Podroid

Run Linux containers and a full Linux desktop on your Android phone. No root.

A real Alpine Linux VM with its own kernel - not a chroot or proot trick - so Podman, Docker and LXC behave exactly like they do on a server.

Website · Documentation · Download APK

What you get

• Podman, Docker and LXC - pre-installed, ready the moment it boots
• A real VM - Alpine Linux on a custom kernel via QEMU, or hardware-accelerated AVF on supported pKVM devices
• In-app terminal - full xterm-256color, 122 color themes, 13 fonts, live resize
• X11 desktop - run GUI Linux apps in a built-in viewer with touch, keyboard, mouse and audio
• USB passthrough, SSH, port forwarding and a guest-to-Android bridge
• Container backup, a live VM/device status view and Downloads-folder sharing with the guest
• English and 中文, no root, any arm64 device on Android 8+

Quick start

1. Download the APK and install it.
2. Tap Start VM, wait for Ready!, open the terminal.

# rootless containers, straight away
podman run --rm alpine echo "hello from a container"
docker run -d -p 8080:80 nginx

# expose that container to your phone and LAN, right from the VM shell
podroid-forward add 8080 8080 tcp     # TCP or UDP, on both the QEMU and AVF backends
curl http://<phone-ip>:8080

# SSH in from your laptop (enable SSH in the setup wizard or Settings)
ssh root@<phone-ip> -p 9922        # password: podroid

Setup, the two backends, networking, the X11 viewer and troubleshooting all live in the documentation.

Build

git clone https://github.com/ExTV/Podroid.git
cd Podroid
./build-all.sh all     # kernel, rootfs, QEMU and APK (needs Docker + Android SDK/NDK)

Per-component builds and toolchain details: CONTRIBUTING.md.

Contributing

Contributions of every size are welcome: bug reports, kernel-config tweaks, new themes, UI polish, X11 input fixes, anything.

• Pull requests: read CONTRIBUTING.md first. Keep changes scoped, run ./build-all.sh test before pushing, and explain why in the PR description.
• Bug reports: open an issue with your device and Android version, a short repro, and the diagnostic log (Settings → Export Diagnostic Log in the app).

Credits

QEMU	Machine emulation
Termux	Terminal emulator engine
Alpine Linux	The guest distribution

Full list in CREDITS.md.

License

GPLv2. If Podroid is useful to you, a star helps other people find it.