Debian noroot

pelya

About this app

This app will install Debian Buster with Xfce desktop environment.
You do not need to root your device.
You will need 1.2 Gb free on internal storage.
A mouse or stylus is highly recommended.

This app is NOT full Debian OS - it is a compatibility layer, based on PRoot, which allows you to run user-land Debian applications.
Your phone is not rooted during installation.
Running Wireshark or Aircrack-ng will fail, because they require root.
This is not an official Debian.org release.

To install packages (web browser for example), open Terminal and run commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install chromium

You can check full list of packages in Synaptic package manager.

Packages that work:
synaptic gimp inkscape clementine chromium vlc mplayer audacity lmms

In VLC and Audacity, select PulseAudio as audio output.

To run Chromium, use command:

chromium --disable-dev-shm-usage --no-sandbox

Packages that fail to run:
firefox-esr libreoffice konqueror kodi kdenlive blender, and anything that uses OpenGL.

Sources are here:
https://github.com/pelya/commandergenius/tree/sdl_android/project/jni/application/xserver-debian
Previous versions are here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/libsdl-android/files/ubuntu/

Ratings and reviews

The app works as expected, but can crash when too much RAM is used, no matter what I do. I have at least 4-6 GB of RAM free on my S21 Ultra, and this app somehow crashes while only using 1GB. I think the virtual OS is limited to 1GB and crashes when it goes above that amount. Changing the display resolution has little to no impact on this. Also, I can't run some programs in terminal because they don't work. The app only allows to prompt for media permission, not program files.

It is unusual for me to give full five stars. But this really exceeded all expectations, especially given that many apps out there to perform this same function require root or require extensive set up and modification. Most things work "out of the box." Using the terminal to unzip files or co /mv files works perfectly well and this app links directly to my phones storage- all others required setting that up. Very impressed after using this for quite a while. EDIT: After some tweaking, it is running nearly perfect. Sometimes, it lags out a little bit but then, I am running it on MY PHONE so what are ya gonna do...

This app is great. I enjoy having a full desktop experience on my Android tablet. One feature I would like is the gliding mouse pointer. This is where you can flick the mouse pointer across the screen as though you are flick-scrolling on a web page on your phone. I have seen this feature on other programs. This would make the environment much easier to use with touchscreen. Thank you.

What's new

Fixed mouse input lag
Fixed dark mode on Android 10