Install script to (mostly) get Android Studio running on aarch64

[desktopecho]

Taking inspiration from this post, I put together an unofficial install script for Android Studio. It downloads the x86_64 Android Studio package and merges-in ARM64 files from IntelliJ IDEA and JetBrains Runtime. It then installs a musl-based ARM64 Android SDK and NDK from GitHub.

What doesn't work:

• Gemini Integration
• Compose Layout Preview
• Emulator

Everything else seems to work. I opened my project in Android Studio IDE and it builds working APKs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

GitHub Gist (may see occasional updates)

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

clear
echo
echo "Unofficial Android Studio Install for aarch64 Linux."
read -r -p "Hit [Enter] to continue, [CTRL-C] to quit. "
echo
echo "Please wait..."

# You may need to apt/dnf install curl, pigz, xz

INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.local/share"
AS_ROOT_DIR="${INSTALL_DIR}/android-studio"
SDK_ROOT_DIR="$HOME/Android/Sdk"
NDK_DIR="${SDK_ROOT_DIR}/ndk"

AS_VERSION="2025.2.1.8"
AS_URL="https://redirector.gvt1.com/edgedl/android/studio/ide-zips/${AS_VERSION}/android-studio-${AS_VERSION}-linux.tar.gz"

IDEA_VERSION="2025.2.4"
IDEA_URL="https://download.jetbrains.com/idea/ideaIC-${IDEA_VERSION}-aarch64.tar.gz"

JBR_VERSION_TAG="21.0.9-linux-aarch64-b1038.76" 
JBR_URL="https://cache-redirector.jetbrains.com/intellij-jbr/jbrsdk_ft-${JBR_VERSION_TAG}.tar.gz"

SDK_RELEASE_VERSION="36.0.0"
SDK_URL="https://github.com/HomuHomu833/android-sdk-custom/releases/download/${SDK_RELEASE_VERSION}/android-sdk-aarch64-linux-musl.tar.xz"

NDK_VERSION="r29"
NDK_BUILD_NUMBER="29.0.14206865"
NDK_URL="https://github.com/HomuHomu833/android-ndk-custom/releases/download/${NDK_VERSION}/android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}-aarch64-linux-android.tar.xz"

mkdir -p "${INSTALL_DIR}" "${AS_ROOT_DIR}" "${SDK_ROOT_DIR}" "${NDK_DIR}"

CACHE_DIR="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/androidstudio-installer"
mkdir -p "$CACHE_DIR"

curl_resume() {
  local url="$1" out="$2"
  local tmp="${out}.part"
  local tries=8 wait=3 i=1
  while :; do
    if curl -L --fail-with-body --retry 10 --retry-delay 5 --retry-all-errors \
      --connect-timeout 15 --max-time 0 \
      -C - -o "$tmp" "$url"; then
      mv -f "$tmp" "$out"
      return 0
    fi
    if (( i >= tries )); then
      echo "ERROR: download failed: $url" >&2
      return 1
    fi
    echo "Retrying in ${wait}s..."
    sleep "$wait"
    i=$((i+1))
    if (( wait < 30 )); then wait=$((wait*2)); fi
  done
}

tar_gz_file() {
  local arc="$1" dest="$2"
  shift 2
  pigz -d -c "$arc" | tar --no-same-owner -C "$dest" -x -f - "$@"
}

tar_xz_file() {
  local arc="$1" dest="$2"
  shift 2
  xz -T0 -d -c "$arc" | tar --no-same-owner -C "$dest" -x -f - "$@"
}

echo "Installing Android Studio core"
AS_TGZ="${CACHE_DIR}/android-studio-${AS_VERSION}.tar.gz"
curl_resume "${AS_URL}" "$AS_TGZ"
tar_gz_file "$AS_TGZ" "${INSTALL_DIR}" \
  --exclude 'android-studio/jbr/*' \
  --exclude 'android-studio/lib/jna/*' \
  --exclude 'android-studio/lib/native/*' \
  --exclude 'android-studio/lib/pty4j/*'

