Error Launching AVD - "Could not open file: (null)/system/build.prop: No such file or directory"

Question

When I open the AVD from the CMD window using

C:\Android\adt-bundle-windows-x86\sdk\tools>emulator.exe -avd Nexus-7-001 -verbose

everything seems OK until the line below "Could not open file: (null)/system/build.prop: No such file or directory"

Although the emulator opens, attempting to select an app yields an error, "Unfortunately the launcher has stopped."

I have uninstalled and re-downloaded the ADT => the same problem. Can you tell me if there is a way to be sure to remove all of the ADT? Also can this problem be caused by remnants of the old ADT (previous version of Eclipse) or is it something else entirely?

I have the same problem on a Windows 7 and a Windows Vista OS system.

C:\Android\adt-bundle-windows-x86\sdk\tools>emulator.exe -avd Nexus-7-001 -verbose
.
.
.
emulator: Trace file name is not set

emulator: autoconfig: -scale 0.569531
emulator: Could not open file: (null)/system/build.prop: No such file or directory
emulator: control console listening on port 5554, ADB on port 5555
emulator: can't connect to ADB server: connection refused
emulator: ping program: C:\Android\adt-bundle-windows-x86\sdk\tools\ddms.bat
emulator: ping command: C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /C "C:\Android\adt-bundle-windows-x86\sdk\tools\ddms.bat" ping emulator 21.0.1.0 "NVIDIA Corporati
on" "GeForce G210M/PCI/SSE2" "3.0.0"
goldfish_fb_get_pixel_format:167: display surface,pixel format:
  bits/pixel:  16
  bytes/pixel: 2
  depth:       16
  red:         bits=5 mask=0xf800 shift=11 max=0x1f
  green:       bits=6 mask=0x7e0 shift=5 max=0x3f
  blue:        bits=5 mask=0x1f shift=0 max=0x1f
  alpha:       bits=0 mask=0x0 shift=0 max=0x0

Answer 1

The build.prop file contains essential information for the Android system. So if it can't find that file, the system (or launcher) will crash. If the system image is corrupted (something might went wrong while downloading or the Android system messed it up) you should be good to go by deleting the platform using the SDK manager. Or you can delete the platform-<api level you are using> folder in system-images and platforms in the folder where you have installed the SDK. After you've done that redownload the platform and the AVD should be working again!

Answer 2

It could be a problem related to the paths of your environment variables for your the Android SDK and/or Java not beng set correctly or outdated. Double check that they point they point to the right resources. You could also try running the commands using an elevated command prompt and reloading ADB first.

Answer 3

I have faced this problem before. To solve this problem, just launch Eclipse with administrative privilege. It worked for me on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Answer 4

1) Check the system image is properly installed.

2) check the driver of the graphic card you are with.

Answer 5

I had almost the same issue, the solution was:

1. Check the API Level of the Kernel
2. Run the AVD with the same API.

My error was:

D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\sdk\tools>emulator-arm -kernel D
\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\sdk\emulator-root\Kernel\zImage -s
ow-kernel -verbose -avd NexusS
emulator: found SDK root at D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\sdk
emulator: Android virtual device file at: C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.ini
emulator: virtual device content at C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd
emulator: virtual device config file: C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/con
ig.ini
emulator: using core hw config path: C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/hard
are-qemu.ini
emulator: Found AVD target API level: 8
emulator: 'magic' skin format detected: 480x800
emulator: autoconfig: -skin 480x800
emulator: autoconfig: -skindir (null)
emulator: keyset loaded from: C:\Users\Laci\.android\default.keyset
emulator: found SDK root at D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\sdk
emulator: trying to load skin file 'D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130
22\sdk/tools/lib/emulator/skins/dynamic//layout'
emulator: loaded dynamic skin width=480 height=800 bpp=16

emulator: autoconfig: -ramdisk D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\s
k/platforms\android-8\images\/ramdisk.img
emulator: Using initial system image: D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-201
0522\sdk/platforms\android-8\images\/system.img
emulator: autoconfig: -data C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/userdata-qemu
img
emulator: autoconfig: -initdata C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/userdata.
mg
emulator: autoconfig: -cache C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/cache.img
emulator: Physical RAM size: 256MB

