The Waydroid project has prepared a toolkit that allows you to create an isolated environment in a regular Linux distribution to download a full system image of the Android platform and organize the launch of Android applications using it. The code of the toolkit proposed by the project is written in Python and is licensed under the GPLv3 license. Ready packages are generated for Ubuntu 20.04/21.04, Debian 11, Droidian and Ubports.
The environment is formed using standard technologies to create isolated containers, such as namespaces for processes, user IDs, network subsystem and mount points. The LXC toolkit is used to manage the container. To run Android, the modules "binder_linux" and "ashmem_linux" are loaded on top of the regular Linux kernel.
The environment is designed to work with a session based on the Wayland protocol. Unlike the similar Anbox environment, the Android platform is given direct access to the hardware, without additional layers. The Android system image proposed for installation is based on builds from the LineageOS project and Android 10.
Waydroid Features:
- Desktop integration - Android apps can run side by side with native Linux apps.
- It supports placing shortcuts to Android applications in the regular menu and showing programs in overview mode.
- It supports running Android applications in multi-window mode and styling windows for the basic desktop design.
- For Android games, the ability to run applications in full screen mode is provided.
- A mode is available to show the standard Android interface.
- To install Android programs in graphical mode, you can use the F-Droid application or the command line interface ("waydroid app install 123.apk"). Google Play is not supported due to being tied to Google's proprietary Android services, but you can install an alternative free implementation of Google services from the microG project.
Source: opennet.ru