Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

AnX11 Phone Project

Share your HowTo, Documentation, Tips and Tricks. Not for support questions!.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Soul Singin'
Posts: 1605
Joined: 2008-12-21 07:02

AnX11 Phone Project

#1 Post by Soul Singin' »

.
AnX11 Phone Project

Image

In a room full of economists, I'm the only one who runs regressions on a 5-ounce phone. My colleagues still carry 5-pound laptops.

Major vendors of mathematical and statistical software have only produced apps that connect to another computer or a proprietary server. By contrast, I can solve differential equations, plot likelihood functions and run regressions directly on my phone. It's a nice "on the go" solution and it's a relaxing way to work.

With Debian installed on my Android phone, I can run R scripts and Perl scripts directly on my phone. And, if I'm teaching class, I can project X11 applications like wxMaxima and Gretl from my phone onto the screen behind me.

Nonetheless, it seems strange to me that today (in 2016), eight years after the first commercial release of an Android phone, that Debian is the only provider of fully-featured mathematical and statistical tools that run on an Android phone.

This HowTo explains to how to run Debian on an Android phone (or tablet), but because it is very long, I host it at my own site. While you're there, download the installer and check out my screenshots.

I would also appreciate any suggestions. Please add them below.

Have fun!
- Soul Singin'
.
Last edited by Soul Singin' on 2016-10-18 13:55, edited 9 times in total.

User avatar
Soul Singin'
Posts: 1605
Joined: 2008-12-21 07:02

Re: HowTo: Sven-Ola's Debian Kit for Android

#2 Post by Soul Singin' »

Soul Singin' wrote:To that end, please add suggestions below.
Let's kick off the suggestions with a ~/.emacs

Code: Select all

;; ;;  ~/.emacs
;; ;; 
;; ;;  Soul Singin'
;; ;;  last modified:  15 August 2013

;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; 

;; ;; APPEARANCE
;; ;; ==========
;; ;; 
(display-time-mode t)
(menu-bar-mode nil)
(scroll-bar-mode nil)
(tool-bar-mode nil)

;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; 

;; function to reload .emacs
(defun reload-emacs () 
  (interactive)
  (load "~/.emacs"))

;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; 

;; ;; A FEW MORE CUSTOMIZATIONS
;; ;; = === ==== ==============

;; in emacs23 transient-mark-mode is on by default.
;; I'm not used to that, so it drives me crazy
(transient-mark-mode 0) 

;; show parenthesis
(show-paren-mode t) 

;; set font
(set-default-font "Droid Sans Mono-14")
.

User avatar
ammar
Posts: 14
Joined: 2011-12-16 12:18

Re: HowTo: Sven-Ola's Debian Kit for Android

#3 Post by ammar »

Oh really! since 2008 and never heard of it! good job man! :)

User avatar
Soul Singin'
Posts: 1605
Joined: 2008-12-21 07:02

Re: HowTo: Sven-Ola's Debian Kit for Android

#4 Post by Soul Singin' »

ammar wrote:Oh really! since 2008 and never heard of it! good job man! :)
(( muffled screams of frustration )) . :( . Exactly! Very few people know that you can run Debian on your phone. Even fewer know that you do not need chroot.

It baffles me that more GNU/Linux users do not know that it is possible to use a local Debian installation to control your Android phone. As I was saying on the other forum ...
SoulSingin wrote:
allthatisthecase wrote:
SoulSingin wrote:If I had the time, money and resources, I would build on Sven-Ola's work, I would rewrite X11 so that it recognizes touch screen gestures
AFAIK Xorg has the ability to use touchscreen gestures
Sounds like you know more than me. I played with the X server app, so I know that it can work on an Android device, but that's all I know.

What I wrote was a lament. CyanogenMod is a nice project, but all it does is replace proprietary Android with open source Android. We need to go further. A simple step forward would be to create a ROM with Debian baked in. Then you could just switch displays (from the Android display to Debian's X display).

Once you're on the Debian side, you will still want to work with your phone, so we will need GNU/Linux applications that provide a telephone dialer, address book, messenger, etc. A simple step towards achieving those objectives would be to rewrite Florian Breitwieser' SMS scripts, which search the Android database, extract address book entries, receive SMS messages and send the SMS messages that you write. (For my own Debian "phonetop," I created a primitive dialer by rewriting one of his scripts).

And then, since we're working with a touch screen device ... Which desktop environment/window manager will work best on a phone? which will work best on a tablet? Will a double-finger flick scroll through a webpage? If not, how can we get that functionality?

