I’ve been messing around with Android for years, but seeing the processor that’s used in small Linux boxes running Android kept nagging me with a question: what if I install a full Linux desktop on my Android phone?
Android has taken some steps in this direction and there’s now a new, built-in Linux terminal on Android. However, it’s still in early development and not quite as useful as a full desktop environment. So I decided to install a full Linux desktop on my Android, and it performs better than I expected.
What’s actually running on your phone?
You’re not replacing Android, you’re piggybacking on it
First, let’s set some expectations. You’re not dual-booting, you’re not flashing a ROM, and you’re not rooting your phone. Modern Android phones already ship with a Linux kernel under the hood, and tools like Termux combined with proot-distro can install a full Debian or Ubuntu distro on top of that. You add Termux X11 to the mix, which adds a real X server on Android, you’re in business.
On supported devices, you can use the native Linux virtual machine that Android 16 exposes through the Android Virtualization Framework. This gives you an actual Debian VM with its own kernel and hardware isolation. As impressive as that is, it’s limited to a small set of phones (mostly Pixels) at the moment, while the Termux method will work on just about any half-decent Android phone.
Setting it up isn’t hard—but it isn’t simple either
Patience matters more than skill here
I’m not going to sugarcoat this, but if you’ve never dealt with a Linux terminal or installed Linux from scratch on a system, the installation can be a little tricky. It’s not complicated per se, but you have to install a bunch of tools and dependencies in just the right order otherwise you won’t reach the graphical desktop.
Thankfully, there are tons of install scripts available on GitHub that automate this process for you, so instead of installing individual tools, the distribution, and the XFCE desktop, you just run an installation script to install everything automatically. I used the Mobile HackLab script from jarvesusaram99 on GitHub. It installs everything you need, plus a bunch of extra utilities like Firefox, Wget, cURL, VS Code, and even Wine to get you started. It also has a rather friendly terminal interface that tells you exactly what’s going on.
The first step is to install Termux and Termux X11 from their official GitHub repositories. Termux is the terminal we’ll be using to install our Linux distro and Termux X11 is the X server that will display the Linux GUI. Using an X server avoids the extra headroom required to run a VNC server, which results in better performance and less lag.
- OS
-
Android
- Price model
-
Free, Open-source
Termux is an Android app that brings a full Linux terminal environment to your phone, letting you run command-line tools and packages natively.
Once installed, you’ll need to disable Android’s phantom process killer. This option is available in Android developer settings, generally as a Disable child process restrictions toggle. Once you’ve enabled it, restart your phone and you’re good to go.
After your phone restarts, open Termux, and run the following command:
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jarvesusaram99/termux-hacklab/main/install.sh | bash
The command can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, as claimed by the install script, depending on your phone’s processor and internet speed. The entire installation process took less than 10 minutes on my Pixel 9a, with some security tools unable to install.
Next, you need to run the Termux X11 app. Just open the app, minimize it, and head back to the Termux terminal. Once there, run the following command to start the desktop. Then, switch to the Termux X11 app and you should see the Linux desktop.
The moment the desktop finally appears
It’s more useable than you’d probably imagine
The first time XFCE popped up inside Termux X11, it feels more native than you’d think. There’s a taskbar along the top, a whisker menu, a file manager, and everything else you’d expect from Linux just regularly running as it does.
This isn’t some streaming hack from another machine, this is your phone itself running a Debian desktop. Window dragging is fluid, panel animations don’t stutter, and opening the terminal and working in it feels just like it would on a laptop.
I was able to run the full desktop build of Firefox on my phone with a couple of tabs without any slowdowns. If you open htop in a terminal window, you’ll quickly see that while the phone is working hard, it’s not overworked, especially given the low hardware ceiling you’re working with.
Why this feels ridiculously smooth on a phone
No virtualization, no overhead, just an X server
The reason Linux doesn’t turn into a slideshow the moment you start it is because you’re not pushing pixels through VNC. Termux X11 is drawing locally, and you can even lean on the GPU. On Snapdragon phones, enabling the Turnip driver for Adreno means OpenGL workloads can be accelerated instead of falling back on software rendering.
Even on phones with custom processors, like my Pixel 9a which has a Tensor G4 SoC from Google, the rendering was near perfect. The script failed to detect my phone’s GPU and fell back on software rendering, but I didn’t experience any major performance hiccups in my testing.
- OS
-
Android
- Price model
-
Free, Open-source
Termux X11 is a companion app for Termux that provides a native X11 display server, letting you run full Linux GUI desktops and apps directly on Android without needing VNC.
Is Linux on Android actually useful or just nerd bait?
Linux on Android exposes a whole new side of your phone
The short answer is yes. Plug your phone into a USB-C hub, add a keyboard, mouse, and external display, and you’ve got yourself a handy little Linux machine. At this point in time, you’re only limited by your phone’s hardware capabilities, which admittedly, aren’t as great as desktop-grade hardware. Regardless, anything you can do on a desktop Linux machine, you can do here. It’s also a great reason to start using Samsung DeX if you have a compatible phone.
4 things you can do with a Linux terminal on Android that no regular app can match
Your phone is more capable than Android lets on.
This doesn’t replace a proper laptop or desktop, and it won’t make sense for everyone. But the fact that a mid-range Android phone can host a full, reasonably smooth Linux desktop without rooting or installing a custom ROM is evidence to the fact that your phone is massively underused. All you need is some patience and a Termux sessions.
