DevEco Studio — Linux PKGBUILD

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Thanks to Cris.Q for the original porting notes that inspired this project.

This is an Arch Linux PKGBUILD that packages DevEco Studio (Huawei's IDE for HarmonyOS development) from its Mac DMG distribution, bringing it to Linux with the help of JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA native launcher and JBR.

It is not an official package. It is not endorsed by Huawei or JetBrains.

Status

Everything works except the previewer. If you find any problems, file an issue.

If Huawei ships a native Linux build, this project will be archived.

Note

If you plan to use this project, reading the full README is strongly recommended; the collapsed sections are optional reading as needed.

Building

Always check PKGBUILD yourself before using.

Build locally (any distro)

First, download two files from Huawei's website: DevEco Studio ${pkgver} for Mac Command Line Tools for Linux (x86_64) ${pkgver} Place both .zip files next to the PKGBUILD, renamed to devecostudio-mac.zip and commandline-tools-linux-x64.zip. # Clone the repo git clone https://github.com/alex3236/devecostudio-linux.git cd devecostudio-linux # Checkout latest tag (skip if you accept untested changes) git fetch --tags git checkout $(git describe --tags $(git rev-list --tags --max-count=1)) What to do next depends on your distro: I'm on Arch Linux makepkg -si If you find checksum errors, it means Huawei has updated the IDE, and you will need to test for yourself whether this project still works. To update checksums to match your local files: updpkgsums I'm on another distro You will need these dependencies: bsdtar or unzip, jq, python3, curl, binutils To also build .deb/.rpm packages: nfpm, gettext Then: # Show the build script's help ./build.sh -h # Example: build the tarball ./build.sh # Example: build the tarball and an rpm package ./build.sh --rpm Note: build.sh does not verify the two Huawei zips, while IDEA and CPython are downloaded with checksum verification from the PKGBUILD's sha256sums.

Build online (GitHub Actions)

The same build can be run in GitHub Actions: Fork this repository. Open the Actions tab, select Build DevEco Studio PKGBUILD and click Run workflow. Optionally, "Use workflow from" a tagged release. Fill in the two download URLs: mac_zip_url — URL of the Mac zip cli_zip_url — URL of the Linux Command Line Tools zip Optionally override the version and checksums (leave empty to keep the values in PKGBUILD): pkgver — e.g. 6.1.1.280 mac_zip_sha256 / cli_zip_sha256 — SHA256 of the two zips; use SKIP to skip verification for an untested version When the run finishes, download the artifact matching your platform: devecostudio-arch — Arch package devecostudio-deb — Debian/Ubuntu package devecostudio-rpm — Fedora/RHEL package devecostudio-tarball — for any other distro A GitHub account can use Actions for free on public repositories.

Installing

This package targets Arch Linux (the makepkg build); the .deb/.rpm builds cover Debian 12+ / Ubuntu 22.04+ and Fedora / RHEL; the tarball works on any Linux.

# Arch
sudo pacman -U devecostudio-*.pkg.tar.zst

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install ./devecostudio_*.deb

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install ./devecostudio-*.rpm

Other distros (via tarball)

Extract the tarball and set up the launcher manually: sudo tar -xzf devecostudio-<ver>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz -C /opt sudo ln -s /opt/devecostudio/bin/devecostudio.sh /usr/local/bin/devecostudio sudo desktop-file-install /opt/devecostudio.desktop You also need the runtime dependencies (package names vary by distro): libxss, libxtst, nss, alsa-lib, libxcrypt-compat, freetype2, libpulse. Chinese input support needs fcitx5. Unlike the Arch package, the bundled CLI tools are not linked into /usr/bin — call them by full path under /opt/devecostudio/tools/bin/.

Usage

Launch DevEco Studio with whatever you are familiar with (start menu / dock / command line).

CLI tools on PATH

The IDE needs the bundled Huawei command-line tools at runtime, and they also work standalone from a terminal. By default the package symlinks them into /usr/bin:

• Always exposed: devecostudio, hdc
• Exposed by default: hvigorw, ohpm, hstack, hcodelinter, hemulator, harktsdoc;

Emulator, codelinter and arktsdoc are prefixed to avoid possible collisions.

Adjusting the symlink behavior

Both behaviors are controlled by variables at the top of the PKGBUILD: _expose_cli_tools=true If set to false, the by-default exposed commands are not symlinked into /usr/bin They are still callable by full path under /opt/devecostudio/tools/bin/ _hprefix_generic_tools=true If set to false, no h prefix is added; codelinter and Emulator are exposed under their original names

Extra SDKs (older versions)

The bundled SDK is HarmonyOS 26.0.0 (Release). An older SDK (e.g. 6.1.1 Release) can be installed alongside and used per project — useful for reproducing issues or building against an older API level.

How?

Download the corresponding CLI tools package; Install the SDK into the IDE directory with the following command: # Install SDK from a Huawei CLI zip (needs sudo) sudo /opt/devecostudio/bin/install-extra-sdk.sh /commandline-tools-linux-x64-6.1.1.280.zip Set the compile SDK in your project: "compileSdkVersion": "6.1.1(24)", "targetSdkVersion": "6.1.1(24)"

Installing an older SDK also patches two things so it can actually be used: hvigor's compileSdkVersion validation and the IDE's project-sync check (both are hardwired to the bundled SDK version). The patches are applied only by install-extra-sdk.sh — a default install stays pristine.

Note: source code using API 26-only interfaces (e.g. newer camera APIs) will not compile against 6.1.1 — adjust or guard the code accordingly.

Emulator

The emulator works, but before first use you must accept the software agreements and download the system images via the command line.

How?

