jumbo810/vmconsole

Run Linux virtual machine on Android OS. Powered by QEMU. No KVM or root required.

vmConsole

A free and open-source application that enables you to run Alpine Linux distribution in a virtual machine on your Android device. Thousands of packages available for installation from online repositories make vmConsole a powerful tool for software developers, testers, system administrators and just Linux fans. The core of application is QEMU x86_64 emulator, so you do not need superuser permissions, KVM support or other special features of device. Input and output are being performed through Xterm-compatible terminal screen.

Typical use-cases of vmConsole application:

• Exploring the world of Linux =)
• Programming
• Testing software
• Hacking
• Running TOR hidden services
• Crawling / archiving web sites

Application runs on any modern device with Android OS 7.0 or higher. For the best experience, it is recommended to have 6+ GiB of RAM and 8+ GiB of free disk space.

Our Wiki provides details about application usage and various tips. Currently it is basic, but will grow over time. Also it is highly recommended to visit Alpine Linux Wiki.

Proper Linux administration skills are needed in order to use vmConsole! I do not advertise my application as entertainment tool or game. If you do not have any specific tasks in mind to solve with it, most likely the vmConsole will be useless for you.

About project

vmConsole, previously known as "Alpine Term" or "vShell", was started as an alternative to currently available implementations of Linux environments for Android OS. Android by itself is quite (reasonably) restricted operating system and that makes hit on Linux userland approaches. Another issues are stability, like with barely maintained Limbo PC or PRoot-based UserLAnd, and high efforts required for maintaining a package repository like in case of Termux.

So the main idea was to combine terminal emulator, adequate and up-to-date QEMU port to Android OS and a tiny, but production-grade Linux distribution. As for latter, I have picked the Alpine Linux as it much better suits as operating system for QEMU, small and does not rely on systemd.

Notice: this project does not apply community-led development approach. Pull requests can be rejected if they does not suit well goals of the vmConsole project and rather could be treated as customization instead of enhancement.

Remember that author does not owe anything for you.

Credits

• Alpine Linux: the operating system used in vmConsole.
• ConnectBot: the recommended SSH client for use with vmConsole.
• QEMU: the emulator and virtualizer, a core of vmConsole.
• Termux: the famous terminal emulator for Android OS, vmConsole uses certain parts of it.