UserLand is a way to add Puppy or EasyOS to Android

Now this is interesting. As I am now getting into Android tablets, have been looking around at ways of running Linux on Android. Many choices, one of them is UserLand that has favourable reports. Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ula

Tutorial:

https://www.lifewire.com/run-linux-on-android-4586926

No need to root Android, good. Seems easy to use, good. Also, seems can add more Linux distributions:

https://github.com/CypherpunkArmory/UserLAnd/wiki/Adding-a-Distribution

...that is very interesting!

UserLand uses bVNC app to access the Linux GUI:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iiordanov.freebVNC

It seems might be best to install bVNC first, before UserLand.

I am wondering how well this will work on a low-spec tablet such as the Alldocube iPlay 7T, with only 2GB RAM. Only 16GB flash-ROM also, but presumably can setup a micro-SD card to be used as "internal storage"?

That would be the first question. I did read somewhere that the SD card can be configured as part of internal storage, but cannot recall the details.

The second question is whether 2GB RAM is enough.

A third question: VNC, that means would be able to access the phone/tablet Linux desktop from an external device, such as a PC?

EDIT:
Here is the answer to one of the questions: Google added the feature of "adoptable storage" at Android 6 (Marshmallow). Here is a tutorial:

https://fossbytes.com/android-sd-card-internal-storage-adoptable-storage/

...does warn that some phone/tablet vendors might not have enabled that feature.

Also warns that need a fast SD card. I have a SanDisk Extreme 128GB microSD, so good to go.

EDIT 2021-08-08:
Thinking ahead, I wondered whether the Android kernel supports squashfs and overlayfs.

Squashfs is in the kernel up to Android 9 (Pie), removed in Android 10 and later:

https://source.android.com/devices/architecture/kernel/squashfs

I could not find a definitive statement anywhere whether the kernel supports overlayfs. It is not shown here:

https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/configs/+/refs/heads/pie-release/p/android-4.9/

Hmmm. I might have to bring back Quirky Linux. Quirky is a "full installation", does not use aufs/overlayfs nor squashfs. Ah, actually, it does use squashfs internally, for package install/uninstall management, so would have to figure out an alternative. Easy enough to do an aarch64 Quirky build in woofQ, to create a rootfs file that can run within Android.     

Tags: easy