What is adb

To understand what adb is please read this guide

Steps to Install adb on your PC

Tip: Windows OS users click here

There are two methods using which Linux users can run adb or fastboot tools on their system

  • Installing and running the adb and fastboot tools using the code available in the Operating system.
  • Downloading the tools from Android Developer tools and running it. We recommend this method
Caution: The default adb installation on OS like Ubuntu can be outdated and can cause errors. We would recommend that linux distribution users ensure they use the installation process given here

  1. The android site has different versions of the Platform Tools as you can see in the screenshot below. Each is built for a particular Computer environment.

Tip: adb, fastboot tools are referred to as Platform Tools.

  1. In this guide we will share instructions on how to use the Platform tools on a Ubuntu Computer. The same instructions should work on other Linux distributions.

  2. Dowload the link titled Download SDK Platform-Tools for linux.

  3. Save the downloaded file in a folder or location you can remember.

  4. Browse into this folder and here extract the file you just downloaded

  5. Open a console or a terminal inside this folder

    Tip: In Ubuntu you can right click in a folder and choose the option to Open in Terminal

  6. In the terminal type and execute the commands given below

Command to run the adb tools

path-to-the-extracted-archive/platform-tools/

at the end of the above command add the command you want to execute for e.g. ./adb devices

The complete command would now look like

yourPCName@Desktop:~/platform-tools$ ./adb devices

Command to run For fastboot

path-to-the-extracted-archive/platform-tools/

at the end of the above command add the commands you want to execute for e.g ./fastboot devices

The complete command would now look like

yourPCName@Desktop:~/platform-tools$ ./fastboot devices

Tip: Press the ‘Enter’ key to execute the command in a console or terminal.

Add the path to you PC configuration

To avoid having to type the above commands every time you can add the location of the platform tools to you system configuration

On Ubuntu systems

Add the below text to your .bashrc file

export PATH="$HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"

Tip: You will be able to see the .bashrc file in your home directory. It is a hidden file. Press ctrl and h keys to display hidden files.

here we have assumed you have saved the downloaded files to a folder named platform-tools and this is in your home directory

After this you should be able to access adb and fastboot by typing only the below commands in a console

adb devices

or

fastboot devices