Getting to Android and react-native development in Arch Linux (2024)

install-steps.sh

# This (very scant) guide allows you to do Android and react-native development on Linux by 
# running the android emulator in a container.

# install yay via AUR
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git && cd yay && makpkg -si

# install all android dev packages per https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Android
yay -Sy android-sdk-cmdline-tools-latest android-sdk-build-tools android-sdk-platform-tools android-platform 

# add to .zshrc
if [ -d /opt/android-sdk ]; then
    export ANDROID_HOME='/opt/android-sdk'
    export PATH=${PATH}:"$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin/"
    export PATH=${PATH}:"$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools/"
    export PATH=${PATH}:"$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin"
    export PATH=${PATH}:"$ANDROID_HOME/emulator"
fi
# restart shell

cd /opt/android-sdk
./tools/bin/sdkmanager 'platforms;android-34'

# Unfortunately, we need jdk-8 to sign the licenses, but we need jdk-17 to actually run react-native.
# So flip back and forth.
sudo pacman -Sy jre8-openjdk
sudo archlinux-java set java-8-openjdk/jre
# Sign the licenses
sdkmanager --licenses
sudo pacman -Sy jdk17-openjdk


# The "--network" flag is critical to allowing the react dev server 
# to be accessed by the emulator container. Otherwise you'll get "couldn't hit dev server" errors.
docker run -d --network host \
  -e EMULATOR_DEVICE="Samsung Galaxy S10" -e WEB_VNC=true \
  --device /dev/kvm --name android-container budtmo/docker-android:emulator_11.0
  
adb connect $(docker inspect -f '{{range.NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' android-container):5555
# ensure connection
adb devices -l

# Create the react app
npx react-native@latest init YOUR_PROJECT
cd YOUR_PROJECT

npm start
# in another terminal
npm start android

# Open the emulator interface
open http://localhost:6080