Requirements

Before installing DroidVM, make sure your device meets the following conditions.

Hardware Requirements

You need an ARM64 device with hardware virtualization enabled. Any of three chip platforms works:

Platform	Requirement
Qualcomm	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or newer with Gunyah enabled; Snapdragon 8 Elite recommended
MediaTek	Dimensity 9000 or newer with GenieZone enabled
Other ARM64	Booted with EL2 and Linux KVM enabled

If any one of these files exists on your device, it has the matching virtualization capability:

• /dev/gunyah — Qualcomm Gunyah
• /dev/gzvm — MediaTek GenieZone
• /dev/kvm — Linux KVM

What If My Chip Isn't on the List?

Initial setup compares your chip model against a built-in list (currently covering the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 8 Elite, and 8 Elite Gen 5 series). The result is only a hint and does not block you from continuing — as long as one of the device nodes above exists, you can give it a try.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Is Unreliable

Because of a Gunyah memory allocation problem in the kernel, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 often fails to boot VMs (it succeeds only occasionally). Snapdragon 8 Elite and newer chips don't have this issue. See the FAQ for details.

System Requirements

• Android 13 (API 33) or higher
• Root access: Magisk, KernelSU, APatch, or a similar tool
• All files access permission (granted during initial setup)

Checking Device Support

After installing and opening DroidVM, the Initial Setup wizard will automatically detect:

1. Whether Root access was obtained successfully
2. Whether the SoC model is on the built-in Gunyah support list
3. Whether a virtualization device node (/dev/gunyah, /dev/kvm, /dev/gzvm) exists

After setup, you can also check the kernel version and SoC model at any time on the system info card of the Home tab.

You can also manually check the virtualization nodes on a rooted device:

su
ls -l /dev/gunyah /dev/kvm /dev/gzvm

As long as any one of these files exists, your device has the corresponding virtualization capability.

📷 Screenshot placeholder: The "Check virtualization support" step in the Initial Setup wizard

Storage Space

VM images are usually large (a Linux desktop distribution typically needs about 4–20 GB). Make sure your device has plenty of free storage space. The default image storage directory is Internal storage/DroidVM.