Your pocket device as a powerful Linux toy

Have you ever wanted a cheap homelab or a portable development server, but found Raspberry Pis too expensive in the current rampocalypse? Look no further than the phone in your pocket/the old device you have lying around.

This talk introduces Termux, a powerful open-source terminal emulator that brings a comprehensive Linux environment to Android without requiring root access. We will explore how to repurpose an everyday mobile device into a robust, low-cost server and productivity powerhouse.

The session will walk through practical, real-world FOSS use cases:

1. Setting up "pocket SSH" for secure, on-the-go remote access.
2. Self-hosting lightweight, privacy-respecting services like the SearXNG metasearch engine directly from your phone.
3. Automation with termux-api for more deeper integration for Wifi, TTS (text to speech), notifications, etc.
4. Using proot to setup and install a full Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, or Arch in Termux
5. Building a complete programming environment capable of running Node.js servers, Python scripts, and automating routine tasks using standard Linux tools.
6. Proving that mobile development doesn't mean compromising on tooling by building a fully-fledged Neovim environment, complete with Language Server Protocol (LSP) and Treesitter for advanced code completion and syntax highlighting.
7. Compiling and testing for Android targets on an Android device instead of having to deal with cross-compilation setup
8. Using tools like rsync/rclone for syncing files across your devices.

Whether you are looking to upcycle an old device, host personal services, or carry a battery-backed Linux development environment in your pocket, this session will show you how to get started.

About the speaker

The speaker is one of the maintainers of Termux since 6 years. What started with the curiosity as a hacker fixing silly things ended up with me being one of the core maintainers, currently maintaining Node.js, Python, as well as other critical packages for Termux. I have also put in efforts to upstream some of our patches, so that the larger ecosystem benefits. Most of my initial programming days were on an device which was supposed to be used for online classes back in the COVID days, when I first started with Open Source. Excited to meet new people at MumbaiFOSS and to talk about the amazing world of FOSS and how it helped me fall in love with computers.

1. Low-Cost Homelabbing: How to transform any standard Android device into a capable, portable Linux server as a cheap alternative to a Raspberry Pi. Especially helpful with current increasing memory costs.
2. Self-Hosting on Mobile: Practical steps to host and access your own FOSS services (like SearXNG) locally.
3. Full Linux Distributions with proot: Using proot to install and manage complete Linux filesystems (Ubuntu/Debian) without needing to root your device.
4. Uncompromising Dev Environments: Configuring Node.js and Python environments, and setting up a highly productive, terminal-based editor using Neovim, LSP, and Treesitter on a mobile CPU.
5. Remote Management: Configuring standard tools like SSH to automate and manage your pocket server.