Building an Android APK on a Linux Box, No Root Required

This article details the process of creating a simple Android APK on a Linux machine (x86_64 with glibc) without requiring root access or installing Android Studio. The author describes building a tiny app that opens the hotspot settings screen, using only a self-contained Bash script that provisions the entire toolchain (JDK, Android SDK, Gradle) locally. The project, called hotspot-shortcut, is written in Kotlin and demonstrates that a complete Android app can be built and automated entirely from the command line, even for beginners with no prior Android programming experience. The article includes technical details about the app's minimal UI, intent handling, and debug signing.