Podroid

Project Overview

Podroid is a rootless Android app that boots an Alpine Linux VM with its own kernel, rather than a chroot or proot workaround, so Podman, Docker, and LXC behave exactly as they do on a server. Container tools come pre-installed and are ready the moment it boots, and a built-in terminal plus an X11 desktop viewer let you run GUI Linux apps on your phone. It also supports USB passthrough, SSH, port forwarding, and container backup, with English and Chinese interfaces, for any arm64 device on Android 8 or newer.

Containers and a full Linux desktop on a phone, no root required.

Key Features

• A real VM: an Alpine Linux custom kernel via QEMU, or hardware-accelerated AVF on supported devices
• Container runtimes: Podman, Docker, and LXC pre-installed and ready right after boot
• Built-in terminal: full xterm-256color with 122 color themes, 13 fonts, and live resize
• X11 desktop: run GUI Linux apps in a built-in viewer with touch, keyboard, mouse, and audio
• Networking and passthrough: USB passthrough, SSH, port forwarding, and a guest-to-Android bridge
• Port forwarding command: use podroid-forward to open TCP / UDP ports on both the QEMU and AVF backends
• Status and backup: a live VM and device status view plus container backup
• File sharing: share the Downloads folder with the guest
• Bilingual UI: English and Chinese interfaces

Target Audience

• Developers who want to run containers on a phone
• Sysadmins who need a portable Linux environment
• Enthusiasts interested in rootless virtualization
• Users who want to try a Linux desktop on Android

Quick Start

1. Download the APK from Releases and install it
2. Tap "Start VM" and wait for "Ready!"
3. Open the built-in terminal and run container commands directly

podman run --rm alpine echo "hello from a container"
docker run -d -p 8080:80 nginx
podroid-forward add 8080 8080 tcp
ssh root@<phone-ip> -p 9922

Core Advantages

• Rootless: run containers and a VM without unlocking or rooting the device
• Consistent behavior: a real kernel makes containers behave as they do on a server
• Ready out of the box: container tools are pre-installed and usable right after boot
• Desktop capable: the built-in X11 viewer lets GUI programs run too

System Requirements

Notes

• A full build requires Docker and the Android SDK / NDK
• AVF hardware acceleration is only available on devices that support pKVM
• Running a VM uses considerable memory and storage, so leave enough headroom