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Comment by bibyte | Hacker News Reader

Another related app is Termux. It can't run full Linux distro but it is much more lightweight and it has a pretty active community at /r/termux.

Termux wiki: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Main_Page Termux repo: https://github.com/termux/termux-app Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/

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It works surprisingly well, and you can even share storage with the local Android system through termux-setup-storage.

I've been using this for years and it's the primary reason I really enjoy Android. Another comment mentioned iSH for iPhone, but the comparison between iSH and Termux is no contest - Termux on my 6-year-old Motorola Photon Q runs much better than iSH on my 6S. Plus the Photon has a full keyboard!

edit: Not only that, I attempted to run UserLAnd before, and it does not do well on my old phones with slow, small storage. UserLAnd is fun for playing around, but Termux is, for me, where the real action happens. It's my most-used Android app.

I love termux.

The virtual keyboard integration is neat:

* Volume keys do ctrl and alt

* You can type into an intermediate text area to use the usual glide typing and spell checking.

Stuff that caught me out:

The root apps repository needs to be manually enabled. `pkg install root-repo`

Swiping from the left edge lets you manage multiple sessions.

My only problem is not being able to fully use an external SD card.

What problems do you have with external SD cards ? I use Termux and don't keep any data in-device, always in encrypted SD cards via device reader or attached via USB OTG. I haven't had any issues.

Edit : My devices are rooted.

I'm also interested if you can use a sdcard fully with termux without root. I think it's not possible.

As far as I know you can only use a specific path like described here: https://github.com/termux/termux-app/issues/954#issuecomment...

But a specific path is not a big deal once you get accustomed to it.. the external sdcard is anyway mostly a FAT serial number path so going a few levels deeper is not a big deal.

btw: Just finished a rsync transfer to sdcard with Termux today ;)

Yeah termux is amazing but it has some discoverability issues. It took me ages to discover that long-pressing the keyboard button pulls up the helper bar. I don't know that I ever did find docs for how to use some of the Android interop features (widget, share to termux, etc.).

In termux you can use proot and run other linux distributions in a container. Here is a script that automatically instals debian on termux:

https://github.com/sp4rkie/debian-on-termux

You are right. I had simply forgotten about proot.

There is even gcc, fortran, scipy and julia repo for termux. See here:

https://github.com/its-pointless/gcc_termux

And Rust. It allows a great pocket programming environment.

I just tried installing golang and its available

Also nodejs if you are into that kind of stuff. I use it to spin up simple local webservers.

You can even use nodejs' autocannon to benchmark your Rust webserver. That works too.

https://github.com/mcollina/autocannon

and picolisp

I love Termux, it has gotten me out of a tight situation more than once. I lets me ssh into my machines while in the pub or someplace where I'm not bringing my laptop.

ConnectBot[0] is pretty great for this too.

Especially when combined with Hacker's Keyboard[1].

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.connectbot

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...

Maybe UserLAnd was/is relying on ConnectBot?

I have Termux installed but haven't really explored it much yet.

Q: Does anyone use a somewhat recent smartphone, Termux, and a bluetooth keyboard? How well does it work for ad-hoc systems administration over SSH, or command-line tasks like text processing using awk/sed/vim? My beloved LG V20 phone is still pretty much perfect for me and I don't want to give it up any time soon!

These GNU tools are really optimized so they will work well on even the cheapest Android phone. If you are comfortable with the small screen it should work.

I use an original Google pixel and a cheap $20 keyboard and have done some basic scripting etc on it.

Main problem is tmux doesn't work well on it. Otherwise vim is pretty great, for example. It's actually even pretty usable without the Bluetooth keyboard thanks to the volume keys being a fn layer and ctrl

emacs works pretty well. even the touch scroll gestures are translated into scolling in emacs. and changing the buffer by touch also works. so you can use emacs eshell and a keyboard and it is perfect.

Emacs does work pretty well in Termux, but on Ubuntu Touch you can run full X11/GTK Emacs, which is nice. (I suppose you could do the same thing via Termux with an X11 session.)

i use hackers keyboard because it has all the needed keys like control and alt and it works very nicely together with emacs. or you can startup jupyter notebook and use firefox as front end.

I do on a Pixel 3. Sometimes I'll SSH into my desktop, sometimes I'll work on it directly, both using tmux and vim. I love everything about this setup except the screen size.

use this setup daily Without a Bluetooth keyboard. Buy any modern android from blackberry (before they go out of business).

the keyboards lack esc, tab etc. but since they have a ctlr key yoiu can work around most of that. If you can still find, the best keyboard layout and performance is the priv model. avoid the Key2LE.

works well for me with a nexus 5x and foldable bt keyboard. also if you have a google chromecast you can turn any hdmi monitor/tv into your display. you can zoom in and out by 'pinching' in termux and make the text suitable for any display

Just installed it and it looks quite polished in terms of UI - the wiki is great too and I was able to setup two way ssh between my phone (Nexus 6P) and pc (Ubuntu 18.10) with access to all my files/photos etc. I was able to scp from my PC to phone which is awesome for one-off needs (I use syncthing for more general syncing).

I love Termux too. I used it on my Chromebook while I waited for Crostini to land for my hardware.

It's on my phone though I don't really do much besides to play around. It's pretty awesome if you have a bluetooth keyboard.

Termux is also great on Chromebooks. I use it a lot, it reminds me of Cygwin, i.e. not really Linux but 90% of what most Linux users would use routinely.

Chromebooks with recent(ish) kernels now support honest-to-goodness (virtualized) Linux[1]. It doesn't even need to be a high-end Chromebook - Linux runs well on a 2GB Samsung Chromebook 3 which was going for $100 over the holidays.

1. https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en

Just installed it and it's great - thanks for the heads-up.

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