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?
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.
Um, what does that even mean?
Edit: Looks like it runs a VM. So some overhead, but still cool.
Oh nice! I’d love to run an ad blocker/dns/reverse proxy on something with a little more beef than the Pi zero I’ve got now.
Jellyfin and or Pi zero does not like streaming through the video.local address I’ve got setup, so i have to use IP address to get anything without stuttering.
pi zero for streaming is insane not gonna lie. What sort of resolution do you stream it at?
A decently newish phone would blow even a pi 5 out of the water I bet. Modern GPU drivers from snapdragon or mediatek plus core designs that arent 7 years old out of the factory would be a godsend for low-watt homelabbers
Dang, I just realized I didn’t explain the setup well enough:
An old laptop runs the Jellyfin server, but the Pi runs the reverse proxy. For some reason, trying to use the reverse proxied address causes problems, but connecting directly to the laptop via IP address and port runs fine.
I tried a Jellyfin server with a pi 2 or 3 and it couldn’t serve more than one client at a time. So i imagine a zero wouldn’t even be able to load the app, much less serve anything :/
My main reason for running my DNS/ad block/nginx through the zero, sometimes the laptop goes down, freezes, or fails to clear the transcodes folder, so having that stuff separate keeps at least part of the network running.
The VM eats through the battery, that’s the only hangup I have with this. Otherwise that’s a fantastic idea.
If I trusted the battery tech more, I would use an old phone. But I’ve had one of those white plastic Mac books hooked up to power so long, the battery swelled out of its enclosure :/
Maybe there’s a way to disconnect the battery, or an app that switches off charging, so it drains enough to keep that from happening
There are root apps that can limit battery charge level. If you have an older phone that’s rootable, I would look into that.
Maybe your own adblocker, I thought about doing that myself, I use the public one from adguard on my phone (dns.aguard-dns.com) but having it on your own device would be pretty slick perhaps. But thinking about it more, Google wouldn’t just let you use an internal IP for the private DNS. I have tried it with my locally hosted adblocker and it rejects it.
Or you could set up a dashboard like Homepage or Dashy, or Flame or ? Ultimately, your imagination would do! :)
I do it. It has be DOT and you have to have a valid cert.
Unfortunately, from trying this myself, I don’t think you can forward port 53 to the Android host, so that won’t work (easily). It seems that privileged ports aren’t allowed to be forwarded.
I’ll have to give this a shot with pi-hole later tonight.
latest release of android
Does that mean 15?
Yea kinda. Android is switching to quarterly releases, so my phone now says “Android 15” but this was QPR2 specifically
Thanks. My phone is on 14 and won’t get another update, oh well.
“Android 15” but this was QPR2 specifically
How can we bring that to a real world (read: cheap Chinese) phone?
Not sure, but if LineageOS supports it, that should be all you need
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
Dope, seems to not have landed yet in LineageOS but the Terminal app is already installed. Just missing the toggle in the developer options.
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.
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The day Docker works on Android, I’m settled.
Docker does work on Android. That’s what OP is showing off.
Well, if they manage to get it working on Android I’ll be really impressed.
Maybe one day it’ll even work on Android!
Even better, maybe it will support Docker.
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).
Get steam-headless running on there
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
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
But then how would I look at my phone while using my Desktop.
I’ll need a dummy phone to doom scroll on.
I have a Steam Deck dock specifically for this. Except the mouse comes up on the phone screen instead of the monitor. Weird bug.
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.
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.
In all seriousness, I think a “mobile server” in laptop-like form would be pretty nice. Have a giant battery attached to the bottom and program the controller to run on AC as it’s primary power source while treating the battery as a secondary source. Definitely niche, but cool nonetheless.
I wish all the logs at my company were as beautiful as these terminal logs
Please no. I can’t grep that. (Nor ingest it to splunk for more powerful searching.)
If its an application I run locally, I rarely grep logs (they’re small enough that I can just ctrl+f). If it’s something running in production with millions of lines of logs, then I agree
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.
Impressive! Can you please link the instructions you followed?
Some time ago I was hosting the full ARR suite, bitwarden, AdGuard etc, but it was usually a mess with direct installs. With docker it might be worth revisiting it.
My only advice, buy a usb-ETH dongle, it will make a huge difference in stability
https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/#install-using-the-repository
That’s it lol. To turn on the terminal, it’s a developer option for now, and is very alpha, just search for Linux in settings after turning on dev mode
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).
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?
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.
In the past people used tasker to charge at a certain threshold. Check with homeassistant people to see what they do.
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
