Running Android apps on Linux: It's very close, but...

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Download the State of Enterprise Linux Security Management Report here: tuxcare.org/ponemon_report

[@SunIsLost]

Yes

[@mskiptr]

what

[@johannoas1]

I wonder how it compares to Anbox I mean Anbox does more of a Wine not an emulator way afaik

[@Logilype]

bro you really just teleported closer to me in the end because i have sponsorblock

[@molamola5260]

NO.

[@robotdowning963]

honestly one of the most frustrating things in the linux community is when asking if something works or how to get something to work being confronted with a "but why would you want to use that?". its a computer, a tool capable of so many different tasks so actually discussing if and how something works is always great to see. thanks for the great videos man!

[@zonebro6205]

True dat

[@doctahjonez]

Literally this

[@JoeMemes]

people who believe they are superior to other people and making fun of them for not knowing what they know are not superior at all

[@breakfast7595]

Yeah, as much as I hate Android, there are just certain things that are only available through android apps.

[@neroetal]

well said

[@gregory5749]

Nick, just wanna tell you that Android doesn't use Dalvik anymore since Kitkat (4.4). It has been replaced with Android runtime (ART)

[@carlod1605]

@@Real-Name..Maqavoy What do you mean? I cannot understand your message

[@EthanHalsall]

Haha was just about to comment this 😂

[@venvanman]

@@carlod1605 well it is a note to self

[@therealjesusofficialhd]

But you are still (almost) always told in guides to wipe your dalvik cache in TWRP when flashing a ROM, even on Android 10+… Why?

[@miruee]

@@therealjesusofficialhd I'm interested in the answer for this question

[@YonatanP2]

Actually Netflix not appearing in the play store is a common problem with lineage os, the play store classifies your phone as "unprotected" and because Netflix fears DRM security it won't appear. However on my phone, installing a slightly outdated netflix apk works like a charm, I don't know about waydroid though.

[@obvious_giraffe8386]

Netflix playing hard to get when its hard to want

[@rittalisa4916]

Strange, I got no issue on Grapheneos maybe it's due to Google Sandboxing compare to the use of MicroG on lineage and many other ROMs.

[@aperture0]

@@obvious_giraffe8386 Netflix be like that cheerleader girl

[@skelebro9999]

That sponsor segment was smooth, Nick. Kinda reminded me of Linus a bit.

[@lancercncs1822]

If you want to eventually transition to a Linux smartphone, then knowing how to install android apps in Linux is definitely relevant.

[@ifelseprog]

I love that you searched for Lorient in Google Maps, my grandma lived there before. I wasn't ready to see you search for a French city, lol

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Hahah I live in Brest, it's pretty close to it!

[@ifelseprog]

@@TheLinuxEXP oh, that's funny!

[@amansetia8655]

nice, waydroid needs more yt coverage

[@JustByteMe]

I love you man, I moved from manajro to fedora two months ago...loving it

[@t1k2y]

Just a heads up, Netflix not appearing in the play store is probably a result of google detecting magisk root

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Hmmm might be!

[@Ghfvhvfg]

This is needed on Linux phones pre configured.

[@Mir_Mumin]

9:56 it was probably because the play protect isn't certified

[@schnitzelsemmel]

both in competition to chromebooks and Android tablets / phones this could be huge.

[@abdelkarimbenaouda4768]

The following packages have unmet dependencies: python3-gbinder : Depends: python3 (>= 3.9~) but 3.8.2-0ubuntu2 is to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

[@oliverform]

Yeah same error here

[@abdelkarimbenaouda4768]

@@oliverform Linux Mint ?

[@oliverform]

@@abdelkarimbenaouda4768 Ubuntu 22.04

[@abdelkarimbenaouda4768]

@@oliverform let me know if u find any solution

[@TylerJo]

Hey I just got this up and running last night actually! For anyone who wants to know, Minecraft PE works perfectly, with multiplayer, as long as you meet all the requirements. So now we kinda have bedrock on Linux!

[@jeffsadowski]

Many apps are written for arm and if you look waydroid uses anbox and anbox does not emulate the arm you would need the x86 version of the app for x86 android tablets.

[@erriezzanslounge1380]

Windows,linux,chrome os want android compatibility. we can see the key makes the os popular. "Apps"

[@SteveMacSticky]

I'm sure they will update the installation to GUI in time. but this is still good

[@ryan1696]

The Netflix app not appearing may be because of the SafetyNet Attestation API. I don't exactly think that a Waydroid instance would pass it.

[@B5152g]

I just want a hidden container, I don't want to see a virtual box type thing, I want android apps to look as close to normal apps, and appear in desktop menu as normal Linux apps do.. or under a sub-menu that says "ANDROID"..

[@AP-kx4yw]

That's a feature of Waydroid. You can enable the multi window mode for that.

[@fastshuther]

I'm on Linux Mint and for some reason even after downloading it correctly the app just doesn't pop up, i have the app installed but it does not want to run

[@nrdfoss]

android apps on linux simply is cool

[@nrdfoss]

lol was that the first comment?

