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.

    • sue_me_please@awful.systems
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      20 days ago

      Will never happen because of SafetyNet. Google does not want you running Android apps on anything other than their approved Android ROMs.

      • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        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.

        • sue_me_please@awful.systems
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          20 days ago

          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.

          • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
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            20 days ago

            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.

    • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      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

      • bamboo@lemm.ee
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        21 days ago

        If it’s anything like ChromeOS, it’ll be a VM where you can do whatever you want, within that VM.

    • Quack Doc@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      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.

    • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
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      22 days ago

      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.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        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

        • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
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          21 days ago

          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.

  • lengau@midwest.social
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    21 days ago

    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
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      21 days ago

      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.

        • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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          21 days ago

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

        • serenissi@lemmy.world
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          20 days ago

          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.

  • mindlight@lemm.ee
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    22 days ago

    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.

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      22 days ago

      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.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        22 days ago

        It’s the convenience angle.

        I have very experienced IT friends who continue to use privacy invasive crap, knowingly because they like the convenience.

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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          21 days ago

          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

        • paperd@lemmy.zip
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          20 days ago

          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.

  • KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol
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    21 days ago

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

    • Xatolos@reddthat.com
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      21 days ago

      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?

  • Mwa@lemm.ee
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    20 days ago

    Why not androids terminal since android is base on linux this one just downloads debian

    • serenissi@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      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.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        21 days ago

        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.

        • JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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          21 days ago

          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.

          • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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            21 days ago

            Okay but they only run on pretty weak(usually because it has to be old) hardware. We need a linux flagship phone.

              • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                21 days ago

                As an American, I absolutely would choose a Fairphone if it wasn’t only available through that third party distributor.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      I’ll just run Linux shit on…Linux

      Android is a variant of Linux, just not GNU/Linux because of not using glibc.