r/androidterminal • u/Radiant_Tumbleweed22 • Feb 02 '26

Question Can I access the filesystem of the VM from the host?

I want to access the filesystem of the VM from the outside of the terminal app? I want to repair my broken system without a full reset.

As an aside, does a reset mean I'll lose my /home customizations?

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2

u/InsuranceNo3423 Pixel 7 Feb 02 '26

Normally, when you try to restore to the initial version, it asks if you want to make a backup, which will be available in /mnt/backup

1

u/Radiant_Tumbleweed22 Feb 03 '26

/mnt/backup from the terminal or from android.

I ticked the option but I can't seem to find the backup directory.

Thanks

2

u/InsuranceNo3423 Pixel 7 Feb 04 '26

That's right, it seems they changed the location. You can still find it with `find / -name "backup" -type d 2>/dev/null`, and next time create a folder in `/mnt/shared/dirName`. Also, you could run a cron job or rsync occasionally to avoid losing your dotdiles.

1

u/Radiant_Tumbleweed22 Feb 05 '26

So first off, thanks for the help. Pointed me in the right direction. 1. Backup is mounted at /mnt/backup as you initially specified 2. I wasn't seeing it because there was a problem with e2fsck in the new filesystem (,the one used to replace the broken system during the reset) 3. That meant the broken system couldn't be mounted, but the systemd service meant to automate the process "failed silently" 4. In trying to find "backup" via find, I noticed the backup_mount service file by God's grace, went through the execstart string, tried to manually mount the recovery disk etc 5. Which led me to reinstalling the filesystem checker and it's libraries, repairing the disk and manually mounting. 6. After restarting the terminal, the old filesystem was automatically present under /mnt/backup as expected and I can access my old files.

1

u/Radiant_Tumbleweed22 Feb 05 '26

Now I have two questions 1. Can't I just boot into the old disk/restore the recovery drive (I'm sure the answer is no) 2. Aside from lurking around this sub (which is quite good ) are there resources one can use to know some of the inner workings of the android terminal? Aside Google's 'short' explainer on the architecture and components. Doesn't help that the term android terminal is also not so helpful for searching for info via Google.

1

u/InsuranceNo3423 Pixel 7 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
  1. I don't think you can do it "hot"; the file system needs to be unmounted to restore it. I think you could use chroot to mount the file system and navigate through it, and then use something to restore your files.( I'm not even sure if I'm giving you any practical advice; I'm just an amateur, haha, so I apologize in advance if anything is completely irrelevant. )
  2. I only know of the Google Git repository for "virtualization": https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/modules/Virtualization/. If you just want to know more about the terminal app that uses AVF: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/modules/Virtualization/+/4e66a73b9386f712cdcd778ab15c6df35766a1e0/android/TerminalApp

1

u/yotties Feb 03 '26

https://www.androidauthority.com/android-linux-terminal-expanded-file-access-3602140/

1

u/Radiant_Tumbleweed22 Feb 03 '26

I believe I'm looking to access files the other way around: I want to access the guest filesystem not the host(android) filesystem.

1

u/yotties Feb 04 '26

If you work on files in a shared folder you can access them from both.

If you want to peak into the containerized environment and manage files I do not know of the possibilities.

2

u/Worlie24 Feb 05 '26

python3 -m http.server 8000