Virtualized LineageOS

Fri, 22 May 2026 17:30:52 -0400

By Dr. Jay Jay Billings

I’ve been doing more Android development lately, which has reminded me of my love of custom ROMs. It is always a good idea to test any OS in a virtual machine prior to installation. This builds familiarity with the process and lowers the likelihood of unexpected surprises over basic things.

I build LineageOS (and CyanogenMod before it) from scratch every other year or so. Here’s the basic process for building a ROM for the official Android emulator. Note that this build will not work on actual mobile hardware, but it will work in Android Studio for development.

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Virtualized LineageOS