Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR Qualcomm’s powerful new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip unfortunately doesn’t support Android’s new Linux Terminal feature.
This is because the feature requires support for “non-protected” virtual machines, which Qualcomm’s latest high-end chip does not offer.
As a result, users wanting to run desktop Linux apps on Android must currently use a device with a Google, MediaTek, or Samsung chip.
When Qualcomm unveiled its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 last month, the question on most people’s minds was: “How well does it perform?” The answer, it turns out, is incredibly well — at least in benchmarks.
Qualcomm has always done a great job at building powerful, yet efficient, mobile processors, but it’s hard to find real-world tasks that can really push those processors to their limits. That’s because most Android apps are built for the lowest common denominator — cheap devices with vastly slower processors than flagship phones. On the other hand, many Linux apps are built for people with powerful workstations, as Linux is popular among power users and developers.
Thanks to the new Linux Terminal feature, it’s now possible to run many of these Linux apps on Android devices. However, not every Android device has access to the Linux Terminal, as it has two requirements that many devices don’t meet.
First, it requires the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) to be available on the device, as it uses the framework to create a Debian virtual machine. AVF is part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), so it’s available to all manufacturers, but that doesn’t mean it will work out of the box on all devices. Fortunately, Google worked with major silicon vendors including Qualcomm to add support for their respective hypervisor implementations — the software that creates and manages virtual machines — to AVF. Most devices launching with Android 16 support AVF out of the box, while many devices upgrading to the release support it as well.
The second requirement is support for “non-protected” VMs, i.e. VMs whose memory can be broadly accessed by the host OS. The Linux Terminal app currently doesn’t run on devices that only support protected VMs, i.e. VMs whose memory cannot be broadly accessed by the host OS. Paradoxically, this means devices can support the more secure uses of AVF, like Play Protect’s live threat detection, but not its more insecure uses, like the Linux Terminal. In practice, this is why Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 supports the Linux Terminal but not the Galaxy Z Fold 7, as the former is powered by the Exynos 2500 chip, which supports non-protected VMs, while the latter is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which does not.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority Left: The Linux Terminal running on the Galaxy Z Flip 7. Right: The Linux Terminal crashing on the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
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