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installing Waydroid, an Android emulator, on Linux # source
I wanted to use Android on Linux, so I searched the web and found https://waydro.id/.
Instead of running in some kind of virtual machine, it seems to run Android slightly more natively on Linux (I really don't know how any of this works).
Here is a small adventure at trying to install it:
Official installation guide
Following steps from https://docs.waydro.id/usage/install-on-desktops#ubuntu-debian-and-derivatives (I'm on Pop!_OS which I think is based on Debian).
$ sudo apt install curl ca-certificates
$ curl -s https://repo.waydro.id | sudo bash
$ sudo apt install waydroid
$ waydroid init
[11:27:05] Failed to load binder driver
[11:27:05] modprobe: FATAL: Module binder_linux not found in directory /lib/modules/6.13.0-061300-generic
[11:27:05] ERROR: Binder node "binder" for waydroid not found
[11:27:05] See also: https://github.com/waydroid
I don't really know what this error meant, but after searching, it seemed that Waydroid needed "wayland" and I was using X (which are both Desktop thingies which make pixels appear on the screen). I read things about Pop!_OS not having something necessary installed in the kernel, but I could use "DKMS", meaning Dynamic Kernel Module Support. So I tried installing what I'd found links to with:
git clone https://github.com/choff/anbox-modules
cd anbox-modules && ./INSTALL.sh
now when I ran waydroid init it worked, but then I got nothing. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be doing to "open" it now that it was "init"'d. So I deleted all I could with
$ sudo apt remove waydroid
$ sudo find / -type d -name "waydroid"
/var/lib/waydroid
$ rm -rf /var/lib/waydroid
…and found a helper script to do stuff for me.
Installation script
The script I found was https://github.com/n1lby73/waydroid-installer, which I ran with
git clone https://github.com/n1lby73/waydroid-installer
cd waydroid-installer
sudo bash install_script.sh
The script didn't complete, and complained about modules not installing, specifically that lxd-client could not be installed.
Looking at the script I saw it was trying to run apt install lxd-client but running that myself, it seemed that it didn't exist:
$ sudo apt install lxd-client
E: Unable to locate package lxd-client
After searching, it seems lxd-client provides a command lxc, so I looked for how to install lxc, and found it was possible via snap. I've not really used snap before and people have complained about it (about filesize and automatic updates), so I was wary to install it, but I did with:
$ sudo apt install snapd
$ sudo snap install lxd
$ lxc --version
5.21.3 LTS
I removed lxd-client from the install script and re-ran it, and it seemed to work OK. It said it installed a "Wayland" desktop option on my login page if I rebooted.
Opening waydroid
So I rebooted, and on the login screen selected "Pop on Wayland" (I'm still not fully sure what this X/Wayland thing is), and tried starting Waydroid.
Running…
waydroid session start
…and…
waydroid show-full-ui
waydroid app install org.fedorahosted.freeotp_46.apk
waydroid app install Firefox Fast & Private Browser_136.0.2_APKPure.apk
…installed some apps and filled one of my screens with a big Android display.
I found the APKs on either F-Droid, which just has them available for download (sweet) or by searching the web and downloading them from sketchy sites.
It seems to work well!
I suppose there's a lot you can do with Waydroid, if you want. I don't think I want.
In some ways, this is an example of the involved-nature of installing things on Linux.