ThothTerm • ThothDock

ThothTerm • ThothDock is an independent Android application. It provides a terminal, a Debian
GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) environment to work in under PRoot, and ThothDock, a
Docker-compatible container engine for phones without root.
There is no root, no virtual machine and no server somewhere else: the Debian
GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) environment runs on the phone itself, inside the app.

The Debian side is ordinary Debian. apt and dpkg install from Debian's own
archives (trixie, trixie-updates and trixie-security), sudo is Debian's sudo,
and what you install stays installed across app updates, as does everything
in your home directory.

What you get

* Debian 13 "trixie", arm64, set up on first launch
* apt, dpkg and passwordless sudo for the user thoth
* Several terminal windows at once, with a window list
* Pinch-to-zoom and Zoom in / Zoom out / Reset
* An extra keys row: Esc, Ctrl, Alt, Tab, Home, End and the arrows
* Copy and paste, selection and scrollback
* Correct display of Arabic and other right-to-left text
* A welcome banner that shows the Debian release actually installed
* ThothDock: the Docker command line, working on the phone, with no root
* A Containers screen to start, stop, restart, read the logs of and delete containers
* LAN Mode, to use the same Debian from a web browser on another computer

ThothDock

ThothDock is a Docker-compatible container engine written for unrooted
Android. The unmodified Docker command line talks to it over a private socket
that only this app can open, so docker pull, run, exec, logs, stop, volumes and
-p port publishing work from the terminal. There is no dockerd, no containerd
and no runc: containers run through the same PRoot that runs Debian.

These containers are userspace environments, not a security boundary: there are
no namespaces, no resource limits and no CPU or memory figures. A published
port is a loopback listener that every app on the phone can reach, and UDP
publishing is not supported. Containers stop when the app is closed. Images are
downloaded only when you run docker pull or docker run, never in the
background. Engine Guard stops apt from installing a real Docker engine over
ThothDock; the Docker command line itself stays updatable.

LAN Mode

LAN Mode is off until you turn it on, and it is off again whenever the app
restarts. It is in the menu, above Windows. While it is on, the app shows an
address and a one-time PIN; a browser on the same Wi-Fi or Ethernet network
must pair with that PIN before it gets anything. Every browser gets its own
terminal, and the windows on the phone are never shared. It does not listen on
mobile data or the Internet. Turning it off ends every browser's access. The
connection is plain HTTP, which is not encrypted: use it only on networks you
trust.

First run

The F-Droid build does not include Debian, so the first launch offers to
download it: about 60 MB from the project's GitHub release. Nothing is
downloaded until you agree. The download is checked against a size and a
SHA-256 checksum written into the app, and refused if either differs. The
archive holds only unmodified Debian packages; it is built reproducibly from
Debian's archive by a script in the app's source, so anyone can rebuild it
byte for byte.

Requirements

* A 64-bit ARM phone (arm64-v8a), Android 8.0 or newer
* About 185 MB for Debian right after setup (measured on a phone), plus
what apt's package lists and the software you install add

ThothTerm • ThothDock is an independent application and is not affiliated with or
endorsed by the Debian Project. Debian is a registered trademark owned by
Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

ThothTerm is free software under the Apache License 2.0, a fork of TermOne
Plus, which derives from Terminal Emulator for Android and the Android Open
Source Project. The PRoot runtime is built from source during the build. Its
licence and those of the Debian packages are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.