Ah, that java plugin.... I might give it a go this time. Last time I saw the word java and I decided against it.I believe I did test this plugin years ago when it came out first, back then it really was quite useless. As you said, it required fiddling with a ton of settings that meant just doing the damn thing by hand was quicker.

I would love to be able to do pcb design on my main Linux desktop rather than having to fish an old windows 7 work laptop with a copy of altium.

However, let me tell you my altium work flow with autoroute and small boards. Recently For example I was designing a Qfn44(7*7mm) to dip 44 adapter board. As simple as it gets really.

After drawing my rectangle board setting the only chip in the middle and two rows of pins.I just let the autoroute do it's job on default settings(it already has my minimum trace distance and thickness set) , I rip it all down, tweak few settings(trace neckdowns near pads), run it again. Repeat once more and the board is done all in under 5 minutes.

Right but making adpater like that is like 10 minutes of manual routing max