Just saw today a posting on ‘How to Geek’ that you can now run Ubuntu on your cell phone.
It is called Ubuntu Touch.
If you care to read the article, you can find it here.
https://www.howtogeek.com/i-tried-running-ubuntu-on-my-phone/
2 Likes
Thanks Howard,
I had a read. It requires wiping everything from your phone. I think I would experiment with an old spare phone first. I wonder about Ubuntu graphics on a small screen.
Termux provides quite a bit of Linux ability, and will run within Android, so you dont lose anything.
3 Likes
I tried it (Ubuntu Touch) on my Nexus 5 phone - it was truly AWFUL… And so much for it being “Linux” - you have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops if you want to even do something as basic as SSH to your Linux phone!
I ditched it and went back to Maru OS… MaruOS was Android (“Lineage OS”?) with a Debian 8 “Jessie” chroot with a full arm XFCE desktop (that could be accessed via a slimport > HDMI adaptor).
Anyway that was about 7 or so years ago… I doubt it’s (Ubuntu Touch) improved.
It’s a variation on the old Unity - geared for touch screens - it’s a bit different from normal Ubuntu GUI.
I left the Nexus 5 running MaruOS 24 x 7 on charge and eventually the battery puffed up and warped the whole phone chassis - that was about 3-4 years ago?
I agree with @nevj - TermUX is a much better solution…
There’s just so much that doesn’t work on choices other than iOS or Android… The Pinephone looks like bit of a kludge… There’s Sailfish OS (developed by the guys who worked on the Nokia Linux O/S) - but that only works on a few select Sony Android handsets…
I need Android (or iOS) 'cause I use my phone for work - and need to run specific Android apps (like multiple MFA tokens).
TermUX lets me run various shell scripts - and - I can run SSHD on it - and it works well in DeX mode… it’s actually “usable”… I use the sshd running on there rsync photos from it :
rsync -av homedung:"/storage/8FC6-9FA1/DCIM/Camera/20241105_*.jpg" /home/x/ResilioSync/bigshit/Photos/2024/Camera/
(homedung is the shortcut name I have in my ~/.ssh/config for my phone’s IP address - it always gets the same WiFi IP from my router DHCP).
Why “homedung”? Well I kinda detest some things about Samsung - so I usually replace the 2nd “s” with “d” and it becomes “Samdung”… I really kinda like DeX though - but a pox on them for dropping Linux on DeX!
4 Likes
So Samdung DeX lets you run an external monitor on a phone or tablet?
So could one use Termux with X and get graphics on an external monitor. ?
3 Likes
I suppose - I’ve NEVER tried to run graphical apps via TermUX - I only use it from terminal window as a CLI only O/S / environment…
But yeah - with DeX you hook up your Android to an external monitor (e.g. USB C > HDMI) and it switches into Desktop Mode (DeX) - with a “window manager”, task bar, etc, and many of the apps that are “DeX” aware display like in a windowing system, TermUX is one of them…
Samsung are not the only one - but they’re the main one…
I believe Google are going to have a desktop mode feature in Android 15…
My Galaxy is stuck on Android 10 (thanks Samsung - only 3 years of updates for their flagship handset? Apple are much better than Samsung)…
I’d probably use DeX more often if it supported SynergyKVM - I don’t want to any any more keyboards to my desk! I have a NextDock and DeX works quite well and I can use my Android phone like it’s a laptop…
3 Likes