[GSoC 2026] Android Development in Qubes VM

[Qasim ahmad]

My name is Qasim. I’m a student at UBC, and I’m interested in the “Android development in Qubes VM” project for GSoC 2026.

I’ve been reading through the discussions around Android support and the current reliance on QEMU-emulated ARM images. The performance limitations and the move toward hardware-assisted virtualization (HVM) make a lot of sense.

I already run the OS as my daily driver, and I’m comfortable with Linux, Bash/Python scripting and virtualization concepts (QEMU/KVM, isolation, passthrough). I also have experience with C++ systems work, so I’m comfortable digging into lower-level debugging when needed.

I’m currently setting up a local environment to experiment with Android tooling, and had a couple quick questions:

• Is there a preferred direction for hardware-accelerated Android (e.g., KVM-backed images vs adapting existing emulator flows)?

• For inter-qube communication (ADB/debugging), are there existing Qubes patterns to build on?

• Also, who would be the best person to coordinate with regarding mentorship for this project?

Thanks for your time

Regards,

Qasim

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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On Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 01:44:16AM -0700, Qasim ahmad wrote:
> My name is Qasim Khawaja. I’m a student at UBC, and I’m interested in the *“Android
> development in Qubes VM”* project for GSoC 2026.

Hello!

> I’ve been reading through the discussions around Android support and the
> current reliance on QEMU-emulated ARM images. The performance limitations
> and the move toward hardware-assisted virtualization (HVM) make a lot of
> sense.
>

> I already run Qubes OS as my daily driver, and I’m comfortable with Linux,

> Bash/Python scripting and virtualization concepts (QEMU/KVM, isolation,
> passthrough). I also have experience with C++ systems work, so I’m
> comfortable digging into lower-level debugging when needed.
>
> I’m currently setting up a local environment to experiment with Android
> tooling, and had a couple quick questions:
>

> -

>
> Is there a preferred direction for hardware-accelerated Android (e.g.,
> KVM-backed images vs adapting existing emulator flows)?

Currently Xen doesn't (in practice) support nested virtualization, so
you can't run KVM inside Qubes OS. This limits available options to:
1. Run plain QEMU (without KVM) in a qube - slow
2. Run Android VM as a separate qube, and add necessary integration.

For the second point, this would need to be x86 build of Android, not
ARM (there are several projects doing this). And "necessary integration"
would include stuff like:
- - ensuring proper drivers are available in Android and/or adjusting
hardware emulated by QEMU for Android to be happy
- - possibly network configuration in Android

> -

>
> For inter-qube communication (ADB/debugging), are there existing Qubes

> patterns to build on.

Theoretically, ADB over network just work out of the box. If something
like serial console would be needed, we used to have instruction how to
do that for Windows, it was quite hacky:
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-doc/blob/72052be4d5884e912152403ec6d15ca78bf0b1bf/developer/debugging/windows-debugging.md

> And also, who would be the best person to coordinate with regarding
> mentorship for this project?

I guess it would be me :)

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
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[Qasim ahmad]

Hi Marek, thank you so much for your response. 

I have started working on replicating the environment and understanding the Qubes codebase (I opened PR#791 on qubes-core-admin).

I prepared an initial draft of the GSoC proposal and I was wondering what would be the best way to send it you to have a look? Should I upload it here as PDF or a google doc link?

Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Qasim

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 10:48:40PM -0700, Qasim ahmad wrote:
> Hi Marek, thank you so much for your response.
> I have started working on replicating the environment and understanding the
> Qubes codebase (I opened PR#791 on qubes-core-admin).
> I prepared an initial draft of the GSoC proposal and I was wondering what
> would be the best way to send it you to have a look? Should I upload it
> here as PDF or a google doc link?

PDF or even copy&paste into an email would be ok.

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- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
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[Qasim ahmad]

Hi thank you so much for your response, I sent it to your email.

Regards,

Qasim Khawaja

[Qasim ahmad]

Hi Marek, while I was reading this forum https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/android-vm-with-qubes-os/31240/3, I am able to replicate Android-x86 running inside a QEMU-based VM in Qubes and started looking into moving it to a native Xen HVM. One thing I’m a bit confused about is how device support is expected to translate, I know that in the QEMU setup Android relies on virtio devices, but I’m not sure what the equivalent setup would look like under Xen in Qubes.

Would you have any suggestions?

Thanks

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 11:28:14PM -0700, Qasim ahmad wrote:
> Hi Marek, while I was reading this
> forum https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/android-vm-with-qubes-os/31240/3, I am
> able to replicate Android-x86 running inside a QEMU-based VM in Qubes and
> started looking into moving it to a native Xen HVM. One thing I’m a bit
> confused about is how device support is expected to translate, I know that
> in the QEMU setup Android relies on virtio devices, but I’m not sure what
> the equivalent setup would look like under Xen in Qubes.
> Would you have any suggestions?

HVM under qubes also uses QEMU (just isolated in a stubdomain), so
virtio may still be an option for devices. Alternatively fully emulated
devices could be used - just need to find appropriate models that are
supported by android.

> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-devel/5911aa28-b798-4568-ba42-b8913b131e66n%40googlegroups.com.


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