In other words, my lament is that a fusion of Debian and CyanogenMod (call it "Debian CM"), coupled with a series of small innovations to could slowly become the superphone that Mr. Shuttleworth is trying to sell. What's particularly sad is that this idea is not new. "Zack the Spack" promised to "build convergence" several months ago, he raised 1592 GBP for the effort and he's still chrooting into loop disk images.

If I had the time, money and resources, I would write the code for Debian CM myself. But that option is not available to me, so I hope Mr. Shuttleworth succeeds. And if he does not, then I hope that someone more knowledgeable than me -- better yet, a team of people more knowledgeable than me (e.g, the Maemo Community) -- builds Debian CM for the rest of us.
.

vtpup
Posts: 1
Joined: 2014-10-26 19:24

Re: HowTo: Sven-Ola's Debian Kit for Android

#5 Post by vtpup »

Helo soul--- I installed Debian with your and sven ola's help (from your website about a week ago) and have been enjoying using it on my Acer a1-830 tablet. (It's an Atom x86 type, not ARM) Actually I've installed a few times because I keep playing around with things I probably shouldn't and get into enough problems with the window manager to decide it's time to re-install!

It works very well, and the only problems so far are not due to the stock Debian install itself.

There were a few small changes I needed to make in your installation instructions -- for instance I needed to specify /data/local/deb/mk-debian instead of just mk-debian -- but you probably have it in your path..

Also there was a confusing installer error message when I specified /dev/block/vold/179:53 (my partition location) -- inresponse it said it couldn't find vold/179:48 --don't know where that came from -- but anyway it continued and did format and install to 179:153. So I guess it was just some extraneous message.

Actually I had a little additional confusion here because you're asked if you want to "(A)bort" at this point and I answered N. It then aborted. What it really wants for an afirmative answer is "e". Took me awhile to figure that out.

Well one more change from Sven-ola's instructions -- I couldn't get his method of answering the 2 X setup query screens to work (tap screen tap ctrl I) to move to the OK button, but I did remember from ancient times that hitting TAB moves you to OK as well, and that was actually easier. And of course using spacebar to accept. But after that it was clear sailing.

Where I keep messing my system upafter the install is in trying to change to JWM from LXDE and to ROX as the default file manager. I'm a long time Puppy Linux user and I miss many of the functions I'm used to. For instance, a right click in Rox in Puppy allows me to create a link (relative or absolute) and dragging a file to the desktop (pinboard) produces a link, not a move. I guess openbox is configured a little differently, too.

I haven't actually found a way to switch to JWM yet, though Rox seems to work okay, and a link to it on the desktop can be renamed to FileManager. So I'm gradually making it more like the distro I'm used to. Stock Debian is about ten times the size of Puppy with fewer apps at default, but well, at least it runs on a tablet/phone and I can eventually mimic Puppy's suite of apps and methods in most respects. It would be great if there was a Window manager session switching app like Ubuntu has in the opening screen. Then if you mess up a second WM, you can always switch back to the old WM. Or Puppy Linux in the installer as well as Ubuntu and Debian -- but that's out of place here on this forum!

Finally for the benefit of others who install Debian on their phone or tablet-- I tried a LOT of RDP apps before I found only two that would connect properly on 127.0.0.1 -- they were aFreeRDP and aRDP free (easy names to confuse!) I like aFreeRDP a lot better but unfortunately the latest version is not passing punctuation marks through to the server -- probably a version glitch) So for now I'm using aRDP free. But I raised the issue on github, and I hope it will be fixed. It's a really nice client.

Anyway, soul, thanks so much for your website info -- wouldn't have been able to do this without it and Sven-olas -- btw mine is an x86 tablet, and so it's harder to find Linux's to install on it, though the choice of repos is great once you do.

User avatar
Soul Singin'
Posts: 1605
Joined: 2008-12-21 07:02

Re: HowTo: Sven-Ola's Debian Kit for Android

#6 Post by Soul Singin' »

vtpup wrote:soul, thanks so much for your website info
:D . I'm glad it was helpful.
vtpup wrote:I haven't actually found a way to switch to JWM yet,
I'm not certain, but try running ...

Code: Select all

update-alternatives --config x-session-manager
vtpup wrote:I tried a LOT of RDP apps
Check out: XServer-XSDL. It's amazing.
.

User avatar
Soul Singin'
Posts: 1605
Joined: 2008-12-21 07:02

Re: AnX11 Phone Project

#7 Post by Soul Singin' »

I have finally had a chance to update this project. Improvements in Android security make it difficult to run Debian outside of a chroot, so I have adapted Sven-Ola's "Debian Kit" to the changed Android environment. My fork of his work is called d4cm.

The differences between my work and Sven-Ola's original work are described at the "about the d4cm scripts" page.

You can download the d4cm installer from my website.

Have fun!
- Soul Singin'
.

Post Reply