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Installations and Linux File System

Termux is Linux environment emulator for Android. It is easy to install and and allows straightforward implementations of Linux packages and apps, various distros emulations and has a lot of extra features.

Abstract​

Basic installations you will need. The experiments will be on unrooted device only. About Termux. Other Linux distros, using KeX. GUI.

  • illustration

Starting Up: Linux Installation and Setup​

Step 1.: Installing F-Droid​

F-Droid is Android app repository for free and open source (FOSS) software. It is similar to digital distribution service like Google Play, but it has the newest version of Termux. You will install F-Droid from .apk from https://www.f-droid.org/.

Step 2.: Installing Termux and Termux API​

Find Termux in F-Droid catalogue and install it. Then find and install Termux API the same way (do not mix with versions from Google Play or other sources, since they have different versions and signature keys).

You can also install the API from the terminal by running

apt install termux-api

Step 3.: Setting up Repositories and Update​

Run Termux, the terminal window will appear. Try to update the system by running

apt update && apt upgrade -y

If you get this error, change the repository using

termux-change-repo

Select all three repos in the first menu, in the second menu change to f.i. GitHub repository (second from top). Then run the update/upgrade command. It is suggested to update/upgrade in a week or so for security reasons, upgrades are not performed automatically by the system.

  • screenshots x2
  • Termux

Using Terminal​

After updating the system apt update && apt upgrade -y, try to install some apps. Let us begin with neofetch, a system info bash script.

apt install neofetch -y
  • Run neofetch, or neofetch --help for more options.
  • Install help2man, to generate a page for a reference from the program output

Linux File System​

  • structure of installation

Accessing Files in Termux Installation​

  • Material Files
  • Adding the storage to file manager

Cloud Storage​

  • using file managers

Using GUI and Desktops​

  • scripts and apps
  • monitor outputs and interfaces

VMOS and Termux​

At the time of writing this book, it is not yet possible to fully run Termux on VMOS Pro (Virtual Android Machine). It is possible to install, but due to root restrictions the Termux system will not update nor upgrade – rendering it unusable for our advanced experiments.

Conclusion​

Now there is a Linux terminal up and running on your unrooted mobile Android device. How cool is that?

We will proceed with installations of some useful packages in the next chapter.