This post is also available on/was written for OMG! Ubuntu
I’m fan of automation, as well as simplicity and as much as I tend to complicate my own life I generally enjoy making life easier for others. I’m of a belief that if you’re a Android developer who’s new to Linux and is using it as his development platform, you’ll have pretty hard time installing and setting up all the necessary tools.
Some people use Linux to make their life easier, not because they like to fiddle with Linux internals, for some time now I’m looking how Android SDK, Eclipse ADT plugin, hardware drivers as well as MTP support are installed as almost completely different components. And in order to install/configure some of these components you will need to role up your sleeves and dive into Terminal, something that almost every new or even experienced user will try to avoid.
That’s why I started thinking of ways how to make this process as simply as possible, and fast as possible. The solution I came up is called “android-sdk-installer“. Not very original name, I know, but this is a utility oriented to Linux (currently Debian and Ubuntu) which aims to automatically install and configures Android SDK, Eclipse ADT Plugin, adds hardware support for devices and enable full MTP support.
I did this project as part of my University Capstone project “Implementation of Android SDK into Debian Linux” where I explained everything down to the smallest detail as well as included the very first version of installer’s code. My intentions with this projects are to make current script fully working, after which I’m planning to package it into a Debian package as I’m the owner of Android SDK Debian ITP. Among many plans for the future one of the most important ones is to add a GUI as right now it’s represented in text mode.