Today Almost every television comes with builtin Android OS, but the problem is that they are only limited for entertainment. But by installing Linux OS like Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian can open up any number of possibilities, and also you can get superuser privileges without even rooting. what you have to do is just follow this article on how to install Linux on android tv and firestick. copy-paste the given commands into the terminal
Table of Contents
Now coming to firestick. Firestick is one of the best low-cost streaming device, which runs on android based fire os. But when it comes to browsing you still have a mobile experience. Since none of the browsers provide a desktop-like experience. But by installing Linux you could download firefox, chromium, and many more Linux applications, and also you can use it as a PC.
In this article, we are going to use 5 apps but they are not sorted in any order
1.userland
2. Andronix
3. Anlinux
4. Linux deploy
5. custom
Quick summary
Install Linux without rooting
Convert android tv into pc
Below are common terms which occurs repeatedly in the below methods
Install Linux applications
Termux: Termux is a terminal emulator that provides a Linux environment without rooting. it is a free app available on the play store.
Vnc: virtual network computing is software that enables you to control one computer from another device. usually, it is not secure since it transmits unencrypted data over the network. by running vnc server you can interact with the graphical environment. it provides a desktop-like experience
SSH : secured shell is similar to vnc but it transfers encrypted data over a network. And it is also faster than VNC
XSERVER XSDL: It is an android app which is the complete implementation of xserver. It gives various options on display, mouse, keyboard, video, etc
Desktop environment: While installing Linux on android using any method the most confusing part is selecting the desktop environment, some environments are lightweight, some are resource-heavy but contain many features. below are some common desktop environments
xfce: This is a lightweight desktop environment with less resource utilization and comes with good features. It is also beginner-friendly
Lxde: Lxde stands for lightweight X11 desktop Environment is a lest Resouce hungry and faster when compared to others it works well with the devices with least ram
How to install Linux on Android tv or firestick using userland
Installing Linux with userland is very easy you don’t need another app it has a built-in terminal. This app is a replacement for the GNUroot which only works on lower versions of android
It is easier to install Linux on android tv or firestick. For firestick, if you want to get rid of the on-screen keyboard best idea is to install Linux on it. But the performance of firestick is not good as compared to the android tv box. You could convert an android tv box into a PC by installing Linux OS on it.
Estimated time 25 minutes
Download Userland for play store
You can download Userland from Playstore by clicking the link below or directly from the web if your smart-tv doesn’t support apps from play store
If you installed an alternative app store for tv (Aptoide tv), you can install from itSelect the required Distro
UserLand supports 5 distributions namely Alpine, Arch, Debian, Kali, Ubuntu. select the one which you like and give userland storage permission
Create Username and Password
after giving storage permission. The dialog will appear asking you to fill the required information, which consists of username and password
Select the connection Type
you will get three options to select the connection type. I would prefer SSH. since it transmits encrypted data, you can also choose XSDL if it supports your version. After selecting Required Assets will be downloaded. Don’t worry about which to select, It can be changed later
Update and proceed by selecting required options
After downloading assets it will open up a terminal asking for the password that you have created at the begging and press enter. Required files will start downloading. After the process update and upgrade the files and database by entering
apt update && apt upgradeStarting the desktop environment
This is the last step where you launch the desktop environment
You need to download any of these apps
1. VNC viewer
2. Xserver xsdl
I am going to use Xserver xsdl since it is faster than Vnc
First, open the app xserver xsdl and proceed it till a blue screen with white text as shown in above
Now return to userland without closing xserver app and enter the below commandexport DISPLAY=:0 PULSE_SERVER=tcp:127.0.0.1:4713 startlxde &
If the above command doesn’t work leave a comment below I will help you
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That’s not really installing linux on a Android TV box.
It’s running linux inside an Android container. It’s two different things.