Get the CLI from npm: npm install -g @snap/valdi. Then run valdi dev_setup for automated setup. This guide is a reference for manual installation or troubleshooting only.

About

This guide documents the dependencies Valdi needs on Linux and how to install them manually. For the quickest setup, use valdi dev_setup which automates all of these steps.

This guide assumes you're using the default shell (bash). Setup is possible for other shells, but you'll need to adapt the configuration file paths.

Setup git-lfs deb

curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/github/git-lfs/script.deb.sh | sudo bash

apt-get install dependencies

On Debian/Ubuntu, install the same dependencies that valdi dev_setup would use:

apt-get install npm openjdk-17-jdk git-lfs watchman adb libfontconfig1-dev zlib1g-dev

(On other distros, use the equivalent packages: e.g. RHEL/Fedora use java-17-openjdk-devel, android-tools, fontconfig-devel, zlib-devel. The CLI detects your distro and installs the right packages.)

Install bazel

For manual installation, follow the Bazelisk installation guide or install via npm:

npm install -g @bazel/bazelisk

Install git-lfs

Git Large File Storage (LFS) manages the binaries that we need for Valdi.

git lfs install

Android SDK and NDK

You do not need to install the Android SDK, build tools, or NDK manually. Bazel downloads the correct versions hermetically during the build.

If you want to use Android Studio or adb outside of Bazel, you can optionally install the SDK via valdi dev_setup or Android Studio.

Next steps

Installation guide

Troubleshooting

Warning: swap space

Bazel eats a lot of memory, if you see Java memory errors, you don't have enough swap space.

8GB should be enough for an Android build of the hello world app.