I've got a Samsung Galaxy S22+ that I've been running Dex on, with the NexDock 2025 and for the most part, I've loved it. But it really just remained an entertainment device, pretty much. Couldn't really use it as a productivity device. Especially when it came to using it for a dev environment using Claude Code and Codex CLI, it wasn't ideal.
Then I saw someone post about having installed Linux on theirs, so I went down the same rabbit hole. After having dug through 40 browser tabs in an attempt to run a real Linux desktop off my phone, I decided to write it all down in one repo.
It's called Android Desktop Linux (ADL) and it's open source.
Check it out here: https://thebpandey.github.io/ADL
(With Claude Code and ChatGPT's help I got it published as a GitHub Page that should hopefully, be easy to follow).
Most of the modern flagship Android phones already have the horsepower for this. Desktop-class CPU, enough RAM, USB-C video out, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a Linux userspace that runs better than most people expect. The hardware is capable. But the blocker is that everything you need to know is scattered across old blog posts, half-abandoned GitHub repos, and YouTube videos that assume you already know the next five steps. It wasn't easy to follow, at least for me.
I was able to get XFCE running on Ubuntu on my Galaxy S22+ plugged into the NexDock 2025. (But it should work with any generic $30 usb-c hub and external peripherals)
What's in the repo right now:
- Install guides written for people who know Android but not Linux
- Step-by-step tutorials with screenshots
- Setup & explanation diagrams and SVG architecture illustrations
- Hardware and dock recommendations, plus a compatibility list I'm building out
- Troubleshooting for the stuff that actually breaks (DeX quirks, video-out on sleep, peripheral pairing)
What's still rough: I've only tested on my S22+ so I'm unsure if you'll run into any other model or cpu-specific issues. So the compatibility database is is thin.
I'm adding new issues and their resolution as I encounter them myself, daily.
Everything is version-controlled so it stays current as Android changes, and it stays free.
Repo: https://github.com/thebpandey/ADL
If you run Android as a desktop, whatever your stack (Termux, Ubuntu, Debian, XFCE, DeX, something else), you can help contribute to the project so others in the same boat can get their setup working too. Also the single most useful thing you can contribute right now, is your Phone model, the dock model and what major issues you encountered (e.g. whether video-out survives the screen sleeping. That's the biggest compatibility gap right now.)
Still a work-in-progress, as I continue to use it daily, and add issues, and other findings to the site.
Any constructive feedback, bug reports, hardware testing, and documentation contributions are all welcome.