This article aims to install and run Android 13 on Vultr.
This can be useful if you want an Android device on the cloud on the fly, whenever you desire. For this purpose, we will utilize a great open-source project called Bliss OS, which we will install in Vultr.
Note: There might be low-performance issues when you run the project on the cloud, due to your chosen plan or latency. To avoid this, please select the server nearest to you, and make sure you choose more than 4GB of RAM.
Getting the Bliss OS ISO
You might want to choose a variation depending on your use case, as detailed in the Bliss OS downloads section.
For our general use, we will be choosing Bliss OS 16.
If you do not want any Google Apps (GApps), please choose the Bliss OS with FOSS apps, for our use case, we will use the one with GApps.
Click on the SourceForge download button, which should redirect you to the SourceForge website. Once you get to the page, right-click and copy the link for the latest build.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/blissos-x86/files/Official/BlissOS16/Gapps/Generic/Bliss-v16.9.4-x86_64-OFFICIAL-gapps-20240220.iso/downloadAdding Android 13 to Vultr ISO Library
Now, go to your Vultr Dashboard and Click on the ISOs section under Orchestration to upload a custom ISO.
Once on the page, click on the add button to add the Bliss OS ISO.
On the form, paste in the download link you copied earlier to add the ISO to your library and click on upload.
The ISO may take a few minutes to complete downloading. You can refresh the page if the status does not update.
Once the ISO has shown up as available, you can proceed to the next step.
Setting up the server
Now, depending on how you want your experience to be, you may choose and experiment with different server specifications. For this article, I went with Optimized Cloud Compute – Dedicated CPU with 8GB RAM. But you may choose any size of the server you would like.
After you have chosen the server size, under the Choose Image section select the Upload ISO option and the ISO we just downloaded.
After you are done selecting all the options, click on Deploy to deploy your server.
The server should have the installing status once you deploy it.
Once it has the running status, click on the 3-dot menu and click on view console.
Note: If you see the screen stuck on the following status, click on reboot from the 3-dot menu.
Installing Bliss OS on the server
Now, once you boot up, you should see the following menu.
Use the arrow keys to go down to the “Installation … to Harddisk” option and hit enter.
After you’ve hit Enter, you should see the following screen.
Press C on your keyboard to navigate to “Create/Modify partitions” and hit enter. On the upcoming screen, hit <No, continue to cfdisk>
Hit enter on the dos label.
On the following screen, hit Enter to create a new partition.
The following will show up. (it may be different if you have a different disk size when you created the server on Vultr) Hit enter.
Now, it should appear like this. Hit enter on primary.
Now, navigate to the bootable option and hit enter on it.
Navigate to the Write option using the arrow keys.
Type in yes on the following confirmation prompt and hit Enter.
After the process has been completed, the message should appear on the bottom, confirming the same. Now you can hit Enter on the quit option to exit the partition manager.
You should now be presented with an option asking you to choose the partition to install the Bliss OS. Hit enter to continue with the installation process.
Choose ext4 on the following screen and hit Enter to continue.
If you would like, you can change the name here.
Now, it should ask for a confirmation on formatting the partition. Hit Yes to continue with the installation process.
Now, the installer will prompt you if you want the installer to prepare for an OTA (Over-the-air) update. If you are planning to use it for a long term, you might wanna click on Yes.
For this article, I chose No.
Select Yes, when it asks to install the Grub bootloader.
Now, the installation process should start.
Post-installation steps
After it has completed installing, we are not quite done yet. Even though it says that we have installed it successfully, we do not have the appropriate drivers for it yet. So, hit reboot.
On the boot menu, choose the VM and other options… option and hit enter.
Scroll down to Debugging Options… and hit enter
Hit enter on the first option.
Wait for it to boot up on the debug mode. Once it has booted up on debug mode, type in the following command to mount the system we installed earlier.
mount /dev/vda1 /mntNow, we will have to edit the grub menu. To do this, type in the following command to open up the nano editor.
nano /mnt/boot/grub/android.cfgWe will get a screen like this
Now, use the arrow keys to go to the line after kernel.
Type in the following code:
nomodeset HWACCEL=0It should look like this:
Now, save and exit nano by hitting CTRL X and then hit enter on the confirmation prompt.
Now, go to your Vultr dashboard > Server Settings > Custom ISO and remove the attached ISO.
Once, it has been removed, go back to your console and you should see BlissOS booting up.
That’s it! You have successfully installed Android 13 on Vultr ✅.
Now, you can continue with the normal Android setup screen.
Enabling Vultr firewall (optional)
This step is recommended for all users to harden their installation of Android.
Go to Vultr Dashboard > Settings > Firewall and click on Manage
Click on Add Firewall Group
Type in the description if needed, and click on Add firewall group.
Select ICMP from the protocol dropdown and Click on the Plus button.
It should look like this. Do the same for IPv6 Rules.
Now, select the server from the dashboard and go to Settings > Firewall
Select the firewall you just created.
Click on update firewall group, and you are done!
Enjoy your Android 13 running on Vultr!
Screenshots of the system
If you have any suggestions or recommendations for improving the article, please do not hesitate to comment down below 👇. All feedback is greatly appreciated.