I am trying to build AOSP 4.3 (build: JSR78D; branch: android-4.3_r2) on Debian 7 (amd64). I followed the instructions listed in Google Android website and finished build steps successfully. At the end, I could test my newly built image with the Android emulator.
Now, I have 3 image files in the out/target/product/generic directory: system.img, userdata.img, and ramdisk.img. However, boot.img is missing. I tried issuing the make bootimage command, but it did not help generating the aforesaid file. I expected Makefile to automatically build this file for me since it includes build/core/main.mk which has bootimage as one of its targets.
PS. I have seen posts like this, but it is still not clear to me why boot.img is not built automatically.
Boot.img contains the kernel. Which is the interface between the OS and the hardware. We don't have hardware in emulator device.(generic).
You want boot.img? build Android for a real device(Ex. Nexus 5)