[HN Gopher] Transform your Android device into a Linux desktop ___________________________________________________________________ Transform your Android device into a Linux desktop Author : mikece Score : 63 points Date : 2023-08-01 21:24 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (mrs-t.medium.com) (TXT) w3m dump (mrs-t.medium.com) | a-dub wrote: | i've often wondered if my phone could drive large external | displays and become a thin client. | | would be pretty cool! | indymike wrote: | Samsung, Huawei, LG (well, they exited the phone biz) and | Motorola all have a desktop mode on many of their Android | devices. You plug in a USB-HDMI adapter (I've plugged in a ton | of USBC docks to my phone and they just work most of the time), | a keyboard and mouse and you have an Android desktop. It's not | terrible, and I've used it in a pinch when I don't have my | laptop and have work to do. | | There's also a way to turn on the desktop mode in developer | settings, but I've never tried it in anger. | helf wrote: | [dead] | DANmode wrote: | Convergent desktop. | | Manufacturers being, frankly, shit, is the only reason we don't | already ubiquitously have this. | xen2xen1 wrote: | Always thought Microsoft's Continuum would have been the wave | of the future at some point had windows phones survived. Just | uses your Windows phone as your Windows desktop. | RajT88 wrote: | Samsung Dex is actually pretty flexible in comparison. It's | not a terrible desktop environment, and it can "cast" to | smart TV's, output via usb > HDMI adapter, or you can plug | it into your laptop and bring up the phone desktop | environment with the Dex app. | | I leave my work laptop at home now, and just take my | personal laptop and work phone when I am on vacation now. | Dex is good enough to get into 70%+ of the cloud tools I | might need when remotely working because stuff is burning | down. | UniverseHacker wrote: | Exactly... modern phones are crazy powerful and would work as | desktops for 99% of users if they weren't locked down in | software. I have an older $100 iPhone SE2 and it has more cpu | power than many new $1k laptops. | fsflover wrote: | We have Librem 5 and Pinephone which can work as convergent | desktops. | phh wrote: | For people who want to go down rabbit holes, you can get very far | with this. I ended up with UT2004 [2] (Windows version) running | on my smartphone (complete stack was Termux => proot => ubuntu => | box 86 => wine => Zink (Android-side, with virglrenderer to pass | through to proot-side) => OEM Vulkan driver [1]) | | I even attempted to make it into a generic ROM, so that you could | flash any Android with a Boot2UT2004 ROM, but the Zink part was | hard to make generic enough. | | [1] I mention OEM Vulkan driver, because many people are using | Zink over a modified Turnip that works on original OEM kernel | | [2] I don't even appreciate UT2004, that was to troll a colleague | stavros wrote: | Wait, how do you run Ubuntu on the phone? I'd love an Ubuntu | shell on the phone itself. | sublinear wrote: | > Setting up a Desktop Environment: We'll use VNC... | | Noooo! | | > if you prefer to set up an XServer, you can find instructions | on the Termux Wiki | | (clicks link) | | > GraphicalEnvironment There is currently no text in this page. | You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the | related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page. | | ... | | bad vibes man | moron4hire wrote: | Apparently the URL is wrong. There should be an underscore | between Graphical and Environment | | https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Graphical_Environment | | Also, the x11 setup instruction is wrong. Instead of `pkg | install x11-repository` it should be `pkg install x11-repo`. | waithuh wrote: | Have you checked https://archive.org | moondev wrote: | Another way to get a similar experience is by enabling the | following options from the android developer menu: | * enable freeform windows * force desktop mode on | secondary displays * enable non-resizable in multi- | window | | Then choose "simulate secondary displays" and choose the size | (720p, 1080p, 4k) | | Using https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy from your desktop and | connecting to your phone allows you to choose the virtual display | to connect to instead of your main phone display with the | --display flag. It's similar to a chromeos feel and very | performant | tysam_and wrote: | Honestly, what I usually use these environments for requires | pulling and using someone else's container in some way, or | something similar. | | I have not gone too far in depth, but UserLAnd seems a bit more | promising for this, due to how it's structured, if I understand | correctly. | [deleted] | jsight wrote: | I tried this with a Pixel 5. Performance was much better than | expected! Even big apps like Intellij were usable for small | projects. | | But the big downfall was memory management. It is really easy to | get too close to running out of RAM and have the whole | environment spontaneously killed. | pacifika wrote: | When the android version is no longer supported but can run Linux | inside it is it still safe to use or subject to the android | security problems a legacy version would have? | jeroenhd wrote: | The kernel and the passive network services that are part of | the Android system will still run (though you can probably kill | them on a rooted system). | | The user mode processes like web browsers will still receive | support for as long as the Termux project provides the. With | some extra steps (chroots and such) you should be able to use | the aarch64 version of Debian or another distro of your | choosing instead of relying on Termux. | | This solution lacks proper hardware acceleration, though. A | system such as Samsung Dex would be a much better solution to | turning your phone into a desktop, leveraging the years of | updates to Android apps instead of hacking Linux applications | into Android. | akomtu wrote: | A random idea: android phone as a portable projector. Not sure if | the tech allows that, but it would be cool instead of looking at | the small screen, get it projected with a tiny LED onto a wall in | a dark room. | 0y wrote: | I remember the Galaxy Beam having this ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-08-01 23:00 UTC)