The smart TV is a fixture in most houses, variously an entertainment portal, corporate data gathering tool, or sometimes an outright spy. It’s a nice monitor with a computer built in, so can that computer be released to do something else? It’s a question [Xen’on] is answering, on an Android-based TV.
The guide is not too different from many others relating to Android phones, with a few quirks. An Android Debug Bridge (ADB) connection is established, root access is gained using Shizuku, and then it’s a case of installing a more conventional Linux front end with the Openbox window manager through Termux. There are some TV-specific things to do with handling power cycles, but the TV is now a usable Linux box.
It’s always good to see someone retrieve the Linux underneath a locked-down device, but the system spec tells the real story. By the looks of things this TV is a few years old as it had an Android version that’s a bit long in the tooth, and thus it also packs an aged version 4.x kernel. Couple that with a more seat-of-your-pants experience compared to a regular distro where many of the annoyances are taken care of, this isn’t an easy route to a trouble free desktop. Instead it has a lot of potential for making the TV what it was intend to be, an entertainment device. Merely one that gives much more software freedom.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first Termux guide we’ve seen.
Eh, the typical “Its a linux machine” when really its Android and Termux
I didn’t know that had become a meme. I guess my phone is running Linux then, cause it has Termux on it as well as BusyBox. Wait, does BusyBox make it Arch Linux? Let’s just say it does, who cares.
I was sick of these 5 years ago and I’m still sick of them. Don’t call it “running linux” when its clearly not running linux on bare metal. I guess its slightly better than VM on phone with VNC server
Even back in 2013 I used to have a debian filesystem (created using debootstrap) in a file that I could mount and chroot into on my rooted android phone. That could be considered more “running linux” than this. I could also bind mount /dev and /sys inside the chroot and I was able to use a usbasp to flash an AVR micro. I even hosted a website on that phone for a month or so. I still wouldn’t dream of calling it “running Linux” on my phone.
Just admit that mucking around with ARM boot process is too hard. No thanks to CPU manufacturers
I wonder what happens if the device features secure boot and dm-verity… Brick?
but can it play Doom ?
When the SmartTV is a Sony it is allowed to install apk from an USB-Stick. No hacking required. It is easy to write your own QT android app to switch on the light in your house or something else.
Oh, and it was also possible to install Vivaldi browser and total commander :-D