Termux Desktops

Collection of scripts to launch Desktops with audio in Termux X11. You have also all the information needed to install your prefered Linux Distro and connect to it in the following steps.

📚 Index

PROOT-DISTRO (🍥 DEBIAN)

🏁 First steps
⚙️ Installing Desktops
💻 Running the Desktops to use them with Termux X11
⬇️ Download scripts to run the desktops
🎨 Customizations - Themes
🔥 Hardware acceleration in Termux

PROOT-DISTRO (🟠 UBUNTU)

🏁 First steps
⚙️ Installing Desktops
⬇️ Download scripts to run the desktops

PROOT-DISTRO (🔼 ARCH)

🏁 First steps
⬇️ Download scripts to run the desktops

PROOT-DISTRO (🐉 KALI LINUX NETHUNTER)

🏁 First steps
⬇️ Download scripts to run the desktops

TERMUX NATIVE

🏁 First steps
💻 Running Windows programs on Termux native (XFCE Desktop + Mobox)
⬇️ Download scripts
🎨 Customizations - Themes

TERMUX CHROOT - Root needed -

🏁 First steps
💻🍥 Setting Debian chroot - automatic installer
💻🟠 Setting Ubuntu chroot
⬇️ Download distros for Chroot: Debian, Kali Nethunter, Ubuntu
⬇️ Download scripts to run desktops
🎨 Customizations (Nerdfonts, XFCE4 terminal color palettes, etc)

PROOT-DISTRO (🍥 DEBIAN)

🏁 First steps

We are going to use Termux and Termux X11 in order to have a full Linux Desktop in our Android devices.

[Video] How to install Termux
[Video] How to install and use Termux X11
[Video] How to install a COMPLETE Linux environtment on ANDROID - Customizing XFCE4 - Neon theme - No Root
[Video] How to install a Linux distro on Android

[Commands] How to install a Linux Distro on Termux with proot-distro (No Root)

You can check the video described in the First Steps section. The written steps are the following ones:

Open Termux
Install proot-distro

pkg update
pkg install proot-distro

Install Debian (or the distor you prefer)

proot-distro install debian

4 Log in to the distro

proot-distro login debian

[Commands ]Create an user with sudo privileges

The steps are described in the video linked in the previous point.

Install needed packages

apt update -y
apt install sudo nano adduser -y

Create an user

adduser droidmaster

Give the user sudo privileges

nano /etc/sudoers

# Add the following line to the file
droidmaster ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Check you can execute sudo commands (it should return root)

sudo whoami

⚙️ Installing Desktops

I have installed different desktops, if you want me to test any other just leave a comment in any video and I will check it:

Note

In the videos I'm using VNC but with Termux X11 installing the tigervnc server and dbus is no longer required.

[Video] How to install XFCE4

# Commands: 
proot-distro login debian --user droidmaster

sudo apt install xfce4

[Video] How to install LXDE

# Commands: 
proot-distro login debian --user droidmaster

sudo apt install lxde

[Video] How to install Cinnamon

# Commands: 
proot-distro login debian --user droidmaster

sudo apt install cinnamon -y

[Video] How to install GNOME

# Commands: 
proot-distro login debian --user droidmaster

sudo apt install dbus-x11 nano gnome gnome-shell gnome-terminal gnome-tweaks gnome-software nautilus gnome-shell-extension-manager gedit tigervnc-tools gnupg2 -y

for file in $(find /usr -type f -iname "*login1*"); do rm -rf $file
done

[Video] How to install KDE Plasma - Not recommended due to performance issues (KDE Plasma requires more resources)

# Commands: 
proot-distro login debian --user droidmaster

sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop

💻 Running the Desktops for use with Termux X11

All the scripts in this repository are prepared to run the different Desktops with audio in an easy way.

First you need to install the following packages in Termux:

pkg update
pkg install x11-repo
pkg install termux-x11-nightly
pkg install pulseaudio

Then, you just need to download the script corresponding to the Desktop you have installaded, give it permissions to execute it and run it (in Termux, not in proot-distro):

# Download the script to Termux
chmod +x startxfce4_debian.sh
./startxfce4_debian.sh

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

Note

By default this script works with the user "droidmaster". If you create a user with a different name in proot-distro, please change where it says "droidmaster" inside the scripts.

startgnome_debian.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_debian/startgnome_debian.sh

startxfce4_debian.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_debian/startxfce4_debian.sh

startlxde_debian.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_debian/startlxde_debian.sh

startcinnamon_debian.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_debian/startcinnamon_debian.sh

startkde_debian.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_debian/startkde_debian.sh

🎨 Customizations

How to install nerd fonts (this allows you to have icons in the terminal):

bash -c  "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/officialrajdeepsingh/nerd-fonts-installer/main/install.sh)"

How to customize XFCE4 - Neon Theme

PROOT-DISTRO (🟠 UBUNTU)

🏁 First steps

All the process is described in more detail in this video.

