Detail flutter installation without android studio just using cmdline-tools, git, cmd

README.md

Flutter setup without android studio

Table of content

• Flutter
• Requirements
• Flutter Setup
• Java Jdk
• gragle Setup
• Command line tools
• Creating Android Virtual Device
• Update the path for android SDK
• test Emulator
• Vs Code Setup

Flutter

Flutter is Google’s UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.

Requirements

Operating System: Windows 7 or later, x86-64
Disk Space: 1.6 GB
Tools: Windows PowerShell, Git (Recommend)

You will need

• flutter sdk
• Git
• Visual Studio Code
• JDK 8
• gradle --not necessary(install to be on safe side)
• Command Line Tools

Flutter Installation

choose a directory

⚠️ Do not install Flutter in a directory like C:\Program Files\@ that requires elevated privileges

 git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git -b stable

Update your Path

Steps to add Flutter to the PATH environment variable:

• Open Edit environment variables for your account.
  • Under User Variable double click Path
  • Add flutter bin path in my case D:\Development\flutter\bin ok ok done

confirm by where flutter dart command

Run flutter doctor

from git bash or powershell run flutter doctor

PS D:\Development\flutter> flutter doctor
Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):
[√] Flutter (Channel stable, 2.0.4, on Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19042.906], locale en-US)
[X] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices
    X Unable to locate Android SDK.
      Install Android Studio from: https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html
      On first launch it will assist you in installing the Android SDK components.
      (or visit https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install/windows#android-setup for detailed instructions).
      If the Android SDK has been installed to a custom location, please use
      `flutter config --android-sdk` to update to that location.

[√] Chrome - develop for the web
[!] Android Studio (not installed)
[√] VS Code (version 1.55.1)

Java Jdk

I assume you have setup java home in system variable as JAVA_HOME and path to java/bin

gradle Setup

From mobile apps to microservices, from small startups to big enterprises, Gradle helps teams build, automate and deliver better software, faster.

Write in Java, C++, Python or your language of choice. Package for deployment on any platform. Go monorepo or multi-repo. And rely on Gradle's unparalleled versatility to build it all.

Steps to setup gradle:

• Extract gradle-7.0-bin.zip zip file
• Move the folder to the desire location in my case D:\Development\
• Your directory will look like this:

D:\
├── Development
│   ├── gradle-7.0
│   │   ├── bin
│   │   ├── init.d
│   │   ├── lib
│   │   ├── LICENSES
│   │   ├── NOTICE
│   │   └── README
│   ├── android_sdk
│   ├── flutter 

Update the path:

• Open Environment Variables

  • Under System Variable Select New..., type

    Variable name: GRADLE_HOME
    Variable value: D:\Development\gradle-7.0

  • Under System Variables select Path, then click Edit. Add an entry for D:\Development\gradle-7.0\bin. Click OK to save.

  • Verify your installation by gradle -v in the terminal

Command line tools

If you do not need Android Studio, you can download the basic Android command line tools. You can use the included sdkmanager to download other SDK packages.

• Extract the commandlinetools-win-6858069_latest.zip

  • You will get cmdline-tools rename it to tools thats it
  • Now create another empty folder name it cmdline-tools & move the renamed tools to cmdline-tools
  • Move cmdline-tools to a desire directory android_sdk in my case: D:\Development\android_sdk*
  • Now the directory will look like

D:\
├── Development
│   ├── android_sdk
│   │   └── cmdline-tools
│   │       └── tools
│   │           ├── bin
│   │           ├── lib
│   │           ├── NOTICE.txt
│   │           └── source.properties
│   │    
│   ├── flutter 

• Go to android_sdk\cmdline-tools\tools\bin* you will see some of the bat file...
  • Open cmd or powershell in that location by shift+click or by file option,..etc

To install the latest platform tools (which includes adb and fastboot) and the SDK, systemimages

in cmd or shell run the below command:

sdkmanager "platforms;android-29"

sdkmanager "build-tools;29.0.3"

Accept the sdk licenses by y

List all the system-images and packages

sdkmanager --list

select any system-images you like and install it using the command:

sdkmanager "system-images;android-29;default;x86_64"

Accept the licenses by sdkmanager --licenses

Creating Android Virtual Device (AVD)

😄key-points to remember

-n : name of the virtual device. -k : image to use, installed above step. -d : device id for hardware profile.

