Anyone experimenting with Linux on Android around here?
I was having quite a hard time finding a decent IDE to use on DeX so Im just running a full desktop and coding on vscode. The performance is surprisingly good, just wish it was easier and more stable to set up gnome, as it just looks like it would fit a touchscreen and the android aesthetic really well.
Yes, it works very well because it is not a VM, android is already running on the Linux kernel.
Pretty sure it’s still a VM even if there’s a shared kernel, android is very different to a typical Linux distro
I don’t know about all solutions but Linux Deploy for example creates a chroot environment and runs the Linux distribution from there. That means that the distribution’s process are running alongside android’s process on the same kernel. No translation, no abstraction, directly on the kernel that runs android. As far as the kernel is concerned, the android launcher and the Gnome environment are equal resident.
There needs to be a hypervisor to manage them though doesn’t there? As far as I’m aware that’s how type 1 hypervisors work but that’s still a VM at the end of the day.
Either way I’m absolutely doing this. Does Linux deploy allow you to switch between Linux and Android UI freely or is Linux running in the background and need spice/vnc?
I don’t think it counts as a hypervisor because it’s basically running multiple user land environments on the same kernel. But yes, the video output is already used by android so if you need graphics it goes through vnc. Maybe that’s possible to bypass on a routed device.
I tried a bunch of distros on https://userland.tech/ years back and was definitely impressed
Can you explain what this is? Kinda confused, is it a VM of some sort? Or something equivalent to WSL on Windows?
Android is already Linux-based, so that is just running regular Linux binaries while providing tweaks and shims to make those binaries play nicer with Android’s setup. Things running in it don’t have root access, they’ve only got the access that the base “UserLAnd” app has due to how Android handles security but that’s more than enough to get you a “traditional” desktop with utilities.
It’s more akin to installing and running all sorts of programs on a non-admin Windows account with all the “Install for only me” options instead of “Install for all users”. Except instead of Windows, it’s just Linux.
I should definitely try it again! Unfortunately when I did (Debian 10) permissions were all messed up
How do you do this? With Termux?
Yep! Apps like andronix and userland will give you the full installation commands and you just have to it paste on termux.
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Termux should be enough in that case.
The problem with Termux is that it has limited access to SD card. You have to either root the phone or keep everything Termux realted in phone storage or the special directory android gives to Termux on sd card.
And I couldn’t find a way to create a link to it.
That’s fair. Storage has long been an annoying issue with Android, but yeah, I normally go the root option when all else fails. I’ve mostly just used it for network troubleshooting recently though, which doesn’t need any additional storage.
Take a look on Termux, Userland and andronix. Just don’t forget to get termux from F-Droid.
I use termux a bit as others have mentioned; not for anything particularly tech-y - I’m poking away at writing a book when I have time and I’m using a self hosted Gogs server to centralize it and keep track of changes, so I mostly use it for a text editor and git.
I have a bunch of self-hosted stuff so most linuxy-things I do I just use JuiceSSH/mosh/tmux and connect to a remote server. This has the benefit that when I get to a computer with a proper keyboard I can just switch over.
Is running VM’s possible on more android devices now? I haven’t kept up on that but remember the pixel devices having KVM support? I have been using the Opaque app + tailscale to connect to my proxmox VMs from my Galaxy tab if I’m travelling and need a full desktop for something. Works pretty well.
As long as you have like, +3gb of RAM you should be fine with something like andronix or userland. It has a few limitations, but for emergencies is quite nice.
The problem with most devices is the lack of HDMI thru USB-C, as most use USB C v2.0 and you need 3.1 for that to work, which is why I went with a Samsung flagship, dex is nice too.
If you have that, you can just stick it on a dock or hub and now you can use a monitor, keyboard/mouse easily.
I’ve seen a few mobile focused Linux distros, can you still run android apps on them easily?
Not sure, but I think there is already ways to run android apps on a Linux desktop, the thing I’m talking about is basically running a Linux container on Android and connecting in it thru VNC.
Ah I see that seems like a more sensible way to do it as long as it can run smoothly virtualised
It runs pretty well with XFCE on my old Helio P60 phone, very smooth. So it’s not that heavy to run, for light usage at least.
