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I haven't used my Pro purchase in years, but if I did want to ssh from my phone today, I'd use the newish Terminal app, available since Android 15. It's a full
by sowbug 9mo ago
I haven't used my Pro purchase in years, but if I did want to ssh from my phone today, I'd use the newish Terminal app, available since Android 15. It's a full Debian virtual machine.
- sunnyam 9mo agoDo you mean Termux? I can't find any other Terminal app with a similar name
- simlevesque 9mo agoEnable Developper Options. It should be in the Developer menu. It's a toggle that'll enable this apk.
- seszett 9mo agoHonestly I don't find it more useful than Termux, especially for being so much heavier.
- cogman10 9mo agoJust because I was curious. Termux is doing a container. The android terminal is doing a virtual machine. That's the difference. Termux would definitely be the light weight option, but you will be pinned to whatever version of the kernel your device is shipped with (may be a bit old.)
- yjftsjthsd-h 9mo agoNo, termux isn't a container, it's running directly in userspace on the host. The only weird thing is that because it's running directly on the host, it has to be built to use unusual paths, eg. /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash instead of /usr/bin/bash. If it used containers (which IIRC it can't because Android doesn't really support it) that would actually be easier because then it could use a chroot to make the paths look normal.
- cogman10 9mo agoAh, well that stinks a little. I guess it makes sense, if android doesn't mandate a few kernel settings then working with containers might not be an option.
- skissane 9mo agoCouldn’t it implement a “fake chroot” by e.g. creating its own libc which wraps the real one but with path remapping, and then linking all its executables against that?
- yjftsjthsd-h 9mo agoThat would only work for things that use libc (so eg. most Go programs are probably not going to work). The main way that you can do an unprivileged fake chroot is proot, which termux does offer - see https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot - but that has a significant performance hit.
- seszett 9mo ago> you will be pinned to whatever version of the kernel your device is shipped with That doesn't matter much for using SSH though. For running more complex Linux programs or scripts Termux is indeed less comfortable (but it can still work).
- ndom91 9mo agoIs this available outside of Pixels? I still can't find it on my OnePlus 13 running Android 16 with Jan security updates
- cmehdy 9mo agoThe option exists on Samsung phones but is greyed out and crashes if you force it via adb. It is also marked as experimental.
- mixel 9mo agoI just tried it on my S25. I can enable the option an open the APK but can't download it because it fails to create the VM because the S25 does not support Non-protected VMs, so I may require a rooted device. I guess I will stick to Termux but interesting feature nonetheless
- yonatan8070 9mo agoI believe it relies on some virtualization extensions Google's CPUs have, which most phone SoCs don't support.
- prmoustache 9mo agoIt is buggy as hell anyway.
- saidinesh5 9mo agoNo Android started bundling a terminal app recently: https://itsfoss.com/news/google-android-linux-terminal-rollout/ https://itsfoss.com/news/google-android-linux-terminal-rollo...
- domh 9mo agoHuh, I did not know this. This is also present on GrapheneOS too! (I'm installing it now)
- fmajid 9mo agoIt is extremely flaky on GrapheneOS, at least on my Pixel 8 Pro. Just typing Ctrl-D to exit will corrupt it, requiring a full reinstallation of the Debian VM
- gruez 9mo agoControl-D works fine for me. It just terminates the VM and you can restart.
- fmajid 9mo agoIt's not 100% reproducible, but at least 50% of the time for me: https://social-cdn.vivaldi.net/system/media_attachments/files/115/633/300/469/913/230/original/0eed4d10e76fff20.mp4 https://social-cdn.vivaldi.net/system/media_attachments/file...
- Denatonium 9mo agoThe built-in terminal app seems to be similarly flaky on my Pixel 8. Also, the kernel it boots into is really stripped down, and it lacks a ton of essential features. I was not able to install VirtualHere client to pass through USB devices, and there's no built-in functionality. There's also no way to open it full-screen on the Pixel 8's DP-over-USB-C desktop mode. Hopefully it continues to improve, but it seems like Google is more into extracting value than they are improving their products at this point.
- 9mo ago
- wilsonnb3 9mo agoI don’t think it is that widely available due to Snapdragon chips not supporting some feature it requires. Good option for Pixel owners or phones with MediaTek chips though.
- fulafel 9mo agoApparently it's about software, not hardware - Qualcomm recommends running Android under a virtual machine (which lacks nested virtualization support).
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- superb_dev 9mo agoIs this for real? Do you have any more info on this? It seems crazy to me given how popular their chips are and how many problems I’d imagine this creates
- asutor 9mo agoUsing an S24 here and yeah, not available with Android 16
- wolvoleo 9mo agoBut the S24 wasn't Qualcomm but Exynos. Weird.
- pierrec 9mo agoIt shouldn't be problematic if the processor supports it well. For example modern Windows is always running as a VM and people are barely aware of that.
- superb_dev 9mo agoThat’s a good point, I forgot windows typically runs on top of hyperV
- preisschild 9mo agoOr termux, which doesnt use a VM
- gruez 9mo agoYeah, another vote for Termux. The linux VM ends up being a bit laggy because it's actually a webview that renders a terminal, that's connected to the VM. More importantly though, the soft keyboard support is totally broken, so if you try to backspace more characters than you've typed, it won't let you. That sucks if do something like: 1. type some command, hit enter 2. hit up to edit it (because you typoed something) 3. can't backspace because the soft keyboard thinks there's nothing to delete
- preisschild 9mo agoIve always considered termux the more elegant option for userspace programs than the android terminal debian vm. I just wished android had the permission api to create user namespaces (containers) in termux
- vrighter 9mo agoand I've had that terminal glitch out quite frequently. termux is rock-solid for me.