First you need to install the following packages in Termux:

pkg update
pkg install x11-repo
pkg install termux-x11-nightly
pkg install pulseaudio
pkg install proot-distro

Then install Ubuntu and login once it finishes:

proot-distro install ubuntu
proot-distro login ubuntu

Update repositories and install any package you want:

apt update 
apt upgrade

apt install sudo nano adduser -y

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

startgnome_ubuntu.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_ubuntu/startgnome_ubuntu.sh

⚙️ Installing Desktops

I have use the following post from Ivon's blog as a reference for some steps.

GNOME:

# Commands: 
proot-distro login ubuntu --user droidmaster

sudo apt install dbus-x11 ubuntu-desktop -y

Run this command after it finishes:

for file in $(find /usr -type f -iname "*login1*"); do rm -rf $file
done

Disable snapd as it doesn't work on Termux

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
# To prevent repository packages from triggering the installation of Snap,
# this file forbids snapd from being installed by APT.
# For more information: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html
Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10
EOF

Install firefox:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-esr

Now you can run Ubuntu with GNOME UI from the script I left in the Download scripts easily section:

chmod +x startgnome_ubuntu.sh
./startgnome_ubuntu.sh

PROOT-DISTRO (🔼 ARCH)

🏁 First steps

All the process is described in more detail in this video.

First you need to install the following packages in Termux:

pkg update
pkg install x11-repo
pkg install termux-x11-nightly
pkg install pulseaudio
pkg install proot-distro

Then install Arch and login once it finishes:

proot-distro install archlinux
proot-distro login archlinux

Update repositories and install any package you want:

pacman -Sy
pacman -Syu

pacman -S sudo
pacman -S xfce4

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

Note

By default this script works with the user "droidmaster". If you create a user with a different name in proot-distro, please change where it says "droidmaster" inside the scripts. And remember to give execution permissions to the script with chmod +x scriptName.sh

startxfce4_arch.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_arch/startxfce4_arch.sh

PROOT-DISTRO (🐉 KALI LINUX NETHUNTER)

🏁 First steps

All the process is described in more detail in this video.

First you need to install the following packages in Termux:

pkg update
pkg install x11-repo
pkg install termux-x11-nightly
pkg install pulseaudio
pkg install proot-distro

Then install Kali Linux Nethunter with the steps described in the official web:

termux-setup-storage
pkg install wget
wget -O install-nethunter-termux https://offs.ec/2MceZWr
chmod +x install-nethunter-termux
./install-nethunter-termux

Log into Kali, update repositories and install any package you want, for exmample Chromium browser:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install chromium -y

# To run Chromium execute the following command once you are inside the Desktop environment: chromium --no-sandbox

Also to run the startxfce4_nethunter.sh script you need to add the following line in this file:

nano $PREFIX/bin/nh

-b /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/tmp:/tmp \

In this part:

cmdline="proot \
        --link2symlink \
        -0 \
        -r kali-arm64 \
        -b /dev \
        -b /proc \
        -b /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/tmp:/tmp \ # --> ADD THE LINE HERE
        -b kali-arm64$home:/dev/shm \
        -w $home \
           /usr/bin/env -i \
           HOME=$home \
           PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin \
           TERM=$TERM \
           LANG=C.UTF-8 \
           $start"

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

Note

The default password for the user kali is kali. Remember to give execution permissions to the script with chmod +x startxfce4_nethunter.sh

startxfce4_nethunter.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/proot_kali/startxfce4_nethunter.sh

TERMUX NATIVE

🏁 First steps

Note

All the process is described in this video

First you need to install the following packages in Termux:

pkg update
pkg install x11-repo
pkg install termux-x11-nightly
pkg install pulseaudio

Then you have to install the desktop you prefer, right now I have only test XFCE4 so here are the steps:

pkg install xfce4

If you want to install chromium browser: First you need to install the following packages in Termux:

pkg install tur-repo
pkg install chromium

If you want to install VS Code:

pkg install tur-repo
pkg install code-oss

💻 Running Windows programs on Termux native (XFCE Desktop + Mobox):

Important

All this process is explaining in the folowing video. I highly recommend looking at it first

