Android studio on FreeBSD

When Android Studio was still in Beta, I tried to get it running on FreeBSD (my preferred platform) but had nothing but issues.

I did manage to compile a debug APK but could not get a full release version (weird). I ran Android Studio under Linux Emulation but there was still issues with the Java side of things (from memory).

I even wrote a complex script for adb to help install the APKs as they would not install from the "Run" option of Android Studio. Not hard, but did speed things up a lot.

In the end I gave up and tried a heap of Linux distro (Live CDs) until I found one I was comfortable with - then installed Android Studio without issues.

Personally I still prefer FreeBSD for a lot of things but I am more than happy with a stable working environment for Android development.

Not the answer you were looking for I know, just sharing my own experience. I guess things could have changed from the Beta to now (v2.3) - but I've decided that Android Studio is updated so often (too often to be honest) that I'm not going to risk issues with FreeBSD and just run Linux.


For me it works including native code. Had to hack the starter script a bit with JAVA_HOME etc.

Most of Android SDK etc. has to be downloaded manually and installed under the right directory.

One thing which is not working is aapt2, so I have to add android.enableAapt2=false to gradle.properties.

Now I can't update to the latest gradle version as it demands aapt2.