Worth a try I suppose, but given there is a native linux solution - that works for most people (and the fact that most people using linux do so to avoid using Windows.... )
The emulator package for Ubuntu is fairly old at this point, but it should still work. The major challenge when using it on newer versions of Linux is that most distributions are now primarily 64-bit, as the emulator and its supporting utilities are 32-bit. I set up a VM using Ubuntu 21.10 and determined that the following should work in a clean environment:
In a terminal window, install necessary 32-bit libraries with sudo apt-get install libstdc++6:i386 lib32z1
Download the deb file with wget -O aisetup.deb http://appinv.us/aisetup_linux_deb
Install the package with sudo dpkg --install aisetup.deb
Run aiStarter with /usr/google/appinventor/commands-for-Appinventor/aiStarter
On the first run, the emulator's companion will be out of date. Follow the prompts to update the companion. This update process will close the companion connection in order to update the companion app.
After the update process completes, use Connect > Emulator to reestablish the connection.
You mentioned compiling and installing APKs on a phone, which suggests you have an Android phone. If so, it's probably easier to use the recommended testing method and install the MIT AI2 Companion app from the Play Store and use that instead of working with the emulator, which bundles a fairly old version of Android. See this page for more details.
pan@pan-H61M-D2-B3:~$ /usr/google/appinventor/commands-for-Appinventor/aiStarter
Bottle server starting up (using WSGIRefServer())...
Listening on http://127.0.0.1:8004/
Hit Ctrl-C to quit.
app inventor --- connect --- error the same like earlier.
The aiStarter helper does not appear to be running Need Help?
Ok, so it looks like aiStarter is running somewhere. Did you leave a copy running in the background at some point? You can try running killall aiStarter and then re-running /usr/google/appinventor/commands-for-Appinventor/aiStarter to ensure you only have a single process. Normally you will see a log stream in the terminal window containing aiStarter, which will help with debugging any issues going forward.
I haven't seen it before - but probably because this window disappears after a while and I get a connection error, but I have: "unable to retrieve the version of aiStarter ..."
Ok. It sounds like something in your browser might be blocking access to this port from App Inventor since you can access the server from a fresh window. Which browser are you using, and do you have any extensions installed?
thats strange, i have problem with bank account display in brave and in firefox display problem with my gov healtcare account. But app inventor finally works in firefox. Thx for help.