[@notarandom7]

It's great that Android also uses Línux lmao

[@amansetia8655]

i used waydroid on my terrible AMD A8 APU with radeon 5 graphics and 3.3GB RAM, and it was actually very good and did run the UI and apps fine af, waydroid is truly amazing

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah the performance is incredible

[@vaisakhkm783]

@@TheLinuxEXP does it have any chance of working in raspberry pi... :)

[@infernocrusher7573]

@@vaisakhkm783 it works on ubuntu touch which also use ARM

[@suryaiyer13]

Indeed! I have the same terrible AMD A8 APU which worked fine for me for 4 years since i bought it but it was quite slow and lackluster. Then windows 10 updates since 2019 broke GPU drivers from AMD as well as HP's release drivers, then rolled back to windows 7 which was some reason buggy and would occasionally throw blue screen. Finally i gave Ubuntu a try and my laptop has become way useful again since then and was a good companion through COVID times.

[@lthmltbgt3984]

What is your distro? 3GB usually isn't much even for phone, i think

[@cerealkiller69420]

Streaming apps would never work because of lack of widevine drm support (which those apps use). Even if they could add support, it would probably be only L3 widevine meaning only 480p/540p. L1 widevine for 1080p streaming is extremely unlikely

[@SunIsLost]

Yea, it may take 100 years (maybe) to do that

[@kote315]

Yes, this is most likely the reason. The funny thing is, it's a shot in the foot. The services are trying to fight piracy, the side effect is that the services become unusable, which is why honest users abandon the services and ... download pirated copies instead.

[@cromefire_]

This is probably not even the (primary) problem as Netflix for example should allow 720p on uncertified devices. Probably the bigger problem is Google SafetyNet that will detect Magisk and waydroid will also fail the Hardware attestation anyway and that's what most streaming apps, banking apps and apparently even McDonald's check.

[@csolisr]

Unfortunately the workaround involves, among other things, tricking the system into spoofing hardware authorization, which involves tinkering with the Anbox/Waydroid image file with tools like Magisk - good luck with that!

[@michak.6325]

Also heard that they won't work on x86 processors, so Netflix might not even appear because of your processor.

[@PrecariousPosition]

Just installed waydroid a couple minutes ago, what a timely video. Great content as always!

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thanks :) Great minds think alike!

[@YonatanAvhar]

I'd love to see this project take off, imagine a future where your phone runs proper Linux, with a touch friendly UI, with support for all of the support Android phones get

[@luigimaster111]

We're almost there already, I loaded Waydroid on my Pinephone Pro, it has a glitch where you can't have hardware acceleration enabled, but it worked, got NewPipe running, it was very choppy, but it ran.

[@YonatanAvhar]

@@luigimaster111 very cool, how well does it work for apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Moovit (navigation app, idk if it's popular outside of my country), and other apps that could be deal breakers if they don't work?

[@m0r73n]

@@YonatanAvhar You have the same limitations as any custom roms on a Android phone has and some apps might not work that well, its still experimental but it really looks promising

[@luigimaster111]

@@YonatanAvhar I really only managed to test NewPipe, waydroid as a whole was just too choppy without hardware acceleration for me to really view any further testing as necessary. Once that bug is ironed out I'll delve back into it. Others have got Waydroid working on the original Pinephone, and it may be the case that Waydroid doesn't get a lot of hardware access, so apps that use things like the GPS, Microphone, and Camera extensively might be useless. Also it prevents the phone from suspending while the service is running, so your phone chomps through battery even when the screen is off unless you kill that service. With that particular issue most messaging apps are kinda unusable. Also, removing Waydroid corrupted my Linux install for some reason, might have been user error but I can't fathom where I screwed up, couldn't get to a terminal at all so I had to do a fresh install. Still early days for linux phones, in terms of them being a fully viable alternative I think we are very close, possibly only off by a few years.

[@ThePery123]

This gives me so much hope ❤🎉🎉🎉

[@KuruGDI]

_Installing an app and crossing your fingers that it is going to work_ - Well, that describes my experience so far with non-native apps on Linux in general

[@Neucher]

I tried waydroid on both an amd and intel gpu. Intel was almost perfect while on amd it was prone to stutters and micro freezes. Kinda funny since the latter is probably 10x more powerful.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah I had stutters on AMD as well

[@talkysassis]

AMD virtualization tools are not so good.

[@ArunG273]

Intel Linux drivers are superior.

[@zPackss]

Strange that it seems common I had no problems at all on amd, maybe architecture? I run it on a Vega 8

[@talkysassis]

@@zPackss The gpu has nothing to do with this. Is the Intel's ISA that's just better

[@lzlxleldorado8646]

i think people must donate to this project this is so cool android support must be on linux and if android games worked like windows omg we could get more audiences more software more apps it should bee

[@DivSharp]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 WTH

[@DivSharp]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 I didn't understood your point. Running Android apps as Isolated apps in Linux how can it affect your privacy? It will be equivalent of having a Android phone. It can't get what your doing in your Linux. And yes it will collect data if only you installed Gapps in your Android. And yes it won't affect your privacy as I think apps installed in Wayland can't access your Linux data. If i am wrong correct me. 🤔 And about "English" I could see tha clearly.

[@naveendukiya8552]

Some Comments - 1. 12:18 you don't need to start the service every time you boot your computer, just do "sudo systemctl enable waydroid-container" and it'll start on boot. 2. 12:23 I believe you can setup waydroid with a GAPPS image of android by running the init command with '-s GAPSS' option upon setup. It previously did not work on fedora I believe, but the copr maintainer just updated it to work today so unfortunate timing I guess. 3. Custom images of android don't pass play store's security test and also don't have widevine L1 certification. Media and Banking apps will either not show up in the play store at all or will not work properly as you experience. It is also not trivial to get around that.

