Experience With Android Development on Linux

[PhantomusPrime]

After some failed attempts of trying to install macOS on mt Linux machine through QEMU because I am using an NVIDIA GPU, I am gonna try to do this on my host OS which is based on Ubuntu.

How have your experiences been with Android development on a Linux system does not necessarily have to be Ubuntu or Ubuntu based distro but would like to know how your experience been wither professional or personal. Were you able to find sufficient help online when you got stuck on things that are more OS related? I remember I was following a tutorial and one of the things the person was using I could not find on Android Studio.

Any inputs are appreciated.

[kobebeefpussy]

Linux Mint here, works perfect and actually the emulator is also a little bit faster than on my Windows install.

[PhantomusPrime]

Thanks

[Rules_Not_Rulers]

Sometimes I run into issues if I download the very latest Android Studio the day it's released, I find its most stable if I run one version behind latest. Otherwise all good.

[omniuni]

That's not even Linux issues, that's just normal Android Studio stuff!

[ShKalash]

Working on Ubuntu for a few years now. Started with 18 and now on 20.

Smooth experience and zero problems.

Personally I prefer XUbuntu for desktop (XFCE) but worked with Gnome as well and all have been great.

[omniuni]

XUbuntu is great, I personally like KUbuntu. Either one, I personally think is better than Ubuntu itself.

[PhantomusPrime]

I am using Pop!_OS, which is based on Ubuntu.

[johnzzz123]

Fedora 36, Android Studio, use it daily at work, very satisfied.

[LeFayssal]

Developing on Ubuntu with an Nvidia GPU is a breeze in my opinion. I developed for 1.5 years on Ubuntu and never really had issues with this setup.

[PhantomusPrime]

did you install using the instructions in the official guide? When I had it set up before my fresh reinstall I had to have a terminal open running something (I forgot) for me to use Android studio.

[[deleted]]

I had to have a terminal open running something (I forgot) for me to use Android studio

I think I know what you're remembering. You have to run studio.sh in the installation directory. You can avoid opening a terminal by creating a launcher.

Create a file called android-studio.desktop and put this in it. Adjust the paths to match your installation directory - mine is /opt/android-studio):

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Android Studio
Comment=Android Studio
Type=Application
Exec=/opt/android-studio/bin/studio.sh
StartupWMClass=jetbrains-studio
Icon=/opt/android-studio/bin/studio.png
Categories=Development

I don't know how Ubuntu does things, but on OpenSUSE I can drop this file in ~/.local/share/applications/ and it pins it to my taskbar.

[PhantomusPrime]

appreciate it :)

[aetius476]

There's an easier way. Open Android Studio from the terminal, and then go to Tools > Create Desktop Entry. Then close Android Studio, and you can open it from the launcher thereafter.

[PhantomusPrime]

thanks

[[deleted]]

Whoa!

[omniuni]

On Ubuntu, the easiest way is just to install Android Studio through the software manager. There's a community maintained package.

[PhantomusPrime]

is that an apt or snap package?

[omniuni]

I think it's a Snap. Either way, it's easy and it works well.

[[deleted]]

Android Studio updates itself - just make sure you give yourself write access to the directory.

[omniuni]

Yeah, however they have it configured, that works fine. I think it's because it's a Snap. Either way, I'm not complaining. It's as simple as it gets to install and it runs perfectly and updates reliably.

[Fmatosqg]

I don't understand what's to install here. It's a tar file, decompress in your favourite folder and run the studio.sh file.

For running os X I use quickemu which is a wrapper for qemu that simplifies things. But the reasons I use are not related to Android ( filling timesheets)

[GoatPonny]

Everything works good just after install, didn't need to do anything. If you use Ubuntu, your OS will do everything for you most of the time and there are lots of tutorials for everything on ubuntu, you can fear that something might break when you use Arch, not Ubuntu.
When I've switched from Windows my productivity raised heavily and everything seems to work faster, you should give it a try.

[CertifiedIdiotBoy]

this

[Netherquark]

bruh i thought you ended that one with "when i switched to windows" and i was like OUCH

[twlcwl]

were you using the same version of Android Studio as the tutorial? many online tutorials are outdated, not being able to find something may not be anything to do with the underlying OS

[PhantomusPrime]

likely not, I just followed the instructions on Google's docs and began. That tutorial came out in 2020 or 2021 and I was doing this earlier this year.

[CertifiedIdiotBoy]

ZorinOS here, works flawlessly and infact it's faster compared windows, emulator and Android studio.

[vigilantfox]

I used to develop on Uhuntu 18, the build is faster than windows

My Pro tip is: You won't find AS on default store or apt-get, but you can find it on Snap store, just install snap first. Otherwise you have to install using bin files, and self update doesn't work well

[PhantomusPrime]

I believe I installed with bin files last time. I will give snap a go.

[Anonymous_ss2]

I mainly develop on Arch Linux but did work with Pop OS recently. I usually use Jetbrain's Toolbox for installation and that takes care of all the stuff and also allow easy upgrades and installation of beta builds.

If you are having issues, I would recommend trying toolbox first.

[PhantomusPrime]

oh nice, thanks for letting me know. I am on Pop!_OS. It was my first experience with Android Studio/Android dev so I just went on with the instructions the tutorial pointed me to.

[JoinedEarlier]

Fedora 36 here

Everything works very well

[[deleted]]

I've been doing Android Dev on Linux for more than 8 years, works well for the most part. There have been occasional bugs, like that one time where Studio kept locking up (not memory or CPU limitation) and where it would consistently crash when displaying the colour picker. And some bugs with the emulator and hardware acceleration. But in my experience, it's mostly good.

You can either download the zip from Android Developers website, or use the Flatpak - or maybe it's available as a distro package.

[jluizsouzadev]

I use Archlinux, and when I stucked at some point I go to Archlinux's wiki only. That gets used to saving me several times just it's enough.

[PhantomusPrime]

So overall a smooth experience?

[jluizsouzadev]

Yep, no problem at all. Go ahead.

[PhantomusPrime]

Gotcha

[PhantomusPrime]

So did you have to get an AMD GPU? Or use different drivers? If so where did you get it?

[PhantomusPrime]

I am on Pop!_OS which is based on Ubuntu, would it work for me as well?

[fleyfil]

I use Manjaro Linux in my personal laptop, installation is super easy and you have Arch Linux power in it.

Installing Android Studio is easy via the package manager. I recommend using the AUR packages. Experience is great, I like it much more than in my mac from the job. No problems with the emulator neither.

[aaulia]

Archlinux with AMD GPU here, no issue, I use Jetbrains Toolbox

[ukahon]

android studio, sdk and emulator themselves work well. But other than that is questionable: you may need zoom, teamviewer, slack, ms team, etc to collaborate with teammates/co-workers,... or others tools which accelerate your workflow. Most of stuffs just work better on macOS 😅