First of all you need to install Mobox (follow instructions from the official repository): https://github.com/olegos2/mobox

Configure your Termux native desktop. I recommend following the process described in this video.
Download the following script into the Download folder. Thanks to the user @Feer_C9 on reddit for this script

mobox_run.sh:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/termux_native/mobox_run.sh

Give script execution permissions:

chmod +x mobox_run.sh

Now you can run Wine explorer (from Mobox with all the configurations applied) with the following command: ./mobox_run.sh explorer but I recommend creating a desktop shortcut. You can download the shortcut direclty into the Desktop folder with this command:

MoboxExplorer.desktop:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/termux_native/MoboxExplorer.desktop

Now you can double click the shortcut in the Termux Desktop (for example XFCE4) and open Mobox explorer to run Windows programs or games.

⬇️ Download scripts:

startxfce4_termux.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/termux_native/startxfce4_termux.sh

🎨 Customizations

How to install nerd fonts (this allows you to have icons in the terminal):
1. Go to this page and download any font: NERD FONTS
2. Paste the .ttf files under the following path:

# Tip:  /usr is at the same level as /home
/usr/share/fonts

TERMUX CHROOT - Root needed

Caution

READ CAREFULLY! When using Chroot environments to exit completely close the Termux application even from the background apps or if necessary force close it. Otherwise, in case you do some command like "rm -rf chrootFolder" the device will go crazy and you will have to force reboot it.

🏁 First steps

First you need to have your device rooted.
You need to flash Busybox with Magisk.
Then you need to install the following packages in Termux:

pkg update
pkg install x11-repo
pkg install root-repo
pkg install termux-x11-nightly
pkg update
pkg install tsu
pkg install pulseaudio

💻🍥 Setting Debian chroot - automatic installer

Note

How to use the script and install Debian Chroot is explained in this video

Please read first #First Steps section

Download the installer with this command:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/chroot/debian/chroot_debian_installer.sh

Run it with sudo privileges from Termux:

su
chmod +x chroot_debian_installer.sh
sh chroot_debian_installer.sh

💻🟠 Setting Ubuntu chroot

Note

All the process is described in this video

[Commands] How to install and Setup Ubuntu chroot

This steps are from Ivon's blog but I modified a little bit some lines. These are the post used:

Install Ubuntu in chroot on Android without Linux Deploy
How to use Termux X11 - The X server on Android phone

[!NOTE] Everything should be similar for Debian (except the Snapd part, you don't need to do that in Debian). I need to test it and do a video about Debian but if you are familiarized with Linux it shouldn't be too complex.

Enter Android shell with root privileges:

su

Create a directory at /data/local/tmp for chroot environment

mkdir /data/local/tmp/chrootubuntu
cd /data/local/tmp/chrootubuntu

Download Ubuntu 22.0.4 LTS rootfs:

curl https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-base/releases/22.04/release/ubuntu-base-22.04-base-arm64.tar.gz --output ubuntu.tar.gz

Unzip the downloaded file and create some folders to mount the sdcard

tar xpvf ubuntu.tar.gz --numeric-owner

mkdir sdcard
mkdir dev/shm

Create a start script:

cd ../
vi start.sh

Copy and paste the following:

#!/bin/sh

# The path of Ubuntu rootfs
UBUNTUPATH="/data/local/tmp/chrootubuntu"

# Fix setuid issue
busybox mount -o remount,dev,suid /data

busybox mount --bind /dev $UBUNTUPATH/dev
busybox mount --bind /sys $UBUNTUPATH/sys
busybox mount --bind /proc $UBUNTUPATH/proc
busybox mount -t devpts devpts $UBUNTUPATH/dev/pts

# /dev/shm for Electron apps
busybox mount -t tmpfs -o size=256M tmpfs $UBUNTUPATH/dev/shm

# Mount sdcard
busybox mount --bind /sdcard $UBUNTUPATH/sdcard

# chroot into Ubuntu
busybox chroot $UBUNTUPATH /bin/su - root

Make the script executable and run it:

chmod +x start.sh
sh start.sh

The prompt will change to root@localhost. If you need to return to Termux just write exit. Let's execute some fixes:

echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf
echo "127.0.0.1 localhost" > /etc/hosts

groupadd -g 3003 aid_inet
groupadd -g 3004 aid_net_raw
groupadd -g 1003 aid_graphics
usermod -g 3003 -G 3003,3004 -a _apt
usermod -G 3003 -a root

apt update
apt upgrade

apt install nano vim net-tools sudo git

Setup timezone:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Madrid /etc/localtime

