renzhi

Now that we have Debian Linux on the Android phone, since we only have the console environment, let’s install more software and have some fun.

In the Linux Installer, press the Menu button, then Distribution Management. You will now see the following screen:

This screen shows you a list software categories that you can choose to install.

Well, let’s install SSH first. If you want to have an SSH server on your Android, you can certainly install SSHDroid though. But heck, our Linux installation would not be complete without an SSH server, right? Press on the Install ssh button:

Now, we want to install apps with UI. So let’s install VNC and some window managers first. Press on the button Install VNC+WM.

This will download quite a few packages, and will take some times to finish. It’s good idea to plug your device into a power source.

Installing VNC server and some window managers will allow us to connect to Linux via VNC and run all the graphical applications. VNC server is running inside Linux, and we will use a VNC client app on Android to connect.

Howver, before starting up the VNC server, you need to set the password for root and VNC. Go ahead, press on Change root password button to change the root password, then press on Change VNC Password to change the password. Then press vnc button to start the VNC server.

In order to connect to the VNC server, you have to install a VNC client. Go to the Android Market and install Android VNC Viewer.

Once the VNC viewer is installed, open it and you can configure the connection settings to the server, as shown below:

You can input any name in the Nickname field. Enter the password that you have set previously for VNC password in Linux Installer. Address is the IP address of the running Linux. If you don’t know, start up terminal emulator, and run the command linuxchroot to chroot to Linux, then run ifconfig to show it:

Look for eth0, you should have the IP address there. Once you have the correct IP address, press on the Connect button to connect to VNC server. Here’s what you get:

Oh wow, we are running TWM, the grand daddy of all windows managers on Unix/Linux. Besides that, the screen resolution is not right. There is a black stripe on the left side. That is because it started the VNC server by setting the geometry to 640×480 as default. To solve this problem, go to Distribution Managment, press on the menu button, then select Settings. In the X Resolution option, set to the length of the screen resolution. VNC client is going to run in landscape mode, so the X resolution is actually the height of the screen, for most phone devices. Then set the Y Resolution accordingly too. Now, if you restart the VNC server and reconnect the client again, you should see the X desktop fill up the whole screen.

Well, that’s it. You now have a real Linux and X Windows running on your phone. We will need to install something more modern. Another time then.