AndroVM Compatibility (Android VM run in Oracle Virtual Box)

[thefriendlygeek]

In my quest to use Pleco on the desktop, for easier presentation to friends I'm teaching Chinese to, I have been searching for an Android Emulator that uses a more up to date version of Android than the bluestacks software. I also don't know how safe my information is in bluestacks since it isn't clear what their business model is, and if they are reselling personal data. I also tried WindowsAndroid, but Pleco would not even start on it. I haven't tried Jar of Beans due to it apparently only having acceptable performance on intel CPUs, which my desktop doesn't have.

So I found AndroVM, and it seems to be well maintained and is open source. It's using Jelly bean, and has google play available, as well as being pre rooted.

So, Pleco runs great on it, so far as I can test the features available in the free version of Pleco. I can't get the program to accept my registration credentials when entered. I enter the number, then press ok, and Pleco hangs for around 30 secs- 1 min, then force closes. So obviously I can't get any of the paid features on the VM to see if they work correctly.
I realize that messing with VMs is probably not on the list of important things for Mike Love to do, so can any of my more Linux/Android knowledgeable friends here check out this VM, and see if you can get some log file that points to why Pleco crashes at the entry of the registration code?
This is the most promising Android emulation that I have found, and many devs are using this to develop on since the official Android SDK is so slow.

This is my set-up.
Windows 7 Ultimate 3ghz AMD Phenom QuadCore, 8GB RAM, SSD, and HDD
http://androvm.org/blog
I'm using AndroVM .ova file named:
androVM_vbox86tp_4.1.1_r4-20121119-gapps-houdini-flash.ova
http://androvm.org/blog/download/
I'm using Virtual box ver. 4.124r82872 due to recommendation of AndroVM forums since newer versions have been reported to have issues.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_1

You can use Andro VM with or without the VMplayer software that adds opengl hardware acceleration. I use it on my desktop, but don't on my laptop.

 

[mikelove]

Re: AndroVM Compatibility (Android VM run in Oracle Virtual

We tried reproducing this here, since it seemed like it might be a manifestation of a bug we've had a few other reports of that shows up in the same situation. Unfortunately, though, it turned out to be something else - a particular C Standard Library function that we rely on is bugged on this version of Android. (could also cause problems in several other parts of Pleco, though you might not have noticed them yet) It's perfectly reasonable that most other apps might behave normally, since this would generally only affect apps that use the Android NDK (and only NDK apps that use this specific function in this specific way), but the bug definitely lies in AndroVM and not in Pleco.

 

[thefriendlygeek]

Re: AndroVM Compatibility (Android VM run in Oracle Virtual

Ok, I joined the google group for AndroVM, and sent the dev a link to this forum post, as well as a link to the app in the play store. When/If he replies, I'll let you know if he implements a code change to fix the bug.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/androvm

If this bug gets fixed and it is working after that, then I'll update this thread. Thanks for the reply and diagnosis.

 

[gbraad]

Re: AndroVM Compatibility (Android VM run in Oracle Virtual

this issue is still current in AndroVM. Where in the filesystem is the registration ID stored? Haven't looked into this yet, but maybe this way you can edit/add it and make it work.

 

[mikelove]

Re: AndroVM Compatibility (Android VM run in Oracle Virtual

this issue is still current in AndroVM. Where in the filesystem is the registration ID stored? Haven't looked into this yet, but maybe this way you can edit/add it and make it work.

The nature of the bug is such that you can't, actually - doesn't affect the storage of the ID but rather a relatively minor / informational aspect of the registration system that happens to depend on this particular bugged API call. If you somehow managed to inject the correct ID, the software would simply crash on startup.