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Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

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Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#121

Post by wtracy »

swiley wrote: post #110
j-james wrote: post #27

Termux has recently run into issues with Android 10 and the more recent APIs, which break its form of package management. Their workaround is fairly clever (although not yet implemented) but means that updates to the Play Store version have been temporarily put on hold. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...

If you want to do something other than Instagram then don't buy devices that run "mobile" OSes.

What is a handheld device that can make phone calls that you recommend instead?

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#122

Post by saagarjha »

swiley wrote: post #114
saagarjha wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to say that, but the competition isn't all that great so your comment isn't really adding much.

This is the whole "linux desktop isn't there yet" thing but with phones now. It's not shiny but it does work. Continuing to use abusive software is a disservice to yourself and everyone around you.

Linux on the desktop is eminently usable, and many people do use it daily to get work done. I have yet to see someone make something usable for mobile.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#123

Post by opan »

cstross wrote: post #47
thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, what GNU/Linux phone would you recommend? Most of the ones I have read about are still fairly alpha-level products, particularly for the phone software and app ecosystem. I would love to have a fully-functional phone running GNU/Linux that I can use as a phone and carry around in my pocket and then plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and have a "good enough" computer for basic office and programm…

I'd like to note that Termux is totally amazeballs on a Cosmo Communicator: https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/cosmo-communicator Having a proper fold-out QWERTY hardware keyboard makes for an eccentric Android experience, but Termux (or, alternatively, their dual-boot Linux solution) makes a huge difference.

Shame about the keyboard problems, though. They rushed it out before fixing them when the Gemini had them.

A common issue is that alt-tab activates caps lock because alt is adjacent to fn, and fn-tab is caps lock. I'm not an engineer, but I assume it's poorly designed.

I have the Gemini PDA and will never give that company my money again.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#124

Post by bosswipe »

pjmlp wrote: post #89
bosswipe wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate the direction Google is taking Android. They're on an appliance-ification quest trying to hide any exposed linux-ness of the OS, including trying to remove developer access to all file handles. They always claim it's in the name of security but my suspicion is that it's an effort to transition from Linux to Fuchsia.

Android was always about Java (now Kotlin). The NDK was only added in 2.0 to appease game developers and workaround for Dalvik anemic performance. Any access to Linux APIs was accidental and never part of the official native APIs.

But Java has interfaces for interacting with the host OS, for example you can create a file by writing `new File("myfile").createNewFile()` which makes a Linux call under the hood. Android 11 breaks that File API.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#125

Post by wtracy »

varispeed wrote: post #48
bosswipe wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate the direction Google is taking Android. They're on an appliance-ification quest trying to hide any exposed linux-ness of the OS, including trying to remove developer access to all file handles. They always claim it's in the name of security but my suspicion is that it's an effort to transition from Linux to Fuchsia.

For me so far the worst thing Google did was disabling API for call recording. That makes new phones pretty much useless for me. I always record calls, so that I can go back to them if I forget something or that nobody can claim they said something when they didn't (most recently insurance salesperson told me I will have option X if I take their insurance and they once I bought it, there was no such option. Once I pu…

This is more a limitation of smartphone hardware than of Android. In most phones, calls are entirely handled by the baseband processor, and the ARM chip never sees any of the audio data.

Android doesn't expose it because the hardware doesn't expose it to the OS in the first place.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#126

Post by pxeboot »

wtracy wrote: post #121
swiley wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to do something other than Instagram then don't buy devices that run "mobile" OSes.

What is a handheld device that can make phone calls that you recommend instead?

There are several Linux phone projects being worked on right now. Not quite ready for the average user, but the PinePhone [1] is more than capable of making calls right now and is very affordable.

[1] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#127

Post by antocv »

Termux, Termux-api, there is a termux job scheduler thing. Also rsync and openssh on it.

Then you copy the ssh public key from the phone to your "home-server", and setup a job scheduler to run rsync - now you have better than nextcloud syncing of your phones pictures/what-have-you with your home-server.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#128

Post by LibertyBeta »

antocv wrote: post #127

Termux, Termux-api, there is a termux job scheduler thing. Also rsync and openssh on it. Then you copy the ssh public key from the phone to your "home-server", and setup a job scheduler to run rsync - now you have better than nextcloud syncing of your phones pictures/what-have-you with your home-server.

But what's the battery usage? And handling meshing? why not just use Syncthing?

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#129

Post by antocv »

noja wrote: post #18
MarkusWandel wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Syncing photos off. Termux has sshd (you have to start it manually once, then it stays running until Termux is killed or the phone is rebooted). With ssh-copy-id it takes a single command (1-line script) to rsync the phone's DCIM directory to my main machine for further processing. Nothing needs to be done on the phone at all other than to lightly nudge it to wake it up so sshd sees the connection attempt. Downside:…

Alternatives: Resilio Sync: use it in backup mode to sync photos to your desktop pc/mac/nas. Delete photos from phone when you want to free space. Also lets you access and edit normal files, either on demand or by sync. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.resilio.sy... PhotoSync: sync your photos to pretty much anything. https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html

The thing with these apps is, not your suggestion in particular, is its not ever as it was 20 years ago "use this app it does this", now it is, "use this app it will maybe ask to ship your data to NSA or China, ask for account registering signup, for sure it will make some network calls to who knows where and include adtracking and other nastiness, and will nag about some license or buy-up".

Termux, ssh and rsync. Thats it. It works. I tell my phone, try to rsync when its been charging for at least 5 minutes and its evening time. Hurray.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#130

Post by abawany »

pxeboot wrote: post #126
wtracy wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a handheld device that can make phone calls that you recommend instead?

There are several Linux phone projects being worked on right now. Not quite ready for the average user, but the PinePhone [1] is more than capable of making calls right now and is very affordable. [1] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

I was miserable with my PinePhone until I found out about https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch - this is an Arch-based distro that works very well, ime. Previous attempts results in glacial response times, sub-day idle battery drain, broken software updates, and overheating.
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