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Update 'Linux desktop in an old Android tablet.'

Guillem Borrell Nogueras 2022-08-07 09:10:54 +02:00
parent b4ceba464d
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Linux-desktop-in-an-old-Android-tablet..md

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I bought a cheap tablet some years ago, a Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2016). It's very modest in terms of performance: 8 cores (although only 4 of them are actually useful), and 2 GB of RAM, but it's still useful.
I bought a cheap tablet some years ago, a Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2016). It's very modest in terms of performance: 8 cores (although only 4 of them are actually useful), and 2 GB of RAM, but it's still fine for watching movies and keep my daughter entertained. It becomes even more useful if I can eventually do some work with it, which means installing some development tools in it.
I used to run some linux applications with [Termux](https://termux.dev/en/), but all my attempts to update the application were unsuccessful. Termux used to be available in the Playstore, but now I have to install F-droid, and enable a good amount of additional permissons just for an unsuccessful install attempt.
I used to run some linux applications with [Termux](https://termux.dev/en/), but all my attempts to update the application were unsuccessful. Termux used to be available in the Playstore, but now I have to install F-droid, and enable a good amount of additional permissons just for an unsuccessful install attempt. The issue with Termux is that it's a monolith, and it either installs or not.
Running the usual linux userspace applications is really useful to test systems stuff and I don't have any linux server handy, so I decided to spend a couple more hours finding an alternative.
[UserLAnd](https://userland.tech/), is a relatively tiny application that allows to run multiple linux distributions and applications in Android. You can easily find it in the Playstore. It's simpler and it provides more features than Termux, like running a full destop linux distro on Android. That's exactly what I tried, but I was unsuccessful too (this is what happens when you try to install stuff in a table that's more than 5 years old), so I went the hacker way. The terminal installs successfully, and from this to a desktop, you only have to get VNC to work.
I found [UserLAnd](https://userland.tech/), a tiny application that allows to run multiple linux distributions and applications in Android. It's simpler and it provides more features than Termux. What you want a linux distro running in Android, you I tried to run the desktop version of Ubuntu, but I was unsuccessful too, so I went the hacker way.
Getting tigervnc to work was not trivial either. For some reason, the Ubuntu binary is not able to load the right runtime, and the server has to be invoked with the following command:
```
LD_PRELOAD=/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libgcc_s.so.1 vncserver
```
And we have a desktop!
![](https://git.guillemborrell.es/guillem/know/src/branch/main/pics/tab-linux.png)
The desktop runs the [awesome](https://awesomewm.org/) window manager, and the midori browser. And this is pretty much the best you can get. If you try to install Firefox on a 2GB tablet you'll crash any tab you open.
Finally, you need a VNC client. I tend to use the Android version of the RealVNC client, that has copy-paste support, and it's able to reset the server's screen size. It also maps the screen touch to a cursor very nicely. It's not free (as in freedom), but it's clearly the best tool for the job. You only have to point the client to `localhost:5901`, and that's it.