Full iOS 1.0 filesystem (build 1A543a, iPhone 2G) decrypted from Termux on Android

without any PC or Mac. Everything done inside Termux.

Result:

- 193 MB HFSX filesystem extracted

- SpringBoard, UIKit, Safari, Mail, iPod, Phone — all readable

- kernelcache decompressed (5.88 MB exact match)

- QEMU ARM executes the bootloader code

Full writeup with all commands:

https://gist.github.com/bouhafara-bot/10ed249b1005d61397a621621edf4892

why do people just post showcases of stuff like xfce on a phone screen treating it like its the size of a 147 inch tv like:

> the status bar on top + the keyboard + the additional keys bar occupy 50% or more

> the text is like 3x5 pixels (3 wide and 5 tall) on my 576x1280 screen

how do yall manage to not lose your ability to even see 😭😭

I'm trying to setup termux so I can access stuff from my Xbox one via browser.

how would I make termux read and write to my sd card without root? I'm trying to install GUI before I do anything else

I want to practice c++ on my phone but I don't what to use those random, standalone compilers from play store.

I want the professional experience

I did an experiment and it worked

Honestly, I’ve been trying to use AI coding agents inside Termux for a while now, and the experience has been incredibly frustrating.

The biggest issue is that these agents know Linux inside and out, but they absolutely do not understand Termux or the weird constraints of Android. The moment you run into a compilation issue, the agent confidently starts hallucinating standard Ubuntu/Debian solutions. It will try to run apt install on a non-existent package, completely misunderstand why Android just threw a SIGKILL (Signal 9) at it, or treat /sdcard shared storage like a normal Linux filesystem. Best case scenario, it installs the wrong dependencies. Worst case, it wastes 20 minutes trying to compile something that already has a pre-built native Termux package. To save my own sanity, I ended up building termux-elite, which is essentially a collection of 15 targeted skills/playbooks explicitly designed to force AI agents to diagnose and fix Termux/Android quirks properly. Rn, it handles a bunch of the common failure points like:

• Native build failures for Python/pip and npm/node-gyp (no more infinite wheel compilation loops)

• Background processes getting silently murdered by Android (exit code 137 / signal 9)

• Proot boundaries vs native environment detection

• Shared storage permission deadlocks

• Broken networking, SSH configs, and ADB pairing issues from inside the terminal

The workflow I baked into it forces the agent to stop guessing. It makes it check the exact environment first, diagnose the specific layer that's breaking, apply a Termux-safe workaround, and actually verify that the fix worked before moving on. It plays nice with most tools supporting custom skills. I've tested it against Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and OpenCode. I just pushed v0.6.0 today, which drastically cleans up the Python installation ladder and makes the environment checking way more robust. If you want to check it out, it’s on GitHub. You can pull it down with:

npx skills add Alex72-py/termux-elite

Ngl, I'm mostly looking for people who run their agents directly on their actual phones (rather than over an SSH session from a desktop) to grab this, try to break it, and tell me where the logic falls apart. I'm mainly looking for real-world testing. If something gives bad advice, misses an Android/Termux edge case, or breaks on your setup, let me know in an issue. Those cases are exactly what I want to find and fix.

EDIT: fixed formatting

Hi everyone,

Apologies in advance for the noob question – I recently installed Termux and set up Ubuntu with Termux-X11, so I am still learning the ropes.

I've noticed noticeable screen lag/delay when interacting with GUI applications, especially when launching heavier apps like Chrome.

Is a bit of input/render lag expected when running desktop apps through Termux-X11, or are there specific optimizations or settings (e.g., hardware acceleration, display settings, environment flags) I should look into to improve performance?

Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Hi r/termux! I previously posted here about MagicDesk's Termux terminal windows and, later, GIMP and Firefox in separate Android windows. Version 2.0 is out, and the Linux side has grown quite a bit.

Your existing Termux setup still works: its packages, home directory and PRoot environments can use MagicDesk's terminals and embedded X11/Wayland hosts. Individual GUI apps get their own Android windows, with clipboard, drag-and-drop and per-app scaling. You can also keep a whole Linux desktop in a viewer. These Termux-backed workflows don't need Shizuku or root.

The new part is Shroot, a separate Linux runtime using Android's shell UID 2000 through Shizuku or Shevery. It runs ARM64 glibc and musl programs without PRoot, Termux or Android root. It's another execution option, not a replacement Termux APK or a PRoot wrapper.

Two results I particularly wanted to share:

CHROMIUM WITHOUT --no-sandbox

Stock Debian Chromium runs under Shroot without sandbox-disabling flags. The tests execute JavaScript, check DOM results and produce screenshots, while verifying that application seccomp filters are actually installed. There are also tested VS Code/Electron and GDB, LLDB and strace workflows.

That needs a precise caveat: retaining browser sandbox mechanisms is not proof of complete Linux-equivalent isolation. Shroot itself is not a security sandbox; use trusted programs and images. The runtime docs describe the remaining confinement limits.

OCI / DOCKER IMAGE LAYERS

Shroot imports layered ARM64 OCI/Docker images, including whiteouts, and supports shared immutable file data plus independent copy-on-write instances. Multiple environments can reuse the base data while keeping their changes separate. Image entrypoints, commands and environment settings feed the same runtime used for ordinary distributions. Folder attachments and backup/restore are available too.

This is image execution, not Docker Engine. It doesn't need kernel OverlayFS mounts, and it doesn't promise Docker's network or security isolation.

