Android SDK for Ubuntu 11.04/10.10/11.10

Ubuntu – The most popular Linux distribution for desktop users (with an exponential growth in past few years) and Android – one of the most popular mobile operating system, also based on Linux kernel; developed by Google Inc.

Ubuntu 11.04 (alias : Natty Narwhal) or older versions such as 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) or 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) is now becoming the dominant choice for programmers and web developers probably due to the features (cool desktops (window manager, e.g Gnome, KDE..), open source applications, tools, no licensing cost…) and flexibility available on Linux based operating systems. Android stable version 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) was released a day ago.

Do you want to develop android apps using Linux based distributions, then this post will explain you about installing Android SDK (Software Development Kit) on Ubuntu, despite of that you can apply the same procedure in installing android sdk on other Debian based GNU/Linux OS such as Linux Mint.

Before diving into installing steps for android sdk in Ubuntu 11.04, I assume you have already installed –

1. JDK (Java Development Kit)
2. Eclipse IDE

If my assumption is wrong (I mean you haven’t installed the Java SDK and Eclipse IDE) , then follow these link :

how to install JDK on Ubuntu 11.04
how to install eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 11.04

After installing those packages, come back here to proceed.

How to Install and Configure Android SDK with Eclipse IDE

Now, you can install Android in two simple steps :

step #1 : Download and install the android package(s).

Download SDK Starter Package
Then extract the package(s) either by right clicking -> extract or do it from Terminal :

Open Terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and move on (use cd target_directory) to the directory where you have downloaded the packages.

tar -xf android-sdk_r12-linux_x86.tgz

android-sdk*/tools/android

Android SDK and AVD Manager will be started with the above command,

now you just need to select the packages (first one you get after expanding Android Repository, is probably mandatory and select the SDK platform version for your targeted device, documentation, sample apps…or any third party Add ons if required) you want to install, then click on ‘Installed Selected’ button; wait for the Download/Installation to complete. (Since the selected packages will be fetched from Internet you need an active internet connection during installation procedure)

step #2 : Install and configure the ADT (Android Development Tool) plugin

start Eclipse and go to Help > Install New Software, then click on Add. Enter the ADT Plugin in name and the following address (in case of any problem, try http instead of https (The secure version of http protocol).. or simply click on archive and locate the manually downloaded ADT plugin file ) as Location.

https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

Then click on Next -> select developers Tools -> Next -> Finish.

Now, it’s time to configure ADT Plugin, Click on Window -> Preferences -> Select Android in left panel and locate the Android SDK directory, and hit Apply/OK.

That’s all.