How to create an Android AVD for Pixel device, from command line?

Question

I'd like to use only the command-line tools to create a new virtual Android device. I want to create a virtual Pixel.

I'm able to create a new AVD but unfortunately I can't figure out how to correctly set the skin and the correct device screen resolution.

This is what I've tried thus far:

C:\Users\*******\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\tools>bin\avdmanager create avd -n MyPixel2 -k "system-images;android-25;google_apis;x86" --device 17

When I run that AVD via the emulator, I see a low-res device without any skin shown.

I am using Android SDK 25. And, unfortunately, it looks like https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/avdmanager.html is out of date.

Answer 1

What you are describing is a limitation of the avdmanager command right now. What the emulator tool needs is a device skin that will tell the emulator what dimensions the phone screen needs to be. The avdmanager command is unable to take in a Device Skin Option at this time.

I recently created a helpful bash script that will create a device and then skin it using the device skins that are bundled with Android Studio.

Bash Repo

Take a look at the ReadME of the Repo for an in depth explanation of what the script does to make sure that the emulator will launch with the correct resolution.

But basically you are going to want to copy these lines into the config.ini of the device you created.

showDeviceFrame=yes
skin.dynamic=yes
skin.name={{skin_name}}
skin.path={{skin_path}}
hw.gpu.enabled=yes
hw.gpu.mode=auto
hw.ramSize=1536

And replace the {{skin_name}} with the name of the skin in your ANDROID_HOME/skins folder. As well as replace the {{skin_path}} with the path to the skin in your ANDROID_HOME/skins folder. The {{skin_path}} is just the path to the folder that contains the layout file.

If your SDK Directory doesn't have a skins folder than copy the skins folder located in my repository, to your SDK Directory.