User:Th3userscene/Tips for booting old OSes

For most OSes and hypervisors you just select the OS, configure your VM, add the ISO and install the OS, but some require extra setup. Unless stated otherwise instructions are for VirtualBox. Please note that this is what worked for me.

But first, a bit of history

This page started off as "Tips for booting old OSes in VirtualBox" on my DistroWiki account. After I added the Remix OS tip I decided to make it not exclusive to VirtualBox.

Later, DistroWiki launched it's Documents section, where I moved this page. Around the time it switched to its own domain I split off the Google TV guide, which eventually turned into a generic pre-2017 Android emulator guide.

Since DistroWiki has shut down I don't have the later versions of this document, so this version is based on an earlier version.

Enough talking, let's get to the tips.

Gobuntu 7.10 (and probably regular Ubuntu 7.10 too)

Set up as Linux 2.6/3.x/4.x instead of Ubuntu. Using Ubuntu seems to get the setup wizard stuck at a "kernel alive" screen.

This does not work with 8.04. If you really want to get 8.04 in VirtualBox you can do a CLI install, but it doesn't have a GUI.

Remix OS, via Remix OS Player

Disconnect internet before starting Remix OS Player for the first time to finish setup. When internet is active during setup, a "Jide Setup Wizard is not responding" message seems to be shown after the "Setup complete" screen. As a side effect you won't have an internet connection in Remix OS, even after connecting internet on the host machine.

Android-x86

This guide (best viewed with an ad/tracking blocker) worked for me.

Google TV (2010), with the Android Emulator

You need to install an older version of the Android SDK, because using the latest emulator results in this error message:

emulator: ERROR: New emulator backend requires minimum kernel version 3.10+ (currently got lower)

Please make sure you've got updated system images and do not force the specific kernel image together with the engine version

Setup

If you have a HAXM version newer than 7.0 installed, you need to either uninstall it or perform this in a VM. In the latter case enable nested virtualization:

• For VirtualBox open a command prompt, go to the folder VBox is installed in and run vboxmanage modifyvm <VM name> --nested-hw-virt on.
• For VMware edit the VM, and under Processors check "Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI".

Install HAXM version 7.0. Newer versions will result in lines starting with emulator: Trying to vcpu execute at eip: being printed repeatedly.

Then, install JDK 8. I used Eclipse Temurin/Adopt OpenJDK.

Installing Android SDK

1. Install Android SDK tools, version 24.4.1: Windows, Linux, macOS. The rest of the guide assumes that you're using Windows, though most instructions should apply to both OSes.
2. Unpack the tools and open tools/android.bat.
3. Under "Show:" tick "Obsolete".
4. Untick the Android SDK tools, platform tools and build tools.
5. Untick Android R and 10.
6. Optionally untick Google USB Driver under Tools.
7. Under Android 3.1, tick "Google TV Addon (Obsolete)". If there is no Google TV Addon make sure that "Obsolete" is ticked.
8. Click "Install 2 packages" and accept all licenses. Note: you need to select both the Android Googletv and Android SDK licenses separately.
9. When the SDKs are installed, close the SDK manager.

Creating and running a device

1. Open a command prompt and go to the tools folder.
2. Type android list targets and note the ID for "Google Inc.:Google TV Addon:12".
3. Type android create avd -n GoogleTV -t <ID>, where <ID> is the ID from the previous command.
4. Disconnect internet. If internet is connected you'll get this error message on first boot.
5. Type emulator @GoogleTV.