Is this not just...termux?
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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Difference is a fully virtualized Linux VM running natively, compared to termux terminal emulator running in user space with an independent package manager.
So you (in theory) have more hw access, access controls and aren't limited to Android user space running a single user emulation - with no privilege separation existing within termux.
VM running natively
Uhh
How does a Linux vm have more access to hardware than a userspace termux?
The VM isn't running in user space, it runs through the hypervisor, shell in userspace is just a convenience feature of accessing the VM that is running parallel to Android and the hypervisor enables passthrough of certain SoC features to talk directly to CPU/GPU, without traversing the android userspace.
It's like running wsl on windows, both windows and wsl are virtualized and talking to hypervisor, your wsl instance isn't running within your windows instance.
Can you link any direct confirmation that this is actually a VM on hypervisor, and not just a non-hypervised VM but with GPU passthrough like the Crostini on ChromeOS? These two are very different things.
It uses the Android virtualization framework: https://source.android.com/docs/core/virtualization
Using a modified KVM: https://source.android.com/docs/core/virtualization/architecture
Thanks, this might prove promising!
No it's actually debian Linux. With apt. You can run native Linux app servers and visit them through a browser.
This feels pretty useless for running linux, especially when i can root my device for chroot and have gpu accel working with termux x11.
Would be pretty cool if I can run BSD or Windows ARM on a tablet though
I've spent a few minutes with it so far, still looking out for some documentation. I couldn't find a way to mount storage either way so far. Could be done with an nfs or smb share on the vm, being accessed by the phone with an appropriate app, perhaps. Also, I couldn't pass through usb, which is a real bummer...
What's the point? Asking for myself because I don't see any reason to put this on my phone at all.
Depends on how performant this VM is especially if it can utilize the phones GPU well. If the GPU passes into the VM well then that opens up a lot
You get access to desktop Linux applications which can be very good. May really enhance Android devices ability to be a laptop replacement. My personal laptop is an Ultrabook from 2017. Practically every phone released these days are more powerful than it
Like say if you had a video that was 1920x1080 but the actually something by something. If you googled how to detect what the dimensions inside the black border are and crop them, you'd probably find ffmpeg commands to run and crop it. With the VM just run the ffmpeg commands
Maybe it's a really good VM and you could use desktop Linux applications well. Now you can get access to desktop Linux Davinci Resolve, Krita, Ardour, Audacity, etc. Last testimonials I've seen is that GUI applications don't work yet but that's a work in progress
If you're a software developer now your phone can conceivably be solid for work. gcc, g++, npm, javac, etc. Maybe it'll make developing Android apps on an Android phone very viable. Java/Kotlin compiler
Maybe this may help make your old android phone age well like using a phone to be a Jellyfin media server or some home automation computer, voice assistant, rather than buy something from Amazon
I haven't tried it but there's a lot of computing power in modern phones that are wasted. Phones have been more powerful than Raspberry Pi's since forever and those are the backbones of so many things out in the world you'd generally never notice
Desktop Linux has a lot of familiar software that people use on Macs and Windows machines. Android getting access to desktop Linux applications makes it seriously usable as a dockable PC
I mean, if you get a way to invoke X/wayland to render in a decent way instead of the VNC callback methods currently being used, I might really want to think about this. But otherwise I don't think we'll be getting an alternative UI anytime soon. Also I very much doubt this is in Google's interest to allow people to run a different graphical interface.
Termux X11's been a thing for some time, it's a full X server for android and can even use gpu accel if your hardware's lucky (usually snapdragon).
I think google wants to run GUI applications without any vnc involved.
Any links or hints that Google might be trying this?
You can do whatever you could do on a PC in a debian environment terminal. If you don't know what then you don't need it.