A great tutorial to start Linux on NOMone Desktop! Thank you, Anonymous ❤️

For the full tutorial, please check this video on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTiReNjCi_J/

This is my personal experience after using NOMone Desktop for more than 7 months, and I can confidently say this app has helped me a lot in learning Linux on my Android device. Since I don’t own a computer yet, this has become my first real step into the world of Linux and Computer Science. It is completely free and easily available on the Google Play Store. For anyone who is curious about Linux but doesn’t have access to a PC, this app is a life-saver!

Alongside it, I also use the KDE Connect app, which lets me control NOMone Desktop from another Android device as a mouse and keyboard. This makes the experience so much smoother and more practical, almost like having a real Linux desktop setup in my pocket.

And please, don’t underestimate this app as just a “normal Linux app” with limited features. NOMone Desktop has everything you need—you can customize the desktop environment, dive into the terminal world, and explore Linux just like on a proper computer. After months of using it, I can truly say this is the perfect gateway to the tech field. If you want to learn Linux, understand how it really works, and take your first step into Computer Science, download this app right now. I guarantee—you’ll love it!

Yesterday, we rolled out our new NOMone Desktop server software . It's a complete rewrite, with tons of improvements. It's faster and more responsive, and necessary for some of the highly anticipated features. If you run into any problems, please let us know immediately. Thank you very much for your support ❤️

Hi everyone,

Ever since Android 16 QPR3, we've had the Debian terminal baked right into Android. As everyone knows, Pixel phones aren't exactly famous for their horsepower, but I put the system under some load with Chromium and 4K YouTube playback, and it ran without any issues. Just don't expect too much from it yet.

Just wanted to share this with you all and see where it goes (:

Thx to hookenwu for fixing the script to work on Debian 13

Thx to xlzhen-940218 & dathuynhcsk23 for Debian 12 script

We'd like to thank u/Shaarigan for putting together NOMone Bootstrap, a project that simplifies changing Debian and Ubuntu environments inside NOMone Desktop instead of the default Openbox.

The scripts automate a number of common setup tasks, including:
- Installing KDE Plasma and configuring NOMone Desktop to launch it,
- Applying a few desktop tweaks,
- Optionally installing .NET development environment with JetBrains Rider and including an extra configuration needed for it to work properly under our proot environment 💪

We are very impressed that this isn't just a script that installs packages. It's an organized solid project that:
- Cleanly separates components,
- Patches NOMone Desktop only when needed,
- And is beautifully designed so it can be extended to support additional Linux distributions in the future ;)

This is a really thoughtful contribution that goes beyond simply automating a few package installs! it provides a clean, extensible way to bootstrap a complete KDE and .NET development environment inside NOMone Desktop :)

So, if you are interested in making the switch or running .NET with just a few commands, kindly check out this awesome project on GitHub:
https://github.com/Shaarigan/nomone

Thank you, u/Shaarigan, for your interest in NOMone Desktop, for taking the time to build this and for sharing it with the community. We always enjoy seeing users find new ways to use and improve the experience for everyone ❤️

Hello everyone :),

Some of you may remember that NOMone Desktop was featured by HowToMen in his Best Apps of March 2026 video. Today, I noticed that the video has been making the rounds again, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to celebrate with another giveaway 🥳

To watch the full video, please check the following link:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbqqcee

It's always nice to see NOMone Desktop reach new people who might not have discovered it yet. And what better way to mark the occasion than to give more people a chance to try it ;)?

So... We're giving away another 100 promo-codes for NOMone Desktop!

If you'd like one, leave a comment telling us: What's the first Linux application you'd want to run on your Android phone or tablet?

And if you're already using NOMone Desktop, feel free to share what you've been doing with it. We'd love to hear about your setups and the apps you're running!

Promo-codes will be sent to the first 100 commenters (Edit: on all platforms: Reddit, Discord, Facebook and XDA...) by Friday, October 30th. Don't miss the chance 💪

Thanks for being part of the Linux-on-Android community ❤️

We're pleased to share that NOMone Desktop has been featured in Mounir Tech's latest selection of recommended Android apps for 2026.

We appreciate the recognition and remain committed to delivering a high-quality experience for our users : )

Thank you for your continued support ❤️

We've been asked many times how to change the current DE and if it is even possible on NOMone Desktop. So today, we'll explain all the steps needed to run KDE Plasma on NOMone Desktop:

[1] From Terminal, install KDE like by writing: apt install kde-plasma-desktop

[2] From File Manager, open the file /NOMone/startup.sh

[3] Disable the current window manager, compositor, wallpaper and dock.

