Bluestacks is a free emulator for both macOS and Windows that allows you to use Android apps on your laptop or desktop. Keep in mind that Bluestacks uses a much older version of Android, but it. Aug 25, 2017 Downloading and installing an emulator There are quite a few emulators you can use to run Android on your Mac, most of which are free. VirtualBox is an old favourite; BlueStacks is another popular.
But the one we'll use for this tutorial is Nox, the top pick in our roundup of the best Android emulators for Mac. To find the emulator visit the Nox site and click on the download button. How To Download, Install and Use Android Apps & Games on Apple Mac & Windows PCWe discuss How To Download, Install and Use Android Apps & Games on Apple Mac. Jul 07, 2021 Best Android Emulator For Mac. ARChon is a little different than most of our best Android emulators for PC or Mac in that this one is actually a Google Chrome extension.
Mobile applications became an essential part of our lives, somehow we are dependent of them. We are using a lot of mobile applications every day. If you are lost in a new city, Google Maps gets you out of this situation. or if we want to make an appointment to the hairstylist, mobile applications assist us in our daily tasks.
It comes natural to us to use applications for everything that we need so it’s good to know that some applications might have security issues, and even know how to test their security.
Therefore, what if you want to learn how to do a mobile penetration test? Where would you begin? I recommend you to start from this article.
I will get you through the two big steps in order to install and root an Android emulator on your computer, which is the basis of an Android pentest.
Ok, enough talking, let’s jump to the interesting part. 💪
What would you need?
A rooted Android phone. What if you don’t have an Android Phone?! You should not worry about that, you can use an emulator of an Android device – which can be installed on your personal computer. An emulator is hardware or software that allows your computer (called the host) to behave like another system (called the guest). Emulation refers to the ability of a computer program in an electronic device to emulate another device. The emulator setup was tested using Ubuntu 18.10 – as the host and Android 7.1.1 – as the guest.
What steps should you follow in order to have your Android emulator?
1.Download the Android system image. You can do that by using Android-Studio.
Download and install Android Studio from here:
https://developer.android.com/studio/install
- Open Android-Studio , and select the AVD manager from the Tools tab.
- In the newly tab that have been open hit the “ Create Virtual Device ” button.
- Chose a device definition, (I have chosen Nexus 5X), and hit the “Next” button.
- Under the “x86 tab” , Select Android 7.1.1 ( Google APIs ) and hit “Download” button.
- After the download is finished, you can press the “ Next ” button.
- In the new tab opened, you can choose a name for your virtual device under the AVD Name field, all the other settings can be left as default. After that, you can hit the “ Finish” button.
- You might want to close Android Studio now, as the system image was already created.
2. Let’s turn on and root the emulator
- Open the Ubuntu terminal and type the following command:
$SDK_PATH/emulator/emulator -avd Your-emulator-name -writable-system -selinux disabled -qemu -enable-kvm
- The bold values should be changed according to your system. By default, after the installation of Android-Studio, the SDK_PATH is located in your home folder.
On my system, the following command is working:
$~/Android/Sdk/emulator/emulator -avd My-first-emulator -writable-system -selinux disabled -qemu -enable-kvm
- After the booting process is completed, on your desktop should be as in figure 3.
- Now, you have to open a new tab in the Ubuntu terminal and install adb.You can do that by typing the following command: $ apt install adb
Adb – Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile command-line tool that lets you communicate with a device. The adb command facilitates a variety of device actions, such as installing and debugging apps, and it provides access to a Unix shell that you can use to run a variety of commands on a device. [2]
- After the installation of adb is completed, you can type the following command :
$ adb root && adb remount
The previous command will Restart adbd as root and remount system as writable. Make sure you restart the adbd while the emulator is running. - The next step is to install the Superuser.apk application to our emulator.
