Android emulator system partition no space from start

Found the answer :)

When starting the emulator you can specify the partition size by -partition-size x emulator_name.

done through the terminal that is. Example:

emulator -partition-size 125 @AVD1

OR

emulator -partition-size 125 -avd AVD1

Note that the size must be bigger than your current system partition size. For the Android4.0.3 emulator the default size is already 168 so set your new partition-size to something bigger like 256

I had problem trying @ssice's answer on Android Q (Android TV if that matters).

Apparently the system.img is now a GPT partitioned disk image.

You can confirm this by running file system.img:

system.img: DOS/MBR boot sector; partition 1 : ID=0xee, start-CHS (0x0,0,2), end-CHS (0x87,130,59), startsector 1, 2177023 sectors, extended partition table (last)

If this is also the case for you, here's what you can do on Linux:

1. Resize system.img: truncate -s 3G system.img
2. Recreate the partition table and create a partition that spans across it:
   • fdisk system.img
   • g for new GPT partition table
   • n for a new partition. choose partition number 1; accept defaults for a partition that will span the entire disk
   • w for saving the changes

$ fdisk system.img

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.27.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): g
Created a new GPT disklabel (GUID: 2E6B87B6-5492-47E0-A164-A148E24445A0).

Command (m for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1):
First sector (2048-6291422, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-6291422, default 6291422):

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 3 GiB.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Syncing disks.

3. Mount system.img as a loopback device
   • losetup -fP system.img
   • grab allocated /dev/loopN (for example, /dev/loop1) from losetup -a | grep system.img
4. Resize filesystem: resize2fs /dev/loop1p1 (/dev/loop1 partition 1)

Nowadays, -partition-size changes the /system/data partition, but not the /system partition space.

If you want to install the full GApps, for example, you will need more space.

The general procedure to do so in Unix is documented at https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/104790/how-to-setup-a-growable-loopback-device

In short:

1. Make a copy of system.img so that you don't modify the original one in the SDK (cp system.img system-extended.img)
2. Grow your system-extended.img to your desired size (e.g., truncate system-extended.img -s 2G)
3. Resize the inner ext4 filesystem (resizefs system-extended.img OR resize2fs system-extended.img)
4. Use the new img file when calling the emulator via the -system <path/to/system-extended.img> parameter. The -writable-system parameter may also come in handy for you.