The Misadventures of Quinxy von Besiex truths, lies, and everything in between

1. 

   Barina
   May 5th, 2011 - 03:19

   this is awesome dude works well
   say.. how do i rotate the view? and where is the back and home buttons?
   are they gonna make a live version for Honeycomb? cuz that will be AWESOME!!
   thanks again
   Roy
2. 

   quinxy
   May 5th, 2011 - 13:25

   Unfortunately I’m not sure how to rotate the screen. As for back and home buttons you can install apps like softkeys to give you virtual ones or you can even edit the keyboard config file to let you do that with some other key. I haven’t done it, nor did I make my own install persistant across reboots, which would be critical. I’m sure a Honeycomb version will come out, but likely not for a while. The live Android image is fun to play with and great for developers, but with the Nook Color at only $250 being modable into a full fledged Android tablet my own necessity for the VMware version went away.
3. 

   Jamie L
   May 5th, 2011 - 16:16

   Its amazing that someone takes the time to simplify what most think are difficult. Thank you very much for this tutorial. My parents were the most awe struck people, quinxy, amazing. You can refer to me as sloppyloppy, it is WIDELY used on blogs, forums etc. Thank you again! TTL8tr
4. 

   tallen
   June 8th, 2011 - 20:51

   Firstly I want to say thank you so much for your posting this up but I do have a question. I would like to know about Android’s compatibility with PC sound cards. Specifically to connect with an M-Audio card that pushes 192K sample rate (it’s for a little pet project I’m working on, long story). And if there wasn’t anyway to get it to work right away… then what would I need to do to get them to communicate with each other? (I’m not a programmer but I know people who are). If you could help get me in the right direction I would more than grateful. Thanks for your time and best wishes to you.
5. 

   Dave
   June 18th, 2011 - 09:11

   Hi thanks for the tutorial. I get a BSOD on my machine right after it tries to start up. The crash dump shows it’s related to one of the VMWare workstation drivers, vmx86.sys. Any ideas on why, or how to get around this?
   Thanks again,
   Dave
6. 

   quinxy
   June 19th, 2011 - 04:52

   Dave, I’m afraid I don’t know, I haven’t had that myself. Have you tried more recent VM ports of Andtroid? I’d think someone must have made available a 2.3 version by now. You might look for that and give it a try. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
7. 

   James
   July 27th, 2011 - 15:03

   Dave,
   Thanks, it worked as you said in about 5 minutes. I will play with it. The only thing I could not find was the .vmx file to change to ethernet0.virtualDev = “vlance”. Do you have any pointers on where to find that?
   Thanks again.
   James
8. 

   Mark
   July 29th, 2011 - 19:06

   Hey there!
   thanks for the instructions! I have two problems

   I was able to install the android version/file you mentioned, but the start-up screen only had a speaker and a lock icons and wouldn’t let me do anything – I then installed the basic file and it gave me the screen you posted in this page. This leads me to the second problem (which might be linked since I didn’t use your version file of the OS):

   i can’t get android to find the internet connection of the host machine.

   I edited the wmx file and added your line “ethernet0.virtualDev = “vlance” to it, but i can’t get it to work.

   I am using
   1) redhat as host machine
   2) VMWare Workstation 6.5.2 build-156735
   3) Android file: android-x86-1.6-r2.iso

   Connection settings:

   ethernet0.present= “true”
   ethernet0.startConnected = “true”
   ethernet0.virtualDev = “vmxnet”
   ethernet0.connectionType = “hostonly”

   This settings enable an VMXnet network-card.
   You can only use this nic if you install the VMware-tools inside the guest.

   ethernet0.present= “true”
   ethernet0.startConnected = “true”
   ethernet0.virtualDev = “e1000″
   ethernet0.connectionType = “hostonly”

   This settings enable an Intel E1000 network-card.
   Modern OS should have drivers for this nic.
   NOTE: VMware usually assigns this nic to 64bit-guests – but it also works with 32-bit guests

   Connected to the virtal adapter of the host named “nat”

   You can use the VMware-builtin DHCP-service to auto-configure guests that use this type of connection.
   Guests configured this way can also use the hosts internet connection via the VMware NAT service.

