Android 16 lets the Linux Terminal use your phone's entire storage | Hacker News Reader

Android 16 lets the Linux Terminal use your phone's entire storage

androidauthority.com

45 pointssipofwater24 comments

This is about the size of virtual disk of the Linux VMs this app can create in the newer versions of Android - and has nothing to do with actually accessing all of Android's internal filesystem.

I don't think this will be useful in the long run.

Using termux to ssh into my dev box already gets me access to a full Linux machine. I also think it's preferable relative to what Google is doing here creating a VM under a VM with weird bugs.

or it means we don't have to install termux anymore

still installing termux tho

Out of curiosity, how is this VM under a VM?

Android runs Java, which runs on the JVM.

Debian code won't converted into Java bytecode, though, so it won't run on the JVM. If it's the ARM version, it'll probably just run directly on the CPU.

The VM that runs Linux is not implemented in Java. It uses a variant of KVM called pKVM. (pKVM allows for mutually distrusted execution environments: https://source.android.com/docs/core/virtualization/security.)

Uh, this is wrong on different levels.

The java bytecode gets translated to a different virtual machine, dalvik/dex (iirc) so no jvm involved.

Other than that, afaik, there’s also a native development kit if you need to call into native code (c/c++/whatever).

My nerdy guess is they might be planning to integrate Android and Chrome OS to make something like Samsung DeX, especially given the recent, somewhat half-baked Type-C Alt mode support on the Pixel 8 and later models.

BTW, Termux is awesome, but it has its downsides, like no proper thumb drive support due to Android SAF limitations. Yesterday, I went down the rabbit hole trying to access a CircuitPython virtual flash drive via SSH using Termux. (I actually opened this post hoping for something on that, but nope.)

Using termux to ssh into my dev box already gets me access to a full Linux machine. I also think it's preferable relative to what Google is doing here creating a VM under a VM with weird bugs.

It's not a VM running under a VM, but instead uses Linux (p)KVM.

Indeed, I installed this Android Linux, used it for ten minutes, then uninstalled and went back to Termux real quick.

Termux has gotten more and more hosed over by Android SDK changes, hosed by Google locking down storage, and what bits of data can be run.

Its already to the point where Termux is only available on F-droid, & is stuck on Android 9 levels of the SDK.

I also think there's different use cases than an ssh app. If you just need an ssh app, then why even bother with Termux (because .ssh/config is a pretty well known is somewhat of an answer but still doesn't require termux).

Supposedly Android has Wayland support too. Being able to run a VM witg GUI Linux apps is potentially very exciting. With hope it sparks real interest, increases the amount of people using Linux, alike how WSL2 has done.

> I also think there's different use cases than an ssh app. If you just need an ssh app, then why even bother with Termux (because .ssh/config is a pretty well known is somewhat of an answer but still doesn't require termux).

You still need to run your ssh client somehow, and last time I looked termux+openssh was straight-up a nicer experience than anything else I could find on Android (which I always found funny, but there it is).

by "phone" they mean pixel, so the title should read "google lets other stuff use google, sometimes"

It's a part of open source android project.

You're welcome to use the code if you want, other phone manufacturers can use it, you can fork and develop your own version without google's permission.

open source android project, as in, Android Open Source Project (AOSP)? The one Google is actively trying to kill in order to hold Android hostage in their antitrust negotiations?

Anyone is welcome to fork AOSP before Google kills it. Maybe you're the savior the world needs?

How are they actively trying to kill it? Never heard of that but I'm interested. I like AOSP.

Probably was referring to https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/google-makes-android...

Yes, it's technically part of AOSP, but in typical Google/ARM/Android ecosystem fashion, it only works on Pixels because it depends on pKVM/AVF, which is currently only usable on Pixels, due to several reasons:

- pKVM relies on specific hardware features, such as ARM's Virtualization Host Extensions (VHEs) and IOMMUs, which are not universally present in all Android devices (eg many Mediatek SoCs, often found in budget phones lack this).

- pKVM requires the device's bootloader to support and enable execution at Exception Level 2 (EL2). Pixels have this thanks to their in-house SoC, but almost no other mainstream Android SoC supports EL2, as far as I'm aware (Qualcomm have their own tech called HypX and it can't co-exist with EL2, similarly Exynos have a thing called RKP. So in both SoCs you're limited to EL1, which isn't sufficient for pKVM).

- pKVM also requires device-specific vendor modules/firmware to glue the whole thing together, which is something that OEMs need to provide - and it's not something that an end-user/developer can just whip up themselves.

So yes, while the Linux Terminal is technically part of AOSP, it's pretty much useless on non-Pixels due to pKVM/AVF's design and requirements.

does this allow running applications which need FUSE? I know for termux that's only possible with root.

Maybe this could become a solution to the shitshow of a problem with Android APIs that make it impossible for any music player app to let user delete locally saved music files?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com