Fix "Intel HAXM is required to run this AVD" Error in Android Emulator

The Error

You click Run on your AVD in Android Studio and see this in the emulator log:

Emulator: dev/kvm is not found. Intel HAXM is required to run this AVD. VT-x is disabled in BIOS.

The emulator window never opens — or flashes and dies immediately. The root cause: Android's x86/x86_64 emulator images need hardware virtualization. On Windows and macOS that means Intel HAXM; on Linux it's KVM. Something in that chain is broken on your machine.

Quick Diagnosis

Four possible culprits. Figure out which one applies before touching anything:

• VT-x/AMD-V off in BIOS — virtualization is disabled at the hardware level, nothing else will work until you fix this first
• Hyper-V is stealing VT-x (Windows only) — WSL2, Docker Desktop, or Windows Sandbox grabbed the hypervisor layer before HAXM could
• HAXM not installed (Windows/macOS) — the kernel driver is simply absent
• KVM not available (Linux) — either not installed, or your user isn't in the kvm group

Fix on Windows

Step 1 — Enable VT-x in BIOS

Reboot and enter BIOS/UEFI — usually F2, Del, or F10 during the POST screen. Hunt for one of these settings:

• Intel Virtualization Technology → Enabled
• VT-x → Enabled
• SVM Mode (AMD machines) → Enabled

Save and reboot. Back in Windows, open Task Manager → Performance → CPU. If you see Virtualization: Enabled, you're good.

Step 2 — Disable Hyper-V if it's blocking HAXM

HAXM and Hyper-V cannot coexist — they both want exclusive access to VT-x. WSL2, Docker Desktop (Hyper-V backend), and Windows Sandbox all trigger this conflict. Open an elevated PowerShell and run:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

Reboot after. If you rely on Docker, don't panic — switch Docker's backend to WSL2 in its settings. That lets you re-enable the hypervisor and use Hyper-V acceleration for the emulator instead of HAXM (covered in Step 4).

Step 3 — Install Intel HAXM

Open Android Studio → SDK Manager → SDK Tools tab → tick Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM installer) → Apply.

Android Studio downloads the installer but deliberately doesn't run it for you. You have to do it manually. Navigate to:

C:\Users\<YourName>\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager\

Right-click intelhaxm-android.exe, choose Run as Administrator, and follow through the wizard. Once it finishes, confirm the driver is actually running:

sc query intelhaxm

Look for STATE: 4 RUNNING. Anything else means the install didn't complete cleanly.

Step 4 — Alternative: Use Hyper-V acceleration (Windows 10/11 Pro+)

Don't want to give up Hyper-V? On Intel 6th-gen CPUs or newer, the Android Emulator can use Hyper-V directly — no HAXM required. Re-enable the hypervisor:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

Reboot, then in Android Studio go to AVD Manager → edit your AVD → Show Advanced Settings → set Emulated Performance Graphics to Hardware - GLES 2.0. The emulator picks up Hyper-V automatically from that point.

Fix on Linux

Step 1 — Check if KVM is actually there

ls -la /dev/kvm

If the output is No such file or directory, either virtualization is off in BIOS (go enable it — same drill as Windows Step 1), or the KVM kernel modules aren't loaded.

Step 2 — Install KVM and join the kvm group

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils

# Add your user to the kvm group
sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER

# Apply immediately without logging out
newgrp kvm

Step 3 — Confirm KVM works

kvm-ok

Expected output:

INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used

Don't have kvm-ok? Install it with sudo apt install cpu-checker.

Fix on macOS

Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) doesn't support HAXM at all — and doesn't need it. Use ARM system images instead of x86. In AVD Manager, when picking a system image select the ARM 64 (arm64-v8a) tab. These run natively on Apple Silicon and are noticeably faster anyway.

On Intel Macs, install HAXM through SDK Manager the same way as Windows Step 3. The macOS version installs as a kernel extension automatically — no manual wizard needed.

Verify the Fix

Launch the emulator from Android Studio. It should open cleanly without any errors this time. Want to double-check that acceleration is actually active?

• Inside the running emulator: click the three-dot menu → Help → confirm it lists KVM or HAXM as the acceleration engine

Or from the terminal:

# Linux
ls /dev/kvm && echo "KVM OK"

# Windows — check HAXM service status
sc query intelhaxm | findstr STATE

Still Not Working?

• Running inside a VM? If Android Studio itself is inside VirtualBox, VMware, or a cloud VM (EC2, GCP), the host must have nested virtualization enabled. That's a setting on the hypervisor host — not inside the guest where you're working.
• Wrong system image architecture: ARM images skip HAXM/KVM entirely but run ~3–5× slower on x86 hardware. Always pick x86_64 images on Intel or AMD machines.
• Stale HAXM install: Old versions can cause silent failures. Uninstall HAXM from Windows Add/Remove Programs, then reinstall fresh from SDK Manager.
• Forgot to restart Android Studio: It caches the accelerator status at startup. After any HAXM or KVM change, close Android Studio fully and reopen it.