KVM is required to run this AVD

Question

I am on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and I am trying to set up Android Studio for the first time. When I run my simple "Hello World" app, it gives me a pop-up that says

KVM is required to run this AVD.
Unknown Error

Please file a bug against Android Studio

But when I run simply kvm-ok it outputs:

INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used

Did you check this Ask Ubuntu [thread](https://askubuntu.com/q/564910/550550)? — Shashanth, Jul 04 '18 at 04:01
Yes i have, but the thing is that my CPU does support virtualization and is enabled from BIOS! — Nomi Shaw, Jul 10 '18 at 08:31
You might try to just run 'kvm' as that will run a KVM with (x86) Bios with -enable-kvm being set. It will eventually stop as it has nothing to boot, but you will see if kvm can be used. — Christian Ehrhardt, Jul 16 '18 at 05:56

score 35 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 02 '19 at 18:32

35

Starting with Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint Tara you need to install qemu-kvm

sudo apt install qemu-kvm

Check the ownership of /dev/kvm

ls -al /dev/kvm

Check which users are in the kvm group

grep kvm /etc/group

Output from the above command

kvm:x:some_number:

If there is nothing rightwards of the final :, there are no users in the kvm group.

To add the current user to the kvm group

sudo adduser $USER kvm

which adds the user to the group, and check once again with grep kvm /etc/group.

A restart may be required for the permissions to take effect.

Official answer on StackOverflow

edited Aug 02 '19 at 18:32

Kulfy

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answered Dec 09 '18 at 18:08

G. Spyridakis

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after adduser run this too...`sudo chown $USER /dev/kvm` – vamsi Apr 22 '20 at 06:24
Thanks @rogoro. Running `chown` solved problem without restart. – csonuryilmaz May 06 '20 at 19:16
Installing `qemu-kvm` is really not necessary for Android Studio, one can simply create the `kvm` (system) group and install a udev permission override to enable user access. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/61984745/624066 – MestreLion Sep 23 '20 at 14:58
@vamsi That does not really make sense. Do one or the other. If you add $USER to the `kvm` group that should be enough. Of course you have to logout/login. You have group rights then. Running that `chown` command makes $USER the owner of that device. That is not recommended as this is a strong change in system defaults. – Gerd Jan 26 '21 at 19:46

Toir · Answer 2 · 2018-10-28T10:03:15.700

1

Change sdk emulator folder permission. This is worked for me.

chmod 777 -R {sdk folder}/emulator

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44635879/kvm-is-required-to-run-this-avd-unknown-error-please-file-a-bug-against-androi

edited Oct 28 '18 at 10:03

answered Oct 28 '18 at 09:42

Toir

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It is actually a permission denied on KVM rather on android emulator. – G. Spyridakis Dec 09 '18 at 18:15
Either your CPU does not support virtualization, or it is disabled in the bios. Go into your bios and see if you can find a setting to enable it. – Toir Dec 22 '18 at 13:24
Thanks! Changing permission to 777 for /emulator did the job – essayoub May 19 '20 at 17:27

Gayan Weerakutti · Answer 3 · 2020-05-16T10:53:41.487

To run KVM, you need a processor that supports hardware virtualization.

To see if your processor supports hardware virtualization, you can review the output from this command:

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If 0 it means that your CPU doesn't support hardware virtualization.
If 1 or more it does - but you still need to make sure that virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.

Installation of KVM

Cosmic (18.10) or later

sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils

You need to ensure that your username is added to the group libvirtd, and kvm:

sudo adduser `id -un` libvirt
sudo adduser `id -un` kvm

Verify Installation

Run kvm-ok on the command line.

$ kvm-ok
INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used

Logout or restart for changes to take effect.

Sources:

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-acceleration#accel-check https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 25 '18 at 22:46

-1

I usually run

sudo chown username -R /dev/kvm

but this is only good for a while. Looking for a better solution.

There is also another command:

sudo adduser username kvm

answered Jul 25 '18 at 22:46

ADNow

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score -1 · Answer 5 · answered May 27 '19 at 21:08

-1

Login as a root user sudo su goto the studio installation dir withcd ${path_of _installation_dir}/android-studio/bin and relaunch the sdk with ./studio.sh. Then try relaunching your avd

answered May 27 '19 at 21:08

Rohit

99

*Never* log in as the root user! There's nothing you could do as root, that you can't do with `sudo`. And if you only need the permissions of a specific group, `sg` if you belong to it, `sudo -g` if you don't — `sg kvm /bin/studio.sh` in this case, given the `kvm` group has read+write permission on `/dev/kvm`. – antichris Sep 06 '19 at 09:03

KVM is required to run this AVD

5 Answers5