Google is developing a Terminal app for Android that’ll let you run Linux apps. It’ll download and run Debian in a VM for you.
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Engineers at Google started work on a new Terminal app for Android a couple of weeks ago. This Terminal app is part of the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) and contains a WebView that connects to a Linux virtual machine via a local IP address, allowing you to run Linux commands from the Android host. Initially, you had to manually enable this Terminal app using a shell command and then configure the Linux VM yourself. However, in recent days, Google began work on integrating the Terminal app into Android as well as turning it into an all-in-one app for running a Linux distro in a VM.
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Google is still working on improving the Terminal app as well as AVF before shipping this feature. AVF already supports graphics and some input options, but it’s preparing to add support for backing up and restoring snapshots, nested virtualization, and devices with an x86_64 architecture. It’s also preparing to add some settings pages to the Terminal app, which is pretty barebones right now apart from a menu to copy the IP address and stop the existing VM instance. The settings pages will let you resize the disk, configure port forwarding, and potentially recover partitions.
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If you’re wondering why you’d want to run Linux apps on Android, then this feature is probably not for you. Google added Linux support to Chrome OS so developers with Chromebooks can run Linux apps that are useful for development. For example, Linux support on Chrome OS allows developers to run the Linux version of Android Studio, the recommended IDE for Android app development, on Chromebooks. It also lets them run Linux command line tools safely and securely in a container.
I want a Linux phone capable of running android apps
Will never happen because of SafetyNet. Google does not want you running Android apps on anything other than their approved Android ROMs.
What’s that?
Looks like Google is calling it Play Integrity these days: https://developer.android.com/privacy-and-security/safetynet/deprecation-timeline
But it’s this: https://developer.android.com/google/play/integrity
It’s an API that ensures you’re running apps on the hardware and Android ROMs Google approves of. It can also ensure that apps are not running on rooted phones.
Developers can integrate it into their apps. Banking apps do it, for example, and won’t run in Waydroid as a result. More and more apps integrate it over time.
Fuck Google
Fuck the supply chain that purposely cock blocks The Linux Phone & innovation too.
Pine64+waydroid
So, I’m not that great with Linux. I know the basics, that’s it.
Is it user friendly? I mainly want Linux with Android app support because I hate Google.
I’ve used windows my entitle life. Now windows 11 upgrade was done without consent, now they are doing their best to make it even worse then it already was. I would love to switch to Linux, it’s just that I’m using some apps which do not exist for Linux yet. Next to that I’m not that comfortable with the Linux mechanics to make the switch on my main PC. As in: Like I know what I’m doing on the machine which I use a big part of my time. I need full control. I know I have it with Linux, I just don’t know how. And I feel stupid for it.
The moral of my story is: I’m scared to make a switch from something I’m so familiar with for years and years to something new, even though I hate the corporations behind the stuff I use.
have you considered desktop linux + grapheneOS? would be a better experience for you most likely
I’ll check it out, thanks!
You can test Linux out by using a live USB instance or in a VM. You can also dual boot so you’ll always have Windows available if you need it.
You can also install WSL on Windows or something like Git Bash or MSYS2 to get a Linux-y environment on Windows.
I have used dual boot, live usb sticks and VM’s. It’s just that I don’t feel that comfortable within the Linux environment as my knowledge is lacking somewhat and I haven’t used it enough to fix that.
Can’t wait to have Google’s telemetry injected into my Linux apps
Termux has been a thing for years.
Yeah but I bet google’s one will have lots of cool features like being harder to use and not supporting becoming root and requiring google play services for no discernable reason
And will be cancelled in 18 months with 2 weeks notice.
If it’s anything like ChromeOS, it’ll be a VM where you can do whatever you want, within that VM.
Termux recently got moved off of the play store (kinda), and is now only available on f-droid/github, because Google was further locking down what they allowed on their store.
And in addition to that, they recently added a restriction in later versions of Android: “Child process limit”. Although this limit used to not there, when enabled, it prevents users from truly running arbitrary linux programs, like via termux.
Although the child process limit can still be disabled in developer options, it doesn’t bode well for how flexible base android in the future will be, since many times corpos like Google move stuff into the “secret” options before eventually removing that dial all together.
TLDR: Termux has been, and is a thing… for now.
