Setting up on Linux

Download and extract the Flutter SDK

• Extract the tarball where you want, usual places are /usr/local/ and /opt
• Update $PATH

Install VS Code extension ext install ms-vscode.cpptools

At this point, if you run flutter doctor it’ll look up your system for development capabilities. For example, it told me i didn’t have the Android toolchain and Android studio not installed so couldn’t develop for Android. Also, no connected devices.

• Install Android SDK separately to avoid issues with finding Android SDK later
  • apt install android-sdk will install to /usr/lib/android-sdk
• Tried installing Android SDK separately, Android Studio gave the location not accesible error. Went back to installing in home directory.

Install Android Studio

• Extract the tarball where you want, usual places are /usr/local/ and /opt
• InstallAndroid Studio by running ./studio.sh inside the android-studio/bin directory
• Add Android Studio to $PATH
• Add shortcut: Tools > Create Desktop Entry from the Android Studio menu bar

Setup Android device

• Enable Developer Mode (Tap System > About > Build number 7 times) and USB Debugging (System > Developer options) on Phone
• Install adb on my Linux system: sudo apt install adb
• Make sure you’re in plugdev group sudo usermod -aG pugdev $LOGNAME (your user is likely to already be in the plugdev group..)
• Make sure you are connected in File Transfer Mode (MTP). It’ll show you a prompt asking for permission to allow remote debugging.
• Run flutter devices to make sure your device is connected. (You can also try adb devices)

# ~/.bashrc

# Add Futter SDK to PATH
export PATH="$PATH:/media/aamnah/Files/Dev/flutterSDK/bin"

# Add  Android Studio to PATH
export PATH="$PATH:/media/aamnah/Files/Dev/android-studio/bin"

# Set ANDROID_HOME
# i did this because i had moved the `~/.android` directory because i was low on space
export ANDROID_HOME="/media/aamnah/Files/Dev/androidSDK"

At the end of it all, your flutter doctor output will look like this:

Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):
[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, v1.9.1+hotfix.6, on Linux, locale en_US)
[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 29.0.2)
[✓] Android Studio (version 3.5)
[✓] Connected device (1 available)

• No issues found!

Getting started with Flutter

Create a flutter app

flutter create myapp
flutter run

• The app name needs to be lowercase_with_underscore
• The first run would take a long time, i thought it got stuck on Gradle, and then it spent a bunch of time resolving dependencies.. It gets busy downloading stuff in the background..

Initializing gradle
  176.6s (!) = 3mins
Resolving dependencies
  448.7s (!) = 7.5mins

Enable web apps

• Web support is not in production yet, it’s only available for testing
• Debugging for web only works in Chrome

 flutter channel dev
 flutter upgrade
 flutter config --enable-web
 cd <into project directory>
 flutter create .
 flutter run -d chrome

 # generate a release build
 flutter build web

### No Prettier or ESLint needed

Just run flutter format <filename>

### Notes

• If you’re coding in VS Code, you’ll have to press r manually in the terminal to hot reload the app. If you are using Android Studio, it will automatically reload on save.
• In Android Studio, if you add a comment with TODO in the beginnig, you’ll be able to see all todo tasks in your project in the Todo tab at the bottom.
• Prefixing an identifier with an underscore (e.g. _suggestions) enforces privacy in the Dart language.