <codes> string aliases
supported by
theevent subcommands for the
specified <type>.
event text <message> Simulate keypresses to send The message must be a UTF-8
the specified string of string. Unicode posts will be reverse-
 characters as a message, mapped according to the current
device keyboard. Unsupported
characters will be discarded silently.
Device Power Characteristics
You can use the power command to control the simulated power state of the emulator
instance.The usage for the command is:
power <display|ac|status|present|health|capacity>
The event command supports the subcommands listed in the table below.
Subcommand Description Comments
display Display battery and
charger state.
ac <on|off> Set AC charging state to
on or off.
status <unknown|charging| Change battery status
discharging|not-charging|full> as specified.
present <true|false> Set battery presence
state.
health <unknown|good|overheat| Set battery health state.
dead|overvoltage|failure>
power health <percent> Set remaining battery
capacity state (0-100).
Network Status
You can use the console to check the network status and current delay and speed
characteristics. To do so, connect to the console and use the netstatus command. Here's an
example of the command and its output.
network status
Network Delay Emulation
The emulator lets you simulate various network latency levels, so that you can test your
application in an environment more typical of the actual conditions in which it will run. You
can set a latency level or range at emulator startup or you can use the console to change the
latency dynamically, while the application is running in the emulator.
To set latency at emulator startup, use the -netdelay emulator option with a
supported <delay> value, as listed in the table below. Here are some examples:
emulator -netdelay gprs
emulator -netdelay 40 100
To make dynamic changes to network delay while the emulator is running, connect to the
console and use the netdelay command with a supported <delay> value from the table
below.
network delay gprs
The format of network is one of the following (numbers are milliseconds):
 Value Description Comments
gprs GPRS (min 150, max 550)
edge EDGE/EGPRS (min 80, max 400)
umts UMTS/3G (min 35, max 200)
none No latency (min 0, max 0)
<num> Emulate an exact latency
(milliseconds).
<min>:<max> Emulate an specified latency
range (min, max milliseconds).
Network Speed Emulation
The emulator also lets you simulate various network transfer rates. You can set a transfer
rate or range at emulator startup or you can use the console to change the rate dynamically,
while the application is running in the emulator.
To set the network speed at emulator startup, use the -netspeed emulator option with a
supported <speed> value, as listed in the table below. Here are some examples:
emulator -netspeed gsm
emulator -netspeed 14.4 80
To make dynamic changes to network speed while the emulator is running, connect to the
console and use the netspeed command with a supported <speed> value from the table
below.
network speed 14.4 80
The format of network <speed> is one of the following (numbers are kilobits/sec):
Value Description Comments
gsm GSM/CSD (Up: 14.4, down: 14.4)
hscsd HSCSD (Up: 14.4, down: 43.2)
gprs GPRS (Up: 40.0, down: 80.0)
edge EDGE/EGPRS (Up: 118.4, down: 236.8)
umts UMTS/3G (Up: 128.0, down: 1920.0)
hsdpa HSDPA (Up: 348.0, down: 14400.0)
full no limit (Up: 0.0, down: 0.0)
<num> Set an exact rate used for both
upload and download.
<up>:<down> Set exact rates for upload and
download separately.
Telephony Emulation
The Android emulator includes its own GSM emulated modem that lets you simulate
telephony functions in the emulator. For example, you can simulate inbound phone calls and
establish/terminate data connections. The Android system handles simulated calls exactly as
it would actual calls. The emulator does not support call audio in this release.
You can use the console to access the emulator's telephony functions. After connecting to the
console, you can use
gsm <call|accept|busy|cancel|data|hold|list|voice|status>
to invoke telephony functions.
The gsm command supports the subcommands listed in the table below.
Subcommand Description Comments
call Simulate an inbound
<phonenumbe phone call from
r> <phonenumber>.
accept Accept an inbound call You can change a call's state to "active" only if its
<phonenumbe from <phonenumber> current state is "waiting" or "held".
r> and change the call's
state "active".
busy Close an outbound call You can change a call's state to "busy" only if its
<phonenumbe to <phonenumber> current state is "waiting".
r> and change the call's
state to "busy".
cancel Terminate an inbound
<phonenumbe or outbound phone
r> call to/from
<phonenumber>.
data <state> Change the state of Supported <state> values are:
the GPRS data
connection to  unregistered -- No network available
<state>.  home -- On local network, non-roaming
 roaming -- On roaming network
 searching -- Searching networks
 denied -- Emergency calls only
 off -- Same as 'unregistered'
 on -- same as 'home'
hold Change the state of a You can change a call's state to "held" only if its
call to "held". current state is "active" or "waiting".
list List all inbound and
outbound calls and
their states.
voice <state> Change the state of Supported <state> values are:
the GPRS voice
connection to  unregistered -- No network available
<state>.  home -- On local network, non-roaming
  roaming -- On roaming network
 searching -- Searching networks
 denied -- Emergency calls only
 off -- Same as 'unregistered'
 on -- Same as 'home'
status Report the current Values are those described for
GSM voice/data state. the voice and data commands.
SMS Emulation
The Android emulator console lets you generate an SMS message and direct it to an emulator
instance. Once you connect to an emulator instance, you can generate an emulated incoming
SMS using this command:
sms send <senderPhoneNumber> <textmessage>
where <senderPhoneNumber> contains an arbitrary numeric string.
