Graphical Environment

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This article is only applicable only to Termux installations running on Android 7.0 or higher.

Termux provides support for programs that use X Window System. However, there no hardware acceleration for rendering and user will have to install a third party application to view graphical output.

mtPaint

To use X11-enabled programs, please, make sure that at least one of the following programs is installed:

  • VNC Viewer
    The best choice for interacting with graphical environment. Requires a running VNC server.

  • XServer XSDL
    This one may be unstable but it provides a standalone Xorg server so you don't have to setup VNC.

  • Termux:X11
    A Termux add-on app that provides a Wayland compositor. Even if though it's designed for Wayland, you can use Xwayland to run X11 applications.

Enabling the X11 Repository

X11 packages are available in a separate APT repository. You can enable it by running the following command:

$ pkg install x11-repo

It will automatically add appropriate sources.list file and PGP key.

To disable this repository, you need to uninstall package x11-repo.

Setting up VNC

Server

If you decided to use VNC for graphical output, follow these instructions for properly setting up VNC server.

  1. Install package tigervnc:
$ pkg install tigervnc
  1. After installation, execute this:
$ vncserver

At first time, you will be prompted for setting up passwords:

You will require a password to access your desktops.


Password:
Verify:
Would you like to enter a view-only password (y/n)? n

Note that passwords are not visible when you are typing them and maximal password length is 8 characters.

  1. If everything is okay, you will see this message:
New 'localhost:1 ()' desktop is localhost:1


Creating default startup script /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.vnc/xstartup
Creating default config /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.vnc/config
Starting applications specified in /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.vnc/localhost:1.log

It means that X (vnc) server is available on display 'localhost:1'.

  1. Finally, to make programs do graphical output to the display 'localhost:1', set environment variable like shown here (yes, without specifying 'localhost'):
$ export DISPLAY=":1"

You may even put this variable to your bashrc or profile so you don't have to always set it manually unless display address will be changed.

Client

Here will be assumed that you use this Android VNC client: VNC Viewer (developed by RealVNC Limited).

  1. Determine port number on which VNC server listens. It can be calculated like this: 5900 + {display number}. So for display 'localhost:1' the port will be 5901.

  2. Now open the VNC Viewer application and create a new connection with the following information (assuming that VNC port is 5901):

VNC Viewer: new connection

If you are using VNC client on a computer using the same network as the phone does, make sure you correctly start a VNC session and know the IP address of the device.

  1. Now launch it. You will be prompted for password that you entered on first launch of 'vncserver'. Depending on packages you installed, you may see either entirely black screen or terminal prompt (only if 'aterm' is installed).

Setting up XServer

Xserver setup is nearly same as for VNC. The only differences are that you don't have to configure authentication and variable "DISPLAY" should be set like

$ export DISPLAY=<the local IP address of your device>:0

Note that you don't need to set variable "PULSE_SERVER" like application suggests because Termux uses its own Pulseaudio package.

Window Managers

When using Android XServer rather than Android XSDL these are optional.

i3

i3

Simplest way to get a working graphical environment is to install i3:

$ pkg install i3 dmenu # dmenu is optional as you can use other application menu like rofi

It can be started automatically on VNC server startup. To do this, edit file ~/.vnc/xstartup as shown here:

#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh


# Start i3
i3 &

It also has a easy and robust configuration, making it very popular amongst Linux ricers.

Fluxbox

Fluxbox

If you don't like tiling window managers, you can install Fluxbox:

$ pkg install fluxbox

Then, edit file ~/.vnc/xstartup to look like this:

#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
## Fluxbox desktop.


# Generate menu.
fluxbox-generate_menu


# Start fluxbox.
fluxbox &

Openbox

Openbox

Openbox requires a more complicated configuration than i3 and Fluxbox. Firstly you need to install some packages:

$ pkg install openbox pypanel xorg-xsetroot

Put the following lines to your ~/.vnc/xstartup:

#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh


# Start Openbox.
openbox-session &

Don't put anything else to file ~/.vnc/xstartup but only lines shown above since Openbox has own autostart script. It is located at ${PREFIX}/etc/xdg/openbox/autostart (or alternatively at ~/.config/openbox/autostart). Edit this file like here:

# Make background gray.
xsetroot -solid gray


# Launch PyPanel.
pypanel &

Desktop environment

It is possible to setup a full blown desktop environment in Termux. Only XFCE, LXQt and MATE is supported.

XFCE

XFCE

Recommended way of installation is through metapackage and not the separate components:

$ pkg install xfce4

VNC server startup configuration (~/.vnc/xstartup) should contain only

#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
xfce4-session &

Additional recommended packages for installation:

  • otter-browser
    Free and open source web browser that aims to recreate aspects of Opera 12.x
  • xfce4-terminal
    Terminal emulator for XFCE. It is not included as part of XFCE installation to allow use of aterm or st.

LXQt

LXQt

Recommended way of installation is through metapackage and not the separate components:

$ pkg install lxqt

VNC server startup configuration (~/.vnc/xstartup) should contain only

#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
lxqt-session &

Additional recommended packages for installation:

  • otter-browser
    Free and open source web browser that aims to recreate aspects of Opera 12.x
  • qterminal - Terminal emulator for LXQt. Included as a part of LXQt

MATE

MATE

As of now, there is no MATE metapackage as it's very unstable at the moment. So, you need to install all required MATE components serperately.

$ pkg install mate-* marco

VNC server startup configuration (~/.vnc/xstartup) should contain only

#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
mate-session &

Additional recommended packages for installation:

  • otter-browser
    Free and open source web browser that aims to recreate aspects of Opera 12.x
  • mate-terminal
    Terminal emulator for MATE. It is not included as part of MATE installation to allow use of aterm or st.

See also