   WARNING: this is unreliable on hosts that don’t use defaults for the vmnet-mapping.
   Note: this is the same as ethernet0.connectionType = “vmnet8″

   ethernet0.present= “true”
   ethernet0.startConnected = “true”
   ethernet0.virtualDev = “vlance”
   ethernet0.connectionType = “nat”

   Any help?
9. 

   Peter Strauss
   August 8th, 2011 - 04:15

   Howsit… im having a problem installing this… i tried all the steps downloaded everything etc etc etc… but it keeps telling me operating system is not supported? hmmmm any ideas?
10. 

    Peter Strauss
    August 8th, 2011 - 05:07

    and how do i get it to run full screen.
11. 

    Cristina
    August 18th, 2011 - 18:57

    How should I configure (create new, perhaps) virtual machine in VMware so that I don’t have to keep the android.iso and go through installation process all over again? How do I run the newly ‘Installed’ version of Android? I found several files that were created in ‘My Documents\Virtual Machines\liveAndroid’ with file extensions such as .vmdk .vmx .vmsd .vmxf.

    Ops, sorry. Just got it – from ‘home’ in VMware I chose ‘Open Virtual Machine’. Default location was already set to ‘My Documents\Virtual Machines\liveAndroid\liveandroid.vmx’

    Great tutorial. I when I get bored of this project I will try your Nook guide!

    Thanks,
    Cris
12. 

    Mike
    August 26th, 2011 - 15:48

    I had success getting this to run in VMware ESXi 4.1.

    Added a VM as as in Step 2 and selected “Other” for the Guest OS selecting “Other (32-bit)” and I got network support.
    I skipped Step 3 entirely.
    Didn’t add a HDD and didn’t mess w/Step 4 as I only needed to test a live version.

    Thanks for the tutorial.
13. 

    warleyalex
    August 27th, 2011 - 19:28

    I would like to know: Can I run android application .apk from c:\ for example from VM?
    Excellent. Thanks for the tutorial.
14. 

    Sanil
    August 29th, 2011 - 17:58

    Hi all! For those wondering: Back button is Esc, and Home is Home. Can’t get sound to work
15. 

    quinxy
    August 30th, 2011 - 23:50

    WarleyAlex -

    I think with some work you could do as you mention, but you’d need to use VMware’s ability to create virtual shared drives. You would essentially tell VMware in the confirguration for that VM that c:\apks was to be made available as a share, which then you could access inside the VM by way of SMB/Samba mounting. And if you meant, can I double click on an .apk file in Windows and have the APK run, then I think it could be done, sort of, in theory, with some work. VMware is scriptable, though I’ve not explored it in much depth. You could write a little batch file that would start a VMware session with the right VM and then I presume there is some mechanism in VM scripting to have it execute a script inside the VM, which would use the aforementioned approach to getting it to access APK files on your PC, maybe doing some path translation (i.e., your script knows that c:\foo\bar.apk will be available inside the VM as \\whatever\foo\bar.apk.
16. 

    Manuel
    September 7th, 2011 - 23:47

    Really thank you very much for sharing! Might seem sound easy, but I was unable to locate a Live CD version of an Android OS to use in VMWare and founding your post, and so easy instructions was really great! Still downloading the ISO, so still excited to try it!
17. 

    Twhr
    September 25th, 2011 - 23:56

    Thank you very much for this tutorial, it’s the best & you are the best. you solve my network access problem.
18. 

    Nathan Jolly
    October 18th, 2011 - 05:47

    Hey, Quinxy, thanks for the tips. I was trying the HP version, so thank you for pointing me at the Eee version.

    I did the Ethernet fix, and that did not help me get online. I will have to tinker around with it some. (I can get online in other VMs.)

    I would like to share some tips I discovered, though.

    As you (and commenters) probably discovered, left mouse is like touching. And press and hold left mouse, that’s a long press. Now here’s the fun. Middle mouse is your Menu button. On the home screen it calls up the add, wallpaper, settings, etc. Right mouse is the hardware Back button. I’m thinking on an actual Eee, the Android x86 folks figured Android users on that platform would just use keyboard buttons.

    I started mashing F-keys, and found that while F1 and F2 do nothing, F3 brings up my call log. Right mouse will exit, but so will Esc. F4 is your power button, you can shut off the OS that way (as opposed to the VMWare shutdown, which is the equivalent of a battery pull). F6 duplicates the functionality of F4, no idea why. The rest of the F-keys seem to do nothing. Tab is search. If you have a mouse wheel, that’s your trackball (not all Android devices have this). The Windows key is your Home button, and that wraps up the usual keys (except camera and volume).

    End is also power like F4 and F6, and space is also search.

    Whoa! The game “Snakes on a Phone” doesn’t have a proper logo, but it will rotate your virtual droid. VMware doesn’t support this, so it’s just sideways. And your cursor moves like it is rotated (very disorienting). Arrows don’t work, it’s meant to be played with the trackpad. Without a horizontal mouse wheel, I could not play (this is the old Nokia-type Snake game). Again, right mouse backed out.

    Got the Net. I had to go into Ethernet settings in, well, you know… Settings. Haha.

    Thanks again for the help. I hope my post helps some people. Feel free to edit this information into the original article if you like. I don’t require or request credit for it.
19. 

    quinxy
    November 5th, 2011 - 19:42

    Nathan, thanks for the great tips!
20. 

    oshane
    December 8th, 2011 - 17:39

    ok am a noob…where in here should i add the ethernet0.virtualDev = “vlance”..i dont know where..should i replace this or something..i’m lost…PLZz Help

    52 0e 01 ab f0 0c 5b 90-af be 13 45 5a ac 64 2c

    Android.vmx51
21. 

    oshane
    December 8th, 2011 - 17:42

    i klnow i should modify the vmxf file but i have placed (ethernet0.virtualDev = “vlance”) everywhere possible in it and it still didnt get on to the internet..so please tell me step by step what to do..please..am a noob at this
22. 

    quinxy
    December 9th, 2011 - 01:39

    Sadly it’s now been quite a while since I did it and don’t have that VMware image on my computer any more. I’m afraid my memory is not photographic and I have not the remembrence to help you.
23. 

    Bob
    December 20th, 2011 - 21:25

    How Do I install apps from de Appmarket?..
24. 

    Enrique
    December 29th, 2011 - 15:40

    Well after many test. Android is working with my network. I did the following things:

    1. Chose operating system other
    2. After finish the installation i put the following line in vmx file
    ethernet0.virtualDev = “vlance”
    3. In vmware i set my configuration as bridged (in nat mode have problems with the same config)
25. 

    Nitin
    December 30th, 2011 - 11:42

    Is it possible to transfer apps between system and virtual android…?
26. 

    quinxy
    December 31st, 2011 - 19:56

    Nitin,

    Quite a few of the file explorer type apps include the ability to transfer files (via a little embedded web server), so I’d just download one of those to android and then if you’ve got your VMware set up appropriately you can just transfer the APKs via a web browser in the host OS. Then just run the APKs, assuming you have enabled thirdparty APKs in options.
27. 

    james
    January 3rd, 2012 - 12:50

    Hi

    How can I turn on wifi and search for wi-fi network on this? I tried that but I got error while enabling wi-fi
28. 

