Waydroid

Overview

While Android applications are not natively installed within PureOS 1, Waydroid makes it possible to install Android applications within PureOS for desktop and mobile.

See also

1

Purism does not have any control over the quality or security of Waydroid or Android applications. Neither Waydroid nor any Android applications are covered by any warranty, expressed or implied.

Install and configure

  1. Update PureOS

  2. Download and install Waydroid

Desktop PureOS

  1. Follow the official Waydroid installation instructions

Mobile PureOS

  1. Download the Waydroid installation package

    Note

    If you experience any issues downloading the .deb file, follow the following procedure instead:

    Manual CI artifact download

    1. Navigate to the Librem 5 CI builds

    2. Click or tap the green checkmark near the latest commit

      Passing CI job checkmark

    3. Now on the build page, click or tap on the package-pureos-byzantium:arm64 packaging job.

      CI job package

    4. On the job build log page, on the right side, press on the “Browse” button. This might be hidden at the top of the page if you are viewing this on your Librem 5. If so, please use the “Scroll to top button”, which is a button with an arrow pointing up. Press on the double arrow («) to reveal the right side panel and then press on the “Browse” button.

      CI job artifact download

    5. Navigate through the folders by pressing on “debian” and then “output”. In this “output” directory, download the .deb file, which might be named waydroid_1.3.3-0pureos0+librem5ci79377.0353512_all.deb.

  2. Install Waydroid and its dependencies

    1. Launch a terminal emulator.

    2. Run the following command to install the .deb package:

      sudo apt install ./waydroid_1.3.3-0pureos0+librem5ci79377.0353512_all.deb
      Installing the waydroid deb package on the Librem 5

  1. Reboot the device

  2. Launch Waydroid by clicking/tapping on its icon in the application list.

    Waydroid icon in the phosh app list

    A “Initialize Waydroid” window will launch which allows you to download an Android image.

  3. Select an Android image to install.

    • VANILLA: no Google services installed

    • GAPPS: includes proprietary Google Apps services

    Leave the selection at the default value to use the official Waydroid OTA service.

    Note

    microG can be installed later, which is a free- and open-source implementation of Google Play services

  4. Click or tap “Download”.

    Installing the waydroid environment on the Librem 5

  5. After the image downloads complete, click or tap the blue “Done” button. Wait a few moments; an Android splash screen should appear and the Android system should eventually load.

  6. Optional: Obtain Google Play certification

    Warning prompt that Google Play services are missing

See also

Uninstall

Caution

The following terminal commands remove all data stored within the Android container.

  1. Launch a terminal emulator and run the following:

    sudo systemctl stop waydroid-container
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/waydroid-extra /var/lib/waydroid ~/.local/share/waydroid ~/.local/share/applications/waydroid.*.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/Waydroid.desktop
sudo apt remove libgbinder libgbinder1 libglibutil libglibutil1 libgbinder-dev libglibutil-dev python3-gbinder waydroid