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Google is preparing to let you run Linux apps on Android, just like Chrome OS
(www.androidauthority.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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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.
I used Winlator at the start of the year just to test out some little itch.io games and it was pretty basic, huge to hear how far it's come already!
Hey that sounds neat!
Oh no...
oh no
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 doesn't run arbitrary software. There's a pretty large set that does but plenty doesn't. A VM would resolve that.
Through termux you can already install a full linux distro on android. It is a little slow, but full desktop environment. Not bad if you have a phone that supports display output
Do you mean via QEMU without hardware acceleration?
I didn't think to check how it worked, other than the graphics part is accessed via a VNC app. If you have a spare phone check out Anlinux on PlayStore or F-Droid
Anlinux
This application will allow you to run Linux on Android, by using https://f-droid.org/packages/com.termux and PRoot technology, you can even run SSH and Xfce4 Desktop Environment!!!
Features:
The problem with the desktops in termux is that the apps don't work reliably.
I found generally it was fine but some needing true root hardware access failed
Firefox doesn't work right and neither does chromium
I don't recall having issues with firefox. Was there anything specific?
Its been a few years but last time I tried sandboxing didn't work
So is termux a containerized Linux? (I haven't looked into it yet, just on my list). I had assumed it was a VM, guess I was incorrect.
My sense was that it's kinda like cygwin. Just natively compiled apps and a filesystem layout.
This is correct. There's no containerization like LXC/Docker.
Not even that, Android is enough of a Linux system they really just needed a repo of natively compiled apps.
...and a filesystem layout. They don't install things to the "root" linux so they have their own /var, /bin, /usr, etc.
I could remember wrong, but doesn't it just use symlinks?
I doubt it - it runs in an android sandbox. Why would they even bother? it's easier to just create a filesystem "chroot" and use that. That way you get full read/write and control of versions.
Ehh it kinda does considering you can get a pretty full compiler tool chain running via termux.
Termux is not a full linux environment, you need proot (slow) or chroot (insecure) to get a full environment.
Not arguing, just curious: what makes chroot insecure? I've used it for installing Gentoo, but I don't really understand what it's doing under the hood.
Chroot = change root, and needs root to do so. Doing anything as root is insecure. escaping a chroot really isn't all that hard. The second you elevate privledges, you need extra steps to to become secure. Chroot almost never involves any of these steps (though there is some selinux stuff you could do.)
This is an old example, but still a valid one https://github.com/earthquake/chw00t
~~Termux is just proot~~
Termux is just a shell running in the context of an app
What is proot?
https://proot-me.github.io/
Termux isn't just proot, but you can install proot inside termux
~~It is proot based though. It is very useful but it does have disadvantages.~~
How is ut proot based? Afaik it runs binaries built for termux and not any linux binaries. Isn't it directly executing the files?
Maybe I'm mistaken then. I had in my head that it was proof based. However, that wouldn't make any sense as Termux has access to the system
protogens made it :3