[@TKFeather]

I thought about enabling the systemd service, but I wonder how heavy it is on your system resources... Keeping the Android system running constantly in the background must take quite a bit of RAM, I figured that's the reason why they don't enable the service on install

[@naveendukiya8552]

It is upto you thought. My point was that not being able to run ob boot was presented as a criticism.

[@Uejji]

Another comment pointed out that Android doesn't use Dalvik anymore. I also wanted to mention that Dalvik is not a Java virtual machine. Dalvik is a register-based bytecode virtual machine, while Java is stack-based. Dalvik was designed alongside the tool "dx" that converted Java bytecode into Dalvik bytecode. There has been a lot of a lot of misinformation about Android from the very beginning that it runs on Java or that it runs Java applications, but neither of these is true. You can write software for Android in a Java IDE (though now Kotlin is preferred), but that all gets converted to Dalvik bytecode before it ever touches an Android device. There's no reason why you couldn't write Android software in any other language, assuming the libraries and APIs you needed were ported over and the tools existed to compile it into Dalvik bytecode. On modern devices ART recompiles the Dalvik bytecode to native CPU binary code during installation, but still having Dalvik in the .apk allows legacy devices to still run your app. I guess maybe this sounds nitpicky, and I don't mean for it to. It's just that some brilliant engineers went to great effort to build a portable virtual machine designed to run on a variety of hardware and architectures without the bloat of J2SE or the limited feature set of J2ME, and it's a shame that everyone ignores what they accomplished and just calls Android "java-based."

[@Woodywoodah]

I have a Microsoft Surface Go 2 running Fedora. This could be amazing for that device! I could have the power of a full blown Linux distribution and the convenience of Android tablet apps all in one.

[@AninoNiKugi]

Except there are barely Android apps optimized for tablets :P

[@ThePery123]

@@AninoNiKugi lol or so you think, times have changed ever heard of the chrome book

[@IhateCCP]

i am installing this on my asus transformer mini. i also am running fedora.

[@yuvrajsingh099]

​@@AninoNiKugiGoogle,Oneplus,samsung, xioami , honor ,huwai all are selling android tablet. Don't you think google forced developer to make android and android apps run better on tablet.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

My use=case for running Android apps on Linux would be to allow the random apps that come with so many gadgets these days, manufacturers seem to think that you don't mind filling up your phone with apps to configure your router, that remote security camera you might use every few months. It seems every bit of hardware, even ones that don't attach to a phone, have an app, and in many cases the app supports options that aren't available through other configuration routes, if there are any. This system looks promising, so maybe soon it may become a little more useable. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on - although I'd need Nvidia support given all my PC's and laptops have Nvida graphics....!

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 If you'd watched the actual video, you'd see that the waydroid program currently doesn't work well with Nvidia video drivers, and its stated it works best with Intel video drivers.. This is discussed at some length, so maybe you need to watch the video again. Also, as an example I have a netgear repeater that recenttly I had to stop using because it can only be configured with the "app" because for some reason the web interface decided it was using an obsolete version of TLS. Unfortunately my phone is too old for the app to work properly, so its going to landfill. Yes, normally I would choose devices that contain standard configuration interfaces, but sometimes it would be nice to just run up the android version of the app if it were possible. In a "containerised" environment it might even be possible to tell if it is trying to "phone home", which would be useful information not available to you if you run the app on a phone. As to what video card I choose to use on my PC and Laptop, I would say that was my choice, and one I have made based on the experience I have had over the 18 years I have been using Linux and my main operating system, and the games and CAD systems I choose to use.. I suggest it is possibly you that doesn't know what they are talking about, respectfully or otherwise.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 maybe don't make assumptions about how other people use their systems and their time if you are trying to "help" them. . Nvidia drivers have always worked very well for me, I have used other video cards including AMD and Matrox, and they have had their benefits and problems. I have never had any problems with the software I use and Nvidia drivers so perhaps I am just lucky. You "assume" I use my video card for games but actually I only really play Minecraft and puzzle games which hardly stretch the GPU, mostly I use 3D CAD programs, KICAD, drawing programs, rendering suites that use the CUDA cores for acceleration and such, which is where I find the Nvidia cards work best for me. I did not contradict myself. You can sit through a video and not actually understand it, as you obviously missed the part where it said waydroid only worked well with Intel cards and then went off on some tangent about " What Android apps are you expecting to run on your PCs and laptops that would require NVIDIA support?" which had nothing to do with what I said. To explain it to you, the Android apps don't need the Nvidia support, Waydroid does. So perhaps you should watch the video again, and perhaps understand how waydroid works. Its in a container. If your only option is to use an app its possible that the containerisation would allow you to sandbox it and assess risks. You should know that. I use my computer to do things, so yes I don't always keep up with the latest in Linux. I am glad you do, although I feel sorry for your customers who have to face your judgemental attitude if your comments to me are anything to go by. I didn't suggest you didn't know what you were talking about because of lack of experience, I worked that out from what you said in your comments.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

And where did I complain that "Every bit of hardware didn't work on Linux" - I very specifically was referring to Waydroid.

