Is Anyone Using Android Apps on LM 20?

[Ow That Hurts]

Has anyone found a way to run Android apps on LM 20? If so, what are you using?

I have tried installing Anbox through the method listed on their site but I get the error message:

Code: Select all

Cannot add PPA: ''This PPA does not support focal''

My understanding is that it simply wont work if it doesn't support focal.

If there are PROVEN methods to getting Android apps to work on Linux mint 20 that actually work, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

[gittiest personITW]

https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install.html

Looks like right from the start you'll need to have Snap on your machine.
Have you had a look, and followed the instructions in the link above?

The official version is not distributed in an appimage.

[Ow That Hurts]

https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install.html

Looks like right from the start you'll need to have Snap on your machine.
Have you had a look, and followed the instructions in the link above?

The official version is not distributed in an appimage.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I did follow the instructions. Unfortunately they are a bit outdated (there is a link on the instructions for Installing Necessary Kernel Modules that you need to ignore if on Mint 20. Also, that page doesn't have the code for removing (or better yet, moving) the nosnap.pref file

So while I have technically "solved" the issue, I guess, I will write up a more comprehensive method designed specifically for Mint 20 and post it here when I have a chance.

As another aside, now that I am trying to install various apk files, a lot of them are only made for Arm architecture and not x86 nor x86_64 architecture. There was a Mario cart that I tried to install and the architecture was listed as "Universal" but I got an error about updating the SDK. That is way out of my league.

I also tried loading instagram (which does have a version with x86 architecture) but it was incredibly buggy

[rickNS]

Has anyone found a way to run Android apps on LM 20? If so, what are you using?
/CUT/
If there are PROVEN methods to getting Android apps to work on Linux mint 20 that actually work, please let me know.

Well, not exactly "on" Linux Mint, but,
Yes there is a way, I have done some (quite a bit actually) experimenting into this, and it seems that the best way is to install android-x86 into a virtual machine (or depending on how much you may want to use this, install into it's own partition, and dual boot, but that is up to you)

I posted about this before, here,
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=349298&p=2151544#p2151544

EDIT, to add; I am NOT in any way interested in ANY android apps, I only did this to see if I could, I have since terminated ANY android virtual machines, and I have no intentions of re-creating any of those "experiments", but it does work.

Best of luck.

[Ow That Hurts]

Has anyone found a way to run Android apps on LM 20? If so, what are you using?
/CUT/
If there are PROVEN methods to getting Android apps to work on Linux mint 20 that actually work, please let me know.

Well, not exactly "on" Linux Mint, but,
Yes there is a way, I have done some (quite a bit actually) experimenting into this, and it seems that the best way is to install android-x86 into a virtual machine (or depending on how much you may want to use this, install into it's own partition, and dual boot, but that is up to you)

I posted about this before, here,
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=349298&p=2151544#p2151544

OK, thanks, that is food for thought.

Have you had issues though getting android apps in x86 architecture? (and getting them to run?)

[rickNS]

OK, thanks, that is food for thought.

Have you had issues though getting android apps in x86 architecture? (and getting them to run?)

"issues" NO, it works.
Did you even look at (read) the link...where one poster said ,
"Wow thank you dear rickNS! Followed exactly all the steps in the howtogeek manual you linked here above and android-x86 finally works!!! YEAH YEAH YEAH!"

[Ow That Hurts]

OK, thanks, that is food for thought.

Have you had issues though getting android apps in x86 architecture? (and getting them to run?)

"issues" NO, it works.
Did you even look at (read) the link...where one poster said ,
"Wow thank you dear rickNS! Followed exactly all the steps in the howtogeek manual you linked here above and android-x86 finally works!!! YEAH YEAH YEAH!"

Thanks for the link.

I was at the dentist all afternoon and they basically said I need a root canal or (more likely) have a tooth pulled, so I am sorry that I may have missed it the first time I saw it. My face is in some serious pain.

[dave0808]

I was at the dentist all afternoon and they basically said I need a root canal or (more likely) have a tooth pulled, so I am sorry that I may have missed it the first time I saw it. My face is in some serious pain.

My sympathies. At least your handle is appropriate

Has anyone found a way to run Android apps on LM 20? If so, what are you using?

Whilst overkill for most non-developers, it's possible to run Google's Android development environment, which allows the creation of AVDs (Android Virtual Devices). These are fully-fledged Android installations similar to running Windows in Virtual Box. At that point, you can install APKs directly, or use the play store. I've not had any architecture issues for a long time, though I don't install many third party apps.

Not really recommended as such but does answer your question.

[Ow That Hurts]

I was at the dentist all afternoon and they basically said I need a root canal or (more likely) have a tooth pulled, so I am sorry that I may have missed it the first time I saw it. My face is in some serious pain.

My sympathies. At least your handle is appropriate

Has anyone found a way to run Android apps on LM 20? If so, what are you using?

