Termux

• Install
• Upgrade
• Known Issues
  • Git won't work in /sdcard
• Extra
  • Create a new user
  • Install Go
  • Install Python
  • Working with PRoot

Install

1. Get Termux from F-Droid.
2. Install Debian by running the following:
   • Run termux-setup-storage to allow storage access, or else code-server won't be able to read from /sdcard.\

     The following command is from proot-distro, but you can also use Andronix. After Debian is installed the ~ $ will change to root@localhost.

pkg update -y && pkg install proot-distro -y && proot-distro install debian && proot-distro login debian

3. Run the following commands to setup Debian:

apt update && apt upgrade -y && apt-get install sudo vim git -y

4. Install NVM by following the install guide in the README, just a curl/wget command.

5. Set up NVM for multi-user. After installing NVM it automatically adds the necessary commands for it to work, but it will only work if you are logged in as root:

   • Copy the lines NVM asks you to run after running the install script.
   • Run nano /root/.bashrc and comment out those lines by adding a # at the start.
   • Run nano /etc/profile and paste those lines at the end of the file. Make sure to replace $HOME with /root on the first line.
   • Now run exit
   • Start Debian again proot-distro login debian

6. After following the instructions and setting up NVM you can now install the required node version by running:

nvm install v<major_version_here>

7. To install code-server run the following:

   To check the install process (Will not actually install code-server) If it all looks good, you can install code-server by running the second command

curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --dry-run

curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh

8. You can now start code server by simply running code-server.

Consider using a new user instead of root, read here why using root is not recommended.
Learn how to add a user here.

Upgrade

1. Remove all previous installs rm -rf ~/.local/lib/code-server-*
2. Run the install script again curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh

Known Issues

Git won't work in /sdcard

Issue : Using git in the /sdcard directory will fail during cloning/commit/staging/etc...
Fix : None
Potential Workaround :

1. Create a soft-link from the debian-fs to your folder in /sdcard
2. Use git from termux (preferred)

Extra

Create a new user

To create a new user follow these simple steps -

1. Create a new user by running useradd <username> -m.
2. Change the password by running passwd <username>.
3. Give your new user sudo access by running visudo, scroll down to User privilege specification and add the following line after root username ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL.
4. Now edit the /etc/passwd file with your command line editor of choice and at the end of the line that specifies your user change /bin/sh to /bin/bash.
5. Now switch users by running su - <username>

• Remember the - betweeen su and username is required to execute /etc/profile,
  since /etc/profile may have some necessary things to be executed you should always add a -.

Install Go

From https://golang.org/doc/install

1. Go to https://golang.org/dl/ and copy the download link for linux arm and run the following:

wget download_link

2. Extract the downloaded archive. (This step will erase all previous GO installs, make sure to create a backup if you have previously installed GO)

rm -rf /usr/local/go && tar -C /usr/local -xzf archive_name

3. Run nano /etc/profile and add the following line export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin.
4. Now run exit (depending on if you have switched users or not, you may have to run exit multiple times to get to normal termux shell) and start Debian again.
5. Check if your install was successful by running go version

Install Python

Run these commands as root

1. Run the following commands to install required packages to build python:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \
  libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm \
  libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev

2. Install pyenv from pyenv-installer by running:

curl -L https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv-installer/raw/master/bin/pyenv-installer | bash

3. Run nano /etc/profile and add the following:

export PYENV_ROOT="/root/.pyenv"
export PATH="/root/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init --path)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"

4. Exit and start Debian again.
5. Run pyenv versions to list all installable versions.
6. Run pyenv install version to install the desired python version.

   The build process may take some time (an hour or 2 depending on your device).

7. Run touch /root/.pyenv/version && echo "your_version_here" > /root/.pyenv/version
8. (You may have to start Debian again) Run python3 -V to verify if PATH works or not.

   If python3 doesn't work but pyenv says that the install was successful in step 6 then try running $PYENV_ROOT/versions/your_version/bin/python3.

Working with PRoot

Debian PRoot Distro Dev Environment

• Since Node and code-server are installed in the Debian PRoot distro, your ~/.ssh/ configuration, ~/.bashrc, git, npm packages, etc. should be setup in PRoot as well.
• The terminal accessible in code-server will bring up the filesystem and ~/.bashrc in the Debian PRoot distro.

Accessing files in the Debian PRoot Distro

• The /data/data/com.termux/files/home directory in PRoot accesses the termux home directory (~)
• The /sdcard directory in PRoot accesses the Android storage directory, though there are known issues with git and files in the /sdcard path

Accessing the Debian PRoot distro/Starting code-server

• Run the following command to access the Debian PRoot distro, from the termux shell:

proot-distro login debian

• Run the following command to start code-server directly in the Debian PRoot distro, from the termux shell:

proot-distro login debian -- code-server

• If you created a new user, you'll need to insert the --user <username> option between login and debian in the commands above to run as the user instead of root in PRoot.

Additional information on PRoot and Termux

• Additional information on using your Debian PRoot Distro can be found here.