Android Emulator not starting on ubuntu - Android studio

If you are using Android studio on ubuntu there are can be number of reasons why Android studio cant  start an instance of AVD. Emulator is a one needy insane bugger you always want to work with and you have to tolerate with.  Here the focus is on a specific issue of

"PANIC: HOME is defined but could not find TESTPHONE.ini file in $HOME\.android\avd
(Note: avd is searched in the order of $ANDROID_AVD_HOME,$ANDROID_SDK_HOME\.android\avd and $HOME\.android\avd)"

Normally what happens in Ubuntu is you either download Android Studio + Open JDK or Orcale JDK via bash or you download the zip files and install java and install Android-studio.

If java is there Android studio will work just fine. Most probably you will have to go to 
<Android-studio extracted location>/bin/   and ./studio.sh there. Most of the time you will do this as root.

If you have successfully installed Android in your system what it does is in your profile it makes a hidden directory called .android and your avd instance settings will be saved in a directory called avd and there you can find your your_test_avd.ini file

If you are root when you are installing android what happens in these .android/avd directories are created under root users folder and when you try to execute avd manager and start a avd as a normal users there are no .ini files in  <your profiile>/.android/avd.

There are 2 things that you can do to get it over with.

1. Copy /root/.android/avd content to $HOME/.android/avd. Just a matter of simple command and worked for me. :D

2. Before android search .ini files in $HOME/.android/avd it looks for environmental variables called 

$ANDROID_AVD_HOME. SO you can set its value to root/.android/avd. :) (y)

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Sneak peak at Arduino platform

Just like I said. Arduino basically composed of two parts.

1. 1. hardware (Arduino board)
2. 2.software (The programs we write to Arduino)

Imagine Arduino is like a mother board of your computer. Each mother board has its form factor. Meaning each board is made according to a specification like these number of components should be there, these components should be placed there, these are the voltages to be used like that.

Well Arduino boards also has its own classifications.

Basically there are 5 hardware classes in which any Arduino board falls in.  These hardware are classed according to their functionality and specifications. So each class is used for specific tasks. Of course, you cant have simple LED blinking Arduino board to enterprise level highly complex robots. Can you ? :D

Each hardware class has Arduino models and here are the classes and some models.

Hardware class - Models - Functions

Basic - Uno, Leanardo - Most popular class. Good for experiments

Mega - Mega2560, MegaADK - Good for complex robots, More external device connections

Mini - MiniPro, Nano - Ideal for space utilization when building small robots

Breadboard - Boarduino - A solderless breadboard, Good for ever changing projects because you can attach parts anytime

Specialty - Lilypad, Fio, Ethernet - For specific application usages


This is some model comparison from Arduino site.
http://arduino.cc/en/Products.Compare

More on these components later. :D

These are some comparisons of Arduino models I`ve found on the web. Check them also.

http://www.robotshop.com/blog/en/arduino-microcontroller-feature-comparison-2-3631
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-arduino-selection-guide/arduino-comparison-chart

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Intro to Arduino

As a simplified version Arduino can be introduced to some novel people to hardware, micro controller, electronic,computer field as a mini computer. It is 100% not true. But lets just stick to it now. So just like a normal computer you have everything there. A memory, hard disk, usb connections, CPU like all of them.

But when it comes to micro controllers one thing not as normal computing is everything is micro-ed. :D. Meaning you have RAM but not as a large one like 4GB. You have only 2KB or so. You dont have 500GB hard disk. Instead you have 40 KB flash memory. Yeah , it may seem not enough. But when it comes to micro things like sensor works, robotics it is more than enough. :)

Micro Controller is a small computer like thingy which is embedded in an IC (Integrated Circuit). Lets just leave it at that. Arduino is a micro controlled platform where you can connect with external components like usb, sensors, motors. Arduino is an open source platform which was initiated by some Itallian fellows for an art project. You can read the history of Arduino in the wiki also. How ever now it has expanded its wings and now it can build robots also.

Arduino is piece of electronic junk with out its software .Arduino software is his soul mate. Together they live or without they die, in this case not function. You can plug your Arduino board to you computer, run Arduino software there and upload it to the Arduino board and viola. Arduino is live it can do stuff.  

You can get to know about more on Arduino from its official site and wiki.

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