Ubuntu 16.04: Run android application on container with Anbox

This article will describe overview of Anbox which provides running android application framework on Linux container. And this article uses Ubuntu 16.04.

1 Anbox

Anbox is framework for running Android application on Linux container. This is system container (not application container).

  • Because Anbox uses LXC, using Anbox on Windows may need VirtualBox like Docker.
  • anboxd daemon mediates Android application's OpenGLES access and host machine's OpenGL library.
  • Anbox provides dkms package for android specific kernel module like ashmem.
  • systemd will start anbox.xxx.service. The anbox.xxx.service will mount Android rootfs and start init in rootfs. This init will start Android services and anboxd.
  • adbd will be started by init too, you can access android application via adb.
  • After anboxd started, Android application icon will be add to desktop launcher.
  • Android application will start via Anbox manager or via desktop launcher.

This Android rootfs does not have "Goole Play" apk now, but I think "Google Play" apk will be added for the near future.

2 Install Anbox

Install Anbox with the following command. anbox-installer is provided as snap package, but I think that Anbox can be installed to the distribution which does not have snap.

$ sudo snap install --classic anbox-installer
$ printf "1\nI AGREE\n" | anbox-installer
$ sudo reboot

Uninstall Anbox with the following command.

$ printf "2\nI AGREE\n" | anbox-installer
$ sudo reboot

3 Execution result

After Ubuntu 16.04 booted, Android rootfs will be mounted.

0001_mount.png

Anbox icon and Android application icon will be added to Unity.

0002_icon.png