    Igor G.
    January 12th, 2012 - 19:56

    Even though I set “ethernet0.virtualDev = “vlance” in my vmx file, I still cannot get internet connection on the android vm. Any ideas??
29. 

    chris neglia
    January 24th, 2012 - 06:16

    I want to add that if you are having problems in vmware choosing the option to write to disk (I didn’t the first time, but with a subsequent android install I did have an error finding any disk…not sure why), you can just power the android machine off, under hard disk make sure independent disk is not checked, and then choose the first option to run it live. Then, take a snapshot as your initial setup. Then, if you make changes, save them with a snapshot. I get that this is not the ideal way to do it, because you’ll power it off and power it on and it will be at the initial state of the image, then you’ll have to choose which snapshot to go to. It’s an extra step, but again it’s helpful if you have the problems with the machine not recognizing any disk.
30. 

    dabnug
    March 8th, 2012 - 22:29

    If you having trouble getting the internet to work try this.
    1. modify the vmx file and save with the VM off.
    2. Load the VM, go into setting and enable eithernet
    3. set the following ethernet0.connectionType = “bridged”
31. 

    Taiye
    March 14th, 2012 - 14:19

    Set vmware connection to bridged. Then on Terminal in Android VM, run ‘dhcpcd’ command to get ip from a dhcp server in your local network
32. 

    jack
    March 20th, 2012 - 15:37

    I cant get the network to work -
    I edited the vmx
    Changed to bridged
    tried running dhcpcd, but get “Permission denied”

    Any ideas?
33. 

    Jason
    May 10th, 2012 - 12:34

    For those having trouble getting the ethernet to work – which version of android are you trying to run? If you look in the release notes, for any version of android later than 2.3 they all state that ethernet is disabled in the android OS (so unlikely that VMware player will be able to get round this). Suggest people try earlier OS releases.
34. 

    David G.
    June 3rd, 2012 - 21:29

    Thanks for the advice Jason… I tried a lot to get network connection on Androi 4.0. I couldnt do it. Any success with getting network connection with android later than 2.3?
35. 

    Rick
    August 13th, 2012 - 10:21

    I followed your guide and it works almost perfectly — with the exception of the audio. “SB X-Fi Audio” is not an option in my VMWare. I really need audio (speakers & microphone) for my puposes so any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
36. 

    zephirus
    August 13th, 2012 - 21:28

    aff xD i format mi old vm whit android :s , im not sure but i have the same problems in the beggining
    whith the network, im not sure if fix it using a free aplication named dnschanger,
    and here add ip from ruter and dns :s
37. 

    zephirus
    August 13th, 2012 - 21:30

    format when test (this version posted) i find mi tablet to try get the apk to see if work .
    and back to mi old iso from android , to see if work again
38. 

    zephirus
    August 13th, 2012 - 22:24

    mmm wen work lan i use
    android-x86-1.6-r2.iso
    but cant see usb devices now, i not sure if the vm version if the reason.
    first time i use a mp3 to copy to vm apks..
    but now cant detect. i update vm tools now to see if these are the problem :/
39. 

    zephirus
    August 14th, 2012 - 02:57

    uff in mi vmware workstation work fine :s
    look tthis link is android 4.0 whit ethernet

    instal it work fine

    http://ge.tt/6NQtUbG/v/0?c?c
40. 

    Tomas
    September 20th, 2012 - 03:34

    works well even with emulation sd card
41. 

    Richard
    November 10th, 2012 - 14:23

    Works great! Thanks!
42. 

    meengla yip
    November 13th, 2012 - 12:51

    @Zephirus,
    I got your generic VM to work fine without much work has a VMWARE Workstation host! I had to select ‘NAT: Used to Share Host’s IP Address’–not sure why–but it works fine. Thank you!!
43. 

    meengla yip
    November 19th, 2012 - 13:21

    However, there is no audio in the Android VM and there is no option to select SB X-Fi Audio in the VMWare Workstation 8.x that I could see?
44. 

    sandeep
    November 20th, 2012 - 01:31

    Dear Sir,

    when i shut down the computer then not work the on internet in VMware workstation (Android OS).

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