[@Bronek0990]

Wait until you need the NVidia app for Android to configure your NVidia card.

[@TazerXI]

I think that this would be much better if it was: 1. A flatpak or something 2. In the settings, it has a place to add Google apps/comes with something like F-Droid by default. Having to open a terminal once means your app has failed at being user friendly imo. The terminal is great, but it should not be the only option to do something. There are exceptions to this, with things like more "pro" user tools, but a simple app/feature should be able to be done with a gui.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Absolutely agree

[@realtimestatic]

Im not sure they can legally include an option to add google services

[@Kiaulen]

@@realtimestatic you can often get around something like that by just including a link to instructions.

[@SkyyySi]

You know this requires custom kernel modules, right? And they provide very clear instructions on what you have to do. If you want to do something like this which requires tinkering, but you don't want to use the terminal because... you can't read(?), I'm not sure where the issue lies. Of course, the terminal is inaccessible and all that stuff because apparently, zooming, screen readers, eye trackers, etc. don't exist... but really?

[@cronchcrunch]

@@SkyyySi Installing and using an Android app should not be seen as "tinkering" If any tinkering is involved you've already lost most people, which matters a lot of you want to have more than a couple hundred users to attract contributors and enough donors to make it worth spending your time on. Also using the terminal to access gui applications makes for a dogshit experience. Idk why you're so against people's opinions on what could be improved.

[@stephan6530]

Some apps won't work on an x86 desktop because they are specifically built for arm / aarch64 architecture, but it should work on a Raspberry Pi.

[@Deniil2000]

"Why would you need a mobile app on a desktop?" is such a wrong mindset. Ideally, there should be an operating system that runs on everything, that will allow you to install same apps across all of your devices, be it mobile/tablet/laptop/desktop. FuchsiaOS is an interesting contender in that direction, its smart and well-designed Flutter-based UI API can make any apps automatically conform to the available screen size on any device. Isolating computing expiriences just because they are "desktop" doesn't make sense, we should strive towards same computing expirience on all devices.

[@schnitzelsemmel]

that was basically the idea of Java back in the day as well. problem is that you stiöö have to implement all the apis properly and it obviously comes with a performance hit. but with Android apps now running on windows, windows apps on Linux, web apps running html/js and even some Linux tools that run on termux Android, we are coming closer to a world where the OS doesn't matter

[@engelsteinberg593]

Why clutter the Desktop with shitt Mobile bullshit.

[@engelsteinberg593]

And Fuschia is pretty bullshit a lot of diabolic architecture.

[@ChristianYoga]

@@engelsteinberg593 Well, because not every application available for PC.

[@Deniil2000]

​@@engelsteinberg593 If app is mobile, it doesn't mean that it's automatically going to be shit on desktop. It depends on implementation, there are many UI frameworks that allow developing adaptive interfaces that look great on mobile and desktop screens. We should strive towards unified computing, the fracture between desktop and mobile that we have today is not a good thing.

[@naraydaniels7832]

Funny, The reason why I left Linux was because I needed android to read manga and my installation of manjaro gnome broke after installing Virtualbox (No seriously a simple pacman -Ss Virtualbox left gnome in an unusable state where i could only see my wallpaper). Currently I do have debian Gnome on my SD card so I'm going to check on it now

[@obvious_giraffe8386]

Try scrcpy and just use your phone on full screen while its charging

[@ChristianYoga]

I recall Tachidesk is now exist. It's compatible with Tachiyomi reader derivative, and support all website extension.

[@naraydaniels7832]

Y’all two have some nice app suggestions, I might check them out but the device I’m referring to is my surface go 2, which kinda nerfs both Apps. Scrcpy is implying I’m going to carry around my android and connecting it to my computer which is good when I’m at a desk or something but when I’m reading berserk on the train my LG (which I don’t even carry around anymore) has a loose usb c port, and though I’ve got a long cable, even connecting my external hdd on the train is weird sometimes. And tachidesk sounds really good, like really really good, I’m a Mac user so I can actually prop that up in my 27” iMac and get to reading without even having too boot into windows (stupid proprietary bluestacks) but Linux has bottom tier touch support, like Debian is quite literally my best touch experience on Linux and it still equates to 1/2 as good as windows 10’s experience, I will try both of them out though

[@xinceras-6542]

You know you're in the bubble when "it doesn't work on Nvidia GPUs" is just a minor "caveat."

[@EeveeEuphoria]

something I should point out is that waydroid works on pinephone, which is great since it increases the usability of Linux phones by a buttload

[@jfftck]

Android tablets are not that different from iPad when it comes to apps that force portrait mode (these are apps that support padOS and are not iOS apps as those apps can be letterboxed while displaying in landscape), I would prefer if both would allow users the ability to override this setting. There are apps that allow this on Android, but as far as I know, Apple gives the users the middle finger. I bought one of their keyboard cases and it feels like an insult when it forces portrait. The biggest issue I with padOS is that fact it has 3 different modes for apps: fluid, developer restricted, and iOS. There is no indication to which kind of app you are downloading. I understand that games might want you to play in portrait only, but there are apps that shouldn’t be allowed to force orientation since they should not be any more complex than a website. My whole point is that iPads are no better when it comes to proper support and I can’t understand why Android tablets get as much negative reviews as they do, my only guess is all the cheap ones are dragging the satisfaction down and those are the ones that people remember. I would buy an Android tablet again if they would build ones with the latest version of Android and use high end SoCs.

