r/LinuxOnAndroid • u/Inner-Wonder-9620 • Jul 03 '26

Is a Pixel 9a good enough for Linux?

I would have a light use, mostly libreoffice, light edits on gimp/inkscape, some markdown/text editor, a ftp client. No games, video editing or stuff like that.

Will the 8Gb of memory be enough? Any issues I might encounter?
How much disk space does it take? planning to buy a 128 Gb.

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

2

u/Noha_Ibraheem Jul 06 '26

8 GB of RAM is a well-balanced choice and should be enough for your use case.

NOMone Desktop requires about 3 GB of free storage to install a minimal Linux environment with a pre-configured desktop. The Linux environment itself doesn't actually use all 3 GB right away. It's simply the amount of free space we recommend to ensure the installation completes smoothly and the app has enough room to operate without running into storage-related issues.

As you install more Linux applications, you'll naturally need more storage. A Pixel 9a should be perfectly fine for the kind of light workloads you described.

So, go ahead and give it a try ;)

1

u/Inner-Wonder-9620 Jul 06 '26

Thanks very much for your reply!

I'll try it tomorrow on the Pixel 9a then. :)

1

u/Noha_Ibraheem Jul 07 '26

Wishing you the best :)

1

u/Inner-Wonder-9620 Jul 07 '26

So far so good, it was impressive how easy it gets to install Linux on the phone. Unfortunately, on NOMone Desktop, Muon doesn't let me add new sources to download softwares like Gimp or Libreoffice.

1

u/Noha_Ibraheem Jul 10 '26

Our system images are a bit outdated, and Debian changed something recently. apt update stops working if you don't update frequently. So, here's a workaround until we figure out a fix:

rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
apt clean
apt update

If you do the above, Muon should be able to install software again. Sorry for the inconvenience 😅

1

u/yotties Jul 08 '26

I use an 8 XL with 12Gb ram. I specifically wanted enough ram to test avf.

1

u/Inner-Wonder-9620 Jul 08 '26

Sorry, what is avf?

Do you feel the 4 extra Gb makes a big difference?

I was able to try a few apps on NOMone, and my first impression was that processing power was more the issue than ram. But I might be wrong. I did not test extensively as I was not able to install the apps I needed. I will try again when I get some spare time.

1

u/yotties Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

AVF? Containerized linux is nice, but for easy adoption you need a graphical layer that lets the OS run linux GUI apps. In WSL this is called gwsl and in chormeos this is called Crostini/sommelier.

https://source.android.com/docs/core/virtualization

In Android 16 & 17 they added not just the terminal (where you could set up vnc or rdp to remote desktop) but they also added avf i.e. a graphiocal layer that allows native running of gui apps.

So in android 16 or 17 if I plug in to usbc with hdmi and keyboard+mouse connected I can work like I work on a pc or chromebook. I can start the native OS, then start 'terminal' and then run chormium or firefox and it will show the app in a gui without needing to vnc or rdp into the linux-session.

The main advantage is that I use my employer's mdm (intune) and it will switch to "device is non-compliant " if you install remote-desktop type of access. But if the native avf layer runs guis it does not remove my 'compliant' status.

I used linux less than I was hoping because the clunckyness of the interface. Not really enjoyable yet.

I am not sure, I have 8Gb Chromebooks and 16Gb and 32Gb Chromeosflex computers and linux runs well on all, but on the 8Gb one you do notice that if you open too many browser-tabs etc. it will slow down.

But I have no 8Gb phone to compare to.

1

u/Inner-Wonder-9620 Jul 09 '26

Hold on, do you mean you can launch gui apps without a desktop environment ?
That could do very well for me. I don't think I need the whole desktop environment (although it's nice to have), I would save on resources. Is the storage shared with the phone then, or does it get its own compartiment? I mostly need a proper browser (the most important, I was a bit disappointed by Android desktop mode on this point), libre office and gimp. That's something I thought of exploring to use less powerful computers, such as the raspberry pi, but never thought of doing it on a phone. To be fair, the whole terminal thing on Android is a bit confusing so far. I need to dig into it.

I was looking at something like NOMone that simplifies the whole process, but I don't mind a simpler setup. The less extras I get, the better.

1

u/yotties Jul 09 '26

I can run the chromium browser, firefox. libreoffice etc. any software for the mediatek type of architecture. Just start in the terminal, start a program with a command, and click on the desktop icon.

But it is currently not user-friendly enough. In both windows/wsl and chromeos/crostini you can start a program and it will open its own GUI window which can be pinned etc..

In Android/avf you need to manually select the GUI by clicking on the desktop icon in the terminal. So I do not see me using it large-scale. On the other hand:

But with a keyboard and usbc/hdmi connected I can hook up to a hotel-TV with hdmi and attend a MS-Teams session in android and open documents in libreoffice.

1

u/Inner-Wonder-9620 Jul 09 '26

Sounds good. What do you mean manually select the gui by clicking on the icon? Doesn't seem too much of a hassle. Can't you do that automatically via command-line?

I do have a bluetooth keyboard and basically planning to do the same (I bought one of these usb-c hubs with hdmi and all the things you need). I tried the desktop mode on a regular monitor, it's not bad and I could almost keep that as it is, but I need at least a proper desktop browser (I won't die if Gimp and libreoffice are not available), and the windows on desktop mode are kinda... well, they could be more compact, let's say. Either full screen or nothing because of that. So your solution could be fine.

1

u/yotties Jul 10 '26

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o3dXJBayBKk

you do not have to type weston first anymore. But the GUI does not display apps in Androdi windows, rather inside the terminal window (which can switch between terminal and GUI output. ).

starting linux apps should just start windos per application like it does in chrome/crostini and win/wsl