An experiment of running postmarketOS on Android with Termux Proot

中文版

Running postmarketOS on any Andrid devices without rooting or flashing custom ROM.

1. Prerequisites

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• Termux
• Termux X11
• Hacker’s keyboard if you don’t have keyboard and mouses.

2. Install Proot Alpine Linux

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The defaut installation of Proot Apline in Termux uses Edge repositories. However the Edge branch is very unstable, therefore I choose 3.17 (postmarketOS v22.12)

1. Install Proot Alpine

pkg update
pkg install proot-distro pulseaudio
echo "pulseaudio --start --load="module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=127.0.0.1 auth-anonymous=1" --exit-idle-time=-1 && pacmd load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=127.0.0.1 auth-anonymous=1 " >> .profile
proot-distro install alpine

2. Change repositories to v3.17

proot-distro login alpine --shared-tmp
apk add vim
vim /etc/apk/repositories
# Change "http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main" to "http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.17/main"

apk update
apk upgrade

3. Add a user and setup timezone.

apk add sudo

addgroup storage
adduser -g wheel,storage,video,audio user
visudo
passwd

sudo ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Taipei /etc/localtime
sudo setup-timezone

4. Enable sshd in Termux proot.

sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# Change `Port` from 22 to 8023

ssh-keygen -A
/usr/sbin/sshd
echo "/usr/sbin/sshd" >> /home/user/.profile
# Check IP address
ip addr

3. Convert Alpine installation to postmarketOS

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1. Add postmarketOS v22.12 (Aplpine v3.17) repositories

vim /etc/apk/repositories

# Add this:
https://mirror.postmarketos.org/postmarketos/v22.12

2. Add postmarketos-keys

apk add -u --allow-untrusted postmarketos-keys
apk update && apk upgrade

3. Add following lines to /etc/os-release

PRETTY_NAME="postmarketOS v22.12"
NAME="postmarketOS"
VERSION_ID="v22.12"
VERSION="v22.12"
ID="postmarketos"
ID_LIKE="alpine"
HOME_URL="https://www.postmarketos.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/issues"
LOGO="postmarketos-logo"

4. Install Deskop Environment

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To launch a desktop Environment in Termux proot, execute the following commands:

1. proot-distro login --user user --shared-tmp: Log into Proot
2. termux-x11 &: Start X server
3. export DISPLAY=:0
4. dbus-launch --exit-with-session <desktop environment> &: Start desktop environment

Traditional desktops, such as XFCE and LXQT work in proot environment; nevertheless I want to try mobile-friendly interfaces, let’s see the results.

Phosh

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Phosh is a fork of GNOME, optimized for mobile devices.

The package name is postmarketos-ui-phosh.

The startup command is phosh-session. Not working. Maybe the X11 beckend flag needs to be passed?

Plasma Mobile

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The packae name is postmarketos-ui-plasma-mobile.

It can be launched by executing dbus-launch --exit-with-session startplasma-x11 &

Login screen works, but it turns black after login.

BTW, in 2022, I had successfully started Plasma Mobile in Proot Arch Linux (the package plasma-mobile is available on AUR); however it was very unstable.

SXMO

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The package name is postmarketos-ui-sxmo but Termux X11 only support X applications so I choose postmarketos-ui-sxmo-de-dwm.

1. Install SXMO packages

sudo apk add postmarketos-ui-sxmo-de-dwm postmarketos-tweaks-sxmo-x11 feh dwm svkbd conky clickclack

2. Execute: export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp before launching SXMO.

3. SXMO can be launched by executing dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/sxmo_xinit.sh &

4. The configuration files of SXMO is located at ~/.config/sxmo/. Hooks are at /usr/share/sxmo/default_hooks/.

Gestures are not working.

You may modify dwm source code to change default keybindings.

git clone [email protected]:~mil/sxmo-dwm
# Modify config.def.h then reinstall dwm

Uninstall sxmo-dwm package before installing your cutsom dwm.

Or you can just install vanilla dwm package and use default dwm keybindings.