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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

  • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
    151·
    24 days ago

    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.

    This is the part I cared about. Can it run x86_64 programs, or is it just an ARM-compatible version of Debian?

    If it can actually run x86_64 programs on ARM devices, then that’s kinda fucking sick and would likely help the world transition to ARM. Like, fuck Google, but this sounds like a good thing, maybe?

    • Revan343@lemmy.ca
      3·
      24 days ago

      devices with an x86_64 architecture

      Sounds like the opposite of what you want; you would want x86_64 code on devices with an ARM architecture.

      But I didn’t actually read the article, so maybe that line is poorly worded

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
      2·
      24 days ago

      Can it run x86_64 programs

      The article sound like it will work for x86 devices running Android as well. I don’t think this is about emulation.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      1·
      24 days ago

      That just sounds painfully inefficient (though we’ve been doing stuff like this for decades).

      Arm isn’t as efficient at higher cpu states as x86, and running a VM you’re definitely going to up the cpu usage.

      Still interesting to watch. And every use-case is unique. For the typical short-run process this is for, it’ll probably be fine.