Arch Linux on your Android phone

large_arch

In this tutorial I will show you one of methods how to install Arch linux together with your android system on your phone.
This method WILL NOT REPLACE your current android system and is safe to use for everybody. It uses independent file which is mounted and you are chrooted to this system. After you can connect via SSH, VNC directly from your phone, PC …

Prerequisites

This tutorial was tested on Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 mobile phone:

Display Type IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 5.5 inches (~71.5% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
– MIUI 7.0 – latest weekly update
Platform OS Android OS, v5.0 (Lollipop)
Chipset Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10
CPU Octa-core 2.2 GHz Cortex-A53 (64bit)
GPU PowerVR G6200
Memory Card slot microSD, up to 32 GB – Chinese version only
Internal 32 GB, 2 GB RAM

As a linux distribution I prefer Arch linux with Xfce4.
You will also need some space on your memory/microSD for your linux system (in my case 4GiB)

Download Linux Deploy to your mobil, for SSH acces  you can use ConnectBot and fo VNC – Vnc viewer

Installation

Run program Linux Deploy and firstly we need to install/download our linux distribution:

Arch Linux on your Android phone
Arch Linux on your Android phone – basic screen

 

Arch Linux on your Android phone
Arch Linux on your Android phone – install options

 

choose your distro

Arch Linux on your Android phone
Arch Linux on your Android phone – distribution choice

architecture – in my case aarch64

Arch Linux on your Android phone
Arch Linux on your Android phone – architecture choice

and desktop environment

Arch Linux on your Android phone
Arch Linux on your Android phone – desktop choice

You can also change all other settings – all is well described and intuitive. Above options are the basics.

When you finish your setup you can run Installer and after couple of minutes all will be done:

07_arch_android08_arch_android10_arch_android 09_arch_android

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you finished installation you can start your new system:

Arch Linux on your Android phone - installation
Arch Linux on your Android phone – start

Just now you can login via SSH, VNC directly from your phone or from your computer and work with Arch linux (or other distro) as usual
Basic credential:
user: android
pass: changeme , of course, it is highly recommend to change it 🙂

12_arch_android_vnc1 13_arch_android_vnc213_arch_android

When your work is done you can STOP your linux system:

Arch Linux on your Android phone
Arch Linux on your Android phone – stop

 

Conclusion

This tutorial is one of most tutorials how to get working your favorite distribution on your phone. There are many possibilities – some of them replace your system, other ones can coexists and work in background. The usage of this solution is up to you – for example you can use your phone for penetration testing – using Kali Linux or you can only try the possibilities and improve your knowledges or test other distributions during business trip 😉
On some next tutorial we can learn how to fully replace your android system with your favourite linux distribution.

HAPPY PLAYING