I tried Waydroid on Arch and its amazing. It runs Android apps flawlessly. And with a touchscreen device, I feel like I have an Android tablet running inside my Linux machine.
But I still don’t know what to use it for…
What apps do you use with Waydroid? What use cases do you have for it?
The only thing I can truly think of is Signal. If there was a native Gtk app for signal that was near feature complete I would probably ditch Android altogether. Maybe OSMAnd~, but that’s a nice to have.
Yeah I know about it, but it’s so so far off from being usable as a daily driver interacting with people on Android sadly :/
bank app
Reminds me that my daughter wanted to play Toca Life World on her PC. So I guess I would use it for that. As soon as I have the energy to do it.
if you want netflix witjh DRM stuff like offline downloads waydroid can do it I think via the android app…
You need to use a waydroid-utils script to install “widevine” for drm.
This is a solution i’ve tested for someone else not me;
I think it works, but it’s not been rigorouly road tested.Posssibly other DRM services will work if you can tolerate that type of thing.
My guess is that the main use for it is android app development and testing.
waydroid is pretty easy to get working - and I think will be usable by the actual end user once set up.
I did look at stremio but I couldn’t see a way to do the offline downloads thing on netflix.
That is a desirable feature for the person who travels a lot and they just want to have some videos for when they’re off-line or on limited bandwidth like on the train or bus.This servarr thing looks way more complex - though I admit I might be a bit too dim for it as I couldn’t figure out what it actually does.
Thanks for the suggestions though - waydroid looks easiest to meet all the needs. I’m sure someone smarter than me will have fun with that weird servarr suggetion - it does seem to have a whole lot of features.Servarr is a stack of applications that sets up a media suite. Radarr and Sonarr handle the managing of movies and TV shows, respectively. Prowlarr searches for the media through either Torrenting or Usenet. Then you’d need a downloader like SABnzbd or Deluge. Ombi is another application to handle requests and finally you’d need a streaming app like Plex, Emby or Jellyfin.
Think of it like a marionette; you’re making a bunch of services work together for one goal. Most people use docker and create a docker compose file to manage all the services. Typically the flow goes like this, a person makes a request to Ombi for something to watch. That request goes to Radarr or Sonarr, which creates a folder and populates the Metadata from IMDB. Then a request is sent to Prowlarr to find the media. Once found its sent to the downloader, like Deluge, to actually grab the media. After it’s done, Radarr / Sonarr will import the media into the correct folder. Now you’ve got a perfect collection for Plex / Emby / Jellyfish to start streaming your media. Really awesome suite once you get it up and running.
I use it for some banking apps and online shops that require the android app for using coupons.
To make my system less secure lol
It is true that Waydroid isn’t super secure. that being said, it is still just a mostly stock android (unless you download gapps). Root is not exposed to the container so unless an exploit is found it is reasonably secure. There are measures waydroid can take to make it more secure. but as it stands it’s “not bad”
Android relies on SELinux for its app sandbox. On Fedora the Waydroid package has some SELinux rules, but not sure if they are as good.
Daniel Micay answered under a Waydroid issue and at least on Android I fully trust his knowledge.
I dont know about exposed root, but Waydroid uses LXC containers and not rootless Podman/Docker.
The best solution would either be:
- only run it on Fedora (no Problem for me)
- harden the SELinux policy when needed
- switch to a rootless container
- or on other Distros, use a VM where you can fully control the environment
as far as I know the SELinux container is configured, whether or not the distro uses it isn’t up to waydroid but the packaging and host configuration. If there are issues with the SELinux implementation they need to be brought up.
Waydroid also supports apparmor for some protections when SELinux is not available. OFC it’s not as good as selinux (and currently it’s set in warning mode so it doesn’t actually offer protections out of box, please we need people testing this) https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid/pull/906
If you want to use a VM, and anyone who needs a highish level of security should. Bliss OS is a much better option. Though it doesnt offer “native integration” with the host.
There aren’t any 2FA apps for desktop?
Yes there are for example by gnome authenticate
*Gnome Authenticator
Yes there are for example by gnome authenticate
Yeah. You’d have to pry keepassxc from my cold dead hands st this point. Passwords + TOTP, cross platform, just a datafile.
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You misread that. They did type “Waydroid”.
If you just woke up, good morning.
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That would show the edit icon.
Just own it mate. You said something silly. So what? No biggie.
…They said waydroid
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Don’t search tasks for a tool. Search a tool for your tasks.
But… I have all these tools, and no imagination!
Well yes, but also no.
Whenever you search for a solution to your problem, it stems from the realization that something is a problem. But sometimes, you have a thing which has been done for a longtime, it was a problem with no solution and you’ve had to accept that. How would you determine one day that things can be done differently and better without constantly reevaluating everything? It’s not realistic.
In my view, it is a perfectly reasonable question to ask “what problem does waydroid solve?” To figure out if you have that issue and you didn’t know of this solution.
Sorry, just my 2 cents.
Also, Learning is Fun, so here I have a new toy, let’s have fun seeing what I can learn to do with it, then - as you say - that might solve a problem or improve a thing I hadn’t thought of before.
Minecraft Bedrock.
I’ve found the official launcher to be terrible, laggy, unstable, and poorly designed even on windows. I don’t think it can even launch bedrock anyway, I need to use the unofficial *nix launcher and the android APK to play on a realm.
Sorry I was referring to: https://mcpelauncher.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Ah, that’s exactly what I’m talking about!
Side point, is it possible to install the google play store on waydroid? Aurora keeps crashing.
I go with APKUpdater now.
Yep,
waydroid init -s GAPPS. But it will complain when first trying to sign in with Google so you’ll have to authorize the device.
Using the Apple Music client
Playing Slay the Spire.
It does have a native Linux version but it doesn’t sync cross-platform. So since I like playing on the go it is nice to also be able to play at home on a bigger screen.
If it’s the Steam version, why not play through proton?
Did it work out of the box for you? Doesn’t load for me on either of my machines that have waydroid
Do you have an ARM emulator installed? I don’t think the game ships an x86 build. Other than that it just worked.
Is that what libhoudini is? I heard of it, but don’t recall if I installed it
I think so. IIRC there are a few different implementations. But if you configure any of them Android will automatically use it to run non-native apps.
Honestly: I cannot have the Instagram app on my phone (both for privacy and for addiction) - I have it installed on Waydroid and the fact that it works like 50% of the way keeps me from using it more than a couple times a week.
