32 Flutter

20220209

Flutter is a cross-platform framework for building user interfaces for apps, utilising the dart programming language, targeting Linux, Android, JavaScript, macOS, Windows, and iOS. The same source code for an app can be compiled to a native app on each of the supported platforms. The desktop support remains limited with ongoing development which may make it somewhat unstable for the time being.

The Ubuntu guide to an initial install on Ubuntu begins with a snap install:

sudo snap install flutter --classic

Running the flutter command will then initialise the installation.

flutter

If you will be targeting Android devices then you will need (to be confirmed 20220209):

sudo snap install androidsdk
sudo snap install android-studio --classic
android-studio
flutter config --android-studio-dir /snap/android-studio/current/android-studio
flutter doctor --android-licenses

For the latest developer version of flutter:

flutter channel dev
flutter upgrade

Ensure support for desktop application development:

flutter config --enable-linux-desktop
flutter config --enable-macos-desktop
flutter config --enable-windows-desktop

Check everything is okay:

flutter doctor

To then create, build, and run a sample linux desktop application named button, specifying the target device id with -d:

mkdir button
cd button
flutter create .
flutter run -d linux

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