android emulator setting & configuation

In order to make the Android emulator run faster and be more responsive, you can configure it to take advantage of hardware acceleration, using a combination of configuration options, specific Android system images and hardware drivers.

Using SDK manager to download/install x86 system image

1. Configuring Graphics Acceleration

Graphics acceleration for the emulator takes advantage of your development computer's graphics hardware, specifically its graphics processing unit (GPU), to make screen drawing faster.

SDK Tool version >= 17

SDK Platform API version >= 15 (i.e. >= android 4.0.3)

In avd, specify "Use Host GPU", note not to specify snapshot

Plus, you can specify to use GPU acceleration (specify "-gpu on" in target's additional emulator command line options) at runtime

2. Configuring Virtual Machine Acceleration

Caution: As of SDK Tools Revision 17, the virtual machine acceleration feature for the emulator is experimental; be alert for incompatibilities and errors when using this feature.

Many modern CPUs provide extensions for running virtual machines (VMs) more efficiently. Taking advantage of these extensions with the Android emulator requires some additional configuration of your development system, but can significantly improve the execution speed. Before attempting to use this type of acceleration, you should first determine if your development system’s CPU supports one of the following virtualization extensions technologies:

• Intel Virtualization Technology (VT, VT-x, vmx) extensions

• AMD Virtualization (AMD-V, SVM) extensions (only supported for Linux)

Note: Retina MAC Book Pro (i7-3635QM) supports VT

Note: Virtualization extensions are typically enabled through your computer's BIOS and are frequently turned off by default. Check the documentation for your system's motherboard to find out how to enable virtualization extensions.

To use virtual machine acceleration with the emulator, you need the following version of Android development tools. Use the Android SDK Manager to install these components:

• Android SDK Tools, Revision 17 or higher

• Android x86-based system image

Virtual machine acceleration on a Mac requires the installation of the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (Intel HAXM) kernel extension to allow the Android emulator to make use of CPU virtualization extensions. 

• Configuring VM Acceleration on Mac

  To install the Intel HAXM kernel extension:

1. Start the Android SDK Manager, select 

   Extras 

   and then select 

   Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager.

2. After the download completes, execute 

   /extras/intel/Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager/IntelHAXM.dmg.

3. Double click the 

   IntelHAXM.mpkg 

   icon to begin installation.

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

   
   

5. After installation completes, confirm that the new kernel extension is operating correctly by opening a terminal window and running the following command:

6. 
   

7. kextstat | grep intel

8. You should see a status message containing the following extension name, indicating that the kernel extension is loaded:

9. com.intel.kext.intelhaxm

10. 
    

11. Restart ECLIPSE

12. recreate avd to "Use Host GPU" in x86 system image

13. start avd