I have a dead simple Cordova app with a single plugin: org.apache.cordova.file.
When I emulate the app in an android emulator, the deviceready event is
deviceready
I ran into the same issue.
What worked for me was using a different version of the File plugin found here: https://github.com/onflapp/cordova-plugin-file
Related topic: Android - Cordova 3.5.0 deviceready not firing after installing media plugin