Is it possible to run android x86 on a GCP VM?

Question

I know it is possible to run android inside Virtualbox or Android Studio with the use of nested virtualization. However, for my goal, this does not cut it. I need to be able to run android on low-end servers (4 cores), and with the resource drain of nested virtualization that is simply not possible without insane loading times. This brings me to my question, does anyone know if it is possible to run Android x86 on a GCP VM?

Answer 1

As you already have guessed, Android X86 it's not officially supported by GCP ( check Compute Engine public images available here and check integrated solutions in Cloud Marketplace).

But I guess you could install it, please check this external post. Or use a docker image and make sure having Nested Virtualization enabled

But you will face at least 2 issues related with the architecture of the VM,

• It won't be possible to use SSH or VNC at first. You may have to install an SSH/VNC server application after install the OS, I suggest to install it first on Virtualbox, for example, and then export the image as ovf and create the VM from there, check custom images in order to create a boot disk.
• It will be a Headless server at first because Google Cloud Compute Engine instances only supports Chrome Remote Desktop. You will have to tweak the system and may find some difficulties while installing linux desktop environments on Android X86 in order to make Chrome Remote Desktop to work.

Please check this external post or this old post where they could not install it because it was a 32bit OS back in the days.

Another solution may be to use a Docker container like this unofficial one. If you just want to develop an application you may have a look at Firebase.