Android 16 will offer a Terminal and complete Linux VM compatibility, including GPU acceleration

Chromebook users have had the option to install a Linux virtual machine (VM) for enhanced capabilities for quite some time. Android will soon be receiving a taste of Linux deliciousness, if recent commits to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) are any indication.

The Android Runtime (ART) is based on a Linux kernel, but now Google plans to give developers and power users the flexibility to run a full Linux desktop. Sounds familiar? This is similar to the Ferrochrome project that Google demoed a few months ago that allowed running Chrome OS on Pixel phones.

This magic is made possible due to the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) that was first introduced in Android 13. In Android 15, AVF gains the ability to run GUI operating systems in a VM with full GPU acceleration. Sadly, the Chrome OS on Pixel 8 project back then was just a proof-of-concept.

But now, we might actually see some real-world benefits of this. According to Mishaal Rahman writing for Android Authority, Google is working on a Terminal app for Android. Rahman points to new “ferrochrome-dev-option” patches that have been submitted to AOSP, which add a “Linux terminal” toggle under Developer options.

Terminal emulator apps that provide a Linux environment have been on the Play Store since long, but Google’s implementation will be integrating the terminal directly into Android. The new Terminal app will allow running a full Linux distro in a VM and interfaces with it via a local IP address to pass Linux commands from the Android host.

Currently, the Terminal app requires you to manually provision a Debian image and create a vm_config.json file. However, Rahman expects that the shipping version will make things much easier for users by including a LinuxInstaller app that does this automatically.

Google apparently also has plans to make this currently barebones Terminal app into a full-featured one by adding features such as the ability to resize disks, port forwarding, and partition recovery. AVF will also be augmented with additional goodies like snapshot backup and restore, nested virtualization, and support for x86_64 devices.

Most users might not feel the need to dabble with a terminal on their smartphones, but developers can benefit from having access to certain command line tools on-the-go. With AVF supporting GUI apps, we might even see something on the lines of what Samsung previously showed off with Linux on DeX. It may even be possible to finally get Windows on ARM running near-natively directly on your phone. The possibilities are endless.

Rahman expects the new Terminal app with Linux support to potentially land with Android 16 next year. It is not clear at the moment whether this feature will make its way to OEM-specific ROMs, but at least Pixel devices can be expected to offer support.

Here's a demo of Android's in-development Terminal app for running Linux apps!

The Terminal app currently doesn't automatically download and configure the Linux VM for you, so the developer who sent me this had to use the LinuxInstaller app to download Debian.

(I sped the video… https://t.co/mB6FqZXt8m pic.twitter.com/LWslApmroe

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) October 11, 2024

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