1y ago

What about a linux phone that has a full Android OS sleeping in parallel? Like OnePlus Watch 2 that runs 2 OSs at the same time.

The OnePlus Watch 2 has 2 chips, and basically runs a lightweight OS while keeping the hungry one in very very low power, and only powering it up when necessary.

I was thinking that maybe such idea could be applied on a Linux phone that could run all your banking apps without Waydroid's "you-must-be-a-hacker" issues, literally by having a half-asleep Android running on another chip, which you can wake up whenever to do your "non-hacker" things, while at the same time you can run the rest of your system (calls, messaging, calculator, calendar, browser...) on your lightweight, private and personalized Linux mobile OS.

I think I would pay big bucks for something like this, and it could serve as a transition device for ditching Android in the future when Tux finally governs over the world.

What do you guys think?

22 comments

That already exists with waydroid. It's what people use on the Librem 5 and PinePhone to run linux apps. It would save much more battery if it were at OS level, but I assume that would be akin to merging Android and mobile linux distros and a lot more work.
Why do you have the impression that waydroid has a "you must be a hacker" issue?
Anti Commercial-AI license
- Does waydroid support safetynet? That seems to be what op is talking about
  
  AFAIK waydroid doesn't pass the AVB (Android Verified Boot) check
  
  Safetynet worked at some point, but it's proprietary tech that changes on a whim. Any other emulator or container will probably run into the same problem. Starting an entire new emulator with the purpose of circumventing safetynet or other proprietary attestation is an effort that could've gone into making it work on waydroid instead.
  @unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
  Anti Commercial-AI license
- If I am not mistaken, not all apps run on Waydroid, specially banking stuff will freak out because they have systems to know that you are running on true, verified hardware or not.
  
  I'm afraid banking apps cannot be solved. They already require you to install sketchy system mods if you have just rooted your genuine phone with the original OS
Alternative utopia: do online banking in a desktop web browser while seated comfortably at home, rather than on a street corner in the sun squinting at a tiny screen.
- Some banking services do only work through the app, believe it or not, as it is "the trusted device".
- Ok boomer? This is just out of touch with modern day reality.
I thought the whole point of android is to be open source. We shouldn't let Google own it
BlackBerry was managed to run Android next to QNX somehow (BB OS10)
I hope your big bucks are big millions
Anyway, full and very easy android app support would be enough. Imaging installing an android apk app via your fdroid software store without thinking about it. Just like a flatpak. That's the future I want to live in.
- Installing F-Droid via Waydroid should do exactly that, no?
I guess something like what you’re talking about or some kind of Virtual Machine to run these difficult apps would be perfect.
Or the ability to dual boot.
Basically, I would want to do everything I can on a PC, on a smartphone 😅
Some Android phones can already be dual booted with (in theory) any other UEFI compatible OS. There's a whole guide on the PostmarketOS about setting up a dual boot environment.
I briefly tested PostmarketOS on a OnePlus 6T. The core functions seemed fine but overall it lacked functionality, so my plan was to dual boot with LineageOS (a degoogled android project) for the bits that really just want a true android environment to function properly, and PmOS for everything else I could manage. In the end I just wasn't up for the process of setting up a dual boot, and went with just LineageOS. Been really happy with it so far, and will probably revisit dual booting when PmOS is more feature complete.
Edit, I suppose this doesn't touch on the idea of running two separate OS's on separate chips, and it does require a reboot to get the functionality of one OS or another, but besides that hiccup you'd get mostly the same functionality out of less complex hardware.
- This is not dual booting in the classical way. Imagine your laptop had 2 processors, and you could be running Linux on one, while the other processor is dormant with Windows, and wakes up when you launch League Of Legends or something. But then, you minimize LoL and you are back on Linux.

22 comments