KBOX

Dev tools

linux userland for android

SHOW HN2013

KBOX

A miniature Linux distro for non-rooted Android devices

kevinboone.net

#android#busybox#non-root#linux shell#terminal

94points
15comments
#246of 1,739 in 2013
Top 15%of 2013 by points

How HN took it

DebatedReal support and real criticism

3 positive, 3 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 3 critical, out of 9 comments about the project. Thread score -0.04.

Idea: 3 for, 2 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Useful as a mini-monitor for tailing logs over ssh

    From 1 comment
    • I'm using this right now on my phone as a mini-monitor tailing a tomcat log on a server I'm ssh'd into. I don't use my phone most of the day anyway, now I can have it do…
      bane on HN
  • Vim support is appealing

    From 1 comment
    • This looks really, really cool, especially the vim support. What would be really awesome would be a native port of gcc and other supporting tools to create packages on the…
      _b8r0 on HN

Objections

  • Not really a Linux distro; closer to a userland of command line tools

    From 2 comments
    • I hate to sound like a grumpy neckbeard but what's the world coming to when a clearly pretty clueful guy dismisses android as lot linux without a footnote but then goes on to…
      trotsky on HN
    • Agreed, this is no more a "Linux distro" than Cygwin is, but it does sound useful (much like Cygwin's bash shell).
      BruceIV on HN
  • No C compiler included

    From 2 comments
    • No C compiler? It's not really a Linux distro without a C compiler.
      bitwize on HN
    • This got my hopes up, but I don't see what it does that Terminal IDE doesn't already. I was hoping it would include gcc and the ability to compile things, so that it could be the…
      jimrandomh on HN
  • Claim that there is no X server on Android is false

    From 1 comment
    • The author states that there is no X server for Android. That is false, and not even hard to verify: ``` App name: X Server Website:…
      LukeShu on HN

Requests

  • Include gcc or a native compiler toolchain

    From 2 comments
    • This looks really, really cool, especially the vim support. What would be really awesome would be a native port of gcc and other supporting tools to create packages on the…
      _b8r0 on HN
    • This got my hopes up, but I don't see what it does that Terminal IDE doesn't already. I was hoping it would include gcc and the ability to compile things, so that it could be the…
      jimrandomh on HN
  • Post the source on GitHub

    From 1 comment
    • As someone who has opkg on his router and NAS... This looks very tempting. Especially on the Android tablet. Edit: Android says source for this is available on demand. I've asked…
      josteink on HN

Questions

  • How does this differ from Terminal IDE?

    From 2 comments
    • Cool. How does this differ from Terminal IDE?
      limmeau on HN
    • I had thought along these lines too. AFAICT, Terminal IDE is geared toward more of a developer toolset. Thats not to say you couldn't use this as a dev platform though.
      mikegirouard on HN
  • Could fakechroot be used to fake the root filesystem?

    From 1 comment
    • >Because an unpriveleged user has very limited access to the filesystem, the entire root filesystem is located somewhere under the Android app's preferences directory. From a…
      gizmo686 on HN

Alternatives named

  • Terminal IDE

    From 2 comments
    • Cool. How does this differ from Terminal IDE?
      limmeau on HN
    • This got my hopes up, but I don't see what it does that Terminal IDE doesn't already. I was hoping it would include gcc and the ability to compile things, so that it could be the…
      jimrandomh on HN
  • Debian Kit for Android

    From 1 comment
    • with a trivial script to setup bindmounts and such, you can easily run a full linux distro on android's kernel, concurrent with the main Android OS. Debian Kit for Android is…
      carmen on HN
  • OpenWrt on Android without root

    From 1 comment
    • Here https://sites.google.com/site/taldewandroid/ is an overview on how to install OpenWrt on Android without root. This includes a package system too, with dependency management…
      beishay on HN
  • X Server for Android

    From 1 comment
    • The author states that there is no X server for Android. That is false, and not even hard to verify: ``` App name: X Server Website:…
      LukeShu on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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