In today’s technology, your smartphone has become more than just a smartphone. You can use it in such ways that would baffle anyone to hear about. And we are not just talking about using it as webcam, speakers or such. You device achieve many more amazing tasks that are far more exciting to do! Let us see a few of these wonders that you can do with your phone.
Linux on Your Phone
Yes, you heard it right! You can actually use certain Linux distros such as Ubuntu, Debian and so on in your device with the help of Termux app and VNC Viewer. And there is no need to worry, as it is quite easy to do it. First, let us start by installing Termux and VNC Viewer in our phone:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.realvnc.viewer.android
Even though Termux app can be installed through Play Store as well, Play Store version is not updated so it is better if you download and install it through their Github repository or F-Droid:
Once you have installed these apps, open Termux and type in this code:
apt update apt install proot -y # download installer curl -L -o install.sh https://bit.ly/udroid-installer # run the installer bash install.sh # Install ubuntu with this command udroid -i xfce4 udroid -l xfce4
For simplicity purposes, we will guide you through installing Ubuntu. Once you have pasted the code above in Termux, it will start downloading and installing certain stuff. It is going to take a while depending on your internet connection, but once it is done, your Ubuntu distro is ready to run. Type in proot-distro login udroid-focal-xfce4 to start the distro and vncserver :1 to run the vnc remote server.
Once you are done with all that, open your VNC Viewer application, type in localhost:1 and connect. Confirm any prompt that appears, and when asked the password, type in secret and continue. And that is it, you now have your Ubuntu distro running in your device. Make sure to type in vncserver -killwhen you wish to shut down as it will continue running in the background and will drain your battery.
You can access all extra and updated information in the Github Repo of the developer of this project.
Use Phone as USB Drive
Here is another very helpful and quite fun app to use that turns your device into USB drive, and even a CD, DriveDroid. DriveDroid app is a root app that uses disk images to imitate your device as if it were an image written USB drive. You can do whatever your regular USB drive do with this app, and even more, such as your storage capacity is practically whatever your phone storage supports.
You can also create and plug empty disk images to your PC, making it an empty drive that is ready to flash anything into it, or store files. First, install DriveDroid through Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwarebakery.drivedroid
Once the installation is done, download any ISO image that you wish to boot your PC with. We should warn you however that Windows images do not directly work by simply mounting the disk image. We will get to how to do it in a bit. Once the disk image is downloaded:
- Open the app
- Skip the welcome page
- Grant root access
- Select an image directory where you will be putting and mounting your disk images
DriveDroid will mount a disk image of its own to test and see if the app is working properly on your device, you can skip this part if you wish to. After the tutorial and configuration pages are gone, all that is left is to move the disk image you downloaded previously into the image directory you selected in the app.
Once you do that, it will appear in the app, simply tap on it once and a menu will appear. Select how you wish to mount the image, Writable USB on Mass Storage 1 option is the preferred way to do it.
Now plug your device into your PC with your usb cable and reboot into BIOS. In Boot section, select your USB device and boot it. That is all, your image should be booting just like that. If you are having trouble with your USB drive not showing up in boot options, make sure the disk image you are using is valid, or try other settings in DriveDroid app. Unfortunately, this app is not universally supported as it depends on your device’s kernel support.
For Windows:
It is actually not complicated at all. Open DriveDroid app, and tap on the plus button at the bottom-right corner. Select Create blank image, type in a file name and the size you wish for your USB drive. Once it is created, simply mount it just like before to your PC and flash your Windows ISO file through USB flashing apps like Etcher.
