61–70 of 349 posts
Time to switch to GNU/Linux phones if you want to own your device.
GNU Phones suck. You have to drastically lower your expectations and pay more for the experience. For instance, Librem 5 USA costs a cool $2,000. That's $2,000 for a phone with specs comparable to phones in the mid 2010s. To make it worse, you would have to expect near-zero support, and healthy dose of RTFM and DIY mindset along with it. Thus, for the vast (and I mean VAST) majority of consumers, Librem and the rest…
For those not following. the TL;DR; is basically termux doesn't want to accept that Linux on Android is only an implementation detail and re-implement the necessary shell like functionality using the Java Frameworks.
1. You can only execute binaries together if they're signed by the same key. 2. Each person has to have a unique signing key. 3. If a user wants to execute a pre-existing software, and something compiled by themselves, both need to be signed by the same key. 4. This means you need to re-package and sign every single program you'd ever want to use together with your own code again, in new packages, and submit it all to Google Play.
This means every Termux user that would want to ever run gcc would have to
(a) submit every single hello world they write to the play store to try it. And every single run requires a full app update, and (b) additionally repackage and submit all linux packages, signed with their own key, to the Play Store.
This means to even compile and run Hello World, you need to submit several hundredthousand packages to the Play Store, wait for approval, and download them all.
Yet at the same time, Google Chrome can use WebAPK and auto-generate APKs on the fly with custom code and install them on the device without going through the Play Store.
The alternative of course is not being able to use a phone as general purpose computing device, but considering Google advertised Android as exactly that, that's getting close to fraud on Google's part, removing functionality after a sale.
While I really, really want a GNU/Linux Android-alternative to succeed, at the moment a good solution for those of us who can't go without Termux is LineageOS [1], an Android fork, comes with a terminal emulator WITH root access (of course you can install Termux if you prefer how it handles packages.) You can also install Play Store apps on it, should you feel so inclined. [1] https://lineageos.org/
How does LineageOS compare to /e/OS?
A disadvantage is it becomes much harder to make things like terminal emulators and things that want to download random code and run it.
But those are by far the minority of apps, and it seems crazy to make a pretty massive security tradeoff for something that 99% of apps don't need to do.
One solution might be a special permission to be allowed to do that, but it seems unlikely a user could really make an informed decision.
Another solution could be to interpret rather than execute the code - you lose a lot of performance, but for people running bash scripts, that might not matter. Using WebAssembly might be a good middle ground.
For those not following. the TL;DR; is basically termux doesn't want to accept that Linux on Android is only an implementation detail and re-implement the necessary shell like functionality using the Java Frameworks.
Not exactly, it doesn't use "java frameworks". I don't exactly remember Implementation details (has been few years since I fiddled with it). It executes binaries same way as any app can do, there may be some JNI involved in the way you get to shell, but that's it. And what's wrong with it? It may be implementation detail but termux increases utility of the phone. It seems you always have an axe against UNIX / FOSS ec…
UNIX compatibility is also what keeps C alive, actually.
Want a CLI? The Java APIs on Android provide all the required features.
The GitHub discussion is significantly more informative and carries a lot of thinking behind the changes: https://github.com/termux/termux-app/issues/1072 IMO a better link than a short paragraph on Wiki.
Note that there are 297 hidden items in that issue so you have to click "Load more..." ceil(297/60) times to read all of the comments about how APK packaging is soon necessary for latest Android devices so the termux package manager can't just dump executable binaries wherever. FWIU: - Android Q+ disallows exec() on anything in $HOME, which is where termux installed binaries that may have been writeable by the execut…
- It seems C compiled with clang on the device wouldn't be executable? (If it was, that would be a way around the restriction: distribute packages as source, like the good old days)
> offer users the option of generating an apk wrapping their native code in a usable way. https://github.com/termux/termux-app/issues/1072#issuecommen...
This seems a promising solution: compile from source, create an apk, install - your custom distribution! For popular collections of packages, a pre-built apk.
- Java might be explicitly blocked, being a system language for android, even though its byecode is interpeted and not exec()ed.
- Other interpreted languages should be OK e.g. python
For those not following. the TL;DR; is basically termux doesn't want to accept that Linux on Android is only an implementation detail and re-implement the necessary shell like functionality using the Java Frameworks.
The actual issue is that Android does not allow executing any code that wasn't downloaded through the play store. And even then only if they're signed by the same user. 1. You can only execute binaries together if they're signed by the same key. 2. Each person has to have a unique signing key. 3. If a user wants to execute a pre-existing software, and something compiled by themselves, both need to be signed by the sa…
As well as programming environments.
I use a couple of them to code on the go.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree - any proof for your statement?
Not OP but that was announced back in March https://www.blog.google/products/android/new-malware-protect...
TL;DR: Android is trying to enforce all data being either writable, or executable, never both. iOS already does this. There are big security benefits (it becomes much harder to exploit an app). A disadvantage is it becomes much harder to make things like terminal emulators and things that want to download random code and run it. But those are by far the minority of apps, and it seems crazy to make a pretty massive se…
TL;DR: Android is trying to enforce all data being either writable, or executable, never both. iOS already does this. There are big security benefits (it becomes much harder to exploit an app). A disadvantage is it becomes much harder to make things like terminal emulators and things that want to download random code and run it. But those are by far the minority of apps, and it seems crazy to make a pretty massive se…
How is ish on iOS circumventing it?
For just running a few bash scripts, it really doesn't matter tho.