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Comment by transpute | Hacker News Reader

Qualcomm Arm PCs support hardware nested virtualization for pKVM L0 and KVM L1 hypervisor, similar to Pixel devices. This could enable Debian Linux in a VM, currently available on Pixel as "Linux Terminal" for developers, with all Debian Arm packages and root access in the VM.

"Terminal app can now run full graphical Linux apps in the latest Android Canary", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44681858

"Coding without a laptop: Two weeks with AR glasses and Linux on Android", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43985513

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> This could enable Debian Linux in a VM,

This is like making sex in public. It is doable, but dangerous.

News for hackers: Google Pixel Developer Terminal VM on Android and GrapheneOS provides 50K+ open-source software packages signed by the Debian package maintainers who are trusted as the upstream "root distro" for Ubuntu, Devuan and other Linux distributions. Use of individual Debian Linux software packages on Android phones does not depend on App Store identity registration, financial payment or Google Play Services telemetry.

Thanks to SoC CPU/memory virtualization at the VM boundary, there is stronger isolation between Debian software packages and the rest of the device, than between any two Android software packages distributed by App Store, which are executing within a single VM context. This protects the device from side effects of Debian Linux software in the Developer Terminal VM.

This is more safe and more secure than status quo.

> doable, but dangerous

Incorrect. It is more isolated, less dangerous, more secure, more flexible for developers and increases functionality to users.

So?

Technical capability often has little to do with how the product works.

I really miss the days where companies sold tools and consumers could use them in flexible and creative ways that would never have been considered by the manufacturer.

Same, but companies discovered they could make more money by rent seeking instead. Blame growth culture. It wasn't enough to have a sustainable business, it must grow rapidly with a clear exit, either IPO or acquisition.

Example, the way NDK is supposed to be used on Android, as means to implement native methods for Java/Kotlin, or plain games, with a specific list of supported APIs and nothing else.

Anything outside of what is allowed, may work or crash and burn.

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