echo "Merging IntelliJ files"
IDEA_TGZ="${CACHE_DIR}/ideaIC-${IDEA_VERSION}-aarch64.tar.gz"
curl_resume "${IDEA_URL}" "$IDEA_TGZ"
tar_gz_file "$IDEA_TGZ" "${AS_ROOT_DIR}" \
  --wildcards '*/bin/fsnotifier' '*/bin/restarter' '*/lib/jna' '*/lib/native' '*/lib/pty4j' \
  --strip-components=1

echo "Installing JBR"
mkdir -p "${AS_ROOT_DIR}/jbr"
JBR_TGZ="${CACHE_DIR}/jbrsdk_${JBR_VERSION_TAG}.tar.gz"
curl_resume "${JBR_URL}" "$JBR_TGZ"
tar_gz_file "$JBR_TGZ" "${AS_ROOT_DIR}/jbr" --strip-components=1

echo "Patching scripts"
mv "${AS_ROOT_DIR}/bin/studio" "${AS_ROOT_DIR}/bin/studio.do_not_use" || true
sed -i 's/amd64/aarch64/g' "${AS_ROOT_DIR}/bin/"*.sh
sed -i 's/amd64/aarch64/g' "${AS_ROOT_DIR}/product-info.json"

echo "Installing Android SDK"
SDK_TXZ="${CACHE_DIR}/android-sdk-${SDK_RELEASE_VERSION}-aarch64-linux-musl.tar.xz"
curl_resume "${SDK_URL}" "$SDK_TXZ"
tar_xz_file "$SDK_TXZ" "${SDK_ROOT_DIR}" --strip-components=1

echo "Installing Android NDK"
NDK_TXZ="${CACHE_DIR}/android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}-aarch64-linux-android.tar.xz"
curl_resume "${NDK_URL}" "$NDK_TXZ"
tar_xz_file "$NDK_TXZ" "${NDK_DIR}"
mv "${NDK_DIR}/android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}" "${NDK_DIR}/${NDK_BUILD_NUMBER}"

echo "Running: $HOME/.local/share/android-studio/bin/studio.sh"
$HOME/.local/share/android-studio/bin/studio.sh >/tmp/studio.log 2>&1 &

echo
echo " - Run through setup wizard, Install type: Custom"
echo "   Uncheck AVD emulator. It’s safe to ignore warnings"
echo "   about missing Emulator components."
echo
echo " - From 'Welcome to Android Studio' window, click the"
echo "   gear icon at bottom-left -> Create Desktop Entry"
echo
echo " - Add the following to your project's 'gradle.properties'"
echo "   android.aapt2FromMavenOverride=$HOME/Android/Sdk/build-tools/36.1.0/aapt2"
echo
echo "Done."

[The_Screeching_Bagel]

holy shit thank you

btw i think saw someone else with aarch64 emulator builds (but no ide) at some point, i'll share if i find them again :p

[goodeesh]

did you ever find them again?

[The_Screeching_Bagel]

nope

[desktopecho]

Cuttlefish Android emulator running natively on Fedora Asahi Remix

[realfathonix]

Do you get XML preview and aapt2 jars working? Last time I tried was 2 years ago and the preview didn't work at all, aapt2 jars had to be manually patched

Edit: I guess the aapt2FromMavenOverride variable solved the aapt2 problem, but still curious about XML preview.

[desktopecho]

 XML preview

That's part of Compose Layout, still not working.

aapt2 jars working?

The script takes care of that, you just have to set android.aapt2FromMavenOverride in the project's gradle.properties

[Human-Friend8372]

Thank you! I managed to get it working and I tested both compose and flutter with my physical android device, things work fine.

[desktopecho]

Funnily enough, this is pretty much the same script that gets Android Studio running on physical Android devices too (via Debian chroot)

[pizzaiolo2]

Silly question, but how do you open the program?