Create a new user called droidmaster (or the name you prefer)

groupadd storage
groupadd wheel
useradd -m -g users -G wheel,audio,video,storage,aid_inet -s /bin/bash droidmaster
passwd droidmaster

Add the created user to sudoers file to have superuser privileges:

nano /etc/sudoers

Add this line:

droidmaster ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Switch to the created user:

sudo apt install locales
sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8

Install Desktop Environment:

XFCE4

sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop

KDE Plasma

sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop

[!NOTE] This step is for Ubuntu only

Disable Snapd (it can't be used on Termux):

apt-get autopurge snapd

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
# To prevent repository packages from triggering the installation of Snap,
# this file forbids snapd from being installed by APT.
# For more information: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html
Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10
EOF

Exit chroot and modify the start.sh script created on step 5:

nano /data/local/tmp/start.sh

Change the last line busybox chroot $UBUNTUPATH /bin/su - root to this line:

busybox chroot $UBUNTUPATH /bin/su - user -c "export DISPLAY=:0 PULSE_SERVER=tcp:127.0.0.1:4713 && dbus-launch --exit-with-session startxfce4"

If you installed other Desktop Environment you need to change the startxfce4 part. For example for KDE Plasma it should be startplasma-x11.

Let's run the Desktop Environment. Exit chroot environment and copy the following commands on Termux (you can close everything an reopen Termux to be sure you are outside chroot).

XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=${TMPDIR} termux-x11 :0 -ac &
sudo busybox mount --bind $PREFIX/tmp /data/local/tmp/chrootubuntu/tmp

sh /data/local/tmp/start.sh

Now you are inside chroot. Execute this:

sudo chmod -R 777 /tmp
export DISPLAY=:0 PULSE_SERVER=tcp:127.0.0.1:4713
dbus-launch --exit-with-session startxfce4 &

Open Termux X11 and check that you can use the desktop environment.

⬇️ Download distros for Chroot

Download Ubuntu 22.04 rootfs:

curl https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-base/releases/22.04/release/ubuntu-base-22.04-base-arm64.tar.gz --output ubuntu.tar.gz

Download Debian 12 rootfs:

wget https://github.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/releases/download/Debian/debian12-arm64.tar.gz

Download kali nethunter from their page or download direcly the full package with this command:

wget https://kali.download/nethunter-images/current/rootfs/kalifs-arm64-full.tar.xz

⬇️ Download scripts to run desktops

startxfce4_chrootDebian.sh

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxDroidMaster/Termux-Desktops/main/scripts/chroot/debian/startxfce4_chrootDebian.sh

🎨 Customizations (Nerdfonts, XFCE4 terminal color palettes, etc)

XFCE4 color palettes:
- Dracula
- Nordic
Installing NerdFonts on chroot env (Debian, Ubuntu) from this post:

sudo apt install wget unzip -y

wget -P ~/.local/share/fonts https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v3.0.2/JetBrainsMono.zip \
&& cd ~/.local/share/fonts \
&& unzip JetBrainsMono.zip \
&& rm JetBrainsMono.zip \
&& fc-cache -fv

Files

README_old.md

Latest commit

History

README_old.md

File metadata and controls

Termux Desktops

📚 Index

PROOT-DISTRO (🍥 DEBIAN)

PROOT-DISTRO (🟠 UBUNTU)

PROOT-DISTRO (🔼 ARCH)

PROOT-DISTRO (🐉 KALI LINUX NETHUNTER)

TERMUX NATIVE

TERMUX CHROOT - Root needed -

PROOT-DISTRO (🍥 DEBIAN)

🏁 First steps

⚙️ Installing Desktops

💻 Running the Desktops for use with Termux X11

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

🎨 Customizations

PROOT-DISTRO (🟠 UBUNTU)

🏁 First steps

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

⚙️ Installing Desktops

PROOT-DISTRO (🔼 ARCH)

🏁 First steps

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

PROOT-DISTRO (🐉 KALI LINUX NETHUNTER)

🏁 First steps

⬇️ Download scripts easily:

TERMUX NATIVE

🏁 First steps

💻 Running Windows programs on Termux native (XFCE Desktop + Mobox):

⬇️ Download scripts:

🎨 Customizations

TERMUX CHROOT - Root needed

🏁 First steps

💻🍥 Setting Debian chroot - automatic installer

💻🟠 Setting Ubuntu chroot

⬇️ Download distros for Chroot

⬇️ Download scripts to run desktops

🎨 Customizations (Nerdfonts, XFCE4 terminal color palettes, etc)