Also, I want to shout out winlator. It uses a linux proot, similator to termux, and has box64 and wine inside that proot that people can use to play games. I tested with Gungeon, and it even has controller support and performance, which is really impressive.
winlator can run windows apps on android
Hey that sounds neat!
uses ubuntu as a base
Oh no…
MIT license
oh no
Have to install from github/no F-Droid build
oh no
Winlator is really just termux + proot + box64 + wine wrapped in a neat UI (+ controller support). You can, and people have set this up manually before winlator came along. You’ll either need termux-x11 or vnc for the GUI.
Mobox is a similar project that does this automatically via a script… but I don’t see a license in their github repo, plus they require the proprietary input bridge for touch controls.
Termux has been a thing for years.
Termux is not a full linux environment, you need proot (slow) or chroot (insecure) to get a full environment.
Much more appealing to me is running Android apps on Linux officially. I don’t want to use Android as my main system, but I sure as heck would love to have one or two Android apps available on my Linux Machines.
wayDroid does let you do that, in a fairly lightweight way (uses Linux namespaces iirc, similar to lxc.
It’s still not full native, which would be even nicer. I play droidfish on my Linux machines using it.
I’m glad it worked for you, it borked the fuck out of my system 🤣
It always worked for me except in some cases the ‘hardware’ compositor (ie the wayland side) is a bit buggy for clipboards and inputs in general. I had issues with lxc network in past but that’s long ago.
I still don’t understand what borked your system. Waydroid downloads the images, mounts and runs them inside lxc just like normal android. It doesn’t touch your /usr or anything else. Works well in immutable os too.
It also borked the eff out of my system too, and I’m still seeing traces of its lefotver desktop files after uninstallation
Yeah… While making users run Linux applications on a system where Google is root might be a wet dream for Google, it’s more of a nightmare for me.
I really hate the fact that the vast majority of consumers are perfectly fine with not being in full control of their appliances and that Google (and others) register everything they do.
The reason so many people are fine with using corporate garbage is ironically the same reason they’d be just fine using something that wasn’t that. Users can adapt and learn a system way better than most people think.
It’s the convenience angle.
I have very experienced IT friends who continue to use privacy invasive crap, knowingly because they like the convenience.
That kinda thing is a sliding scale for everyone, if my Linux machine wasn’t 90% as reliable and usable as when I was on windows I would probably still be using windows
I’d rather have a linux OS on the phone that can run Android apps.
That’s what android is ;)
That’s like saying MacOS and IOS are BSD
Its not the “Linux OS” that we want, but it is Linux, it runs the Linux kernel, so does chromeOS.
Be cleat about what you want.
What you call “Linux OS” is actually GNU/Linux, or as I’ve taken to calling it lately, GNU + Linux.
We already have termux for that, and on a rooted device you could do pretty much anything. This is pointless
Yeah but I’m unwilling to root my device, so hopefully this will allow me to do some cool stuff too.
Termux already does a lot of cool stuff without root. Makes due a decent ssh client in a pinch.
I just wish I had vim with a tiny keyboard that I hit with one finger
Steam?
No, not unless you have an x86 Android device. While this will run Linux apps, it will be limited to the CPU architecture. Unless there is a x86 to ARM translation layer on Linux that I’m not aware of?
You can use QEMU’s usermode emulation to transparently run ARM binaries with binfmt_misc on x86.
Why not androids terminal since android is base on linux this one just downloads debian
Android userland is vastly different from ‘linux’ ie desktop linux people are used to. While there exists unshare/proot based containers (termux is an example) it might not be suitable for privileged features of kernel except for rooted devices.
Chromeos is much closer to desktop linux (init being upstart not systemd afaik) but still the ‘linux’ apps run inside crosvm to keep the locked down nature of the os intact.
I’ll just run Linux shit on…Linux
I’ll just run Linux shit on…Linux
Android is a variant of Linux, just not GNU/Linux because of not using glibc.
android just uses the kernel
android just uses the kernel
Yes and the kernel’s name is “Linux”. No other software is named “Linux”. Ask Linus Torvalds if you don’t believe me.
Cool and all but id rather run android apps on a linux phone.
You can already, Waydroid exists
I think you misread. They want a Linux phone, not a container for android apps on Linux Desktop. Also, yeah there are very limited options to do this, but most of us can’t yet.
Linux phones do exist, I was saying that you could use Waydroid on those devices (although you can also use it on Linux Desktop), such as postmarketOS on eg a Fairphone 5.
Okay but they only run on pretty weak(usually because it has to be old) hardware. We need a linux flagship phone.
Fairphone 5 isn’t old. It’s a fairly recent, midrange phone
As an American, I absolutely would choose a Fairphone if it wasn’t only available through that third party distributor.
