How to use Android Emulator to test Custom ROM

You might have a smart phone , more precisely android smart phone and you want to install a fancy customized ROM right?

Well,  before flashing any custom ROM directly on smartphone you can try it on Android virtual device.

Requirement :

Android sdk -tool should be installed on pc/laptop to create AVD (android virtual device)

system image of custom ROM

Follow the steps given below

Step 1: Open Command prompt (run > cmd  hit enter).

Step 2: change path to "tools" folder of your android sdk

it is something like  ..\Android\android-sdk\tools

[Note : if you have set your path variable for Android Sdk then skip this step   ]

Step 3: enter the command : android list target

This command will give you list of available Android targets with ID of perticular target.

Note down the Id number of target for your custom rom

for example if your custom ROM is for ICS then choose ID number of 4.0 like wise

Example Outout :

Available Android targets:

----------

id: 3 or "android-7"

     Name: Android 2.1

     Type: Platform

     API level: 7

     Revision: 3

     Skins: HVGA, QVGA, WQVGA400, WQVGA432, WVGA800 (default), WVGA854

     ABIs : armeabi

----------

id: 5 or "android-8"

     Name: Android 2.2

     Type: Platform

     API level: 8

     Revision: 3

     Skins: HVGA, QVGA, WQVGA400, WQVGA432, WVGA800 (default), WVGA854

     ABIs : armeabi

----------

id: 15 or "android-15"

     Name: Android 4.0.3

     Type: Platform

     API level: 15

     Revision: 3

     Skins: HVGA, QVGA, WQVGA400, WQVGA432, WSVGA, WVGA800 (default), WVGA854,

     XGA720, WXGA800

     ABIs : armeabi-v7a, x86

Here for ICS we can chose ID- 15

Created AVD 'abc' based on Android 4.0.3, ARM (armeabi-v7a) processor,

with the following hardware config:

hw.lcd.density=240

vm.heapSize=48

hw.ramSize=512

Step 4 : now we will create avd for our target sdk
command : android create avd -n NameOfEmualtor -t TargetID
hit enter ,If you receive error message : Error: This platform has more than one ABI.

Please specify one using --abi. find out abi for your target from previous "android list target" command output and now run

command: android create avd -n Name_Of_Emulator -t TargetID --abi AbiType

Example: android create avd -n myemulator -t 15 --abi armeabi-v7a

Now it will prompt : Do you wish to create a custom hardware profile [no] :

if you dont want to create custom hardware then simply give enter, It will chose default settings. and will give you following output

Step 5:

now you can see that folder named after you avd will be created in

"C:\Users\your_user_name\.android\avd" folder

copy your all Images like user image, data image, system image to this folder.

Step 6: now you can start emulator with your custom ROM by following

command : emulator -avd Name_Of_Emulator

For the first time it may take several minutes to start your AVD.

Done !

your comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome.