Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Tl; DR
- The Android 16 Linux Terminal can now run Linux graphic applications such as Doom.
- It is thanks to improvements such as material acceleration management and a display server.
- These upgrades are not yet live in the last Android 16 Beta, but they could arrive in a future version.
Google wants to transform Android into a full PC operating system, and to do this, it must operate office class programs. The best way for Google to do so is to add the management of Linux applications on Android, a bit as it did with Chrome OS. This is exactly the idea behind the Android Linux Terminal application on which Google has been working for several months. The current version of the Terminal application lacks support for graphic applications running, but this could change in a next version of Android 16.
You read a Overview of the authority history. Discover the information of authority for more exclusive reports, demons, tears, leaks and in -depth technological coverage that you will not find anywhere else.
The Android Linux Terminal is an all-in-one application that downloads, configures, executes and interfaces with a Debian distribution instance executed in a virtual machine. The application is based on the Android Virtualization (AVF) framework, a set of APIs that allow an Android host device to run other operating systems via virtualization. AVF is supported by many different devices of a variety of OEM, with the notable exception of Samsung.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
The terminal application appeared for the first time in the Android 15 QPR2 option as a developer, and it is still locked behind the developer’s parameters. From its initial public version, Google has supported some changes that have solved the problems with the installation process and added a menu of parameters to resize the disc, the transferred ports and save the installation. However, the most important changes on which the company works, in particular the addition of a material acceleration medium and a complete graphic environment, was not pushed to any public version.
Fortunately, since Google works on this outdoor feature, it is possible to simply compile an AOSP construction with these added modifications. To demonstrate, we pulled the Linux terminal on a Pixel 9 Pro, used a new button at the top right to enter the Display activityThen ran the ‘Weston“Order to open a graphic environment. (Weston is a reference implementation of a Wayland composer, a modern display server protocol.)
We also went from the front and allowed a material acceleration in advance as well as established Woe to chocolateA port of Doom Source, to see if it would work. Doom worked, as you can see below. He worked well, which is not a surprise since Doom can work with literal potatoes. There was no audio because an audio server is not yet available, but audio management is something on which Google is still working on.
Be that as it may, the fact that the Android Linux Terminal can execute graphic applications like Doom now is good news. I hope that we will be able to execute more complex office class Linux programs in the future. I tried to execute Gimp, for example, but it didn’t work. Finally, Android should be able to execute Linux applications as well as ChromeBooks, as I believe that one of the objectives of this project is to help the transition from Chrome OS to an Android base.
