Running Android emulator in docker container

Question

We are building an app in React Native using wix/Detox for writing e2e tests.

We are using Docker for doing builds and running tests. Specifically, we're using community react-native-android Docker image.

I have added fastlane to the image for building / publishing our app and now trying to add an emulator so that we can run tests as well.

This is our Dockerfile:

# reactnativecommunity/react-native-android:4.0
FROM reactnativecommunity/react-native-android@sha256:c3ad9b8ed5caac0718b1c1b8f10469eb75b0ac77c86143c94f9616ee46b80b4b

RUN gem install fastlane -NV

RUN sdkmanager --install "system-images;android-31;google_apis;arm64-v8a"
RUN echo no | avdmanager create avd --name default -k "system-images;android-31;google_apis;arm64-v8a"

However, when I run the container and attempt to start the emulator, I get the following:

root@7b862aa149c8:/# emulator -no-audio -no-boot-anim -no-window -use-system-libs  @default
emulator: Android emulator version 30.7.5.0 (build_id 7491168) (CL:N/A)
emulator: INFO: ignore sdcard for arm at api level >= 30
emulator: feeding guest with passive gps data, in headless mode
emulator: ERROR: AdbHostServer.cpp:102: Unable to connect to adb daemon on port: 5037
cannot add library /opt/android/emulator/qemu/linux-x86_64/lib64/vulkan/libvulkan.so: failed
added library /opt/android/emulator/lib64/vulkan/libvulkan.so
emulator: INFO: ignore sdcard for arm at api level >= 30
emulator: INFO: userspace-boot-properties.cpp:242: Sending adb public key [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 @unknown]
emulator: INFO: GrpcServices.cpp:315: Started GRPC server at 127.0.0.1:8554, security: Local
WARNING. Using fallback path for the emulator registration directory.
emulator: INFO: EmulatorAdvertisement.cpp:93: Advertising in: /root/.android/avd/running/pid_9.ini
qemu-system-aarch64-headless: PCI bus not available for hda
saving arm snapshot.... !!!

saving done.... !!!

root@7b862aa149c8:/#

Answer 1

So,

Is it possible to run the (Android) emulator through Docker? yes.

I don't know much about Fastlane|wix/Detox, but I made this in a e2e/Appium project

If so, how? Do you need a hardware that support virtualization

1. In Linux find out if CPU Support Intel VT/AMD-V Virtualization For KVM

   lscpu | grep Virtualization

Virtualization: VT-x (if 'Intel VT-x' or 'VT-x' feature supported)

or

Virtualization: full (if 'full' not supported)

On AWS, you need a bare metal instance (supported x86) like c5.metal

2. Android Emulator Container Scripts

https://github.com/google/android-emulator-container-scripts

3. Follow this git, create an image with google API (I my case, 27-google-x86) and put in docker repo, like AWS ECR.

4. And, I created an image too to Appium (I believe with is possible with wix/detox)

5. To SDK

Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu:20.04

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

# Installs i386 architecture required for running 32 bit Android tools
RUN dpkg --add-architecture i386 && \
    apt-get update && \
    apt-get dist-upgrade -y && \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends openjdk-8-jdk && \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends git wget unzip curl make && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
    apt-get autoremove -y && \
    apt-get clean

ENV JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre" \
    PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin

# Installs Android SDK
ENV ANDROID_HOME=/android-sdk
ENV ANDROID_SDK_HOME $ANDROID_HOME

ARG ANDROID_SDK_VERSION=6514223
ARG ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=27.0.0
ARG ANDROID_PLATFORM_VERSION="android-27"

RUN mkdir -p ${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/cmdline-tools && \
    wget -q https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-${ANDROID_SDK_VERSION}_latest.zip && \
    unzip *tools*linux*.zip -d ${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/cmdline-tools && \
    rm *tools*linux*.zip

ENV PATH ${PATH}:${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/tools:${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/platform-tools

RUN mkdir -p ~/.android && \
    touch ~/.android/repositories.cfg && \
    echo y | ${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/cmdline-tools/tools/bin/sdkmanager --licenses && \
    echo y | ${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/cmdline-tools/tools/bin/sdkmanager "platform-tools" && \
    echo y | ${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/cmdline-tools/tools/bin/sdkmanager "build-tools;$ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION" && \
    echo y | ${ANDROID_SDK_HOME}/cmdline-tools/tools/bin/sdkmanager "platforms;$ANDROID_PLATFORM_VERSION"

# Installs Node
ARG NODE_VERSION=12.x

RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_${NODE_VERSION} | bash
RUN apt-get install --yes nodejs

5. Finally, I orchestrated everything a Jenkinsfile

Answer 2

This is what worked in the end BUT required bare metal machine

# reactnativecommunity/react-native-android:4.0
FROM reactnativecommunity/react-native-android@sha256:c3ad9b8ed5caac0718b1c1b8f10469eb75b0ac77c86143c94f9616ee46b80b4b

ARG IMAGE="system-images;android-31;google_apis;x86_64"
RUN sdkmanager --install "${IMAGE}"
RUN echo no | avdmanager create avd --name emulator_for_e2e_testing -k "${IMAGE}"

ENTRYPOINT adb start-server && emulator -avd emulator_for_e2e_testing -no-audio -no-window -no-boot-anim