[@takmhz4918]

Having grew up with a Samsung Tablet for 5 years, then using an iPad from 2018 till now, I was patient with my slow old Android tablet but when I got my iPad dang it was fast and smooth, I almost became an Apple fanboy but my wallet doesn’t support that. I thought that Android tablets were still slow but Android smartphones have improved so obviously Tablets also improved. Now after a few years with Apple’s keyboard cover for the iPad Pro, I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT to anyone. Mine’s already really tethered (even my mom’s keyboard cover is falling off tho it mostly sits on the shelf) and it doesn’t work anymore after a year (iirc) probably because of corrosion on the folds (there’s a youtube video fixing it with copper tape). I also have a few scratches but that’s my fault since I use it for school and moved it around a lot but besides the keyboard (which was good but not on the long term), the iPad user experience is great. I wish to go back to Android for the customizability (why did I update to iPadOS 15 where I can’t jailbreak it thus can’t run VMs smoothly) but with hardware as good as Apple (also the price)

[@jfftck]

@@takmhz4918 I am glad to hear that someone else loves Apple hardware but not the software.

[@prabhatmaurya6663]

8:50 there is no need to do that long step to install gapps. Waydroid already has a image build with gapps. You just need to modify the init command as follows "sudo waydroid init -s GAPPS -f " and you are good to go. No need to run any extra scrips or blunders. 😉

[@dnawalahmed2979]

Or you can go with aurora services

[@prabhatmaurya6663]

@@dnawalahmed2979 yes but play store feels better.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

It didn't work, it told me the image disnt exist :)

[@prabhatmaurya6663]

@@TheLinuxEXP I have installed it almost 2 months ago maybe the dropped support for that.

[@dnawalahmed2979]

@@TheLinuxEXP THAT'S WHY AURORA SERVICES ARE BETTER (joking)

[@mirage809]

This is a really cool system for running Android apps on the desktop, but you are totally right. The terminal is cool and go a million cool things, but it is something that the average person will shy away from. A flatpak/snap/appimage version with F-droid preconfigured and the kinks ironed out could be an absolute boon for developers and anyone else that wants to use Android apps on their computers.

[@Tachi107]

3:41 worth mentioning that Andbox, the thing Waydroid is based on, works on Xorg 6:00 I get that you like universal packaging formats, but they are not the solution to everything... The convuluted installation process has little to do with the packaging format. Classic distro packages can automatically run the required command during package installation. Waydroid only needs to improve its packages, or better, shouldn't make it necessary to run "waydroid init" at all. Also, Flatpaks and Snaps are containerised formats and usually don't work well with containers manager themselves. It's just that Waydroid is still in development, that's all. 8:50 you should make it clear that that script installs a bunch of stuff that could be harmful to normal users, like Magisk (a root manager)! By the way, a more user friendly approach to installing the Google Play Services would be preinstalling a compatibility layer that would allow users to install the Play Store like any other app (kinda like GrapheneOS, a custom Android version, already does). No random, unsafe scripts involved :)

[@harshsrivastava9570]

1. unfortunately, anbox is severely dated, and for the most part superseded by waydroid (waydroid claims to be its successor) 2. waydroid init is what sets up the container itself and all necessary files, so making it execute automatically may be cumbersome, especially for power users 3. yup :)

[@Tachi107]

@@harshsrivastava9570 1. Yeah, but still better than nothing 2. I actually don't know much about how waydroid works. Is waydroid init supposed to be executed only once? If so, the installation script could run it automatically. If it had to be run on every reboot / every time you restart the container, why can't it be put in ExecStartPre= in the systemd unit? Why would it create issues for power users?

[@ebsolas]

100% agree. GUI is better for single instance install/downloads. For power use, command line CAN be faster, but only if you really know what you're doing and aren't a casual user (seriously linux users, stop hating the normies). Looking forward to a flatpak future. It's better for security, and modern computers are powerful enough to take the performance hit.

[@grapefruitnetwork]

The fact that Linux is still having the GUI v. Command Line Debate is what keeps it from being adopted by "Normies" App Stores and Web Downloads (and previously CDs) won out because of the ease of installation.

[@AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Nick. There are some great Android apps and it would be great for Linux adoption. But I don't think I'd use any.

[@PaperBenni]

2:15 Dalvik was actually replaced by the android runtime vm in android 4.4 (damn, remember minor updates that were bigger than the major updates of today xD)

[@inscrutablemungus4143]

6:00 Y'know I don't like these absolute statements from either side. GUI isn't 'better', just as CLI isn't 'better' either. It depends on the user. If you're more used to CLI commands and using using a text editor to modify configs, CLI is far more convenient. If not, GUI might be a better fit. Let's not devolve into tribalism by needlessly antagonizing people who prefer one style of using their computer. There's enough of that in the linux community right now.

