I managed to get Linux running on my tablet today, via Termux and MultiVNC
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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Comments14
Ah cool but no sudo?
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...
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
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.
What's your preference for the dull group?
I prefer Unexpected Keyboard myself, but thanks for the suggestion!
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 installfar too many times. and they don't ship firefox esr and only have the latest."We have linux phone on android"
This is cool tho doing it now
Sooner or later i have to try that on some of my family older tab.
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..
Nice. Thanks x sharing 👍
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.
To what end? I'm not criticizing, I'm taking notes.
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