Like old PCs and laptops, there are many ways to reuse an old smartphone. If he has a functional camera, you can transform it into a makeshift webcam for your PC, or even a complete surveillance system using a frigate server. Alternatively, you can use your touch screen to build a reliable home assistant dashboard. Or, if you are as much in productivity as I can even reuse it in a flow bridge.
But what about transforming an Android phone into a domestic server – which could compete with a Raspberry Pi? This shower thought of another, and I thought I could try this project. After all, I have already tried to run PC games on my smartphone, so the execution of Linux containers should not be so difficult, right? Well, not quite. Due to non -root limitations, I could only execute a few distros on my phone, and I finally ended up with a configuration that is better for the distribution than the execution of containerized services.
Choose the right packages for this configuration
In the end, I went for a configuration of Temux + Proot-Distro
The biggest challenge of this project was to find a configuration that would work reliably without rooting my phone. At the time, I used to jailbreaker my phones just after buying them. But with all the restrictions on modern applications, I thought it would be better to avoid following the root road.
Unfortunately, the simple method for containers in progress requires a rooted device – even personalized nucleus modules in certain cases. This restriction meant that I had to seek an alternative. The execution of virtual machines – even those via the chroot – had a similar problem on unarmed devices.
This left me bypassing solutions involving Termux, a powerful terminal emulator that I often use for my Android projects. A little conviction on Github led me to Protot-Distro, which seemed to be the perfect package for this experience. What he does is essentially create a proot environment (variant of the user space of the chroot), where I could tinker with Linux distributions to the content of my heart. I did not know that it would take me soon during a distribution trip.
DIY LINUX distros on Android
Proot-Distro worked well at first
With all the preparations completed, it was time to launch this project in second speed. After having executed PKG Install Prot-Distro inside Termux, I wanted a few minutes for the command to remove the necessary packages. Then, I managed Prot-Distro Install Debian to start installing a Debian environment on my smartphone. Once the installation was completed, I executed Debian de Prot-Distro de Debian to enter Debian, and of course, the King of Vanilla Distros was operational in my smartphone.
As I could not perform packages with the Sudo privileges, I started updating my packages with the orders of the update and the APT upgrade. After that, I tried to install normal packages, including Dokuwiki. But most of the packages failed immediately. I also tried to install Docker, which threw errors in my own way. Without being discouraged by failure, I moved my attention to Podman, who also refused to run. With hindsight, this was perfectly logical, because I should make certain modifications to the kernel so that the container is operational on my phone.
But I couldn’t operate the essential proogs
After having traveled Github a little more, I came across the promotable repository. As you may have already guessed from the name, it is a collection of applications from Linuxserver Génies developers who are supposed to be executed in a proot environment. So I started by installing some of those inside my Debian virtual machine. Unfortunately, those designed for typical Docker containers, like NextCloud, did not work on my configuration. What is interesting is that the error code has mentioned Qemu (or rather, its absence), which should not even be required by the application.
However, I thought I could try to perform the packages on a different distribution. Fedora has a better support for Podman, so I thought I could try to execute the container runting on a different distribution – which did not work so well either. Then I tried to execute Prot-Apps in an Arch Linux configuration, while other distros refused to work completely. And it was the last part that bothers me the most …
I went to the Termux-Pent-Distro REPO
But by then, I had lost sight of the initial project
Although Debian, Fedora and Arch “worked”, I realized that I could not install many applications without any PKG error – and that includes something as simple as Neofetch. So I made a last attempt as a ditch after meeting the GitHub Termux-Pantsting-Distro repository. It turns out that this refo -neat does not only manage a plethora of nice distributions, but also works with many applications. Although I cannot operate window managers or office environments, I was able to install many distros on my smartphone.
Similarly, I was also able to install Emacs, Neovim and other essential Linux applications on the references of New Distro. The problem? To date, I had completely deviated from my initial goal of running the containers and that I had swiveled entirely to tinker with fresh distributions. For my defense, my lizard brain could not help exciting the Linux distributions dam – especially when there was a couple which I had not even heard in the past the names that I had not even heard. Then there is the fact that each Linux flavor sent with Neofetch as soon as the box is released, and if there is something that I like more than distribution, it is the neofetch cool widget.
For the moment, I was satisfied with the strange configuration of the distribution I had configured, especially since I could not find a way to operate the essential containers on my smartphone. I plan to root a different and slightly older phone in the near future, so I can repress this experience with appropriate Docker and Podman containers.
