My perfect Android development environment.

Hi Everyone

In case you spotted my previous post, I'm dabbling right now with software development on the Android phone platform. To do this, I've set-up a dedicated development system on my Acer 4520 laptop, and below is my installation guide, in case anyone wants to do something similar.

The specification for the system is as follows:

• Kubuntu 9.04 running KDE 4.2 (I wanted a KDE environment specifically for this system, mainly for the looks!)
• Latest Eclipse Galileo development environment.
• Latest Android 1.5 SDK

Here's the installation sequence I used:

Screenshot of the finished environment:

Base installation

• Clean installation of 32 bit Kubuntu 9.04. 32 bit required for Android IDE compatibility.
• Boot into desktop and enable wireless networking.
• Enter the WPA password twice when prompted.
• Just enter a blank password for the KDE Wallet.
• KDE might crash once networking has been enabled. Reboot at this point, and network will connect when you log-in again.
• Install all updates using System Settings -> Add & Remove software.
• Reboot
• Next install NVIDIA v180 driver using Hardware Drivers tool. Ignore the proprietary Atheros driver option.
• Reboot

Packages to install

• Using command line to install these packages in order for the Java license to be displayed correctly:
• sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer sun-java6-jdk
• Verify Java version with:
• java -version
• javac -version

Installing Android development environment

Reference: http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.5_r3/installing.html

• Download eclipse Galileo and Android SDK 1.5. Then install as follows:
• tar -xvf eclipse-jee-galileo-linux-gtk.tar.gz
• unzip android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3.zip
• sudo mv eclipse /usr/local/bin
• sudo mv android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3 /usr/local/bin
• Then add Eclipse manually to the KDE start menu:
• Name: Eclipse
• Location: /usr/local/bin/eclipse/eclipse
• Description: Java IDE
• Icon: Search for 'Eclipse'
• Start Eclipse, select the default workbench location, then close the Welcome tab on launch.
• Then select Help -> Check for updates.
  Install all updates then restart Eclipse.
• Now set-up the Android plugin in Eclipse with:
• Help > Install new software....
• Click Add Site...
• Enter the Location: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
• Select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Install...
• On the subsequent Install window, "Android DDMS" and "Android Development Tools" should both be checked. Click Next.
• Read and accept the license agreement, then click Finish.
• Restart Eclipse.
• Now modify your Eclipse preferences to point to the Android SDK directory:
• Select Window > Preferences... to open the Preferences panel.
• Select Android from the left panel.
• For the SDK Location in the main panel, click Browse... and locate /usr/local/bin/android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3.
• Click Apply, then OK.
• Disable Google usage stats.

The Android environment is now ready to use. All that is left is to fine-tune the desktop to my preferences, and we're done.

Configure Konqueror

• Install Adobe flash player: Having installed the flash plugin in the earlier steps, launch Konqueror and do the following:
• Settings -> Configure Konqueror
• Web Browsing -> Plugins
• Plugins tab -> Scan for Plugins
• Flash plugin should then appear in the list.
• Hit 'OK' to confirm, then test at http://www.bbc.co.uk/
• Settings -> Configure Konqueror
• Set homepage as: /usr/local/bin/android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3/documentation.html
• Set Konqueror to load homepage on start-up.

KDE desktop configuration

• Right-click workspaces -> Configure Desktops. Increase workspaces from 2 to 4.
• System Settings -> Appearance -> Fonts. Change font DPI to 96.
• Add the following apps to Start menu Favourites: Applications -> System -> Terminal; Development -> Eclipse
• System Settings -> Notifications. Event Source -> KDE System Notifications. Remove sound from Logout and Login events.
• Go into sound mixer and maximise Front and PCM sliders (or there will be no sound in Flash Player).
• Set wallpaper.
• Lock widgets.

Done!