So What is Andronix…?

Since February 2020 Samsung decided to end developer beta support for their popular “Samsung Linux on Dex” where by you were able to run a live Ubuntu Linux distribution on selected galaxy devices i.e Note 8/Note 9, Tab S4 and S10 series of devices. This gave developers a chance to develop or test on the linux platform and also opened up possibilities for a typical windows based style computing, all running from a portable smartphone device. This was a big step in the right direction and gave smartphones a definitive purpose for more productivity, as there was support for Microsoft office applications plus the benefit of running linux applications all in the same operating system.

Andronix Modded OS that include Ubuntu Xfce and KDE, Debian Xfce and Manjaro Xfce. These are pre-configured to save your time in debugging those pesky bugs and build fails.
All the essential software like VSCode, Chromium, Firefox etc. are pre-installed. Jetbrain IDEs are fully supported. You can use sudo because you have a non-root account by default, a great thing to have. The feature list is endless so here’s a link to help you more.

Andronix is not at all limited to only installing Linux but has so many cool features. One of the main highlights of the app besides the Linux part is Andronix Commands. It allows you to save your most used terminal commands (at least we have made it for that, but you might use it for any other purpose :p) to the cloud and then access them on any internet-connected device with our web-app.

Things You Will Need….

1. An Android handset or tablet ( check for compatible devices )
2. Software to run the application: Andronix, VNC Viewer, Termux, PRoot
3. All software is available at the google play store ( check links below )
4. A reasonable fast internet connection to download and install software
5. Check Specifications of your device, make sure it has enough ram to run the linux distrobutions
6. A dedicated keyboard & a mouse to input commands
7. A monitor with a HDMI input so you can connect your device

What is Linux..? And what can i do with it..?

Linux is an open source operating system of which we can programs like we do on windows or macs however, everything is open source or essentially free but you also have many different versions or flavours to choose from in terms of running a computer Os. Popular choices are Ubuntu, Kali, Debian, Manjaro, Arch, Fedora and there are many others, but with that we also have desktop environments. If you are looking for an alternative solution to computing and fancy running the same software on a portable android device as well as your home computer then you have come to the right place. Learning the Linux desktop computing is very similar to what we already know and love, and is growing very much in popularity everyday for its secure handling of data, to running websites and small businesses, you can now also run dedicated linux smartphones with the same level of security and open source objectives in regards to security and personal data protection. If you are a Raspberry-pi user this will also connect with you linux echo system with its free and open source technology at your disposal.

How to get started…

Installing Linux on Desktops is difficult than installing that on your Android Device 😅. Here’s the step by step guide on how to do it but before that let me introduce Andronix, an app made with 💙 for Android, Linux and is proudly open-source (Linux back-end is completely open-source).
Andronix lets you install Linux on your non-rooted Android devices with just a couple of clicks.

More info – https://andronix.app

1. Install Andronix from the Google Play Store. Here’s a link to make that easier for you. Now Install Termux from here.
2. Open the app and select your favourite distribution that you want to install.
3. Click on Install, this should bring up an installation sheet. Click on Copy and paste the copied command in the Termux app and run it by pressing the enter key on your keyboard.
4. Wait till the installation completes and then you have to start the Linux instance just by using the start script. Like ./start-ubuntu.sh for Ubuntu or ./start-kali.sh for Kali Linux
5. This should bring up the terminal for the distro you’ve installed. Now from here, it’s your call either to use a bare-bone Linux terminal or install a Desktop Environment to make it look pretty and in essence, usable.
6. You can choose from XFCE, LXQt, LXDE or MATE (KDE is only available with one of our Andronix Modded OS). To select a desktop environment return to the app and scroll down in the installation sheet to find the section for the environment. Click on the one you want to install and paste that in your Linux shell (Your Linux Shell will look something like *$ root@username** after using the start script.*)
7. Here you are now with a full-fledged Linux desktop on your Android phone. Just use this guide to connect to a VNC client.

Need some help..?

Here are a few links that can help you –
YouTube tutorial – https://tinyurl.com/andronixYoutube
Andronix Docs – https://docs.andronix.app
Andronix GitHub – https://github.com/andronixApp
Official website – https://andronix.app
Tutorials and Blogs – https://blog.andronix.app

Discord – https://discord.gg/jywhBH4

Donation

Andronix is an open-source project. It is completely ad-free. Please consider doing an in-app purchase or donating us.
Donations – https://andronix.app/donation/

written by the Android Arcitect. special thanks to dev.to and “Prakhar Shukla” the developer behind this android / linux software architecture….