7 ms·

It's actually a great idea in some ways to use a phone instead of a Raspberry Pi, since it has a battery in case your electricity goes unstable, you can add LTE

by k_bx 3y ago

It's actually a great idea in some ways to use a phone instead of a Raspberry Pi, since it has a battery in case your electricity goes unstable, you can add LTE as a backup internet, and it has a screen to bootstrap it without an external monitor which not all of us have. I only wish Android phones would be more open to put a full Linux distro on them.

VanTodi 3y ago
Ubuntu touch supports some old phones you can buy used. It's technically not a android phone anymore, but it's possible. I tried it on my oneplus 6 and I worked, I'm just not ready for the ecosystem yet
spidersouris 3y ago
Would be interesting to know how much battery is used by running the website.
- yreg 3y ago
  Obviously depends, but solar powered website currently uses 2.8W. [0] Louwrentius uses 29W? Do I read it correctly? [1] [0] https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/power.html https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/power.html [1] https://louwrentius.com/ https://louwrentius.com/
unstuck3958 3y ago
> I only wish Android phones would be more open to put a full Linux distro on them. You can: https://userland.tech/ https://userland.tech/
- karussell 3y ago
  Wow. This is amazing. Just got a server-side Java application running in the Alpine Linux and was able to access it with the normal browser via localhost. Impressive stuff :D Are you one of the developers? As I'm really curious how this works.
- circuit10 3y ago
  You can also use Termux, which by default isn’t quite a full Linux distro but it’s close and you can use proot to have a full one
  - pluijzer 3y ago
    If Termux is enough for you the benefit is that it is quite a bit faster than userland.tech. There is also Nix for Termux which provides a lot more packages.
kwonkicker 3y ago
The processing power modern phones poses is insane.
gbraad 3y ago
Termux and proot
charcircuit 3y ago
>Android phones would be more open to put a full Linux distro on them Honest question. Why? How is Android not fulfilling your needs as a full Linux distro? Are there any features that you would like to see added, or do you feel that apps for what you want are not currently available?
- k_bx 3y ago
  I didn't try it out, maybe you're right. I know how to deploy my stuff via systemd, install Rust/cargo/Elm/Python/Node/GHC/libopencv/Nix/whatever, link static libs and so on. And when I'm using Raspberry Pi I need near-zero new knowledge to do all that. I suspect that trying something like that on Android will be a long road with lots of caveats, even if possible, learning to do all the things the new "Android" way. Am I wrong?
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    For building native code it will mostly be the same, but you will need to learn some Android stuff for making the nonnative part of your app so you can learn how to create a background service and how to tell Android to restart your service if it gets killed due to low memory.
- DCKing 3y ago
  > How is Android not fulfilling your needs as a full Linux distro? I mean there's a lot of things that make life difficult with Android. * If you want most hardware to keep on working, no kernel updates are possible after the manufacturer ends support. * Root support and service managers need to be installed aftermarket using the unofficial solution Magisk. * No vendor kernel out of the box supports kernel compile time flags to enable the infrastructure to run Linux containers using Docker, Podman or LXC. * Self-invented file hierarchy with a lot of restrictions that make sense from an Android UI perspective but are prohibitive when used as a regular distro. * Since Android and drivers use bionic libc, it's not possible to run regular Linux binaries that tap into certain hardware features like Vulkan without reworking and recompiling them. Just from the top of my head, there's a bunch of other things people could name I'm sure. Android misses a lot of the expectations people have for regular GNU/Linux distributions have - expectations that non GNU/Linux distros like Alpine do meet for the most part.
pmlnr 3y ago
You can do the same with an laptop and LTE card in them, which is much more stable.
- msk-lywenn 3y ago
  But draws a lot more energy than a phone or an rpi
  - pmlnr 3y ago
    Debatable. I knew someone who's X200 was eating 6W.
    - govg 3y ago
      That would last 2 hours on a modern iPhone battery.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

by k_bx 3y ago

VanTodi 3y ago

Ubuntu touch supports some old phones you can buy used. It's technically not a android phone anymore, but it's possible. I tried it on my oneplus 6 and I worked, I'm just not ready for the ecosystem yet

spidersouris 3y ago

Would be interesting to know how much battery is used by running the website.

yreg 3y ago
Obviously depends, but solar powered website currently uses 2.8W. [0] Louwrentius uses 29W? Do I read it correctly? [1] [0] https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/power.html https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/power.html [1] https://louwrentius.com/ https://louwrentius.com/

unstuck3958 3y ago

> I only wish Android phones would be more open to put a full Linux distro on them. You can: https://userland.tech/ https://userland.tech/

karussell 3y ago
Wow. This is amazing. Just got a server-side Java application running in the Alpine Linux and was able to access it with the normal browser via localhost. Impressive stuff :D Are you one of the developers? As I'm really curious how this works.
circuit10 3y ago
You can also use Termux, which by default isn’t quite a full Linux distro but it’s close and you can use proot to have a full one
- pluijzer 3y ago
  If Termux is enough for you the benefit is that it is quite a bit faster than userland.tech. There is also Nix for Termux which provides a lot more packages.

kwonkicker 3y ago

The processing power modern phones poses is insane.

gbraad 3y ago

Termux and proot

charcircuit 3y ago

>Android phones would be more open to put a full Linux distro on them Honest question. Why? How is Android not fulfilling your needs as a full Linux distro? Are there any features that you would like to see added, or do you feel that apps for what you want are not currently available?

k_bx 3y ago
I didn't try it out, maybe you're right. I know how to deploy my stuff via systemd, install Rust/cargo/Elm/Python/Node/GHC/libopencv/Nix/whatever, link static libs and so on. And when I'm using Raspberry Pi I need near-zero new knowledge to do all that. I suspect that trying something like that on Android will be a long road with lots of caveats, even if possible, learning to do all the things the new "Android" way. Am I wrong?
- charcircuit 3y ago
  For building native code it will mostly be the same, but you will need to learn some Android stuff for making the nonnative part of your app so you can learn how to create a background service and how to tell Android to restart your service if it gets killed due to low memory.
DCKing 3y ago
> How is Android not fulfilling your needs as a full Linux distro? I mean there's a lot of things that make life difficult with Android. * If you want most hardware to keep on working, no kernel updates are possible after the manufacturer ends support. * Root support and service managers need to be installed aftermarket using the unofficial solution Magisk. * No vendor kernel out of the box supports kernel compile time flags to enable the infrastructure to run Linux containers using Docker, Podman or LXC. * Self-invented file hierarchy with a lot of restrictions that make sense from an Android UI perspective but are prohibitive when used as a regular distro. * Since Android and drivers use bionic libc, it's not possible to run regular Linux binaries that tap into certain hardware features like Vulkan without reworking and recompiling them. Just from the top of my head, there's a bunch of other things people could name I'm sure. Android misses a lot of the expectations people have for regular GNU/Linux distributions have - expectations that non GNU/Linux distros like Alpine do meet for the most part.

pmlnr 3y ago

You can do the same with an laptop and LTE card in them, which is much more stable.

msk-lywenn 3y ago
But draws a lot more energy than a phone or an rpi
- pmlnr 3y ago
  Debatable. I knew someone who's X200 was eating 6W.
  - govg 3y ago
    That would last 2 hours on a modern iPhone battery.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]