The console forwards the SMS message to the Android framework, which passes it through to
an application that handles that message type.
VM State
You can use the vm command to control the VM on an emulator instance.The usage for the
command is:
vm <start|stop|status>
The vm command supports the subcommands listed in the table below.
Subcommand Description Comments
start Start the VM on the instance.
stop Stop the VM on the instance.
start Display the current status of
the VM (running or stopped).
Emulator Window
You can use the window command to manage the emulator window. The usage for the
command is:
window <scale>
The vm command supports the subcommands listed in the table below.
Subcommand Description Comments
scale <scale> Scale the emulator window. <scale> must be a number
between 0.1 and 3 that describes
the desired scaling factor. You can
also specify scale as a DPI value if
you add the suffix "dpi" to the scale
value. A value of "auto" tells the
emulator to select the best window
size.
Terminating an Emulator Instance
You can terminate an emulator instance through the console, using the kill command.
Using Emulator Skins
The Android SDK includes several Emulator skins that you can use to control the resolution
and density of the emulated device's screen. To select a specific skin for running the
emulator, create an AVD that uses that skin. Please do not use deprecated emulator options
such as -skin to control the skin used by an emulator instance. For more information about
AVDs, seeAndroid Virtual Devices.
Running Multiple Emulator Instances
Through the AVDs configurations used by the emulator, you can run multiple instances of the
emulator concurrently, each with its own AVD configuration and storage area for user data,
SD card, and so on. You no longer need to use the -d option when launching the emulator, to
point to an instance-specific storage area.
Installing Applications on the Emulator
If you don't have access to Eclipse or the ADT Plugin, you can install your application on the
emulator using the adb utility. Before installing the application, you need to package it in a
.apk file using the Android Asset Packaging Tool. Once the application is installed, you can
start the emulator from the command line, as described in this document, using any startup
options necessary. When the emulator is running, you can also connect to the emulator
instance's console to issue commands as needed.
As you update your code, you periodically package and install it on the emulator. The
emulator preserves the application and its state data across restarts, in a user-data disk
partition. To ensure that the application runs properly as you update it, you may need to
delete the emulator's user-data partition. To do so, start the emulator with the -wipe-
data option. For more information about the user-data partition and other emulator storage,
see Working with Emulator Disk Images.
SD Card Emulation
You can create a disk image and then load it to the emulator at startup, to simulate the
presence of a user's SD card in the device. To do this, you can use the android tool to create
a new SD card image with a new AVD, or you can use the mksdcard utility included in the
SDK.
The sections below describe how to create an SD card disk image, how to copy files to it, and
how to load it in the emulator at startup.
Note that you can only load disk image at emulator startup. Similarly, you can not remove a
simulated SD card from a running emulator. However, you can browse, send files to, and
copy/remove files from a simulated SD card either with adb or the emulator.
The emulator supports emulated SDHC cards, so you can create an SD card image of any size
up to 128 gigabytes.
Creating an SD card image using the android tool
The easiest way to create a new SD card is to use the android tool. When creating an AVD,
you simply specify the -c option, like this:
android create avd -n <avd_name> -t <targetID> -c <size>[K|M]
You can also use the -c option to specify a path to an SD card image to use in the new AVD.
For more information, see Android Virtual Devices.
Creating an SD card image using mksdcard
You can use the mksdcard tool, included in the SDK, to create a FAT32 disk image that you
can load in the emulator at startup. You can access mksdcard in the tools/ directory of the
SDK and create a disk image like this:
 mksdcard <size> <file>
For example:
mksdcard 1024M sdcard1.iso
For more information, see Other Tools.
Copying Files to a Disk Image
Once you have created the disk image, you can copy files to it prior to loading it in the
emulator. To copy files, you can mount the image as a loop device and then copy the files to
it, or you can use a utility such as mtools to copy the files directly to the image. The mtools
package is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
Loading the Disk Image at Emulator Startup
By default, the emulator loads the SD card image that is stored with the active AVD (see the -
avd startup option).
Alternatively, you ca start the emulator with the -sdcard flag and specify the name and path
of your image (relative to the current working directory):
emulator -sdcard <filepath>

Troubleshooting Emulator Problems

The adb utility sees the emulator as an actual physical device. For this reason, you might
have to use the -d flag with some common adb commands, such as install. The -d flag lets
you specify which of several connected devices to use as the target of a command. If you
don't specify -d, the emulator will target the first device in its list. For more information about
adb, seeAndroid Debug Bridge.
For emulators running on Mac OS X, if you see an error "Warning: No DNS servers found"
when starting the emulator, check to see whether you have an /etc/resolv.conf file. If not,
please run the following line in a command window:
ln -s /private/var/run/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
See Frequently Asked Questions for more troubleshooting information.
Emulator Limitations
In this release, the limitations of the emulator include:
• No support for placing or receiving actual phone calls. You can simulate phone calls
(placed and received) through the emulator console, however.
• No support for USB connections
• No support for camera/video capture (input).
• No support for device-attached headphones
• No support for determining connected state
• No support for determining battery charge level and AC charging state
• No support for determining SD card insert/eject
• No support for Bluetooth