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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by over_clox@lemmy.world to c/dull_mens_club@lemmy.world

Okay, maybe not so dull, but it was more hoops than I figured I'd have to jump through, but I finally got the basics all set up and working!

🐧

Edit: I basically followed this guide:

https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Graphical_Environment

Plus, if you don't have an external keyboard, I highly suggest the Hackers Keyboard app.

Edit 2, some semi quick testing...

  • Synaptic ✅
  • Firefox ✅
  • GIMP ✅
  • VLC ✅
  • gedit ✅
  • ghex ✅
  • LibreOffice 🚫
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[-] FukOui@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 hours ago
[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Hey, it's on you if you wanna root your own device. This is the simple beauty of Termux, it runs in an isolated environment on non-rooted Android.

Within Termux itself, you can do whatever you want, sudo not required. You can't access / though, you can pretty much only access ~

Unless you know the exact path to your SD card or other storage, that works too..

sudo does exist though, but mostly just as a compatibility placeholder. Within Termux, you're basically running as 'root', no other user accounts, but not true root, you can't access the whole filesystem, unless you're actually already rooted...

[-] FukOui@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I was thinking of converting a phone into a mini server / NAS the other day but I needed sudo to configure some stuff (firewalls, perms, security, rtc) and found it a hassle to root my device

Dabbled a bit of termux but found it limited to be taken seriously for server workload. Great for poc and personal computing though

[-] Cursed_Fig@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

That's it, I'm out. This community has passed into the realm of meaningless catch-all. May as well rename it Dull Blogger Society.

[-] Johnmannesca@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

I prefer Unexpected Keyboard myself, but thanks for the suggestion!

[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

why not termux-x11?

by using it i could use my galaxy tab like a laptop woth some weird *nix variant. i could run libreoffice using proot (debian) as well. graphics accel didn't work because mine was an exynos but it wasn't a big issue for me, was able to play 720p videos in mpv without any issues.

the lack of packages in official termux repo was a bit tiring tho, had to ./configure --prefix=$PREFIX; make; make install far too many times. and they don't ship firefox esr and only have the latest.

[-] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 6 points 1 day ago

"We have linux phone on android"

This is cool tho doing it now

[-] ekZepp@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Sooner or later i have to try that on some of my family older tab.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I basically followed this guide here...

https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Graphical_Environment

Plus, in case you need an onscreen keyboard with basically all the buttons (you probably will unless you have an external keyboard), I highly suggest Hacker's Keyboard

I'm still getting things set up, but yeah it even runs Firefox (but you gotta install that yourself) 👍

It probably runs quite a bit more than that too, but I need to do some house cleaning to free up some more space. I'm sure I can find some apps I ain't ever gonna use..

[-] ekZepp@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Nice. Thanks x sharing 👍

[-] tynansdtm@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

To what end? I'm not criticizing, I'm taking notes.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

To test and see what all it can and can't do.

I'm pretty impressed honestly. Although it can't do everything, it can sure do a lot!

This comment posted from Android > Termux > MultiVLC > Firefox

[-] nedwben@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

Nice, I just got Debian on my Surface yesterday. The touch sensing isn't quite adequate though. I might just try one of the rpi touch screens.

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
106 points (97.3% liked)

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