Whilst overkill for most non-developers, it's possible to run Google's Android development environment, which allows the creation of AVDs (Android Virtual Devices). These are fully-fledged Android installations similar to running Windows in Virtual Box. At that point, you can install APKs directly, or use the play store. I've not had any architecture issues for a long time, though I don't install many third party apps.

Not really recommended as such but does answer your question.

Thanks so much for the further explanation and for your sympathies. I am discovering right now that root canals are very expensive. Too bad there isn't a FOSS version of dentistry

I will look into it a bit further. Really, the only thing that I hope to get running is maybe a handful of android games, and Tiktok and or instagram, although I am pretty sure they have just a browser-based version that works fine in LM 20 on pretty much any browser, so those are less important.

If you have a moment, here is an amusing story for you...

The whole reason I am concerned about getting Android apps on LM 20 is because my son, who is in high school, is on summer vacation now, and he mentioned casually, "I kind of miss my chromebook."

I knew that the high school handed out chromebooks to all the students (since they were remote learning for the first two-thirds of the school year), and the students had to return them to the school at the end of the year.

Sooo... I went out and got a laptop (Thinkpad t470s) and put Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon on there. I wanted to surprise him with his new laptop, and since he appreciates a good prank, I spent a bit of time setting up the Cinnamon desktop for him. so when he got home from work at the yogurt shop, this is the new laptop that greeted him:



I made it extra special by replacing the default Cinnamon Sounds with clips from various songs that were big in the early 90s, like Ice Ice Baby, Too Sexy (right said fred), Jump (kriss kross), Have you ever loved a woman (Bryan adams), Barbie Girl (Aqua), so any time he opened or closed a window, or logged in and out of cinnamon, he was greeted by a "classic song of the 90's."

Anyway, he knew he was being pranked right away. He looked at the laptop and after three seconds, he looked up at me and asked, "So, how much time did you spend setting it up this way???"

Ok, fast forward a couple of days and I'm walking through the living room and, oh, hey, if I didn't know better, I would say that is a Chromebook covered in Monster Energy Drink stickers and Cheetos dust lying on the floor under the living room table. Of course, my eyes must be deceiving me since all the kids were supposed to have returned their chromebooks to the school at the end of the school year three weeks ago. And plus my son mentioned how he missed his chromebook...

Turns out, he lost the charger for the chromebook, and it also turns out that the school was allowing kids who REALLY NEEDED A CHROMEBOOK to keep using theirs over the summer. Also turns out that high school boys are lazy and have a severe allergic reaction to responsibility. Who knew???

So I guess in order to deal with buying a replacement charger on ebay, he just told them, "Yeah, I really need to use the chromebook at home."

Anyway, as i am pretty sure Shakespeare once wrote:

"Come on, Barbie, let's go party!!!"

[deepakdeshp]

Root canal is pretty cheap in India. Around 70$. My relative finds it cheaper to travel to India from Switzerland and do it rather than doing it there. And yes, the doctors know their stuff quite well.

[Ow That Hurts]

Root canal is pretty cheap in India. Around 70$. My relative finds it cheaper to travel to India from Switzerland and do it rather than doing it there. And yes, the doctors know their stuff quite well.

Thanks!

don't know if much international travel is in the works for me. My passport expired years ago and since I HATE flying, I haven't bothered to get a new one in like 20 years.

[mikeflan]

My understanding is that it simply wont work if it doesn't support focal.

I gather this means that it doesn't work with LM 20.X, but does with LM 19.X.

Reference:
https://www.linuxmint.com/download_all.php

[axrusar]

Has anyone found a way to run Android apps on LM 20? If so, what are you using?

Virtualbox + LineageOS VB image

I only tested it so far (looking to degoogle) to find out the OS is still useless for a cellphone.
Seems slow to run any games on, but you can tweak the VM settings and see.. i bet you most of the games will not run as they wont be able to connect to the play store.

[Ow That Hurts]

Has anyone found a way to run Android apps on LM 20? If so, what are you using?

Virtualbox + LineageOS VB image

I only tested it so far (looking to degoogle) to find out the OS is still useless for a cellphone.
Seems slow to run any games on, but you can tweak the VM settings and see.. i bet you most of the games will not run as they wont be able to connect to the play store.

Thank you, will look in to it.

[Ow That Hurts]

My understanding is that it simply wont work if it doesn't support focal.

I gather this means that it doesn't work with LM 20.X, but does with LM 19.X.

Reference:
https://www.linuxmint.com/download_all.php

Anbox actually WILL work on LM20. However, as a first step, you will have to allow Snap packages in Mint 20 as Anbox is only available as a Snap package and Mint 20 by default bans snap packages.

As I am a complete noob, I am reluctant to tell you how to allow snap packages on your system. I would say that there are instructions for removing the nosnap.pref file, and instructions for moving the nosnap.pref file, and I will only comment that I went with moving the file instead of removing the file.

Once you have allowed snap packages in Mint 20, you can use the instructions for Anbox here (you will have to scroll down a ways for the instructions for Anbox):

https://fossbytes.com/best-android-emulators-linux/