[@ozrencupac]

I think you could set up the waydroid service to start up automatically as part of the boot process

[@t8db]

Yea, that's just systemctl enable (rather than start. Just note enable doesn't start, but it does on reboot)

[@hitorishinda5118]

I don't think you'd want to always want to start the android emu at bootup, a better way in my opinion would be to add alias android='systemctl start whatever' In your ~/.bashrc in a new line so you can open it with a short easy to remember comman

[@whydoyouaskdude]

@@t8db just append - -now to the enable command and it will enable + start at the same time

[@cyberp0et]

Debian :)

[@fuseteam]

btw waydroid is an alpha project, it is unfair to review it's end user experience xd imo in the best case scenario waydroid would not be something the user installs, it would be something distros ship as "android app support"; much like users aren't expected to `sudo apt install flatpak`

[@lala-jy4kz]

I suggest to firstly use Genymotion on Linux. Although not opensource, it is very stable. We could patiently wait until a stable open source project. However, there is a kind of issue I could not solve. I want the emulated phone to scan the QR code on computer screen, with a virtual camera streaming the screen image. But I failed. Although there are many tutorials about this, I still could not configure it on my Ubnutu 20.04. You may ask why I need to sreaming the QR code? The QR code on my computer screen refreshes to a new image every 2 or 3 mintues. If you want to use an image file, you have to take a screen shot, transfer the file to the emulated phone, and select the image on the phone. This entire process is time consuming, you have to be in a hurry to scan the image before refreshing. The hurry behaviour makes the using experience terrible, and tortures your patience.

[@obvious_giraffe8386]

I just use scrcpy with a raspberry pi so i can use a phone (any without hdmi out) while it is charging and you have keyboard and mouse control over your phone

[@SriHarshaChilakapati]

I'm surprised it is working that way, mainly because Android uses Linux users and group IDs to contain applications in the sandbox. When you install an app, a new Linux user is created just for that app. Btw, Dalvik VM is dead a long time back. ART (Android Runtime) is it's replacement. Kernel is stripped of a lot of drivers as space is a constraint in mobile hardware and instead, pluggable drivers are implemented. Android device manufacturers will include drivers for the hardware that they are using. LibC is gone, partly due to un-needed extra functionality and mainly due to licencing issues. Instead, Google's own implementation called as Bionic (which offers a subset of LibC) is used. So there is still a long way to go on that part. One thing as an Android app developer I could make use of this, is to automate instrumented test cases for applications that I develop, which is possible if WayDroid exports the ADB interface, as often times, we would like to have these tests running in the CI/CD pipeline and it is hard to hook real devices there. We do have other working alternatives such as Roboelectric for that matter though, or we can simply mock Android APIs with mocking frameworks. Other than that, I don't see a proper need. If you are lazy to reach your device and would like to run your apps on system, then a better alternative would be to keep an actual device, and then mirror it to the desktop using Scrcpy, which is a FOSS tool. You get a window which mirrors your device, and your physical keyboard and mouse can be used to simulate touch events and key events there. Since the processing is going on a real device, you won't get into a ton of issues either. There is also a Flatpak for this one, which makes installation pretty easy.

[@mircobandini]

I installed Waydroid on ubuntu 22.04 but looks like internet is not connected. If i try to switch wifi on it will turn off right after. How could i solve ?

[@cejannuzi]

Having run Android apps on a Chromebook, I think the problem is that most Android apps suck.

[@amansetia8655]

waydroid as flatpak would be awesome... but the kernel modules might cause issues, it would still not be one-click like other flatpaks

[@SomeRandomPiggo]

whats wrong with it being a normal binary?

[@amansetia8655]

@@SomeRandomPiggo it needs some kernel modules which aren't included by default and is also modular with variants like vanilla, gapps, magisk

[@bereck7735]

Flatpak wouldnt actually work, as flatpak itself is a container, your container will not get root access to the host system, which waydroid requires, ( waydroid is also a container in itself ), there is an issue on the waydroid repository about flatpak support and currently its not feasible, as waydroid as a flatpak, would be technically a container inside a container.

[@MaloryHovell]

Does it consume ~800MB of RAM in the background like Windows Subsystem for Android?

[@michadybczak4862]

But you can use enable command so it would start automatically: sudo systemctl enable xxxxx.proces Anyway, although commands are simple, it's too raw and too tiring, so the app is not appealing at the moment.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah, it's not finished yet

[@encrypt3d587]

I mean you can just throw the commands into a shell script. If you don't even want to open a terminal to run the script, just put it on your desktop so you can double-click it (or make a shortcut for it).

[@cuikho210]

It doesn't work on ubuntu 22 or pop-os 22, the python3-gbinder package is not supported yet

[@ancestrall794]

It interests me because I have a linux phone (PinePhone) so having some Android apps on it would be welcome

[@Mr.Riojas]

Gui is not so much better than it is easier. Better and Easier are not synonymous but I get your drift and I think you want to go for a GUI is easier than the command line.

[@kennystrawnmusic]

Re 8:50 - Arch-based distros do seem to have a simpler way to get the Google apps installed in the form of the “waydroid-image-gapps” AUR package. But because it’s Arch-specific, not exactly something that users of anything else can take advantage of.

[@prakhars962]

Hi Nick, I regularly watch your videos. Recently, my university offered remote connection to their computers via RDP. It turns out that they have RDP with MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) which none of the Linux RDP clients support. In Windows its very easy, however, in Ubuntu none of the existing RDP softwares help me. Have you happened to come across such an app?

