Testing android-x86 on Virtual Box

Yesterday I decided to give android-x86 a try. The natural way to go seemed to set up a virtual machine for my tests. I downloaded the 3.2-eeepc ISO.

Setting up the machine

The Virtual Box machine was configured as follows:

  • OS Type: Linux 2.6
  • RAM: 512MB
  • Video: 8MB
  • Audio: Sound Blaster 16
  • Network: NAT
  • Disk: 1GB

The official documentations was really useful for setting the correct parameters.

Installing the system

The installation is pretty straightforward; let the machine boot from the ISO and follow the on screen instructions.

The installation took roughly 300MB, so I was able to create a fake SD card too (I've been prompted for that at the end of the installation process).

First boot

Since the machine was virtual, I had no wifi adapter available; thus, the network was down. To configure networking, just switch to the debug console (press ALT+F1) and issue the following commands:

#> dhcpd eth0
#> setprop net.dns1 192.168.1.1

(replace the IP address with the one of your DNS).

Impressions

The first impression was good. The interface is clean and quite intuitive, and works well using only standard keyboard and mouse.

I haven't played a lot with the applications, and haven't tried to install any extra gadget, so I am still wondering if Android can be really useful on anything but a smartphone or a tablet. Anyway, having it virtualized can helps a lot in developing mobile optimized web sites.