Nix On Droid

I am back in business. Gnuroot has been broken for a ling time, so my non-rooted phone has been Linux-less. No headless Linux console for me. But every now and then I look around to see what new offerings there are out there. I just found UserlAnd.

Once more I have a Linux console, with apt capability. I've installed the JDK/JRE and can run my Java notes app I built. That means I can also run my IntFiction engine also! It feels so good to have nix back.

Sadly UserlAnd is not quite as good as Gnuroot. Gnuroot was as painless as possible on a phone. The only pain points were keyboard related. It really needed a full keyboard with easily accessible arrow keys and key combinations. A readily available tab key would be nice. Although keyboards like the hacker keyboard can have these buttons right there all the time, the layout that allows for that is just unusable on a phone. The keys are way too small. UserlAnd, however, has a much more serious issue - scrolling. At least on my Pixel2 when the console output gets to the bottom of the screen it gets hidden behind the keyboard. So the bottom of the screen is useless. I have to close the keyboard, see what I typed, then pop the keyboard up and type some more. True, I can clear the screen, but sometimes that isn't possible. How could one even use VIM?

If the scrolling gets resolved UserlAnd would be a very strong offering.

Is Mobile IF's Potion?

In watching some videos of Interactive Fiction's (IF) forefathers, I realized that I am definitely not alone in wishing for an IF resurgence. I can't imagine it returning as a source revenue - capable of sustaining a business at least - but perhaps there IS hope. Right now I am typing this out on my phone. In fact I spend a decent amount of time every day writing on my phone. FAR more time than I spend typing on my computer.... And so is everyone else.

People are scrolling through apps and staring at endless streams of texts. TEXTs. Reading and righting text. I think that IF could do well on mobile devices. From what I've seen there isn't much out there. I know it's very difficult to port IF games to the few mobile clients out there. This might be part of the problem. So I've begun the battle with Android, and working with Android (And probably other mobile platforms) truly is a battle. I am building a WorldWeaver client. It will use the same game DBs that the desktop Java client does, so games can be ported over without any change. I will do the same for other mobile platforms.

We'll see if mobile is the magic potion that restores some of IF's life points.

Are Amoebas Minimal?

Because the Amoeba text editor, or Android sure is. And so far I love it. There is one little toolbar across the top of the screen... and that's it. The file menu is accessed way down in the bottom right corner of the screen. There are no tabs, although two documents can be open at once. I for one hate tabbars. Especially on an OS that allows you to swipe. Just swipe left or right to navigate through the open documents.

It has a great 'magnifier' tool during selection and cursor moving, but there is no select all command that I've seen. This is a must. It's terrible selecting all text in larger files. That is the only real issue so far. Other than that I'm really liking it so far!

Check it out here
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softevol.amoeba&hl=en

A Little App Shuga

Now that I'm denied my all-time favorite app (And consequently all my favorite headless Linux apps) GnuRoot, I'm on the market for apps to try and sort of fill the void. Aka lightweight or open source, minimalistic apps. Here's what I have so far.

Editors:

Jota+ (paid)
I've had Jota for years now. I haven't used it since finding GnuRoot... But now it's all I use - VIM on Android just isn't there. Once I get full on Nix going again I'll be back to VIM. Until then Jota it is.

Files:

TotalCommander (free - no ads)
I love this app. It's clean and ad free. It's not constantly trying to get me to download other utilities *ahem esfile explorer*. With the LAN extension installed it's nice and easy to copy files to and from your computers.

Music:

Musicolet (free - no ads - internet)
I've mentioned this one before. I recently found Musicolet when my old player kept munching on my battery. This app is ad-free and doesn't even utilize your web connection so it's nice and light weight, not querying for artwork etc. And it's a great player. A little weird at first with the multiple queues thing but once you're used to it the queues are pretty cool.

Chatting:

QKSMS (open source)
I just found this one. I wasn't looking for a texting app, but in a search for open source apps, it showed up. So far it's really cool. You can tweak the look and feel quite a bit. So far it's not buggy etc. And it's open source.

No GnuRoot No Nothin

So GnuRoot won't run on my new phone. Ok. Fine. I'll just use some other non-root terminal/Linux emulator... Or maybe not.

