termux-nix

Manage termux/termux-x11 desktop with nix.

Galaxy S25. i3 desktop running chrome/lxterminal from termux pkgs, remmina, zathura from nixpkgs.

• Declarative nix config for termux packages/services, apps from nixpkgs, and dotfiles.
• Native termux packages/services managed in nix.
  • No proot, browser can play video.
• Nix apps running in a proot container.
  • Able to run any apps from nixpkgs. remmina, zathura, claude-code configured in pkgs/nix-apps.nix.
• Fork and build your own system.
• i3/lxqt desktop by default. Bring your own desktop if you want.

This is not nix-on-droid. Instead, it's native termux (no-root) with poor, vibe-coded scripts to manage termux desktop with nix. It builds the aarch64 nix generation on a PC and pushes(rsync) it to the device, so the device don't crash while building nixpkgs.

At least it works great for me. This has been actual replacement for my laptop.

Nix is required but I don't think you have to learn full nix to use this. It's fairly simple.

Requirements

• Android:
  • android device (no-root required)
  • termux : tested on latest beta release
  • termux-x11
• PC: Any computer with nix (extra-platforms = aarch64-linux + qemu-binfmt)
  • Builds android aarch64 nix generations and pushes(rsync) them to the device.
• tailscale: on both android/pc. Not required, but recommended for easy ssh.
  • tailscale DNS server (100.100.100.100) is hardcoded, delete if you don't use tailscale.

Usage

Everything is driven from the PC through a script ./termux-nix:

./termux-nix switch <host>   # build → push → activate (<host> device, default: termux)

What switch does:

• rsync the repo to the device, auto-bootstrap the nix container if missing
• build the aarch64 generation on the PC
• push the closure into the container store via native rsync (no proot)
• light DB registration → materialize as a symlink farm (no copying)
• install the termux pkgs

Setup

termux must be reachable from the PC with ssh.

termux

pkg install openssh -y
sshd

# use your own public key
curl https://github.com/aca.keys > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
sshd

PC

git clone https://github.com/aca/termux-nix && cd termux-nix
# customize as you want
./termux-nix switch <android-host>

termux

And start the desktop on the termux, it will automatically start termux x11 apps:

i3

start-desktop-i3
# win+enter to start rofi app launcher

lxqt

start-desktop-lxqt

quit

stop-desktop

Customization

• termux native packages: the packages list in pkgs/termux.nix
• nix apps as termux commands: the apps list in pkgs/nix-apps.nix
• termux runit services ($PREFIX/var/service): the services set in pkgs/services.nix
• configurations: pkgs/*.nix (i3, konsole, lxterminal, shell, ...)

./termux-nix switch     # edit → switch, that's all

Nix CLI (on the device)

The nix/nix-shell/nix-build/nix-env forwarders pass through to the container transparently. They use proot-distro login, so you get the full container environment, and the termux cwd is preserved.

I was able to run GUI programs. But not tested enough to be sure for other programs.

nix run nixpkgs#remmina