[@FrDismasSayreOP]

One indirect benefit is accessibility: you can render it larger on a screen with lower resolution.

[@Jociis]

Android apps on Linux would help Linux mobile a lot tho if it’s as easy as install an apk and run it

[@beautifulislam67]

Android has got some great free apps, like download managers, photo and video editors.

[@jasnix]

Interesting… the case for making the jump from windows to Linux is getting better. Wish the same was true for iCloud/macOS path, but small steps

[@Joetorres3]

is very usefull. Specially with stuff like authentication apps. Some apps like twitch are better to see the chat then the desktiop.

[@justahumanwithamask4089]

So basically Linux's answer to bluestacks.

[@ThatLinuxDude]

9:58 I'm assuming this means Waydroid FAILS SafetyNet checks. SafetyNet checks usually partially fail in custom ROMs of Android, especially if a rooting module is present (and is not masked), and applications like Pokemon GO, the Play Store, and so on are said to use it to restrict application availability in the Play Store (and softlock the whole UI in Pokemon GO's case) at the developers' discretion. Therefore, Netflix wouldn't be there as it is a well-known case of an application in the Play Store set to hide on SafetyNet-failing Android devices. You can check SafetyNet's status by getting *SafetyNet Test* from the Play Store.

[@rvreqTheSheepo]

I wonder if it would work for my Steam Deck, huh

[@Caellyan]

I think a very good use case for waydroid is using it in conjuction with something like postmarketOS on actual mobile devices. That would allow us to run Android apps whilst not sacrificing privacy and functionality, like we're forced to currently with Android.

[@Lumpology]

Waydroid is running nicely on Ubuntu Touch

[@Kalasklister1337]

There are some pinephone pro videos on yt where they showcase functioning apps. The "only" hurdles that need to be fixed for acceptable use are 1. waydroid apps to work when phone is in standby mode (progress being made alreay) 2. fixing hardware acceleration (will enable graphics intense apps to be used as well, not just simple ones). I'm already sold on these being fixed in the coming months so i ordered my pinehone pro developer edition :)

[@hotrodjones74]

@@Lumpology This was my first thought. I'd like to get away from the Android Googleplex in a meaningful way on my mobile device, but some non-Google apps will be needed for daily usability. This is the missing link to a daily driver Linux-powered smartphone.

[@PaperBenni]

The setup process of waydroid is NOT solved by changing the packaging format. Given that it probably interacts a bunch with other parts of the system, the one thing that snaps, flatpaks and to some extent appimages are exceptionally bad at, it would probably decrease stability and speed by a ton. Most likely the devs couldn't be bothered because there are more urgent problems that need solving. A GUI setup using polkit is really easy and simple to implement, I'm guessing it will definitely happen as the project matures

[@robertvideochannel]

You are a Genius. Your KZbin ads are VERY well invested. More Amazing Topics i beg you < 3

[@ssela]

Netflix and other app don't show up because device is not certified by google play protect and probably device also not pass safety net check.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

It says it is certified, though

[@wallyhackenslacker]

Wasn't Dalvik deprecated with Android 5.0 and replaced with the Android RunTime (ART) java vm?

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah, it was, my bad!

[@silan2335]

@@TheLinuxEXP Here is a good explainer-video on the difference between Dalvik and ART, since I also struggeld in the beginning with the differences: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnuUk6BrbZqIecU

[@jimbo-dev]

Hooray! Google telemetry on a pc! Luckily there is a development for open source microg implementation

[@encrypt3d587]

The normal, gapps-less version should theoretically be as free from telemetry as LineageOS. The only trackers are the ones you install :p

[@jamesclow108]

Definitely a shame about the lack of NVIDIA hardware support. I hope that this is something that will be possible in the future!

[@wtt9809]

Stop complaining and do something about it.Such as make one gpu, I mean seriously，lol。

[@nezu_cc]

5:22 WYSI (only osu! people will understand)

[@MaryamMaqdisi]

Really good video Nick! I don't particularly care about running Android apps on my desktop but it's fun to think about it.

[@breadmoth6443]

I hope so, I would like to have a pure linux phone - i only would need access to one or two android apps anyways, so if we can get proper support (not emulated) and it runs as fast as on android, i would love to switch to something like pinephone.

[@jorgegarciar]

Just a note: Android apps don't run on Dalvik anymore

[@amitezuthachan5779]

android has way more apps than linux

[@scottastatine]

Update this video with current developments!!

[@TehObLiVioUs]

Damn Can't get waydroid to work on my 6900xt guess it's not supported according to some github issue page like open the application and literally nothing pops up, even on wayland YEAH LOL you even said it there : 4:13

[@notthedroidsyourelookingfo4026]

Hey Nick, after watching your video on CLI apps, I already installed tldr, ranger, autojump and thef*uck, and they're really quite cool! Also, they're all in the fedora repos, so it was extremely easy.

[@dylon4906]

this is so perfectly timed. just last night I was wondering if there was a way to run the Xbox android app natively on Linux so I can talk to my friends on party chat while gaming. my current workaround is to run an androidx86 vm with my mic passed in but as you might be able to tell it kinda sucks. I also just so happen to be using wayland as well. I really hope this works

[@davidwayne9982]

I'm trying out ANBOX but it won't work right either.... I've installed and RE- installed it-- CORRECTLY both times and it STILL won't work right. I"m tired of using my PHONE for the control---- PHONES are for CALLING--- and besides, I'm 67, one eye now and have trouble seeing the small phone screen correctly... need them on my BIG screen.

