Android Auto DHU - Waiting for phone

Question

I'm trying to run desktop head unit on my pc. I set up everything exactly as this guide specifies: https://developer.android.com/training/cars/testing, (tried both 2.0 and 1.1 with the same result). It appears to connect correctly, but I can't get it do display anything other than "Waiting for phone". Console displays following:

Android Auto - Desktop Head Unit
  Build: 2020-09-20-332761970
  Version: 2.0-windows-beta

[W]: No configuration specified - using default values.
[E]: Could not load configuration from 'C:\Users\kkowalczyk\.android\headunit.ini'.
BoringSSL is the SSL implementation used in the receiver-lib.
Starting link. Requested protocol version: 1.6 (snapshot 314970161)
[I]: Connecting over ADB to localhost:5277...
[I]: connected.
> Phone reported protocol version 1.6
ssl state=TLS client read_server_hello -1
ssl state=TLS client process_change_cipher_spec -1
ssl state=SSL negotiation finished successfully 1
SSL version=TLSv1.2 Cipher name=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
Verify returned: ok

I'm trying to connect to Pixel 5 (with most recent update), is there anything else I can try?

Answer 1

In my case, I also saw the same issue but resolve by following below steps:

1. Close the DHU emulator.
2. In the AA app, stop the HU server. Wait for a couple of seconds, start the HU server.
3. Stop the HU server again. Wait for a couple of seconds, start the HU server.
4. Start the DHU emulator.
5. The OOBE screen shows up on the AA app in phone. Complete the flow. While you are completing the flow, the emulator will be on the 'waiting for phone' screen.
6. Stop and start the emulator. It will start with the black screen with 'waiting for phone' message but after 2-3 seconds the emulator screen comes up.

Hope it can resolve your issue too.

Answer 2

I ran into the same issue (stuck on the "Waiting for phone..." screen) and was able to fix it by changing Application Mode to Developer on the Developer Settings screen of Android Auto.

Make sure to restart the head unit server on the phone after that in case it was already running, then reconnect/restart desktop-head-unit.