How to Install and Setup Flutter on Ubuntu

Flutter, an open-source mobile application development SDK created by Google is getting more attention from developers nowadays. Here we will see the steps to install Flutter on Ubuntu operating system.

Flutter is used to develop applications for Android and iOS, as well as being the primary method of creating applications for Google Fuchsia (the capability-based operating system currently being developed by Google).

The official Flutter documentation page explains the steps to install Flutter on Ubuntu or any other Linux based OS. But I faced some issues when following it and some of the steps are a little bit confusing.

So, this is the reason behind the making of this tutorial. If you are confident of setting up Flutter with official documentation, go ahead. Else follow the steps.

Install Flutter on Ubuntu

Let’s start the procedure to install Flutter on Ubuntu. This includes various steps such as,

• JDK installation
• Android studio setup
• Flutter SDK installation
• Creating a new Flutter project
• Running the project on our Android device

1. Install JDK

Usually, Native Android apps are built in Java. So the Java Development Kit(JDK) is required to develop Android apps even if we are using any frameworks.

The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a software development environment used for developing Java applications and applets.

It includes the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), an interpreter/loader (java), a compiler (javac), an archiver (jar), a documentation generator (JavaDoc), and other tools needed in Java development.

JDK can be installed on our Ubuntu system with the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openjdk-r/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk 

2. Install and Set Up Android Studio

To develop applications for each operating system, they provide an Integrated Development Environment(IDE).

Microsoft Visual Studio is n IDE for developing Windows applications and Xcode is the IDE for developing macOS and iOS applications. So, Android studio is the official IDE for developing Android applications.

Yes, we are going to develop apps using the Flutter framework with Dart language. But Android apps can only be built using Java. So, the duty of the Flutter framework is to simply convert the Dart code to Java code.

This Java code will reach the tools in Android studio and from there, the app will be made and run on any Virtual machine or mobile device.

2.1 Download Android Studio Bundle

Android studio needs to be installed for working with Flutter development. So we can easily download an Android Studio zip file using the official link below.

https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html

In my case, I got the zip file named android-studio-ide-173.4907809-linux.zip

2.2 Unzip the File

Now Unzip the file to /opt directory by running the command.

sudo unzip android-studio-ide-173.4907809-linux.zip -d /opt

2.3 Create a Desktop Icon

Create a new file androidstudio.desktop under applications directory  using nano editor.

sudo nano ~/.local/share/applications/androidstudio.desktop

Just copy and paste the below code in it.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Android Studio
Exec="/opt/android-studio/bin/studio.sh" %f
Icon=/opt/android-studio/bin/studio.png
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=android-studio

Use the below keyboard shortcuts to save the file.

Ctrl + O (Write out)
Enter
Ctrl + x (exit)

2.4 Configure ANDROID_HOME Environment variable

Environment variables are global system variables accessible by all the processes running under our Operating System (OS).

Some development processes running on our system need to access the system variables, and we need to create environment variables for them.

So open .bash_profile file using nano editor.

sudo nano $HOME/.bash_profile

Just copy and paste the below code in it.

export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Android/Sdk  export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools  export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

Use the below keyboard shortcuts to save the file.

Ctrl + O (Write out)
Enter
Ctrl + x (exit)

2.5 Install Flutter Plugin on Android Studio

It’s an optional step to install the Flutter plugin on Android Studio. But it helps us if we are developing our Flutter project from Android Studio. This also installs the Dart plugin which is required for Flutter development. This can be done from Android Studio Welcome Window.

Goto, Configure -> Plugin

Now, Search of Flutter and Install. It requires a restart for Android Studio to activate this plugin.

3. Install and Set Up Flutter SDK

So the dependencies are almost set and now we need to install and setup Flutter SDK. To start creating Flutter projects, Flutter Software Development Kit(SDK) is necessary. This can be installed on our system with the below steps.

3.1 Download Flutter SDK

First, we have to download Flutter SDK from the official flutter website.

Download the tar.xz file.

This will download the file flutter_linux_v1.9.1+hotfix.6-stable.tar.xz to our system. The file name may be varied with the newest releases. You have to take care of it.

3.2 Extract the File

I am assuming that the downloaded file is on the Downloads directory of our system. Now we need to extract this compressed file using the terminal command below

tar xf ~/Downloads/flutter_linux_v1.9.1+hotfix.6-stable.tar.xz

3.3 Adding Flutter to Our System’s Path

Now we need to add the Flutter to our system’s path using the below command.

export PATH=`pwd`/flutter/bin:$PATH

source $HOME/.bash_profile

4. Accept the Licences

For userspace (non-kernel) software, Google/Android prefer Apache 2.0 (and similar licenses such as BSD and MIT) over other licenses such as the Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

Here’s why the purpose of Android is to promote openness in the mobile world, and they can’t predict or dictate all the uses for their software.

So, we need to accept some licenses to start development with Flutter. Just run the below command and accept all the licenses by pressing y.

flutter doctor --android-licenses

5. Update the Path Permanently

We already added the Path variable before. But it only valid for the current terminal window. We have to run the below command to make it permanent.

export PATH=Downloads/flutter/bin:$PATH

6. Creating a New Application

Creating a new application on Flutter can be done with three methods. Using Android Studio plugin, VS code plugin, or using Terminal + Editor method. Here, I am going with the third method(Terminal + Editor).

flutter create awesome_project

7. Choosing the Code Editor

We can choose our own favorite code editor for editing our project. But in my case, I choose the Visual Studio Code(Because it directly supports the Flutter and Flutter plugin).

https://code.visualstudio.com/#alt-downloads

From the above link, we can download the VS code .deb file compatible with Ubuntu/Debian. This deb file can be installed with a double-click on Ubuntu.

8. Directing to Our Project Directory and Start Editing

After installing VS code, direct to our project folder.

cd awesome_project

Open our project using VS code by just typing the below command.

code .

From now onwards, we can use VS code Terminal instead of the native Ubuntu Terminal because we can use the Terminal without going out of our code editor.
(Go to View -> Integrated Terminal from VS code’s top menubar)

9. Running the App on Android Device

Now we can run the project on our Android phone. We can also run this app on an Emulator also. But here, I am opting for a real Android device.

For this, on our Android mobile phone device,

Go to Settings->About

we can see a Build Version or Build Number menu there. Continuously click the option until it enables the Developer options

Now, return to Settings. We can see the Developer options menu there. Enable it. Also, enable the USB debugging option in it.

Connect our mobile device with our Ubuntu system using the USB port. Type the below command to check whether our mobile device is connected or not.

flutter devices

If it is connected, execute flutter run to run this app.

flutter run

This will install and open the newly created Flutter app on our connected Android device. I have added a screenshot of this view.

Summary

So, here in this article, we learned the steps to install Flutter on an Ubuntu operating system. All screenshots and commands are specified in this guide.