5 ms·

Is Termux still needed, now that new Android phones have a full Linux available? I keep reading on https://www.reddit.com/r/androidterminal/ https://www.reddit

by mg 8mo ago

Is Termux still needed, now that new Android phones have a full Linux available? I keep reading on https://www.reddit.com/r/androidterminal/ https://www.reddit.com/r/androidterminal/ about user experiences with it and it seems pretty great.

mystifyingpoi 8mo ago
As you say, it is still very useful for older phones. Only the newest top-of-the-line ones got the real thing.
rini17 8mo ago
Apparently the OEM must support it (the AVF virtualization).
- chocochunks 8mo ago
  The phone's hardware must also support it. It needs non-protected VM support which is available in Exynos SoCs but not Qualcomm which is why some Samsung phones have it but other arguably better phones don't (e.g, S25 Ultra VS. Flip 7).
  - WinstonSmith84 8mo ago
    Right, I enabled it, and got that exact error when starting the Terminal app on my Xiaomi 15: "Non-protected VMs are not supported on this device."
  - JoshTriplett 8mo ago
    Anyone know if the Samsung Z Trifold has VM support that works for the Android Terminal?
    - chocochunks 8mo ago
      No not right now at least, because it uses Qualcomm.
      - JoshTriplett 8mo ago
        Unfortunate. Looking forward to a trifold with AVF support. And, ideally, support for unprivileged AVF being available for third-party virtualization applications to use.
jhbadger 8mo ago
I've tried both, and Termux is still far better. At least when I tried it a couple of months ago, the Linux terminal lived in its own sandbox isolated from the normal Android directories. Yes, I get how this might be "safer", but it means I can't move files around in the command line which is my primary use of Termux (I can't stand using a GUI to arrange and rename files)
- gf000 8mo ago
  /mnt/shared is mounted to see your downloads and the like, so you can manipulate them just fine.
esperent 8mo ago
Interesting, first I've heard of that. It's android 16+ apparently. My Galaxy S21 FE is on Android 16. I searched "Linux" in the settings and it found this experimental "Run Linux Terminal on Android" toggle... Which doesn't work. Tapping it won't turn it on. Oh well.
prmoustache 8mo ago
last time I tried the linux terminal running on a vm was buggy and slow.
elcapitan 8mo ago
Oh wow, thanks for mentioning this, I totally missed that this was introduced.
nicman23 8mo ago
it is trash on the hw acceleration side, while termux has vulkan linux to vulkan android wrappers - which in future will probably do hw encode and decode as well
- 306bobby 8mo ago
  Using ffmpeg packages in termux you can already access the mediacodec apis for hw accelerated encode/decode
  - nicman23 8mo ago
    yeah that is cool but i meant for something like firefox
basilikum 8mo ago
Termux is just a terminal emulator. When you run programs in Termux they run natively on your Android system inside the normal Android sandbox of the Termux app. That has some limitations, for example software has to be compiled to use the paths of the Termux environment. Termux can't just install software into /bin and you can't write into /etc. So everything depending on anything more than the base Android system like dependencies installed by Termux has to be compiled specifically for the paths of the Termux environment. But it also advantages especially when you want a Terminal that is actually part of your Android system. You can just natively access the shared storage for everything Termux has permission to. You can also use the Android API out of Termux – for some things you need to install the Termux:API Addon app – and get stuff like GPS, SMS and contacts. The Android Terminal app is just a view to a full VM. If you want a more traditional Linux system on your phone alongside Android instead of a Terminal in Android, essentially having a second system just conveniently running on the hardware of your phone, then that's for you. However it does also use more storage.

by mg 8mo ago

mystifyingpoi 8mo ago

As you say, it is still very useful for older phones. Only the newest top-of-the-line ones got the real thing.

rini17 8mo ago

Apparently the OEM must support it (the AVF virtualization).

chocochunks 8mo ago
The phone's hardware must also support it. It needs non-protected VM support which is available in Exynos SoCs but not Qualcomm which is why some Samsung phones have it but other arguably better phones don't (e.g, S25 Ultra VS. Flip 7).
- WinstonSmith84 8mo ago
  Right, I enabled it, and got that exact error when starting the Terminal app on my Xiaomi 15: "Non-protected VMs are not supported on this device."
- JoshTriplett 8mo ago
  Anyone know if the Samsung Z Trifold has VM support that works for the Android Terminal?
  - chocochunks 8mo ago
    No not right now at least, because it uses Qualcomm.
    - JoshTriplett 8mo ago
      Unfortunate. Looking forward to a trifold with AVF support. And, ideally, support for unprivileged AVF being available for third-party virtualization applications to use.

jhbadger 8mo ago

I've tried both, and Termux is still far better. At least when I tried it a couple of months ago, the Linux terminal lived in its own sandbox isolated from the normal Android directories. Yes, I get how this might be "safer", but it means I can't move files around in the command line which is my primary use of Termux (I can't stand using a GUI to arrange and rename files)

gf000 8mo ago
/mnt/shared is mounted to see your downloads and the like, so you can manipulate them just fine.

esperent 8mo ago

Interesting, first I've heard of that. It's android 16+ apparently. My Galaxy S21 FE is on Android 16. I searched "Linux" in the settings and it found this experimental "Run Linux Terminal on Android" toggle... Which doesn't work. Tapping it won't turn it on. Oh well.

prmoustache 8mo ago

last time I tried the linux terminal running on a vm was buggy and slow.

elcapitan 8mo ago

Oh wow, thanks for mentioning this, I totally missed that this was introduced.

nicman23 8mo ago

it is trash on the hw acceleration side, while termux has vulkan linux to vulkan android wrappers - which in future will probably do hw encode and decode as well

306bobby 8mo ago
Using ffmpeg packages in termux you can already access the mediacodec apis for hw accelerated encode/decode
- nicman23 8mo ago
  yeah that is cool but i meant for something like firefox

basilikum 8mo ago

Termux is just a terminal emulator. When you run programs in Termux they run natively on your Android system inside the normal Android sandbox of the Termux app. That has some limitations, for example software has to be compiled to use the paths of the Termux environment. Termux can't just install software into /bin and you can't write into /etc. So everything depending on anything more than the base Android system like dependencies installed by Termux has to be compiled specifically for the paths of the Termux environment. But it also advantages especially when you want a Terminal that is actually part of your Android system. You can just natively access the shared storage for everything Termux has permission to. You can also use the Android API out of Termux – for some things you need to install the Termux:API Addon app – and get stuff like GPS, SMS and contacts. The Android Terminal app is just a view to a full VM. If you want a more traditional Linux system on your phone alongside Android instead of a Terminal in Android, essentially having a second system just conveniently running on the hardware of your phone, then that's for you. However it does also use more storage.