Question

From the sdk manager you can easily tick the checkboxes and you get system images (for instance, ARM EABI v7a System Image) installed and available to create AVDs.

My problem is that the system where I’m trying to create an AVD is headless and so I cannot open the sdk manager. I’m force to install system images from the command line.

It was easy to install targets by running $ android update sdk --no-ui (all targets where installed actually but without system images except of the newest target “android-17”). Now, how do I install system images for “android-15”?

When I try $ android update sdk --no-ui --filter "sysimg-15" the result is

Error: Ignoring unknown package filter 'sysimg-15'.
Warning: The package filter removed all packages. There is nothing to install.
         Please consider trying to update again without a package filter.

Unfortunately google/stackoverflow didn’t help me.

Answer 1

The option --all or -a is the answer:

android update sdk --no-ui --all --filter "sysimg-15"

Not including --all, the android updater takes only the latest package (sysimg-17) into account ignoring older packages. Including all packages with -a allows you to filter (and so get installed) any sysimg.