chroot-distro downloads, installs, and manages GNU/Linux distributions in native chroot environments on rooted Android. It shares the Android kernel rather than emulating one, and provides a single command for lifecycle tasks such as install, login, mount, backup, restore, and removal.
Native Linux Environments on Android
Distribution root filesystems live under /data/local/chroot-distro and can bind selected Android paths when that access is required.
Distro Lifecycle
Downloads and installs named distributions, lists installed environments, and supports reinstall, rename, uninstall, or full removal.
Login or One Command
Open an interactive rootfs session or execute a quoted command inside a selected distribution and return to Android.
Backup and Restore
Maintains per-distribution backups and accepts optional paths for moving snapshots to storage with adequate capacity.
Requirements
- A rooted Android device; the project states that all root implementations are supported.
- A terminal such as Termux, ADB shell, an Android terminal emulator, or a capable root file manager.
- BusyBox for Android NDK is the recommended BusyBox implementation. Upstream recommends v1.36.1 and warns that v1.32.1 has known bugs.
- A rootfs available for the device architecture. The main documented architectures are
armv7,arm64,i686, andamd64.
Basic Workflow
su
chroot-distro list
chroot-distro download ubuntu
chroot-distro install ubuntu
chroot-distro login ubuntuThe catalog includes Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, Debian, Rocky, CentOS Stream, Manjaro, Kali, Parrot, Alpine, OpenSUSE, Deepin, BackBox, Chimera, openKylin, Gentoo, Artix, Adélie, and Void. Availability still depends on a compatible upstream rootfs.
Use android-bind to control whether Android root directories are exposed, fix-suid for automatic setuid correction, and ram-bind for the optional RAM-backed paths. All three settings should be reviewed before running untrusted software.
Mounts and Storage
Each environment mounts Linux system points such as /dev, /sys, /proc, and /dev/pts. Use the provided unmount command before deleting files or taking a cold backup; --force can close processes still using mounted paths and therefore deserves care.
Rootfs data, configuration, and backups can consume substantial internal storage. Check capacity before downloading a distribution or duplicating it, and keep important backups outside the device.