ubuntu-17.10.1-desktop-amd64.iso
Following the AndroidCompile wiki document, there is no mention of Python being a system requirement:
https://wiki.videolan.org/AndroidCompile
However when attempting to run "sh compile.sh" the follow error appears:
NDK changed, making new toolchain "make_standalone_toolchain.py" failed
As it turns out, NDK requires Python in order to make new toolchains. Once I installed that package, the procedure continued.
On the wiki page is an example installation command for build requirements on Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install automake ant autopoint cmake build-essential libtool \
patch pkg-config protobuf-compiler ragel subversion unzip git \
openjdk-8-jre openjdk-8-jdk flex
This should be amended to include "python" as well (Python 2.7 seems to work fine).