How to install and run Android Apps on Ubuntu using Anbox

Have you ever thought about running an Android app or a game on your Linux system? Android and Linux are close relatives, and there is no hard reason why it’s not worth imagining. A new promising project “Anbox” is on course to be a wonderful application for Linux users.

Anbox is a Linux system emulation tool. It can act as a layer between Android apps and your Linux system that are purely coded. It allows you to run and execute android applications on your Linux system.

Note that Anbox is not the first Android emulator for Linux. Projects like Shashlik or Genimobile too use an emulator to run Android. These emulators create a whole emulated system with its own kernel. On the other hand, Anbox runs the Android system under the same kernel as the host operating system. No emulation layer like QEMU is needed. All runs directly on hardware. It also allows for much better integration with the host operating system.

Anbox places the Android OS in a container that summarizes hardware access and integrates core service systems into a Linux system. Like any other native application, each Android application is integrated with your operating system.

Installing Anbox on Ubuntu

In this tutorial, we will walk you through the Anbox installation and configure your Linux to run any Android application. Though it is not an easy task, we will try to make it simpler for you.

Step 1 – System Update

Before starting our tutorial, you need first to ensure that your system is up-to-date. Launch the Terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Step 2 – Add Anbox Repo to your system

In this section, we will add the PPA to your Linux system and install the essential and appropriate anbox-modules-dkms package, which contains the kernel modules.

Add Anbox repository to your system.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:morphis/anbox-support

Enable Anbox Kernel Modules

Update your system.

sudo apt update

Update Repository

Step 3 – Install Kernel Modules

Install appropriate kernel modules using the following commands:

sudo apt install anbox-modules-dkms

Start kernel modules manually:

sudo modprobe ashmem_linux
sudo modprobe binder_linux

Setting up Kernel Modules

Step 4 – Verify Kernel Modules

Now, let’s verify that new kernel modules have been installed successfully.

ls -l /dev/{ashmem,binder}

The output of the previous command should look like the below screenshot.

Verify Installed Kernel Modules

Step 5 – Anbox Installation using Snap

Now we will install the Anbox using the snap command.

First, ensure that you have snap installed. Ubuntu 18.04 and above should come with snap installed by default. If not, you can install snap using our guide.

snap --version

Snap Version

Install Anbox. Note that since it is still in the development phase, we will download the beta version.

sudo snap install --devmode --beta anbox

Install Anbox

After the installation completes the output successfully should look like below.

Anbox Installed Successfully

Step 6 – Android Studio Installation

Since Anbox is an emulation tool for Android, you also need to install Android development tools to install apps on it.

Begin with the installation of Java for Linux.

sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk

Install Java For Linux

Download Android Studio: Unfortunately, the Android studio application has no downloadable binary package. Download your development suite for Linux:

Click here for the download page.

After the download completes, you can go back to your terminal and extract the Android Studio.

cd ~/Downloads
unzip android-studio-ide-*-linux.zip

Now move to the Android Studio bin directory to start the installation process.

cd android-studio/bin

Run the Android Studio installation script.

./studio.sh

When the Android Studio Wizard starts, a welcome screen will appear like the below. Press next to continue.

Android Studio Welcome Screen

Choose the Standard option then press next to continue.

Select Standard Option

Select your user interface theme as below.

Select UI Theme

Verify your installation settings and press next to start the installation process.

Verify Android Studio Settings

When the installation completes successfully you will get a summary screen as below.

Android Studio Installation Completes Successfully

Now you can start a new Android Studio Project.

Start the New Android Project

Step 7 – Install Android Command Line Tools

sudo apt install android-tools-adb

Install ADB

Step 8 – Start ADB Server

For now the Anbox is ready to go but first, you need to start up the ADB server.

adb start-server

Start up the ADB server.

Step 9 – Download your Android app or a Game

For example, let’s search for a game to download. APK Mirror is a great resource to find downloadable Android games in APK format.

Go to APK mirror to download your intended game. For now, note that not all the Android games will work correctly on Anbox. Also for better configurations, you need to install the x86 version from your game.

Step 10 – Install and Configure APK

After downloading your game APK. Go to the downloads directory.

cd ~/Downloads

Install the game APK using the below command.

adb install game.apk

APK Installed Successfully

Open the Anbox Application Manager from your applications.

Anbox Application Manager

Step 11 – Launch your Android App or Game!

Start Your Game

Voila, you now have Android app on your Linux system! That’s all about configuring Anbox on your Linux system to run Android Apps. You can now enjoy playing your Android games on your Linux.

Finally, I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Your feedback and questions are welcome.