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we really need a user friendly gui app tgat can finish tge whole setup into a linux environment quickly and easily. think of it like carlimaries installer for linux on Android
This, apart from the home assistant use, may be a great solution for an all in one klipper setup for 3d printers (I currently use a RasPi, and a tablet as a touchscreen), or installed inside a chunky keyboard, paired with one of these USB C all in one hubs as a PC in a keyboard build,. Neat.
Incredible things are happening with termux.
Is Termux an operating system by itself?
It's not, it is a terminal emulator application for Android that creates a Linux-like environment.
Are phones with 3gb of ram considered "old" already?
We have had android phones with 6gb ram since 2016, which was 10 years ago. 3gb is absolutely ancient when it comes to android phones
My 5 year old Xiaomi has 8G
Yes
We've had octo-core CPUs in phones for 13 years....
sadly yeah. mine still has 2gb.. lolz
Very cool ! Finally something to do with my old phones lying around
(but who commits their .DS_Store file tho ? 🙈)
Never used mac before, whats this. DS_Store file for?
There is also "local desktop" app which automates most of steps to make system.
I'm convinced Mac users just become blind to the file. I see it all over repos at work.
Over the last 15 years, I went from Mac, to Windows, to Linux. I'm still finding old .DS_Store files and deleting them.
It's hidden even if you have "show hidden files" enabled in Finder. No way to disable it, it's idiotic.
Don't even get me started on MacOS archive bits 😑
Because adding to the .gitignore would threaten their existence.
rookie mistake 🤣
Is it possible to have a no-graphical session ? Boot on tmux directly for example ? That's could be great!
I would imagine so.
This doesn't look like another alpine vm. But maybe I misread the install script. I see it uses apt so some sort of Debian base? If so, no root, GPU accelerated, not virtualized, Linux on Android is quite the accomplishment.
You never needed a VM to run Linux apps on Android. Android can run Linux apps because it is already a Linux operating system. This is like referring to a docker container as "running Linux on Debian" or whatever.
docker is technically running linux on debian though
If by Linux you mean "literally everything except Linux" though, then sure. But I prefer to say what I mean and mean what I say
wait, is docker not running a linux environment?
Linux, the kernel, is the thing that containers run on top of. The container does not actually contain an instance of Linux, it shares it with the host.
yes, it's another complete operating system with a shared kernel. a lot of more complete full-fledged virtualization software does similar stuff.
It's an installer for Termux packages. You can do the same thing manually in Termux shell, if you know the names of packages you are installing.
And yes, Termux uses Debian apt package manager.
Though they recommend to use their pkg wrapper instead right?
Thanks, that was definitely the missing piece in my understanding.
Just to put it out here. Termux has proot-distro that allows you to run qite a few distros as containers. Technically not a VM afaik. I find it useful, because it is sometimes simpler to wipe that instead of reinstalling Termux.
What I ask myself here is why I should have unused phones lying around in the first place?
If I somehow think constantly wasting money on a new model just because there is a new number written on its packaging is worth it, I would not actually think in terms of reusing old hardware.
If I am however thinking about using hardware instead of just throwing it away while still functional why wouldn't I use a phone as anyone else as a phone?
I still have my previous phone... S5 that I used for seven years until it couldn't get updates and I "needed" some apps that wouldn't run on the old android version (I don't remember what they were at this point or if there was a way around it).
It's been sitting on my desk for the past 5 years waiting for a purpose. The battery is shot but it still "works". Maybe this is that purpose because I was specifically looking for something like this a few months back ...because I thought it would be funny to have that phone as a server.
Just an FYI, changing a battery in a phone with a glued back cover is fairly trivial. A hair dryer Is usually enough, tons of youtube tutorials, and you can get plastic back covers to replace the shitty glass ones from aliexpress for peanuts
Well you answered your own question, you should not have unused phones lying around because you use them till they die, good.
Now if for any other reason you end up with unused phones that nobody else wants to use here is something you can do with them!
This is my case, I get phones handed down to me, if it's any better than anything I use I migrate to it and keep the old one in case something happens to the new one.
Could be a number of things. Battery life has significantly decreased. Can't run recent Android versions, no longer getting security updates, or even software not running because the Android version is no longer supported. I've had 3 phones in the last 15 years or so (still on the 3rd) and I still have the other two and they run, but not for long without being plugged in.
There isn't only one reason for that to happen. I have two old smartphones around. Both are no longer usable with any worthwhile mobile service in Canada. The first (and oldest - originally mine before becoming a hand-me-down to a relative) went out of use after the elderly person who was using it had it active for a year or two but then stopped bothering with it due to his illness keeping him at home and preference for larger screens in general. The other I'd still be using (still use it for some things!) if I could. I have always used my computers, phones, etc. as long as I could get away with but for #2, I had to get a newer (but used) phone to keep service after the end of 3G in Canada. The new phone is definitely nicer in some ways but I wouldn't have changed phones if I had a choice. 🤷🏾♀️
i usually end up with crappy hand me downs or broken phones with an easy fix.
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
205 points (98.1% liked)
Linux
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