# List available images hemulator -imageList # Phone images only hemulator -imageList -deviceType phone # Use jq for a concise list hemulator -imageList -deviceType phone | jq '.[].osVersion' # Install an image hemulator -install -deviceType phone -osVersion "HarmonyOS 6.1.1(24)" Once installed, you can create, manage and start emulators from the IDE's Device Manager.

DevEco CLI

With Huawei's DevEco CLI, you and your AI Agent can effortlessly handle project initialization, building, signing, and debugging, alongside documentation lookup.

This project provide environment support for DevEco CLI. Simply set DEVECO_CLI_STUDIO_PATH=/opt/devecostudio.

Previewer

The previewer is unavailable. Huawei has not yet ported the Rosen rendering engine to Linux.

How does this work?

The PKGBUILD extracts the Mac DMG and takes the platform-independent parts, then replaces the macOS-specific bits (launcher, JBR, native libraries) with their Linux counterparts from IntelliJ IDEA. The vmoptions and product-info.json are transformed on the fly so the IDE knows it's running on Linux.

The result is a native-feeling DevEco Studio that runs without Wine or containers.

Why repackage from the Mac version? Huawei distributes DevEco Studio for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The Linux distribution has two problems: the installer is an .exe that is hard to extract, and the packaged version lags behind in updates. The Mac DMG is trivially extractable and contains all the cross-platform files we need.

Component details

The emulator Three emulator-related quirks deserve a mention. First, Huawei's code only distinguishes Mac from non-Mac, and the non-Mac branch hardcodes the Emulator.exe filename. On Linux that file does not exist, which broke the Device Manager and debugging. The package fixes this with a symlink: Emulator.exe -> Emulator in tools/emulator/. Second, system images must be downloaded manually because of how the official installer works: when the emulator is missing, its wizard downloads the binary and the system image together. Since this package bundles the binary, the IDE thinks the emulator is installed and never offers the wizard, leaving the system image as the only missing piece — see the Emulator section above for how to get one. Third, the emulator's software agreements: the IDE launches the emulator binary directly, and if the agreements were never accepted it waits silently for a y. The Emulator wrapper auto-accepts them on first use (hemulator ... when ~/Library/Caches/Huawei/Emulator26.0/.emu_config does not exist runs -license accept and exits), so by the time you use the IDE the agreements are in place. To opt out of the auto-accept, truncate that .emu_config file. Wayland Most of the IDE runs fine under Wayland, but the CEF-based user interfaces — the project structure dialog, markdown preview, and similar — crash their GPU process under Wayland (eglCreateWindowSurface segfault). The launcher wrapper works around this by forcing the X11 backend by default (unset WAYLAND_DISPLAY, GDK_BACKEND=x11), which makes every CEF page render correctly through XWayland. If you prefer to run under Wayland natively, set DEVECO_DISABLE_X11_WORKAROUND=1 before launching — but expect the CEF pages to be blank or broken. The launcher also enables JCEF's headless + out-of-process rendering by default (equivalent to ide.browser.jcef.headless.enabled and ide.browser.jcef.out-of-process.enabled in the registry), which fixes blank CEF pages in some environments. Set DEVECO_DISABLE_JCEF_HEADLESS=1 before launching to opt out. HiDPI XWayland does not report per-monitor scale to the JVM (it reports 1.0), so on a HiDPI screen the IDE would lock its UI scale to 1.0 — too small. The launcher reads the compositor's real scale (wlr-randr), rounds it to the nearest quarter step, and injects it as -Dide.ui.scale via a user vmoptions overlay. Override the value or disable the detection: DEVECO_UI_SCALE=1.2 devecostudio # use 1.2 as-is DEVECO_UI_SCALE=off devecostudio # leave scaling to the JVM You can also set the scale manually via the IDE's Help → Edit Custom VM Options. For more, see the IDEA HiDPI documentation.

For the sake of brevity, you can check DETAILS.md to learn about other magic used in this project.

License situation

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Huawei.

Terms, redistribution and component licenses

DevEco Studio is a commercial product owned by Huawei. Before using it, you agree to the HUAWEI DevEco Studio User Agreement (reproduced in LICENSE.huawei). A few clauses worth noting: Clause 1.6 grants a "limited, non-exclusive, free, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, and revocable" license to use DevEco Studio solely for developing applications that run on OpenHarmony-compatible devices and/or HarmonyOS. Clause 1.7(f) prohibits copying or modifying the service, or merging any part of it with other programs. Clause 1.7(h) prohibits reverse engineering, decompiling, or creating derivative works. Clause 1.7(i) prohibits distributing, selling, or transferring the service. This packaging project extracts platform-independent files from the Mac DMG and recombines them with Linux-native components (launcher, JBR, native libraries) from IntelliJ IDEA. The Java bytecode and resources are not modified, but configuration files are transformed. This likely constitutes "modification" and "merging" under clauses 1.7(f) and 1.7(h). What this means in practice: Building this package for personal use is what the author does, and the project exists to document that process. Distributing the resulting package to others is likely not permitted under Huawei's terms. If you have legal concerns, consult Huawei's official licensing at https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/cn/deveco-studio/ and your own legal counsel. Licensing of the packaging scripts The files that make up this packaging project are provided under the BSD 2-Clause license. They are not part of DevEco Studio and carry no restrictions from Huawei's terms. Licensing of bundled components DevEco Studio itself and its plugins are proprietary works of Huawei. JetBrains Runtime (JBR) is GPLv2 with the classpath exception, based on OpenJDK. IntelliJ IDEA Community components are available under Apache 2.0. Various third-party libraries bundled with DevEco Studio carry their own licenses.