Run an ubuntu 16.04 server instance on an Android device (no GUI necessary)

Question

I'm not a fan of the recurring fee subscriptions necessary to launch cloud instances. I'd like to make a cheap purchase of an Android phone and use it as an Ubuntu Server. I would basically use only the command line interface; There's a lot of tutorials for putting the Ubuntu GUI on your phone, I just want a server instance though that I can shell into.

Surprisingly, I can't seem to find any tutorials of doing this, even on rooted devices. Does anyone have any experience with running an Ubuntu server from an Android device? I'd hope that all packages would remain valid even from the Android hardware.

It's possible to do something similar with laptops, I know. But laptops require more power and are less discrete & mobile than phones.

I'm also wondering if there will be any problems with hardware compatibility in doing this. Like, obviously, I wouldn't be able to add a USB interface (without additional hardware).

I'd prefer to use something with a Sim card slot built in... But I'll look into it, thanks. — nick carraway, Jun 03 '18 at 18:21
There's on version 16 of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 16.10 and 16.04 is so different that it really should be specified to avoid confusion. I see you added it as a tag. You might consider including the clarification in your title topic also. — L. D. James, Jun 03 '18 at 19:02
I looked heavily into porting Ubuntu directly to an android phone and it hasn't been done before. One thing I didn't look into whether it can be done using stuff like docker and virtualbox installed on an android. But i haven't explored that. If you find an answer please let me know — nick carraway, Oct 12 '18 at 00:02
Does this answer your question? Can I install Ubuntu 14.04 Server on my Android Phone? — karel, Feb 05 '22 at 03:00

Kapil Yadav · Answer 1 · 2020-04-17T10:55:48.880

You can do it. I am already hosting my website in my phone Ubuntu server.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.how2shout.com/how-to/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-android-without-root.html

Step 1: Download UserLAnd App This app is available on Google Play store, here is the link to download it. There is no complications in its installation just like any other, open Play store on phone either use the here given link or search for UserLAnd and when appears, tap to install it.

Step 2: Run UserLAnd to install Linux OS on Android The moment, the app opens, you will see multiple Linux distros options along with their logos such as KALI Linux, Ubuntu, Alpine, Arch Linux, Debian along with lightweight Debian based Desktops with Xfce and Lxde desktop environment. It also has some Linux development, games and productivity apps. Well! here we are only about to focus on the process to run Ubuntu on Android. Tap on the Ubuntu icon.

Run Ubuntu Linux on Android using Userland

Step 3: Setup Username and Password for user and VNC When you tap on the Ubuntu or any other Linux distros have given in UserLAnd, the first it will ask you to setup username, password and VNC password.

Type whatever you want and remember this will set as a standard user of your Android’s Ubuntu operating system. Once done, tap on the Continue option.

Create username and password for Ubuntu on Android

Step 4: Download Ubuntu for Android The next thing which we need to select that how we would like to connect installed Linux OS Ubuntu on Android with SSH or VNC. I would like to use SSh which is simple and from the inbuilt terminal of UserLAnd, I can easily control my Linux operating system. We will also show later in this article how to use RealVNC to connect the existing Ubuntu, KALI or any other OS available on this Android application.

After that, it will say the files of Ubuntu to download on Android are of 80MB and would like to download it without Wifi, tap continue if you want to download them on mobile data. It will take a few minutes to set up all depend upon your internet connection speed.

ubuntu for android download

Step 5: Login to Android running Ubuntu After the installation, as we have selected the SSH in the beginning, a terminal window will open. Now here just like regular Ubuntu server enter the password you have created above for your Ubuntu image running on Android.

Login to Android Ubuntu

Step 6: Update and Upgrade Ubuntu running on Android Apart from the small screen and no init boot it is just like Windows 10 WSL, you will not feel any other differences on this Ubuntu Linux image, emulated on Android phone.

Thus, now we can use the keyboard to enter the command to our Linux. Let’s first update and upgrade all the packages of it. Run the following command

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Update and upgrade ubuntu running on Android

Step 7: Set the root password for Ubuntu As we know by default there is no password for the root user, so to set that use the following command:

sudo passwd root

Enter Unix Password two times that you want to set and it will be done…

In this way, we can use this app to have Ubuntu for fun and experiment Linux on an Android phone or tablet. You can install further packages and LAMP environment.

For AOSP or lineage users, userLand is also available on F-droid and their github. — dawnbringer, Feb 04 '22 at 05:19

nick carraway · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-31T23:15:21.417

0

I have been using Termux which is a linux emulator environment for Android. It seems to have a large open-source community around it.

You can enable things like SSH.

edited May 31 '20 at 23:15

answered May 26 '20 at 22:33

nick carraway

227

Run an ubuntu 16.04 server instance on an Android device (no GUI necessary)

2 Answers2