With the latest release of android it now supports some Linux functionality. I got docker installed simply by following Docker’s docs.
Any thoughts or uses for a mobile homelab? What would be useful to have mobile?
The change maker feature would be to arrive home and plug your phone in a dock station and have a desktop to use as a pc
This has been supported on Samsung devices for years - it was first added to the Galaxy S8 (2017). It’s called Samsung DeX. You can plug a phone or tablet into a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and it gives you a full screen experience.
They have docking stations, but you can also just use a USB C hub.
I’ve been talking about this for years! I got the idea from razer but I’m imagining the laptop chassis adds a nice screen, enormous battery, better IO, and then it just uses the touch screen as the track pad.
It could be so cool
This is simultaneously cool and cursed af.
I dont think I so much want this for my phone as for my homemade AndroidTV boxes. Losing the Linux functionality after switching from Kodi/libreelec had been my biggest pain point.
Can’t wait to see my TV boxes show up in my Beszel dashboard!
Can you tell me more about these homemade android TV boxes? I built a really shitty front end to “turn” my Linux based mini PCs into a media streamer but it lacks things like Chromecast and reliability haha
I have two TV boxes, one is a Raspberry pi 4, the other is a pi 5. I installed KonstaKANG’s android port for the Pi’s. Depending on your familiarity with flashing the Pi’s this video from Explaining Computers offers a way to get Konsta installed through PINN. Once they’re up and running they act just like a cellphone. This remote works really well.
Install f-droid, and/or obtainium, and/or Aurora Store and you can install whatever apps you want on the box.
I don’t personally use Chromecast, so I can’t vouch for that working. Mine is more centered around consuming Jellyfin (jellyfin android tv app), youtube (newpipe), podverse, and Radiodroid
I really liked Kodi, but could never get it to correctly sync across devices so I finally went the android route. I’ve been pretty happy
Feel free to pick my brain if you have more questions
Ah okay. The Chromecast thing is a killer feature I’ve been looking for, my media PC that I have now is pretty good, just doesn’t have that one thing.
The day Docker works on Android, I’m settled.
my friends complaining that my plex server because I left my phone on the bus and it ran out of charge
The lines between mobile device and server get blurred even more.
Tbh a laptop is a “mobile” device
It’s a server with integrated UPS and KVM console.
Except for that time I took out the battery because it was swollen and took the screen off to help with cooling. At least I still have my K and M
@towerful @baatliwala For real though, I use old laptops for self-hosting so that I never have to dig up a monitor & keyboard.
I’m assuming your phone has to be rooted for this right? Or is docker running without root? I didn’t realize anything like this was possible. This is interesting.
I’ve never tried it on Android, but running Docker in rootless mode is doable, and is encouraged for security reasons. https://docs.docker.com/engine/security/rootless/
Nipe! Not rooted. In a VM though
With the latest release of android it now supports some Linux functionality.
Wait, it does? Gonna have to check that out.
Early alpha, but yea it’s full on Linux in Android. Quite slick
Is it an app I should be able to just find in my installed apps or do I need to enable it?
Because as of now (Pixel 7, Android 15) I can only find Termux.You have to be on the March update, then go to Developer options -> Linux environment, and enable it. Then ‘Terminal’ will appear in your apps drawer.
deleted by creator
Dope, seems to not have landed yet in LineageOS but the Terminal app is already installed. Just missing the toggle in the developer options.
That’s cool! I’ve always had the idea of a small k3s cluster on old phones with postmarketOS. I guess it doesn’t work with older phones which don’t have the latest Android Version but given the homelab trend generally goes towards small, low power devices, this could continue the trend with super small and low power phones. Probably in 2 years when current gen phones rotate out of company leasing contracts?
Oh man that’d be super cool. An ARM cluster of androids would be awesome. Battery backups built in!
Debian is supposedly coming to android. That would be cool.
That’s Debian in the screenshot
Oh nice! I can’t see very well on phone.
What is the current wisdom about having an android device always plugged in? Some people say that it will kill and pillow the battery, but does it really?
The trick of retrofitting any battery powered device into a wired one is to remove the battery. No matter what, Li-ion batteries cannot sustain permanent power. Expensive adapters and new Androids can regulate power well, as can automations, but the best worry-free option is battery removal.
Edit: I’ve just remembered Fairphone, they’re bossing the mobile repair ability front and have removable batteries like pre-2012. Could get one of those
In the past people used tasker to charge at a certain threshold. Check with homeassistant people to see what they do.
I don’t know. I think they are pretty good at managing battery, and have a new setting for maxing it out at 80% charge, but I don’t think I’d put it near anything expensive for years on end.
I can see my 5 year old android mobile struggling being a suitable self hosting machine… (Because of the battery).
But not gonna lie, having it working as a more advanced travel router connect to Tailscale sounds like a neat idea (which I think it is already possible? The other day I saw the client app that supports subnet routers? I just haven’t tried it, and it has a disclaimer that it drains the battery… So I didn’t end up doing that at that moment when I was away).
Get steam-headless running on there
While this is very exciting, I just tried it, and the network connectivity seems to be broken. No IPv6.
I can’t get it to have network connection while my phone is on cellular data. On wifi it’s fine.
I just checked, and I have connectivity while on cellular. Maybe (just wild speculation) your mobile network is IPv6-only? Android (not Linux) should list 192.0.0.4 as an IP address in that case.
It’s probably that. While on cellular my IP isn’t 192.0.0.4 (but it is in 10. space), but there’s probably some v6 somewhere in the way.
Hmm I was messing with its networking. External vpns break stuff on GrapheneOS. Its internal IP was 192.168.0.2, and my network is different.
Yes, Linux is running in a VM, and the network interface is a virtualized veth interface connected to a host bridge. The host android system has IP address 192.168.0.1, and this network interface is called avf_tap_fixed (as seen from termux).
Just installed arch with chroot on my old rooted phone a week ago.
Seeing this is great because it means there’s no need for complicated workarounds or even root access! Plus the distro runs natively and not with difficulties like with chroot :D
Native in what sense? As I understand it that uses a VM of some sort
You’re right actually it’s not native I don’t know what I’m on about 😅 Still it’s much easier to have a baked in terminal app than having to install proot on top of termux, hopefully it will have less of a performance impact than proot as well.
How do we activate this feature? I have it enabled after going into the developer settings menu but nothing seems to happen, I see mentions of an app but idk what the app is. I am on grapheneOS though instead of normal android so there could be something with that here.
Oh nvm I figured it out, it just took a bit for me to realize there was a new terminal app on my phone