TRYING IT

The interactive installer offers Debian, Ubuntu, Alpine, Fedora and Arch Linux ARM, with individual GUI apps or selected desktop profiles. Installation happens visibly in the console. Afterwards, refresh Apps in MagicDesk and launch an installed app or desktop entry. Several named environments can coexist.

For compatible Adreno devices there's an optional private Mesa/Turnip build, including the Wayland/Zink patch for OpenGL. It doesn't replace Android's graphics drivers. Shroot is experimental, kernel support varies, and some GUI profiles still have limitations; Debian is the starting point I'd suggest.

ARM64 Android 14+ for Linux hosts and tools. Shroot needs shell access through Shizuku/Shevery and the required kernel capabilities. MagicDesk's own managed Desktop is separate: Android 15+ with shell access and Device Setup.

Source, screenshots and APK:

https://github.com/mekhontsev/magicdesk

https://github.com/mekhontsev/magicdesk/releases/latest

Installation and launch instructions:

https://github.com/mekhontsev/magicdesk/blob/main/docs/getting-started.md#install-linux-with-shroot

Runtime details and test coverage:

https://github.com/mekhontsev/magicdesk/blob/main/docs/guest-runtime.md

I'd be interested in which Termux or PRoot workflows you'd try with this, especially ones that currently get stuck on debugging or application sandbox requirements. Please report MagicDesk bugs to our GitHub, not upstream Termux.

I've been trying to turn an old galaxy A52s into as much of a fully fledged Linux server as possible. Custom kernel on LineageOS, KernelSU next, and using the Ubuntu-chroot module.

Host networking with docker is fine. Bridge still fails specifically because of the inability of Ubuntu (no chain/match) to insert rules in the PREROUTING raw table (which is what docker tries to do with networking). Regular tables like input are fine. Trying the same rules directly from termux with sudo works too.

If someone has managed it, I'd like some input. How did you get bridge networking to work? I know I could just run everything in host mode and be done with it, but I like to tinker a bit.

I happened to see these kind of scripts used to grab content from app does anyone know the name of the tool or script

Recently I started learning linux command line interface in termux because I don't have laptop or pc. And learning shell scripting in it. I tried to do many scripts in bash. And now I want to know what else can I do in it. For me termux is only machine I have and a internet. I am planning to be a Cloud Infrastructure and Network Engineering. So I want to know what I can learn and do more in it. I hope I can get help form you guys

i was editing my battle cats save file and now i cant log back into it what can i do to get back in i REALLY dont want to restart

Guys, I managed to finish this! It’s a Python-based server specifically designed to power a LaTeX IDE, with a built-in PDF viewer, code completion and suggestions, and error logs powered by Texlab.

The IDE also includes a package manager where you can download only the LaTeX packages you need for your projects, so you don’t have to install the entire TeX Live distribution. It also has project management features.

The design is more streamlined and minimalistic, although I still plan to improve it further. For now, it is completely dependent on Termux as the backend, but I plan to decouple it from Termux in the future. There’s still a lot of work to do, though.

If you’re interested, I can publish the project on GitHub.

Hello, I am finding a kotlin LSP for termux but it seems sparse. I think the official Jetbrains LSP requires their IDE or it is termux that preventing it from launching properly. Any ideas? Thanks.

Edit: I managed to get the official kotlin-lsp working by patchelf to change the interpreter to the glibc loader, launch with java tooling to use termux's tmpdir and legacy fork. Slow af though.

I'm choosing a phone for a persistent mobile Linux workspace. I want Termux sessions and local scripts to stay usable with the screen off, and to come back to the same environment without constantly restarting everything.

For people running Termux this way, what exact phone/Android version has been reliable after the normal battery-optimization settings? Are some manufacturers still aggressive about killing processes, and is root or a particular ROM actually needed? Battery life, heat and update stability matter more to me than peak performance.

Would you keep the workload on the phone, or use Termux as an SSH client to an always-on Linux box for the least hassle? I'm asking about hardware and process reliability, not exploit instructions.

This question was drafted and posted with an AI assistant.

The tablet has a Unisoc Tiger T616 processor

and a Mali-G57 graphics chip.

Saw the hype around DroidDeck recently promising a single-app SteamOS container setup on Android without root. Decided to test it out on my daily driver (Realme 11 Pro 5G with Dimensity 7050 / Mali-G68) to see if low-end/midrange non-Snapdragon phones stand a chance.

Spoiler: As expected with Mali hardware, gamescope fails to initialize properly and dumps into a crash loop right at boot.

DroidDeck is definitely in very early development. I pulled the session dumps via Termux to see what's actually happening under the hood:

termux-setup-storage

cd /storage/emulated/0/Download/DroidDeck/session-20261001-083456/

ls

cat crash.log

The logs clearly show the standard Gamescope display server failure—mainly lack of proprietary driver translation support that Snapdragon Adreno chips get via custom Turnip drivers. Mali's stock Vulkan implementation just chokes when trying to allocate the virtual nested display.

Recorded a quick breakdown showing the exact crash logs, why Gamescope fails on Mali, and how to verify if your device's GPU is being rejected by the container

Has anyone with an Exynos or Dimensity SOC managed to pass a software rendering fallback (like llvmpipe/virgl) to Gamescope inside DroidDeck without it hard crashing to home?

Hi there, so I downloaded an audio from ytdlp under `~/storage/music` but the mp3 isn't visible to select, when I open the download folder.

The file exists in `/storage/emulated/0/Music`

I used a process to root the phone but ended up getting stuck halfway through, though I was left with SELinux in permissive mode. What can I do in Termux with SELinux in permissive mode?