[HN Gopher] Run Linux containers on Android, no root required
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Run Linux containers on Android, no root required
Author : politelemon
Score : 206 points
Date : 2026-04-03 22:23 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| ilsubyeega wrote:
| curious is this just software qemu(not sure what word exactly
| was) instead of virtualization acceleration, probably more
| overheads?
| meltyness wrote:
| https://github.com/ExTV/Podroid/blob/3f7d19dee63e24e0bd36c22...
| not sure
| NewJazz wrote:
| Itbsays it doesnt use kvm, so i thinj that meens no accel.
| em500 wrote:
| Yes, under _How It Works_ :
|
| > libqemu-system-aarch64.so (QEMU TCG, no KVM)
|
| TCG means software emulation
| kristianp wrote:
| I thought why is qemu used here? Why not use linux native
| namespaces and cgroups.
| NewJazz wrote:
| Permissions. Isolation.
| Retr0id wrote:
| so, like namespaces and cgroups?
| figmert wrote:
| Android kernel has the relevant kernel parameters
| disabled. It is entirely possible to run containers
| directly on android, but it requires enabled the relevant
| parameter (iirc no recompilation need, just a cmdline
| change). But this of course requires root.
| TheRoque wrote:
| With this I could in theory do all my work from my Android phone.
| figmert wrote:
| This can probably be upstreamed into podman. Podman already has
| supports using a VM using podman machine (uses different tech
| under the hood depending on the OS). This seems like it can be
| yet another backend for it.
| functional_dev wrote:
| That would be great
| ggm wrote:
| And local FS access is mediated how?
| nullbyte808 wrote:
| Is it possible to get the reverse of this working? (Waydroid with
| play services on Linux phones, such as postmarketOS)
| vimredo wrote:
| Why wouldn't it? All you need is a binder device for Android
| IPC and root access to launch Waydroid. It should work
| perfectly fine when installed and used with Wayland.
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| I've been using Waydroid with microG on a Librem 5 with PureOS
| for years. Not extensively as I don't have a lot of reasons to
| boot Android, but when I do have one it's there.
|
| I've seen some guides for installing Play Services in Waydroid,
| but personally I'm not interested.
| unicornporn wrote:
| The latest Waydroid beta is over three years old. Waydroid is
| dead and I haven't found an alternative.
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| The latest stable release of Waydroid is from little over a
| month ago. The Android image it uses by default is based on
| Android 13, which is fresh enough to do its job.
| jansommer wrote:
| One could also try Android 15 and 16 on Waydroid:
| https://github.com/WayDroid-ATV/waydroid-builds/releases
| nixosbestos wrote:
| I just want a folding portable monitor now. We're getting so
| close...
| volemo wrote:
| I've heard Samsung makes something like that. :D
|
| https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/galaxy-z-trifold/
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I use xreal one pro for that, works well.
| Antitoxic6185 wrote:
| tmux with proot distros exist though
| vimredo wrote:
| I don't understand what this would be useful for. The Linux
| terminal app on Android (check Developer settings if you want it)
| already exists and it uses hardware accelerated virtualization,
| while this uses QEMU with TCG. The Linux terminal app also
| supports running a DE (No VNC - as in no VNC, not NoVNC -
| required!), has full shell, full root, all the features of
| Podroid, and hell, you could even swap out the terminal if you
| wanted to. The only advantage to this seems that it supports
| Android 14, 15, and 16. Am I missing something, or does this have
| no purpose?
| j45 wrote:
| Sometimes the capability unlocks the possibilities.
| m132 wrote:
| But does it synergize paradigms?
| j45 wrote:
| Creating a new capability is like making a new flashlight.
|
| Maybe the new light can see wider, or further and you see
| something you didn't before that was possible.
|
| You can synergizr the looksmaxing while cooking if you like
| :)
| nagaiaida wrote:
| you seem to have articulated precisely the advantage that makes
| it serve a purpose for me: supporting the version of android on
| my phone. presumably i am far from unique in not having android
| 16
| gbil wrote:
| My understanding is that the integrated linux terminal is not
| supported on all processors like snapdragon ones and also is
| not available on all manufactures like Samsung. Therefore this
| approach covers a much bigger audience.
| microtonal wrote:
| I think it was only available on Google Pixel until recently.
