Installing Bliss OS 15 Android x86 Virtual Machine with virt-manager#
Due to the overheating issue when playing games on my phone, I decided to explore building an x86 virtual machine on Linux that can run games. After some searching on Google, I found two options for images: Prime OS and Bliss OS. However, I couldn't get Prime OS to work, but Bliss OS worked successfully. However, there were some rendering issues with the ba screen, so I switched to using Waydroid. Since many tutorials online were not successful, I decided to document the setup process.
Environment#
- Bliss OS iso image (I downloaded Bliss OS 15)
- Install qemu virt-manager. I use Arch, so I followed the installation instructions on ArchWiki. For other distributions, please search on Google.
- A graphics card that supports OpenGL 3D acceleration, including integrated graphics. According to this question, it requires a motherboard and graphics card that support IOMMU and have IOMMU enabled. Arch has IOMMU enabled by default. My 3060 is on the supported list, but it couldn't boot. AMD is better and most of them are supported. I successfully booted using AMD integrated graphics.
1. Create a new virtual machine#
Follow the steps below to create a new virtual machine using virt-manager.
Step 1#
Select "Local install media" and click "Forward".
Step 2#
Select your ISO file and choose "Android 9" as the operating system.
Step 3#
According to the official documentation, choose "4 cores" and "4 GB" for the virtual machine.
Step 4#
Allocate at least 10 GB of disk space. For demonstration purposes, I will use the default 20 GB.
Step 5 (Important!)#
You can change the name if you want. The default network settings should be sufficient, but you can modify them according to your needs. The key is to check "Customize configuration before install".
2. Custom Configuration#
Overview Options#
Change the chipset to "Q35" (Q35 is better) and select UEFI as the firmware (critical for system boot).
Display Protocol#
Select "None" for the listen type. If you have multiple graphics cards and want to enable 3D acceleration, choose OpenGL and make sure your graphics card supports it.
Graphics Card#
Choose "Virtio" and enable 3D acceleration.
IDE Disk and IDE CDROM#
Choose "VirtIO" for the IDE disk to improve performance.
Choose "SATA" for the IDE CDROM.
Once the configuration is complete, click "Begin Installation" in the top left corner.
3. Install Bliss OS#
Partitioning#
Select "Installation".
Choose the first option "Create/Modify partitions".
Select "Yes" for using GPT partition table and press Enter.
Press any key to continue and enter cgdisk.
Use the arrow keys to select "New", then press Enter for the first option (default), enter "+512M" for the second option, enter "ef00" for the third option (EFI system), press Enter for the fourth option, and name it "EFI" (naming is optional).
After completing these steps, it should look like this:
Use the arrow keys to select the third option for the remaining space, press Enter to continue creating a new partition, and press Enter again to use the default options. Name the partition "android".
Select "Write" and press Enter to confirm with "yes". Finally, select "Quit".
Install the System to the Hard Disk#
Select the second option after quitting.
Choose "ext4" as the format and confirm formatting vda2 by selecting "yes".
Choose "yes" when asked if you want to install EFI GRUB2. Format vda1? Select "yes".
Wait for the installation to complete and then select "reboot".