How to survive with Flutter Installation

It is not hard to build a simple native mobile Android app on Linux. But installation of Kotlin and Flutter is very tricky. For me, it takes up to 3 days, 15-page of documentation for 1 hour of tutorial. What a relentless effort.

Here is my whacky documentation for common issues. Hope it will help you with the first steps for Ubuntu 18.04/ 20.04, especially as an Android starter.

The good

Highly recommendation:

The bad & ugly

Most of issues in the below is related to flutter doctor -v, a command to diagnose issues of running flutter.

Set up a direct path for flutter

Description is after installing from source, you can not call flutter doctor

Solution

Open your .bashrc or .profile to add an absolute file path of flutter/bin


export PATH="$PATH:/path/to/flutter/bin"

Then, run


. ~/.profile

Or


. ~/.bashrc

This will help an update be effective for the next command.

Android SDK not found at this location.

Try


sudo apt install android-sdk

Unable to locate Android SDK

Description


[✗] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices

    ✗ Unable to locate Android SDK.

      Install Android Studio from: https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html

      On first launch it will assist you in installing the Android SDK components.

      (or visit https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install/linux#android-setup for detailed instructions).

      If the Android SDK has been installed to a custom location, set ANDROID_SDK_ROOT to that location.

      You may also want to add it to your PATH environment variable.

Solution:

Add these line into your ~/.bashrc


export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/usr/lib/android-sdk

export ANDROID_HOME=$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT

export PATH=$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin:$PATH

Flutter requires Android SDK 28 and the Android BuildTools 28.0.3


  To update using sdkmanager, run:

        "/usr/lib/android-sdk/tools/bin/sdkmanager" "platforms;android-28" "build-tools;28.0.3"

      or visit https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install/linux#android-setup for detailed instructions.

Issue of sdk manager with java.lang.IllegalArgumentException


 at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCliSettings.<init>(SdkManagerCliSettings.java:428)

        at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCliSettings.createSettings(SdkManagerCliSettings.java:152)

        at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCliSettings.createSettings(SdkManagerCliSettings.java:134)

        at com.android.sdklib.tool.sdkmanager.SdkManagerCli.main(SdkManagerCli.java:57)

The problem is sdkmanager. Seem like my problem is an inconsistent of build-tools of the previous version installed by Ubuntu and the zip file downloaded from the website → fix

Issue with sdk manager: Failed to read or create install properties file

Try to search for chmod 777 or chmod 775

Android license status unknown.


     Try re-installing or updating your Android SDK Manager.

      See https://developer.android.com/studio/#downloads or visit visit https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install/linux#android-setup for detailed instructions.

Try to solve by Android studio or sdk

Android licenses not accepted

Description


[!] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 29.0.3)

    ✗ Android licenses not accepted.  To resolve this, run: flutter doctor

      --android-licenses

Solution

Run flutter doctor --android-licenses and accept Y for all terms.

You might enter a warning Warning: File /home/emma/.android/repositories.cfg could not be loaded.. which makes all Y not recorded.

STILL can not accept all licenses


Warning: File /home/emma/.android/repositories.cfg could not be loaded..

Try create that file


mkdir -p .android && touch ~/.android/repositories.cfg

If it does not work, let us try to make sure you have Java 8 and SDKmanager, and try


Sudo yes | sdkmanager --liscenses

ANOTHER TIME, STILL NOT

Go to android studio and check

sudo update-alternatives --config java

unset JAVA_OPTS

At line 31 of your file im /path/to/android-sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager


DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS='"-Dcom.android.sdklib.toolsdir=$APP_HOME" -XX:+IgnoreUnrecognizedVMOptions'

Check your JAVA


sudo /usr/lib/android-sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager --licenses

At the end, try this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54287619/could-not-find-or-load-main-class-java-se-ee-while-running-sdkmanager-licenc

A forever waiting

Description

Waiting for another flutter command to release the startup lock…

Solution

Try


rm ~/development/flutter/bin/cache/lockfile

Flutter plugin not installed; this adds Flutter specific functionality.


flutter config --android-studio-dir /usr/bin/android-studio

Dart plugin not installed; this adds Dart specific functionality.

https://dart.dev/get-dart

Go to the Android studio and fill it with the flutter sdk and restart.

Still not work,

I tried the not sudo mode for Android and restart the studio.

Failed to read or create install properties file

Try

sudo chmod 777 directory

Android license status unknown when trying to accept licenses.


Android license status unknown.

      Try re-installing or updating your Android SDK Manager.

      See https://developer.android.com/studio/#downloads or visit visit

      https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install/linux#android-setup for

      detailed instructions.

While flutter doctor --android-licenses -v due to Java


Error: Could not find or load main class java.se.ee

Try:


unset JAVA_OPTS

Run


/path/to/sdkmanager --update

No devices found

Create an emulator by going to android studio. Look at the top of the user interface and search for the icon

Choose create a new device by the following steps:

Restart and IDE and check the below box

Done!

Some take-away:


Tagged #documentation, #technical.