| As far as I understand, some Samsung Exynos devices support
| it (e.g. Z Flip 7, non-US S26 with Exynos), but not
| Snapdragon devices, which don't seem to support non-protected
| VMs yet:
|
| _Error code: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Non-
| protected VMs are not supported on this device_
| gbil wrote:
| I can find it on my S25fe with exynos android 16/oneui 8.0
| _if_ I search for it in the setting but is greyed out. I
| wait for 8.5 to see if it is enabled then and is the only
| time I 'm happy to have an exynos device!
| fg137 wrote:
| Can confirm -- seeing the same error on a Samsung
| Snapdragon device when attempting to use the Linux terminal
| getpokedagain wrote:
| It also behaves weirdly if you use a VPN.
| ghywertelling wrote:
| We can use old phones for running PiHole.
| jacek wrote:
| I tried it on my Samsung phone. Keeps crashing, "recovery" just
| deletes everything and you start over from scratch. No session
| lasted more than 5 minutes.
| realusername wrote:
| Personally this toggle doesn't do anything (Android 16,
| Samsung) so I'm not sure when it's supposed to be ready
| iraizo wrote:
| The new app is truly awesome, was able to get a desktop
| environment running, and a minecraft server & client. Just a
| shame that you can't pass through USB.
| thrance wrote:
| Wow, didn't know this existed, thanks. But 761 Mo download??
| That's insanely big for a terminal, what could possibly make
| this bundle so big?
| petu wrote:
| It's not giving you access to Android shell, but one inside
| VM. So OS image for VM.
| prmoustache wrote:
| It is a complete OS in a virtual machine.
| m132 wrote:
| This. Also, for phones that don't support Android
| virtualization, there's a user-space hack, part of Termux
| upstream, that allows for root-less chroots via LD_PRELOAD:
| https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot.
|
| systemd won't boot with this (needs to be PID 1), but a lot of
| software will work just fine and there's nearly zero emulation
| overhead.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| I don't think it uses LD_PRELOAD, it uses ptrace to intercept
| system calls (hence the name). Unfortunately this does have
| performance overhead, although I've never bothered to measure
| it. Actually that would be an interesting thing to benchmark.
| shrx wrote:
| > The Linux terminal app on Android (check Developer settings
| if you want it)
|
| I don't see it. How do I install it?
| Gander5739 wrote:
| In developer settings, under debugging "Linux development
| environment (Experimental) Run Linux terminal on Android"
| shrx wrote:
| No such option. Apparently it needs to be allowed by the
| vendor (Samsung)?
| arend321 wrote:
| The Linux terminal app on Android reddits are full of reports
| of instability. It is far from being useful as far as I
| understand. I had so much hope for this being a good way to use
| my phone as a portal for development, but it's a dud. At least
| we have termux and proot.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| Termux itself is a red-headed step-child on Android, with
| current releases installable only from F-Droid, and quite
| possibly subject to further restrictions in future.
|
| Mind: Termux is the _only_ thing on Android which has not
| precisely sucked in my own 15+ years ' experience with the
| platform. It remains both crippled and emperiled by the OS
| and Google.
|
| <https://web.archive.org/web/20210103151837/https://wiki.term
| ...>
|
| There's ... _some_ Google Play availability as of June 2024:
| <https://github.com/termux/termux-app/discussions/4000>.
|
| F-Droid's own future viability is at risk given Google's
| recent Android directions:
|
| <https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/07/googles-requirement-
| for-...>.
|
| My own interests lie more in the ability to run Android
| emulated under Linux, and switching from phone / tablet
| devices to a small form-factor laptop (Framework 12 or 13
| most likely) for on-the-go computing.
| smetannik wrote:
| Android's terminal app is really slow and takes some time to
| boot comparing to Termux.
|
| Also, the Terminal app is essentially a webview (as I
| understand, the reason is architectural).
| fmajid wrote:
| The Linux Terminal app is incredibly buggy in my experience,
| but that may be because I use GrapheneOS.
| tuananh wrote:
| what about the other way around?
|
| i'm aware about waydroid but it has too many problems with
| nvidia. also require wayland.
| unicornporn wrote:
| X86 builds of Android are stuck at many generations back of the
| OS. Running Android in a VM on X86 is basically dead AFAIK. :(
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| I'm actually optimistic that this will improve. Google has
| apparently been working on replacing Chrome OS with android,
| which I have pretty strong opinions on but the upside is that
| if they want to go that route they're going to have to make
| Android officially work well on x86, at which point there's
| no reason that eg. LineageOS wouldn't be expected to follow
| suit.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| You could run a windows VM and run windows subsystem for
| android.