To check device id type avdmanager.bat list in the same directory android_sdk\cmdline-tools\tools\bin (in the same directory because we still didn't set the bin path to environment variabale yet....)

Create AVD by the command:

avdmanager create avd -n Pixel -k 'system-images;android-29;default;x86_64' -d 17

DONE...

• Your directory will look like:

D:\
├── Development
│   ├── android_sdk
│   │   ├── .temp
│   │   ├── build-tools
│   │   ├── cmdline-tools (this was the first file with tools/bin inside)
│   │   ├── emulator
│   │   ├── extras
│   │   ├── licenses
│   │   ├── patcher
│   │   ├── platforms
│   │   ├── platform-tools
│   │   ├── sources
│   │   ├── system-images
│   │   ├── tools
│   │   └── .knowPackages
│   │    
│   ├── flutter 

Update the path for android SDK

DOCUMENTATION According to google officials

ANDROID_HOME, which also points to the SDK installation directory, is deprecated.
If you continue to use it, the following rules apply:

• If ANDROID_HOME is defined and contains a valid SDK installation, its value is used instead of the value in ANDROID_SDK_ROOT.
• If ANDROID_HOME is not defined, the value in ANDROID_SDK_ROOT is used.
• If ANDROID_HOME is defined but does not exist or does not contain a valid SDK installation, the value in ANDROID_SDK_ROOT is used instead.

Environment variable :

• Open Edit environment variables for your account.

  • Under System Variable click New...

  Variable name:  ANDROID_HOME
  Variable value: D:\Development\android_sdk

  • Again for sdk root

  Variable name:  ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
  Variable value: D:\Development\android_sdk

  • Under System Variable click Path & add (Has to be the same order emulator, tools, platform-tools)
    • %ANDROID_SDK_ROOT%\cmdline-tools\tools\bin
    • %ANDROID_HOME%\emulator
    • %ANDROID_HOME%\tools
    • %ANDROID_HOME%\platform-tools

ALMOST DONE

Emulator

list all the available AVD by the command emulator -list-avds

To run the emulator type emulator -avd avd_pame or emulator @avd_name replace avd_name with the name you gave during Create AVD step in this case Pixel

This is it

From cmd run flutter doctor -v later flutter doctor --android-licenses

DONE....

Visual Studio Code for Flutter

• After installation of Vs Code install some the extension for code formating and intellisense
• Open Extensions tab manually or Ctrl + Shift + x install the extensions: they are
  • Dart (dart-code.dart-code)
  • Flutter (dart-code.flutter)
  • For More Developer feel :)
    • Bracket Pair Colorizer
    • Image Preview
    • Flutter Widget Snippets
    • Pubspec Assist
• Reload by Ctrl + Shift + p type reload click Reload Window

Creting flutter application in vs code there are two method:

• Using Vs code GUI

  • Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS)).
  • Select the Flutter: New Application Project command and press Enter.
  • Enter your desired Project name.
  • Select a Project location.
  • Then Ctrl + Shift + p type flutter launch emulator
  • flutter run form View -> command palette or Ctrl + Shift + p

• Using Vs code integrated termainl:

  • Open termianl in vs code by Ctrl + Shift + ` (control, shift, backtick)
  • Type flutter create project_name later cd project_name
  • Start the emulator Emulator remember the command
  • last flutter run

update the android versions
sdkmanager "platforms;android-33"
sdkmanager "build-tools;33.0.0"
sdkmanager "system-images;android-33;default;x86_64"
and add this:
sdkmanager "cmdline-tools;latest"

Error: Package path is not valid. Valid system image paths are:ository...
I got this error

changing the quotes helped me
avdmanager create avd -n Pixel -k 'system-images;android-29;default;x86_64' -d 17
avdmanager create avd -n Pixel -k "system-images;android-29;default;x86_64" -d 17

@amr8y, @eristocrates @Lyonsmasawa thank you so much for your contributions and updates! 🙌

I originally wrote this in 2021, and all your insights have been incredibly valuable.

Keep in mind that the instructions were initially for Windows, and I'm currently using Linux. I'll do my best to update the instructions, but please be cautious and verify the versions and instructions, as they might differ.

Once again, thank you to everyone who contributed! Let's help as many people as possible with these updates. 💻🚀