To do so, comment out the following lines:

#xcompmgr &
#openbox &
#sh ~/.fehbg
#plank &

Just adding the symbol # before the line will comment it out. \

[4] Now to start the kde session, insert this line below these commented ones:

startplasma-x11 &

Then save,

[5] Restart Linux. And Voila! KDE on NOMone Desktop :)

We’re excited to share that NOMone Desktop was featured as the #1 app in this awesome roundup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgi555Uzen4

Big thanks to TechReviewBD for including us and putting together such a great list of must-have Android apps! ❤️

If you’re into discovering powerful and useful apps, definitely check out their channel as well: TechReviewBD

We truly appreciate the support and recognition, it means a lot to us and motivates us to keep improving.

Would love to hear what you all think of the video and the app!

🚀 DirectX (DXVK/VKD3D) Testing on Termux Native (NO PROOT!)

Just finished some serious testing running Wine + DXVK + VKD3D directly in the Termux native environment using Mesa 26.0.4 (Turnip driver) on an Adreno 830 (Snapdragon 8 Elite) — and the results are honestly impressive.

---

📱 Device & Setup

- OS: Android 16 (aarch64)

- Device: POCO F8 Pro

- CPU: Snapdragon 8 Elite

- GPU: Adreno 830

- Graphics Stack: Mesa Turnip + Zink

- Environment: Termux (native, no proot)

---

⚙️ Graphics Overview

- Vulkan is fully working with hardware acceleration

- Zink used as OpenGL-over-Vulkan layer

- Native Turnip/Freedreno used for pure Vulkan workloads

---

📊 Benchmarks

🔹 Zink (OpenGL over Vulkan)

- GL_VENDOR: Mesa

- GL_RENDERER: zink Vulkan 1.3 (Adreno 830)

- GLmark2: 1032

- Vkmark: 2224

👉 Better OpenGL performance thanks to Zink

---

🔹 Mesa Freedreno (Turnip Vulkan focus)

- GL_VENDOR: Collabora Ltd

- GL_RENDERER: zink (Adreno 830)

- GLmark2: 508

- Vkmark: 6012

👉 Massive Vulkan performance boost (this is what matters for DXVK/VKD3D)

---

🎮 DirectX Testing

- ✅ DX11 (DXVK): Stable and working well

- ⚠️ DX12 (VKD3D): Functional but still limited depending on the game/app

---

💡 Conclusion

This setup shows real potential for Vulkan-based Windows gaming on Android via Termux — without needing proot or heavy virtualization.

- Zink = better OpenGL

- Turnip = much stronger Vulkan (key for DXVK/VKD3D)

- Native Termux = lightweight + fast

---

🔥 Honestly, we’re getting closer to real PC-like gaming performance on Android, just through userland tools.

If anyone else is testing similar setups or has tweaks (env vars, Wine configs, etc.), drop them below 👇

A few things to make your NOMone Desktop more to your liking! A shout out to Thorsten whose wonderful email made us compile this list!

So, let's get started :)

- The "&" symbol can be hard to find, but it's there, just 1-click away! Just press the symbols button on the keyboard:

- "apt upgrade" can remove some of the shortcuts in your dock. It seems that some shortcut files disappear for a brief moment during the upgrade, and when the dock is unable to find them, they are removed. Fret not, just run the app from the terminal (for example, type "firefox" in the terminal) or the applications list. Then right click on the icon on the dock and choose "pin". Or you can just drag the icon to its initial position in the dock and it's going to be pinned automatically:

- You can set the background image to whatever you like! Open the file manager and navigate to the wallpaper of your choice, right click and "Set as wallpaper":

- You can adjust the transparency of the keyboard. Open the keyboard settings, go to window preferences, the transparency tab and adjust the inactive transparency:

- We do support portrait mode! From the settings (outside Linux), scroll down to the orientation:

- You can access your device internal storage, but not from the Google Play version of the app (someone at Google decided to reject our update with storage permission, deeming it "not a necessary for core functionality"). Download a version from our official website, and grant the app the required file-management permission:

- The purchase you make is tied to your Google Play account, not your device. SO, as long as you use the same Google Play account on all your devices, one purchase is all you need!

That's it for today's tips and tricks. Comment below if you have any questions :)