Is it possible to install Android’s .apk file?
Was just wondering it would be nice to have a convenient way of installing android’s .apk apps in Ubuntu somehow. Somebody has a clue about it?
7 Answers 7
The only way to run Android apps in Ubuntu (as far as I’m aware) is to install Android SDK, create a virtual Android device, use the SDK’s tools to install the .apk file on that device and run the app inside the device.
Android developer portal has a lot of info on the subject.
Android packages, .apk files, are a completely different packaging format than Ubuntu’s packaging format, .deb files.
Besides the packaging differences, Android packages are compiled and customized for the Android operating system, toolchain, and architecture (ARM), which is different from most Ubuntu systems which are 32-bit or 64-bit Intel architecture.
Yes and no. APKs aren’t debs, but that’s kind of the point of the question. Most Android applications are in fact pure Java, but compiled to a non-standard bytecode format (Dalvik instead of the standard JVM) and against a different API. Even Ubuntu on ARM couldn’t run Android apps, or Ubuntu on x86 run Android x86 apps, without a large emulation layer (which doesn’t exist short of emulating the whole machine in Qemu).
You can use the ARChon to run apk in ubuntu:
- Install the ARChon Runtime. http::github.com/vladikoff/chromeos-apk/blob/master/archon.md
- Open and enable the flag: chrome://flags/#enable-nacl,then restart Google-Chrome. (Important!)
- Install existing android apps in the website or convert your favourite android apps by «Online APK-CRX Converter.
- Drag and drop the Google-Chrome extensions into the chrome://extensions/ page in the browser and it will be installed in your browser. Enjor it!
Why not use the apk installer code from Android x86 and compile it for Ubuntu, because Android x86 is linux, it use the same boot loader and kernel.
If someone can install the apk loader, JAVA runtime an all things you need to run apps, would the apk installer app install apk‘s on Ubuntu the same way as in Android?
I don’t know, but someone can try out.
android though comes under apache license uses its own unique APIs & libraries to develop its apps(.apk files). just to make android apps to run on a linux machine, what u can do is compile the dvm source code using GIT repo in ubuntu so as to mergge the dvm into ur linux pc. that will set the environment for android architeture(i.e. linux kernel + android dvm) but additionally u would also need to install the android core libraries as well to make the apps fully functionable. this is the best way u can run android apps conveniently on ubuntu.
actually the android apps available in market and play store are designed for arm architechture processor and thus what u r trying to do will never work for almost every other app u try to install on computer.
by the way u can find a site on google by searching ‘porting android on x86’ this will give u android 4.2 to android froy roms for ur pc standalone installation and i had tried them and almost 99% software either refused to installed or refused to run after installation done anyhow.
so the major difference is x86 versus arm series. and until we are able to virtually provide arm processor architechture to android we cant do any thing.
its actually not possible to run the APK file on an Ubuntu PC as Ubuntu will not be able to read it. The best among many things is to install an Android virtual machine and run the APK.
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Установка и запуск Android-приложений на Linux
Как известно, многие Android-приложения можно нативно запускать на Chrome OS благодаря библиотеке Chrome App Runtime.
С помощью расширений chromeos-apk и ARChon запуск Android APK стал возможен и на других ОС.
Устанавливаем ARChon Runtime
1) Скачиваем и распаковываем ARChon в произвольную дирректорию;
2) Открываем Chrome и включаем Developer mode в chrome://extensions/;
3) Кликаем «Load unpacked extension» и устанавливаем распакованный ARChon.
Далее необходимо подготовить архив APK для установки.
Устанавливаем chromeos-apk
1) Для Ubuntu прежде всего нужно установить библиотеку lib32stdc++6:
sudo apt-get install lib32stdc++6 2) chromeos-apk можно установить с помощью менеджера пакетов npm (поставляется вместе с node.js).
3) Сейчас можно установить непосредственно chromeos-apk:
npm install chromeos-apk -g Теперь все готово к распаковке APK.
Подготавливаем APK с помощью chromeos-apk
1) Для распаковки APK-архива выполняем:
chromeos-apk path/to/file.apk 2) Теперь у нас есть Chrome-APK расширение, и все что нужно — загрузить (chrome://extensions/) и запустить его.
UPD: полезные ссылки от sequence
ARChon Packager: создает архивы для archon из установленных в телефоне приложений.
twerk: расширение хром, сильно облегчает конвертацию apk.
How do I run Android’s .apk files on linux without the Android emulator?
I do not have a very good background of Android and the .apk files, hence these questions.
3 Answers 3
You cannot install .apk files directly onto your PC. Even though Android uses the Linux kernel, the applications runs on a totally different platform. APK files are ZIP file formatted packages based on the JAR file format, with .apk file extensions. They hold all of that program’s code (such as .dex files), resources, assets, certificates, and manifest file. They run only on the Dalvik virtual machine.
Install Android OS on your PC, if you really want to run them from a computer.
You can use the ARChon to run apk in ubuntu:
- Install the ARChon Runtime. http::github.com/vladikoff/chromeos-apk/blob/master/archon.md
- Open and enable the flag: chrome://flags/#enable-nacl,then restart Google-Chrome. (Important!)
- Install existing android apps in the website or convert your favourite android apps by «Online APK-CRX Converter.
- Drag and drop the Google-Chrome extensions into the chrome://extensions/ page in the browser and it will be installed in your browser. Enjor it!
- An apk file is not an executable, it’s just an archive file contaning all the resources and class files that are to be used by the application.
- The apk is set to be unpacked and run by the Dalvik vm.
- The elements that are contained inside the apk file are specifically designed and designated to be used in Android mobile phones and not a desktop PC running Linux. Though Android uses the Linux kernel, you definitely cannot run the apk file on a Linux machine, as you would an rpm or a deb file.
Thank you. Is it absolutely necessary that we need the ‘dalvik vm’ to run it, or can we replicate the operations by ‘dalvik vm’ manually, with tweaks, to make it run on linux directly?
No we cannot ! It will be like taking a human being who is designed to live and breath on earth , to Mars and tweaking Mars so as to accomodate human beings.
@Achilles Off topic, but random joke. There is two know mars missions planned, one by NASA and the other by MarsOne. These will later include teramorphing mars as there is not only ice on mars, but flowing water too. All one needs to synthesize an atmosphere is oxygen and electricity to create ozone. Back to topic, yes to «emulate» or reconstruct and optimise a vm is possible. But the time needed to do so is greater than the feasible use thereof (HrishikeshMurali)