How to debug your Android device under Ubuntu

android-ubuntu

When programming apps for Android, you usually want to test them on real Android devices.
This little gist describes how to do so using Ubuntu 14.

First, you need to download and install the Android development IDE (http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html) and create an Android project which you want to debug.

Next, you need to setup the debugging mode on your Android device. Starting in Android 4.2 you need to enable the developer options first: 1) Go to settings 2) Go to About Phone 3) Tap the build number 10 times (or more, not sure ;)) and you will get the notification that you enabled it.

Then go to the developer settings and enable the debug mode for your phone. 

Now you think you can just plug it into your USB mode? - Nope. 
First, we will have to setup a udev rule for your device:

1) Create this file as root: /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
2) Make the file readable: sudo chmod o+r 51-android.rules
3) Edit it with this content: SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
(Note: Sometimes you need net instead of usb, that was the case for me, check other rules in /etc/udev/rules.d for comparison)
4) sudo service udev restart

The vendor ID (0bb4) depends on your specific phone, find a list here: http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html#VendorIds

Then you want to install adb if you have not yet:
1) sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
2) sudo adb kill-server
3) sudo adb start-server

Now you can plugin your device. There should be message on your phone whether you want to allow to debug it -> obviously say yes.
Then running sudo adb devices should properly list your device.

Using the Android IDE you can now debug your app on your device :)