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.

  • IsusRamzy@lemmy.ml
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    11 hours ago

    Interesting… but well… Android isn’t rooted, so will it use chroot or something like that? Or it will use a whole another kernel, complete VM?

      • IsusRamzy@lemmy.ml
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        11 hours ago

        That’s a bad move of Google, this has no reason at all!
        Chroot/docker will use a more practical way to run Linux, as Android is just a Linux distro, why bother with running a whole another kernel!

        • Markaos@lemmy.one
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          4 hours ago

          A reasonable build of the kernel optimized for virtualization won’t take more than a few tens of megabytes of RAM (and it will have support for memory ballooning, so the virtualized kernel will give the memory it doesn’t need back to the host), and the userspace will need to be separate anyway due to how different Android is to normal Linux distros.

          Containers are nice when you want to run dozens of separate services on the same server or want to get the benefits of infrastructure as code, but in this case they would provide minimal benefits at the cost of having no way of loading any kernel modules not built into whatever ancient kernel version your SoC manufacturer decided you have to use on your phone. Also, container escape vulnerabilities are still a bit more common than full VM escape, so this is also good for security on top of being more useful.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Plasma Mobile for Android? 🤔

      Doubtful. A VM doesn’t have access to the underlying hardware (unless explicitly passed through).

        • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          not doubtful, a lot of compositors, kwin included can run nested.

          It’s not a question if some of Plasma Mobile could run in that VM. It’s a question if anything usable is possible. I highly doubt Google will make it possible to call phone numbers etc. in that VM.

          • Quack Doc@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            sure, but if 90% of the stuff work work, voip, and it seems to be using crosvm for avf, so those capabilities could be passed through.

    • theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
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      1 day ago

      I was thinking the same thing! But it would be running from a Debian VM so I’m not sure how realistic that is. And I doubt it would have access to android apps.

  • Quack Doc@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Very exciting stuff, Really hope wayland gets hooked up. if not, well, we can make it work somehow

  • Soothing Salamander@lemmy.ml
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    15 hours ago

    This could be really interesting. I don’t personally see a use case for me to run Linux apps on Android. I could see myself running android apps on Linux though. Pretty happy to see this.

  • mindlight@lemm.ee
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    1 day 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.

    • Quack Doc@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I personally run a custom rom, even with that I find this very exciting, This should balance the Security, Perf, Convience, aspects quite nicely

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      1 day 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.

        • Kairos@lemmy.today
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          1 day ago

          Yep. Because that’s the default. And the corporate garbage says that the other stuff is a worse experience.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        1 day 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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          18 hours 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

    • SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      I thought the snapdragon Samsung rooting would be farther along than where we are now. I’m stuck with my phone until further notice s23u

    • Xatolos@reddthat.com
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      6 hours 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?

      • Markaos@lemmy.one
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        4 hours ago

        box86/box64, and there’s also FEX-emu which is used by the Asahi Linux project (Linux on Apple Silicon macbooks).

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      12 hours ago

      You can pretty much chroot into a full debian installation, and even make kernel calls higher than that natively supported by your phone through proot. It’s a weird time to be alive.