| jansommer wrote:
| Windows subsystem for Android is deprecated. There's a
| community maintained alternative but it seems to have a few
| problems wrt. Windows updates.
| Tajnymag wrote:
| There's for example redroid (https://github.com/remote-
| android/redroid-doc) which seems to be exactly that. Android
| inside a container.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| I can't help you with nvidia, but the Wayland thing can be
| worked around quite easily by running it under a nested
| compositor like cage. (This is how I run waydroid under Xorg)
| VonGuard wrote:
| Podman.....
| ekropotin wrote:
| I find the title very misleading. Linux containers typically
| means LXC, but when in readme you say it's intended for running
| OCI-based containers.
| anthk wrote:
| Termux and a BT keyboard it's enough.
|
| Also, native Emacs under FDroid has recently been improved a lot.
|
| With just Emacs you get:
|
| - An IRC, Usenet and Mail client. The ONLY libre Usenet client.
| comp.arch and comp.misc have really engaging discussions. You can
| score up nice commenters and blacklist every spammer
|
| - Gemini and Gopher via ELPA (run Esc-x package-install RET
| elpher)
|
| - A math mini CAS with Esc-x calc RET
|
| - Esc-x package-install RET malyon, get some nice ZMachine text
| adventures at IFDB
|
| - Elisp environment+cl-lib can do a lot
|
| - Esc-x package-install jabber, Esc-x jabber. Chat with cool
| people at XMPP servers.
|
| - Org-Mode, enough said
|
| - eshell will allow you to automate stuff
|
| - Elisp + Android related functions + org-mode: heaven.
|
| - Sudoku, Sokoban, Tetris...
|
| - LSP integration it's possible
|
| Get some $10 pocket bluetooth keyboard and try it.
| dietr1ch wrote:
| I tried Emacs, but realised I need NixOS to get the packages I
| depend on like git to download my config. I can't use stock
| emacs. There's a trick to get Emacs and termux to share
| packages, but not for nix-on-droid :/
| getpokedagain wrote:
| You can do some signing hackery and allow Emacs to see
| executables from termux
| https://gsilvers.github.io/me/posts/20250921-emacs-on-
| androi...
|
| For anyone who ends up here and curious.
| spidermonkey23 wrote:
| I think this is great, I've wanted some sort of docker on android
| system and this does the job quite nicely all wrapped up in an
| apk. So there is definitely space for this in the current
| ecosystem. The new terminal built into android crashes whenever I
| try booting it up.
| nsonha wrote:
| What would be the usecases?
| pjmlp wrote:
| I don't see the purpose to run containers on Android, the managed
| userspace provides everything I need, including code on the go
| apps, already sandboxed.
|
| Also not a termux fan.
| yenko wrote:
| What code on the go apps do you have in mind ?
| pjmlp wrote:
| Pascal N IDE, C# Shell NET IDE, Pydroid 3, Shader Editor, the
| paid versions.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| What are your concerns / objections to Termux?
| randomtoast wrote:
| I find it somewhat amusing that it uses QEMU to emulate Linux in
| order to create a container with restricted permissions, even
| though it is already running on Linux with restricted
| permissions. I get the point while it is designed that way, but
| still funny.
| Beijinger wrote:
| How is it the other way around? What is the status of Waydroid?
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| Works.
| hu3 wrote:
| Added to my list of things that will never be possible on iOS.
| StilesCrisis wrote:
| Not to defend it, but emulating Linux in WASM is possible and
| ought to work on iOS in a reasonably performance way. See
| https://webvm.io/
| hu3 wrote:
| It will never be native though, which is the main point.
| k38f wrote:
| The QEMU TCG approach makes sense for isolation, but I'm curious
| about the traffic routing story. Does each container get its own
| network namespace, or does all traffic still go through Android's
| network stack? The latter would mean carrier-level DPI still sees
| everything the container sends -- which matters a lot depending
| on what you're running.
| cringleyrobert wrote:
| Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
| unnouinceput wrote:
| I want the opposite. And I want to behave like a true Android.
| Reason: My fucking useless bank that has a banking app that only
| runs on non-rooted Android only (cause fuck iOS/web according to
| them). My attempts to run their shitty app on emulators, virtual
| machines and the like failed. So currently I have a dumb phone
| that only has their crappy app on it and that's all. On a
| separate Google account, because I do not dare to link my main
| Google account to their name.
|
| Any advice?
| ike____________ wrote:
| Just tried it, the last 2 versions, I cannot continue after
| specifying the ram and cpu number.
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