Android Studio Download

This includes both the studio and the sdk.

PreRequisites

You will need a java development kit. We have not had problems with openjdk so far. However, if you are low on memory you may want to use the Oracle JDK. Android Studio will give you a warning on start up if you use openjdk, but we just ignore it right now. Read below if you want more information on which jdk to use. To install openjdk:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk

Do I need Oracle's JDK? Do I need Oracle's JDK?

Android studio shows you a healthily fat warning when you start it that recommends you use oracle's jdk, or else it will be all doom and gloom. We haven't had major issues with the openjdk yet... although anecdotal evidence suggests that if you are short on memory the Oracle JDK is better. If you do want to install oracle's jdk on ubuntu:

Install oracle's java:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java -y
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install oracle-java6-installer
# Switch back to openjdk anytime with sudo update-alternatives --config java

You might need to point the studio at java's home (/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-oracle).

Installation

If you're on a 64-bit machine, you may need the following libraries:

$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Download android studio
Untar somewhere - e.g. /opt/android-studio
Add to your PATH. If you put the files anywhere other than /opt/android-studio you will have to tweak the following command to suit:

$ echo export PATH=\${PATH}:/opt/android-studio/sdk/tools:/opt/android-studio/sdk/platform-tools:/opt/android-studio/bin >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo export ANDROID_HOME=/opt/android-studio/sdk >> ~/.bashrc

Open up the Android SDK Manager with the command:

$ android

In the SDK Manager make sure you have installed SDK versions Android 2.3.3 (API 10), Android 3.2 (API 13) and Android 4.2.2 (API 17). It's not a whim to install three different versions: we use API 10 for Gingerbread compatible libraries, API 13 for Honeycomb libraries (that cannot work on Gingerbread) and API 17 because is the latest at the time of this writing.
You can open Android Studio with the command:

$ studio.sh

Make sure you update your Android studio the first time you run it to the latest version before you continue (Help -> Check for Update)! Note: You may not see the Help menu until after you open up a project in Android Studio.