Judging by the comments in the play store it seems I'm not the only nerd who is unable to run GnuRoot. I'm not sure what's new in Android, but it seems far more locked down than the version my old phone was running. If so, I guess the OS is still going in the wrong direction. :/

Well there's nothing out there like GnuRoot. Busybox I believe is broken like GnuRoot. In Termux I have VIM available, that's good. But as I was messing with it I couldn't get my VIMRC to apply. Then it got worse, I couldn't open files in my documents directory. I could save files within the Termux file system, but where is that?
I did searchss for files I had stored there but got no results.

Soo Termux and the other emulators are isolated little file systems with no IO. I don't know if Google is rolling their own SUPER locked down Android OS, or if  this is standard in the latest release. But it sucks to get a $$$ phone and have the jerk companies that made it  restrict what you can do with YOUR phone even more.

So I'm stuck. I can't even run proper VIM. When I was able to run GnuRoot I could code, compile and run full on Java jars, I had a ton of apps available through apt-get. It was JUST like having full blown headless Linux on my phone.

Sad.

Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger

Well it was about that time. The old phone had to be put out to pasture. No more green line across my screen. No more 20% battery drain per hour. No more GnuRoot... wait, what?!?

I picked up a Pixel2 Extra Large or whatever it's called. I wanted to JUST transfer my msg history and contacts from my Droid, no apps etc. Turns out I got my contacts, and my apps for some reason. Not my msg history. meh, whatever.

I have to say... I've never tried the Gboard keyboard. I love it. So many options, and I can style it to be super minimal. But most important, cursor moving via sliding along the space bar. WHAT?!? That is so great! Precise cursor positioning w/out arrow keys is a nightmare.

Sadly, as I mentioned, GnuRoot won't run. I'm guessing it is the Android version that is giving it grief. Hopefully in the near future it will run.

Wrong App

My phone is now beyond its warranty, so of course I am seeing immediate decline in its performance (*ahem* conthpirathy). My battery life was by far the most troubling. I woukd charge it up to 100% and after about fifteen minutes in the car it'd be at 80% or less.

I started watching the battery charge chart and obsessively monitor what apps were using how much. The biggest offenders were Life360 (Which I can't remove, have to keep tabs on the family you know), AIMP, GnuRoot. I started going through the options for these apps, turning off features I didn't need etc.

But my battery was still getting pounded. Of these offenders onoy one is pretty much always running - AIMP. If I wasn't playing music it was sitting queued up. I turned off the options that retrieve album art or ID3 information, but it still seemed to be sucking my battery dry.

As much as I loved AIMP it was time to say good bye. I hit the store and found a free, no ads, no internet capability mp3 player called Musicolet. The difference was immediate. My phone battery life doubled or tripled. I need more apps like Musicolet!

The right apps make all the difference.

Selecting Text

Is it just me or is selecting text on a phone a major headache? Surely there must be a better way. It seems like a good idea in theory. A start and stop node appear and you can drag them to highlight what you want.

But your fingers obscure the very nodes you are dragging. In many cases the selection is erratic and selects unwanted blocks of text etc. It is difficult to get text at the edge of the screen selected.

It isn't just me. And the issue isn't a new one. Look at this topic, and the interesting 'smear' idea. I kind of like it!

Via Android Forums

Oh great, here comes my mobile OS rant again:
If the future of personal commuting is tablets and phones etc, mobile operating systems have a lot of work to do. And the linux?? is hopefully as open as standard distros. I shouldn't have to hack into my own computer and root it just to use it - for something more significant than popping bubbles or crushing candy.

KDE Or Go Home

I had no idea. KDE has been working on a mobile OS. I love KDE. I run all my computers on Linux w/ KDE as the desktop. I love the flexibility. Why shouldn't I be able to tweak my desktop? It's the interface I have to use every day, I should be able to make it behave as I prefer. And that is KDE's philosophy. I love it.
The idea of running KDE on mobile devices is amazing. However I'm not keen on rooting my phone just yet. My tablet or watch, yes. Something as critical as my phone no. Maybe once I'm experienced in rooting and know its ins and outs. But when I do, I'm definitely going to give the Plasma mobile a go.

