Termux: The app that enables a parallel Linux installation under Android

Termux is not only a terminal emulation app; it also provides a built-in out-of-the-box Linux environment (no rooting required). This Linux environment includes a repository with about 1,000 software packages, installable via the APT package manager.

The repository includes packages of the following categories:

• editors
• programming languages
• servers
• network tools
• security tools
• system tools
• archive tools
• document tools
• audio tools
• image tools
• video tools
• etc.

There is an additional repository with packages, which require root privileges (mostly network tools). Another repository for providing a graphical user interface, which could for instance be accessed locally or remotely with a VNC client. The third repository includes new/unstable packages. Beside these official Termux repositories, third-party repositories hosted by community members could be used.

Other Linux environments

The Termux repository includes the PRoot package, which provides chroot functionality without root privilege requirements. With that it is possible to install the content of raw filesystems of other Linux distributions, provided the appropriate CPU architecture is supported.

E.g. I tried the following distributions successfully on different architectures (X86_64, AArch64):

• Fedora
• Alpine

With the installation of a distribution like Fedora, a vast number of packages become available (e.g. almost 50,000). True, not all are usable, mostly because of:

• memory requirements
• specific daemons must be running
• /dev and /sys directory read access required
• /dev write access required
• kernel feature requirements (no modules available and not allowed to load anyway)

I use a Linux environment under Termux mostly for testing purposes, such as:

• C/C++ compiler for compiling programs for run time speed comparison (e.g. PC vs. smartphone vs. tablet)
• IP PBX on a smartphone

Currently, it is just a gimmick. My smartphone does not have that much memory. But it might be possible, that in the future you could also use your smartphone as "laptop", "desktop", "set-top box", "multimedia box", etc., connecting it to different external I/O devices (wireless keyboard, wireless mouse/touchpad, motion sensors, wireless desk/wall display, AR smart glass, wireless earphones/headset, wireless speakers, etc.), depending on use case.