SuperSU allows for advanced management of Superuser access rights for all the apps on your device that need root. SuperSU has been built from the ground up to counter a number of problems with other Superuser access management tools[3]. In order to do that you have to type the following commands in the Ubuntu terminal:
$ git clone https://github.com/0xFireball/root_avd
$ cd root_avd/
$ adb install SuperSU/common/Superuser.apk
/bluestacks-windows-96084934b33a461ab5b5d2cf3c750e0d.png "Mac")
- At this stage, you should have the application SuperSU installed to the emulator. Next, you have to type the following commands in Ubuntu terminal:
$ adb push SuperSU/$ARCH/su /system/xbin/su
Instead of the bolded text $ARCH, you should type the architecture of your downloaded system image. In my case, the architecture is x86, so the following command will work for me, and should work for you too – if you downloaded the same system image as I did – $ adb push SuperSU/x86/su /system/xbin/su
In order to finish the rooting process you have to enter some more commands in terminal.
$ adb shell chmod 0755 /system/xbin/su – This command will update permissions of the file that have been pushed in the previous step.
$ adb shell setenforce0 This command will Set SELinux to Permissive mode.
$ adb shell su –– install This command will Install SuperSU’s su to system.
$ adb shell su –– daemon& This command will Run SuperSU’s su as daemon.
Finally, you can now open the superSU application on the emulator. The application will display the following message: The SU binary needs to be updated. Continue? Hit “ Continue” and use normal installation.
An error message is possible to de displayed : Installation failed ! Please reboot and try again. Don’t worry about it, hit the “OK” button and you will have a rooted Android emulator.
At this stage, your emulator should be rooted, but I recommend you to type the following commands in your terminal, otherwise, Superuser may not always persist after reboot:
$ adb shell – This command will open a root shell from your emulator.
$ su –daemon& – This command will Run SuperSU’s su as daemon.
That’s it.
Your emulator should be rooted now, even if you reboot it. Next time you want to open your emulator, just type the command:
$~/Android/Sdk/emulator/emulator -avd My-first-emulator -writable-system -selinux disabled -qemu -enable-kvm
Ld Player
If you got here, well done!
You have just installed and rooted an Android emulator, on your personal computer. This is the first step in order to do mobile penetration testing, without having a physical Android device.
Write to us, in the comment section below, if the process went well for you or you have encounter any sort of problems. ✍️👇
Technology has been changing very rapidly since the last 2 decades. Every day there is a new invention in the long list of advancements. With this, there also comes the requirement of man that keeps on changing too. Android comes with great features to enjoy and now you can play so many games so easily in your hand, however, the issue always comes with a small screen space and a quirky display. we have a solution for all your problems here.
Blustacks 2 is a free android emulator that will enable you to run android games on your PC. Windows and iOS systems do not support APK files, hence, you need an emulator that will help you in playing the android supported games on your PC. You can enjoy almost every app on your Android phone on your PC. Free and Paid both apps are downloadable. You can also adjust the screen size of your BlueStacks2 For PC.
We will show you how to download the latest version of Bluestacks 2 for PCon Windows. It is a really simple method and you can check it in the steps given below.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD BLUESTACKS 2 FOR PC
- You can now download BlueStacks 2 for PC. There are many android emulators but this one will work best for you.
- Here is the link from where you can download BlueStacks 2 file.
- Open the setup file. A pop-up message appears which says that whether you want to open BlueStack or not. Click Run.
- Now Click Next to continue.
- You need to install the BlueStacks and the process will start.
- Once the installation is complete, click on the Finish button and you will be finished. This will now create a shortcut to your screen automatically.
Download Android Emulator For Pc
Installation Requirements.
Emulator For Mac
Your PC should have 2GB RAM and 4GB Hard Disk. BlueStack 2 only supports Windows 10, 8.1 and 8.7 operating system. Other than that, make sure you have the right system and a fast internet.
There are many apps that you can not find in the app store. This definitely means that you need the APK file and download that.There is also one more perk of installing Bluestacks on your PC. Now the Bluestacks2 becomes the handler of the APK files on your computer. this enables you to download BlueStacks directly on your computer and run it through the Bluestacks2. Double-click on the APK file and the BlueStacks2 will automatically start downloading the file on your computer.
Bluestacks2, being a free android emulator is really easy to download. You will always need an android emulator to support the APK files as Windows and iOS operating systems do not support them. We have shown you a very easy method to download BlueStacks2. This will enable you to play android games easily your PC.
The wait is over, now you can download and enjoy almost everything on your PC like you did on your Android but in a better way.
Hope this method works for you. you can comment and message to let us know about your queries.