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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

#141

Post by a_e_k »

sigmonsays wrote: post #2

what do people use this for? While I was really excited when i encountered it, I didn't find any practical uses.

- Stand up an ad-hoc web server with `python -m http.server 8000` and use it fetch some photos onto the desktop over local wifi.

- Having a backup of my private repos and dot files that's always with me. Easily keep them up to date with a pull every now and then.

- Occasionally do some lightweight symbolic math or high precision arithmetic with Emacs' calc.

- Test the portability of a library I've been writing by building and running its test suite on a lower-powered ARM environment.

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

#142

Post by skykooler »

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?

I've been quite happy with a F(x)Tec Pro¹ running Sailfish OS. It's a full Linux environment, and it's the best hardware keyboard I've used on a phone since the Nokia N900.

https://www.fxtec.com/pro1

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

#143

Post by onedr0p »

trynumber9 wrote: post #63
sigmonsays wrote: post #2

what do people use this for? While I was really excited when i encountered it, I didn't find any practical uses.

I rarely use it for more than ssh into work servers on the weekend, downloading videos, or testing code snippets. But it's really nice to be able to use normal iperf rather than looking for some Android application that wraps it and may or may not contain ads.

This. Termux is a great AIO app for a lot of apps available on the Play Store. I use it for running kubectl, ssh, scp, rclone, rsync, etc.. if there is a ARM binary it will most likely run in Termux.

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

#144

Post by onedr0p »

sigmonsays wrote: post #2

what do people use this for? While I was really excited when i encountered it, I didn't find any practical uses.

If there is a ARM64 binary, it will most likely run in Termux. I use it with helm, kubectl, rclone, ssh just to name a few.

ssh is the most used for me because I don't want to use Termius (paid) or some other SSH wrapper app. Termux is free, allows you to easily create ssh keys and use ssh-copy-id.

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

#145

Post by onedr0p »

dr_hooo wrote: post #111
giancarlostoro wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key caveat being that iSH does x86 emulation to achieve this, but otherwise it seems to looks pretty darn nice. I have yet to try it but now that I've switched over to iOS I may just download it to compare usage vs Termux.

Quick question as I'm giving this a spin (thanks!!). How do I go about installing an ssh client? Or is that only available in the testflight version?

SSH works, see their wiki[1] for installing apk. After that run apk add openssh.

1. https://github.com/ish-app/ish/wiki/Installing-apk

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

#146

Post by OJFord »

snazz wrote: post #131
swiley wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

MMS doesn't work on any FOSS non-Android Linux phone I'm aware of, so they definitely do not work for a significant percentage of the population even for basic group text messages. Building an alternative phone OS is much harder than building an alternative desktop OS—the requirements are much higher (battery life, cellular, app support) and the mobile web is far less developed as a stopgap compared to the desktop we…

MMS? Seriously, that's your bar?

I haven't had it working on Android or iOS for years, only realising when it accidentally tries to send.

I just assumed it didn't work because nobody cared.

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

#147

Post by a3n »

sigmonsays wrote: post #2

what do people use this for? While I was really excited when i encountered it, I didn't find any practical uses.

I run sshd on termux, and mount it wirelessly on my laptop via the phone's hotspot with sshfs on the laptop.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20660301

So I can copy photos from phone to laptop and post process with a script.

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

#148

Post by OJFord »

abawany wrote: post #130
pxeboot wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doesn't it run Manjaro by default? (Which is also 'Arch-based'.)

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

#149

Post by onedr0p »

brirec wrote: post #25
jeromenerf wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is great but slow and 32bit.

It’s not that slow...

It took 2-3 minutes to generate a SSH key... I would consider that slow. I still use it almost every day though, I was able to get kubectl to work!

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

#150

Post by notsureaboutpg »

jonny383 wrote: post #138

Termux has saved one of our projects literally tens of thousands of dollars in SMS fees from someone like Twilio. We have a few areas where non urgent SMS reminders need to be sent to users. We literally just use a couple of cheap ($100) Android phones with termux on an unlimited message plan with a local provider (who approved us for commercial usage). The actual process is a glorified bash script that pulls API job…

I love this anecdote. Inventive, cost-effective, simple, understandable, and brilliant. What's not to love
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