Droidspaces on Android is designed to be a "Zero Terminal" experience. From the first install to running a full Linux distribution, everything is handled through the intuitive Android app.
- Rooted device with supported rooting solutions from here
- Compatible kernel with Droidspaces support enabled (see Kernel Configuration Guide)
- Download the Droidspaces APK from the latest release.
- Install the APK on your device.
- Grant root access and open the app.
On the first launch, Droidspaces performs an Atomic Installation of the backend system:
- It detects your device architecture (
aarch64,armhf, etc.). - It extracts the
droidspacesandbusyboxbinaries to/data/local/Droidspaces/bin. - It performs an atomic move to ensure the binaries are installed correctly even if an older version is currently running.
- It verifies checksums to ensure zero corruption.
You don't need to manually extract rootfs files. The app handles it:
- Download a rootfs tarball: We recommend using our official rootfs tarballs - which are specifically optimized for Android - or the official Linux Containers images.
- Open the Containers Tab: Tap the middle icon in the bottom navigation bar.
- Add a Container: Tap the "+" button at the bottom right.
- Choose your Tarball: Select the downloaded
.tar.xzor.tar.gzfile. - Configuration Wizard:
- Name: Give your container a friendly name.
- Features: Toggle Hardware Access, IPv6, Network Isolation, Android storage integration, etc., according to your needs.
- Container Type: We recommend Sparse Image for better performance and stability on Android’s f2fs storage, as well as to prevent weird SELinux/Keyring issues.
- Installation: The app will extract the tarball and apply Post-Extraction Fixes automatically (DNS, Masking useless/dangerous services, and Safe Udev).
You can verify your system status at any time:
- Go to Settings (gear icon) -> Requirements.
- Tap Check Requirements. This runs the full
droidspaces checksuite internally. - Kernel Config: If you're a kernel developer, you can find a copyable
droidspaces.configdefconfig fragment, similar to this page, to make sure your kernel is perfectly compatible with Droidspaces.
- Android App Usage Guide for management details.
- GPU Acceleration Guide to enable hardware-accelerated desktop environments.
- Linux CLI Guide for expert command-line access.