Content of hardware configuration file:
  hw.cpu.arch = arm
  hw.ramSize = 256
  hw.screen = touch
  hw.mainKeys = yes
  hw.trackBall = no
  hw.keyboard = no
  hw.keyboard.lid = yes
  hw.keyboard.charmap = qwerty2
  hw.dPad = no
  hw.gsmModem = yes
  hw.gps = yes
  hw.battery = no
  hw.accelerometer = yes
  hw.audioInput = yes
  hw.audioOutput = yes
  hw.sdCard = yes
  disk.cachePartition = yes
  disk.cachePartition.path = C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/cache.img
  disk.cachePartition.size = 66m
  hw.lcd.width = 480
  hw.lcd.height = 800
  hw.lcd.depth = 16
  hw.lcd.density = 240
  hw.lcd.backlight = yes
  hw.gpu.enabled = no
  hw.camera.back = none
  hw.camera.front = none
  vm.heapSize = 32
  hw.sensors.proximity = yes
  hw.sensors.magnetic_field = yes
  hw.sensors.orientation = yes
  hw.sensors.temperature = yes
  kernel.path = D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\sdk\emulator-roo
\Kernel\zImage
  kernel.parameters =  android.checkjni=1
  disk.ramdisk.path = D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\sdk/platfo
ms\android-8\images\/ramdisk.img
  disk.systemPartition.initPath = D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-2013052
\sdk/platforms\android-8\images\/system.img
  disk.systemPartition.size = 200m
  disk.dataPartition.path = C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/userdata-qemu
img
  disk.dataPartition.size = 2g
  avd.name = NexusS
.
QEMU options list:
emulator: argv[00] = "emulator-arm"
emulator: argv[01] = "-show-kernel"
emulator: argv[02] = "-android-hw"
emulator: argv[03] = "C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/hardware-qemu.ini"
Concatenated QEMU options:
 emulator-arm -show-kernel -android-hw C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\NexusS.avd/ha
dware-qemu.ini
emulator: registered 'boot-properties' qemud service
emulator: nand_add_dev: system,size=0xc800000,initfile=D:\programs\adt-bundle-w
ndows-x86_64-20130522\sdk/platforms\android-8\images\/system.img
emulator: mapping 'system' NAND image to C:\Users\Laci\AppData\Local\Temp\\Andr
idEmulator\TMPE31B.tmp
emulator: rounding devsize up to a full eraseunit, now c810000

emulator: nand_add_dev: userdata,size=0x80000000,file=C:\Users\Laci\.android\av
\NexusS.avd/userdata-qemu.img
emulator: rounding devsize up to a full eraseunit, now 80010000

emulator: registered 'boot-properties' qemud service
emulator: Adding boot property: 'dalvik.vm.heapsize' = '32m'
emulator: Adding boot property: 'qemu.sf.lcd_density' = '240'
emulator: Adding boot property: 'qemu.hw.mainkeys' = '1'
emulator: Adding boot property: 'qemu.sf.fake_camera' = 'none'
emulator: nand_add_dev: cache,size=0x4200000,file=C:\Users\Laci\.android\avd\Ne
usS.avd/cache.img
emulator: Initializing hardware OpenGLES emulation support
emulator: ERROR: Could not load OpenGLES emulation library: Could not load DLL!
emulator: WARNING: Could not initialize OpenglES emulation, using software rend
rer.
emulator: Kernel parameters: qemu.gles=0 qemu=1 console=ttyS0 android.qemud=tty
1 android.checkjni=1 ndns=2
emulator: Trace file name is not set

emulator: autoconfig: -scale 1
serial0 console
emulator: Could not open file: (null)/system/build.prop: No such file or direct
ry
emulator: control console listening on port 5554, ADB on port 5555
emulator: sent '0012host:emulator:5555' to ADB server
emulator: ping program: D:\programs\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522\sdk\tool
\ddms.bat
emulator: ping command: C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /C "D:\programs\adt-bundle-
indows-x86_64-20130522\sdk\tools\ddms.bat" ping emulator 22.0.1.0 "" "" ""
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ressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux
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g Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Unc
mpressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Lin
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ing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...U
compressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing L
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ssing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux..
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ressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux
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g Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Unc
mpressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Lin
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compressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing L
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ssing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux..
Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing
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ressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux
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g Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Unc
mpressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...Uncompressing Linux...

ran out of input data

 -- System haltedemulator: User-config was not changed.

Answer 6

It may have nothing to do with that line.

There seems to be a common issue while initializing OpenGL (does Google Earth work fine?). In these cases, in your command line, try using 'emulator-arm' instead of 'emulator'. If it works, it may be a driver problem (try reinstalling your graphics drivers).

If it doesn't work, try posting the entire log (emulator -verbose -avd mydevice).