Ubuntu Touch emulator is now available

Ubuntu emulator

It goes without saying by now that the Ubuntu Touch development process is somewhat atypical. But no matter how unusual it may seem to us, it is still curious and interesting. A few weeks ago we told you about an Apps creation course for Ubuntu Touch that the Catalan Ubuntu group had organized. Well, the same developer who taught classes and will advise for the set-up of this workshop, David planella, has published an interesting article on the Ubuntu Touch emulator, that great unknown but incredible tool that will allow every good developer create apps for Ubuntu Touch.

With the appearance of article by David Planella, have come to the fore several emulators of Ubuntu Touch, each one focused on a different hardware platform, however the one I'm going to talk about today is the one that is oriented to ARM devices, it does not mean that we need a computer with an ARM processor to use this emulator but that this emulator will emulate Ubuntu Touch on ARM devices, which I found interesting since Bq's mobiles they usually use this architecture.

Installing the Ubuntu Touch Emulator

If we have Ubuntu 14.04 the installation of this emulator will not be difficult since it is in Canonical's official repositories, so through the Ubuntu Software Center We can install it, however, Ubuntu 14.04 is in beta phase and it is a bit risky to start developing on a somewhat unstable operating system, so for previous versions, that is, Ubuntu 13.10 and Ubuntu 13.04 we will have to open a terminal and write the next:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: phablet-team / tools
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-emulator

This will start the Ubuntu Touch emulator installation process. Well, once the installation is complete, we will need to create an Ubuntu Touch virtual machine. The thing is very simple. Ubuntu has created this emulator as if it were a VirtualBoxIn VirtualBox, one thing is the installation and another is the virtual machines that we create from VirtualBoxThe same thing happens with the Ubuntu Touch emulator. We have installed the emulator but to make it work we will need to create an instance orvirtual machine«, So in the same terminal we write

sudo ubuntu-emulator create name_of_the_machine_we_create

To run that created machine or rather that emulator we only have to create the following in the terminal:

ubuntu-emulator run name_of_the_machine_we_create

This system is quite useful, since it allows us to have an emulator for each application that we want to develop or test and thus reduce the probability of errors. To delete that instance or that «machine»We just have to type in the terminal

ubuntu-emulator destroy name_of_the_machine_we_create

With this we have a basic operation of the emulator Ubuntu Touch. In addition to all this and the functionalities that it offers, such as being able to run the emulator on an Android smartphone, this ad gives us a slight idea of ​​the minimum requirements of smartphones with Ubuntu Touch. To make this emulator work you need at least 512MB of Ram, 4GB of hard drive storage and a graphics card capable of running OpenGL. Also if you are interested in developing applications for Ubuntu Touch, do not forget to stop by the emulator Wiki, it will be of great help to you.


8 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Alberto Diaz said

    Good evening, I am installing the ubuntu touch emulator on ubuntu 13.04 64 bits, and it presents me with the following error: E: The ubuntu-emulator package could not be located, I accept suggestions, advice will be well accepted. Thanks in advance. Regards from Dominican Republic.

    1.    Ruben Alvarado said

      I know it may seem like a total nonsense, but have you added the repositories with "sudo add-apt-repository ppa: phablet-team / tools"?

  2.   Joaquín García said

    Hello Alberto. I have been doing different tests to see what the error has been and it works for me. I know it's silly, but have you made sure you have clean repositories, are online, and don't have any setup programs open?
    Sorry for the delay

  3.   Louis Stephen said

    And is there a way to use the emulator in Debian 7?
    Any generic or Windows package? At least to try with the wine xD

  4.   Ini said

    How do you uninstall the emulator?

  5.   Xander Jara said

    how you can configure the emulator resolution

  6.   Michelangelo AR said

    It started for me, but inside the «mobile» there was no image ...

  7.   Christian Cuesta said

    I have installed it and it works, but it opens to me in a very large size and I cannot reduce it, so I only see half of the "mobile" screen. Does anyone know how I can solve this?