How to Try Android L Developer Preview in Ubuntu 14.04

As mentioned yesterday, Android L Developer Preview was about to be released, and this is now done with images for Nexus 5 “Hammerhead” and Nexus 7 “razor” available right now. However, if you don’t have either of these devices, or you’d rather not install a beta version on the phone you use everyday, you can still give a try in the SDK emulator.

I’ve tried Android L myself in Ubuntu 14.04. Here’s what you have to do:

1. Install Android Studio IDE in Ubuntu, and Create a new Project  or open an existing project (Android Studio Version is now 0.61)
2. Click on Tools->Android->SDK Manager in the top menu, and select the Android L (API 20, L Preview) packages as shown below, and click on “Install xx Packages” button.
   
   Accept the license as required, and click Install. This step can take countless hours…
3. Now we’ll need to create a Virtual Device for the emulator. Go to Tools->Android->AVD Manager, select “Device Definitions” tab, and you’ll see some new types of devices like Android TV and Android Wear Round and Square.
   
   But I just scrolled down and selected “Nexus 7” and clicked on “Create AVD” button…
   
   …and configured the system to use “Android L (Preview) with the Intel Atom (x86) CPU/ABI, and WXGA720 skin, and clicked OK.
4. Your Nexus 7 with an Intel Atom processor :), running Android L should now show in the list of devices. Make sure it is selected, click on the Start button, and then Launch.
   
5. After a little while, you should be able to access Android L!

   

The screenshot on the right, is the blue and red rectangles animation that starts when you click 7 times on the Android version… There’s no Google Play in the emulator, so you’ll need to sideload the apps, or install a third party market such as Amazon Market to try out apps.

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