How to set up and run React Native on your Android Phone

Image by Pathum Danthanarayana on unspalsh

This “tutorial” assumes you already have the Android SDK installed. If you don’t have it, follow this link to set up Android SDK through Android Studio. It’s quite simple.

To install react native on linux you must have node and npm installed.

Let’s start:

Update your PC with

$ sudo apt update

Install open jdk

Do this using the following on the command line

$ sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

Create a React Native Project

Using npx, which ships with Node.js, let's create a new React Native project called "AwesomeProject":

First cd into Desktop

$ cd Desktop

and run

$ npx react-native init AwesomeProject

Add Android Home Environmental Variables

Now go back go to your root directory if you’re not there already by typing

$ cd ~ 

What we want to do is to open `$HOME/.bash_profile` or `$HOME/.bashrc` to add environmental variables. If you’re using `ZSH`, it should be `$HOME/.zshrc`.

To open `$HOME/.bashrc`, go to the terminal in the home directory and type

$ nano .bashrc

Scroll to the bottom and add these lines of code at the last line

export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Android/Sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/emulator
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

When done, Press `ctrl + s` to save and `ctrl + x` to exit.

Next load the config file into your shell by typing the following on the command line

$ source $HOME/.bashrc

If you’re using `ZSH`, it should be `$HOME/.zshrc`

$ source $HOME/.zshrc

Confirm that ANDROID_HOME has been added to your path by typing

$ echo $PATH

You should get this on your screen

/home/user/.nvm/versions/node/v10.16.3/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/home/user/Android/Sdk/emulator:/home/user/Android/Sdk/tools:/home/user/Android/Sdk/tools/bin:/home/user/Android/Sdk/platform-tools

Run the react native app

Finally cd into your project which is inside the Desktop directory.

Desktop $ cd AwesomeProject

The next thing is to

- enable USB debugging on your phone, and

• connect your phone to your PC
• or configure emulator and, then run

$ react-native run-android

Start the project

Run

$ yarn start

This will start the project.