this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Google is preparing to let you run Linux apps on Android, just like Chrome OS (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 1 day ago by pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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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.

...

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.

...

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.

...

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.

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[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 hours ago

Can't wait to have Google's telemetry injected into my Linux apps

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 52 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I want a Linux phone capable of running android apps

[–] uis@lemm.ee 3 points 3 hours ago

Pine64+waydroid

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 23 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I'd rather have a linux OS on the phone that can run Android apps.

[–] paperd@lemmy.zip -3 points 7 hours ago

That's what android is ;)

[–] figaro@lemdro.id 6 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Steam?

[–] Xatolos@reddthat.com 5 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

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?

[–] Nils@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

Unless there is a x86 to ARM translation layer on Linux that I’m not aware of?

https://steamdb.info/app/3043620/

It appears Valve is working on Proton for arm64, I was wondering if this is to attend the mobile market, a new Index or maybe a smaller Steam Deck.

[–] Markaos@lemmy.one 6 points 10 hours ago

box86/box64, and there's also FEX-emu which is used by the Asahi Linux project (Linux on Apple Silicon macbooks).

[–] Xylight@lemdro.id 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Irrelevant but the embed thumbnail terrifies me. why is the android fuzzy

[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Winter is coming

[–] lengau@midwest.social 47 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] GravelPieceOfSword@lemmy.ca 13 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 12 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I'm glad it worked for you, it borked the fuck out of my system 🤣

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 7 points 17 hours ago

It also borked the eff out of my system too, and I'm still seeing traces of its lefotver desktop files after uninstallation

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[–] KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol 6 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

We already have termux for that, and on a rooted device you could do pretty much anything. This is pointless

[–] b000rg@midwest.social 2 points 9 hours ago

Yeah, I just installed Debian in Termux last night. I've got a Samsung phone with a locked down bootloader, so it's the best I can do.

[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah but I'm unwilling to root my device, so hopefully this will allow me to do some cool stuff too.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 13 hours ago

Termux already does a lot of cool stuff without root. Makes due a decent ssh client in a pinch.

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 36 points 23 hours ago (6 children)

Cool and all but id rather run android apps on a linux phone.

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[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I've never tried it myself, but I think you can run full Linux VMs on Pixel phones already. A quick search brings up https://www.xda-developers.com/nestbox-hands-on/

Anyone have experience with this or similar options? Personally I've never used anything more advanced than Termux (which is lean and super cool, but not a full-blown VM).

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 5 points 17 hours ago

You can pretty much chroot into a full debian installation, and even make kernel calls higher than that natively supported by your phone through proot. It's a weird time to be alive.

[–] IsusRamzy@lemmy.ml 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Interesting... but well.. Android isn't rooted, so will it use chroot or something like that? Or it will use a whole another kernel, complete VM?

[–] DasSkelett@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Well, the summary pasted in the post mentions "VM" about a dozen times

[–] IsusRamzy@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That's a bad move of Google, this has no reason at all!
Chroot/docker will use a more practical way to run Linux, as Android is just a Linux distro, why bother with running a whole another kernel!

[–] Markaos@lemmy.one 1 points 10 hours ago

A reasonable build of the kernel optimized for virtualization won't take more than a few tens of megabytes of RAM (and it will have support for memory ballooning, so the virtualized kernel will give the memory it doesn't need back to the host), and the userspace will need to be separate anyway due to how different Android is to normal Linux distros.

Containers are nice when you want to run dozens of separate services on the same server or want to get the benefits of infrastructure as code, but in this case they would provide minimal benefits at the cost of having no way of loading any kernel modules not built into whatever ancient kernel version your SoC manufacturer decided you have to use on your phone. Also, container escape vulnerabilities are still a bit more common than full VM escape, so this is also good for security on top of being more useful.

[–] markstos@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

This seems as much about converging Android and ChromeOS as anything.

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