[@bmsfx]

Im having some issues with Linux, i been running now one week to test stuff out (last was YEARS ago), using Kubuntu 22.04... First issue is the nvidia setting to remove tearing, why isnt this fixed in the driver yet? and enable the options to remove it slows the graphics down.. ALOT Second is drivers, i have eg. a Zebra TLP 2844 label printer, while it can install, it cant print, and i cant choose settings for the label size (eg 80*190 mm) Then there is the issues with a 64 bit system, where you have to enable some 32 bit support for some things to work. I feel for the end user there is alot of "hacks" and wierd things in konsole for making some stuff work as well, for me, its not ready for end users yet...

[@januhlir7800]

Very practical use case - WhatsApp. This is mobile first app. And it shows. It's widely used for audio and video calls but video calls are supported only only by the Android/iOS clients. It has a web client, but that has no support for calls. It has a native linux client, but that one also has no support for calls; and is generally not well maintained. Being able to make video calls from WhatsApp on Linux would hugely improve desktop experience there. Yes, we have Skype but that's not widely used any more.

[@WolfiiDog13]

The only reason I still run Windows instead of Linux is the lack of a single game: Minecraft Bedrock. That game is my favorite game, and every time I tried migrating to Linux, that was the thing I would miss the most, so I always come back to Windows. I'm aware there's an unofficial Bedrock launcher for Linux since I have used it for some time, but it is currently deprecated, and it it never worked well in the first place, it was full of problems. Maybe one day I will be able to run any android app or game on Windows with no issues at all cause of projects like Waydroid, but till it works really well, and it's a easy and simple user experience, I'm stuck with Windows. Yes, I have tried dual-booting, but it always creates more problems than it solves, specially if you have a 128GB SSD, definitely not a good idea to have two partitions, it's too prone to problems. I live in this middle ground where I want to scape the MS nonsense, there are things I hate about Windows, but I'm just stuck with it either cause of apps, or cause of inconveniences with Linux. Like Wayland still not working 100% with Nvidia, wi-fi drivers failing upon boot, making me restart the system, sleep not working well on my laptop, and the dual-GPU thing being really inconvenient in some distros, etc.

[@yuvrajsingh099]

Maybe with new arm processors like snapdragon x elite series in a 2-in-1 or tablet like surface pro 11, will offer us to run better run android apps. Every app is compatible with snapdragon chipset and andrino gpu, the processor is made from that sane hardware. It would be dream come true to run android near native performance on Linux..

[@you-can-t-get-know-me]

sudo systemctl start waydroid-container

[@JoeJoeTater]

Just saying "GUI is better" without any other caveats is the same attitude that makes non-Linux operating systems a nightmare. You can't generically say what's "better", because you don't know everyone's preferences. Even if you were omniscient, different people have different preferences. So, it's impossible to pick one "best" solution for everyone. People have to pick what's best for themselves. Please stop trying to push such a toxic, authoritarian attitude.

[@Zakaros1000]

I just run a virtual machine with Androidx86 or a fork like PrimeOS (this one is good for gaming because of the keymapper but so many ads :c) xD Although I still couldn't play Crash Bandicoot on the Run, but I played Pokemon United.

[@toddmclaughlin8153]

The only thing I would want that to do, is run the peacock+ apt. They will not let me just log into my account and use it. Flat say we see you're running Linux sorry.

[@ethanrushbrook3314]

Finally something to replace the dreadful Anbox... Hopefully it comes to nvidia GPUs soon. Nvidia need to get their stuff together! It makes sense that they wouldn't care but I'd actually buy an AMD GPU to be able to use the Mesa drivers which means nvidia is loosing a sale due to their poor Wayland support. Video I'd like to see: you made a video a few years ago called Using Linux At Work - Applications I Use. Can we have an updated one? A lot has changed!

[@Kris-od3sj]

Fyi: it works on Nvidia by switching Waydroid to software rendering in a config, but it's a terrible experience and you can just run an Android x86 VM instead at this point

[@Kris-od3sj]

@gu4t4f4c Technically yeah, but I thought it's worth mentioning to make things clear. All in all, if there was no software rendering option it wouldn't run at all, so it definitely isn't an insignificant difference

[@Ma1ne2]

What is the current state of Wayland regarding NVIDIA support? (Or better: NVIDIA supporting Wayland, not the other way around) I unfortunately have an NVIDIA GPU inside my laptop but would love to finally switch to Wayland. Is there any news regarding this?

[@davidwayne9982]

I want LINUX on my phone-- MY phone - not some expensive thing they' want to sell me-- I have a NICE Nokia smartphone that is actually BETTER than Iphone-- I want to put that LINUX you told about in another video on it. HOw do I go about that??? And as to Android- I don't care if it works on the phone or not- if I have LINUX on it-- won't need it anyway

[@fuseteam]

waydroid cannot be packaged as a appimage nor a flatpak. the reason for this is because it requires root permissions **and** non-root permissions to run correctly. forcing waydroid into either flatpak or appimage is like dumping a truck load of cargo on a ferrari or a bicycle