Here’s how to download and install a Linux terminal via the Termux app on your phone.

Why should you install a Linux terminal on your phone? It allows you to easily ssh, code, and even host webapps from the palm of your hand. Those are my own use examples, but the possibilities are limitless.

Note: The Termux app on the Google play store is out of date and doesn’t have the correct permissions to work properly.

  1. Install an alternative app store. You may need to briefly modify permissions to install an app after downloading it via Firefox/Chrome/Brave. I used F-Droid
  2. Install Termux through the app store. You’ll know it’s the right one if the app page links back to termux.com and the termux/termux-app Github. You may again need to grant permissions to your alternative appstore to install it.
  3. Once you have Termux installed, you’ll first want to run pkg upgrade in the terminal to update all the packages. Termux uses the pkg package manager, which wraps apt, to avoid doing dangerous things.
  4. At this point, you’ve done all the hard setup. If you want to access your phone’s local storage, you can mount it by executing termux-setup-storage (see the wiki).
  5. Do you want to run python? Ruby? Npm (not sure why this link is broken)? For all those details and more, check out the Termux wiki.