Experimental Ubuntu Touch Emulator Released

Currently, the Ubuntu Touch Emulator is only available for Ubuntu 14.04 trusty Tahr but you can try installing it from source if you want to use it in an older Ubuntu version.

According to the wiki, Ubuntu Touch Emulator if functional, but there are some things that need work. For instance, Powerd and AppArmor are disabled by default for now. Also, the first boot takes a few minutes and it's also possible for Qemu to hang while booting. In my test, the keyboard on the right didn't work and Unity is pretty slow but it's usable.

Here are a few more Ubuntu Touch Emulator (with Unity 8 & Mir) screenshots:

If you've upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, you can install the Ubuntu Touch Emulator from the Ubuntu repositories:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install android-emulator
cp -r /usr/share/android/emulator/ ~/
cd ~/emulator/
./build-emulator-sdcard.sh
./run-emulator.sh

If you're using Ubuntu 14.04 64bit, for now you'll have to enable the proposed repository to install the package [...] - after a recent update, that's no longer required.

Warning: if you're on 64bit, don't uninstall the emulator and run "apt-get autoremove" because it will break your system. More about that on the Ubuntu Touch Emulator wiki. 

The first time you're running the emulator, the boot will take a while. When it finishes booting, a shell with Ubuntu Touch will start, asking you to enter the username and password:


Both the username and password are "phablet" (without the quotes). After this, it will take yet another few minutes and Unity 8 with Mir should be loaded in the Ubuntu Touch Emulator.