Choose Your Keys, Any Keys

It seems strange to me in a world where a huge chunk of our computing time is done on mobile devices using virtual keyboards we are stuck with rigid imitations of physical keyboards. It would be great to be able to fully customize which keys are available and where, AND which keys are available in the various alt levels of the keyboard.
 

As a GnuRoot / VIM user, I am often frustrated at the lack of Escape or Tab or Arrow keys. I have found a few keyboards that work fairly well, and contain these 'power user' keys. But given that in time tablets and phones may be the only computers we own shouldn't nearly every keyboard offer ALL the keys?

Perhaps someday I'll have to learn how to write keyboard apps and create such a customizable beast, so far I haven't seen any similar abominations.

Users Need to be Free!

Sorry, but this is another tirade against mobile OS's. I am very much a Yankee in the traditional sense of the word. Back in the 1800's the British sent the world's moat powerful Man-O-War to the U.S.'s east coast, to intimidate us. We sunk it.
I am  firm believer in Hump An Git It individualism. I can't abide tyrants and oppressors.
Data must be free... OS's are data, just like  applications. They must be free. Mobile OS's go against every philosophy I hold dear.
I have an old HP 10 G2. Why in the world am I not allowed to be an admin on MY OWN DEVICE?! It's not like it's tied to a mobile contract. I should be able to do what I want. As it is I'm stuck with Lollipop and all of HP's bloatware. Ugh.

Apparently I need to begin the journey. It's time to 'know thy enemy'. I need to get to know Android inside and out. I will need to be able to not only root it,  but to fully understand the process and go even deeper. I want to COMPLETELY take control of my tablet.
I would also like to root my SmartWatch 3... if Sony is going to not allow me to run Android 2.0 -- I'm gonna hump an git it. It's my watch, it's not tied to a contract. I'm going to keep it up to date.

Free the Users!

A Nix Terminal On My Phone, What?!

If I haven't already said it, I find mobile OS's obnoxious. Especially in light of the fact that tablets run on mobile OS's. They are operating systems that keep you from doing anything substantive on them. Sure you can run the allowed apps and games, but what if you want to rebuild them with another OS? Nope. What if you want to tinker with it and mess with system files or other admin activities? Nope.
You can only have freedom on your own device if you root it, which unless you really know what you're doing is dangerous, and it voids your warranty etc. So doing any real development etc on your tablet is out of the question unless you root it. I haven't had the time to learn to do this so I'm stuck with unrooted devices. So I looked around for options for running a linux terminal on an unrooted device. And I found GnuRoot. It is amazing. It runs on unrooted Android devices AND it has apt-get capabilities! So I can run calcurses, VIM (True VIM), and other Linux console apps. I can grep and do other things.
If you're an unrooted nerd and haven't tried it yet, you must.

Do You Even Android, Bro?

Android. I am going to be brutally honest here. I can't stand mobile OS's. The idea that an OS has been specifically designed to keep me from utilizing a device that I paid a lot of money for - and continue to pay service fees to use is disgusting.
Sure there's security etc to consider. But laptops. No the heart of it is ensuring we are locked into our carrier. Anyway, as you will find out in future posts, it drives me crazy.
But this article is about the Android Studio. AS is by far the most frustrating IDE I've ever used.
About a year ago I bought a Sony Smartwatch 3 with the metal bracelet. It looks super retro-future-sci-fi. I love it. And I was excited to build my own watchfaces for it. So I grabbed Android Studio and spent hours looking for examples and trying to figure out the basics. I got it down enough to make what I wanted. I created a nix console-looking watchface: TerminalTime and a grid of squares watchface: Central Mother.
After about a half a year I wanted to do some improvements to them. I launched AS and it wanted to update itself. Cool, I like rolling the most recent stuff. So I did the update. Aaaand that was the last time my watchfaces ever ran. Or ANYTHING in AS for that matter. I have wasted so many hours removing, reinstalling, deleting virtual devices, creating new virtual devices, building watchfaces using the new project wizard. So many hours scouring forums and contacting Google. Hours and hours and hours, trying to do the most basic thing you could possibly do in AS. Create a watchface project and run it (Without changing anything in it first). I can't get the  project AS created to run in AS.
It's maddening to not be able to modify my own watchfaces because of some dumb IDE. I'm sorry but I hate AS.