Open Handset Magazine » Tips

Tips: How to install apk files on Android Emulator

Hatem Ben Yacoub — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:09:19 +0000

If you are new to Android and looking for a way to test some of the currently available Android applications, here is how to proceed :

First get the Android SDK and unzip it somewhere on your hard drive
Add SDK_ROOT to your system variables pointing to /tools folder under the sdk
Run the emulator
Copy the apk file to /tools folder
Change directory to /tools and run from commandline $adb install your_application.apk
Now check applications list in the emulator and you should see the new application installed and ready.

Some pointed me to the error message when running adb on windows : * deamon still not running * error: no device.

In this case try to shutdown adb server and start it manually using :
$adb kill-server
$adb start-server

You can test if deamon is working by running $adb shell

The uninstall procedure is

$adb shell rm your_application.apk

Hope this help, enjoy !

Tips: Howto Connect Android Emulator behind proxy

Hatem Ben Yacoub — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 08:44:36 +0000

If you are behind a proxy and looking to connect the emulator to Internet, Luisa Magarian have posted the way to set proxy for the emulator. It uses the command line and the adb utility. First change directory to the emulator tools folder, you will find also the adb utility there. Run the emulator, then from command line :

./adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db “\”INSERT INTO system VALUES(99,’http_proxy’,’ [host_or_IP]:[port]‘);\”"
Change [host_or_ip] and [port] to your correct proxy values
Try to connect from Android and it should be working fine.

Luisa posted also the way to access some Android’s system setting using SQLite, this will help to get more information on how Android work, for example to retrieve all settings :

./adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db “\”SELECT * FROM system\”"
This will return :
1|music_volume|3
2|voice_volume|3
3|ringer_volume|3

Tips: Change Android Emulator Skin

Hatem Ben Yacoub — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:51:17 +0000

Android emulator came with four predefined skins, I just noticed the skins in image folder but didn’t find a way to switch from default skin, while it was very easy. Every skin is based on transparent png images and using a layout file to describe images and positions.

To run the emulator with a different skin, use from command line :

emulator -skin HVGA-L

While HVGA-L is the skin ID, the available skins are :

QVGA-L 320×240, landscape (default)

QVGA-P 240×320, portrait

HVGA-L 480×320, landscape

HVGA-Q 320×480, portrait

From eclipse you can also run the emulator with a different skin, just goto run dialog -> select project -> in the right panel, select Emulator tab as shown in screenshot below :

Thanks to NuuNeoI and Dmitriy