Tessera 0.4.0 (alpha)

Alpha. Expect rough edges: much of it has only been tried on one or two phones.

▶ Watch the 1-minute demo

What's new

• Linux apps can run adb. Turn on Control this phone (adb) in an app's permissions and it can run adb against this phone itself (you'll see Android's "Allow USB debugging" prompt once) and against devices on USB. Needs root and USB debugging on; the port is only reachable from the phone itself.
• Shared folders are writable and complete. Paths shared with an app were read-only, and folders mounted inside them (the phone's / in particular) came up empty. Both fixed; read-only shares stay read-only all the way down.
• Predictive back. Swiping back shrinks the window and Tessera's own pages and sheets as you go, following Material's motion, so you can see where back takes you before you let go.
• Graphics and app libraries come with Linux. libGL, EGL, Mesa, Vulkan, GTK 3, NSS, ALSA and friends are installed after a new Linux install, and added to existing ones, so apps no longer stop on a missing libGL.so.1.
• Recents names each Linux window on launchers that show the activity's name instead of the task's (Pixel Launcher and others), not only on HyperOS.
• Flathub apps uninstall from the home screen, with the runtimes only they used.
• Fixes: the PC trackpad no longer crashes when opened; Light and Dark in Settings switch Tessera too; a second system file in Settings opens after the first; the install queue's job count isn't cut off.

Install

Download tessera-v0.4.0.apk below and open it. Requires Android 7 or newer, arm64. It updates 0.3.0 in place, keeping your Linux systems and apps. With Obtainium, add this repository's URL.

Known limits

• Tested on a Xiaomi 13 Ultra (Android 16, Magisk).
• adb on this phone needs root.
• Flathub installs have failed on a Huawei phone (Android 10, PRoot); not yet diagnosed.
• See ROADMAP.md for what's done and what's next.

SHA-256: 971358d1805df5ce7c111449120190f506b94bad1eefa94dceb3c25bc33101bc

Full Changelog: v0.3.0...v0.4.0

Tessera 0.3.0 (alpha)

Alpha. Expect rough edges: much of it has only been tried on one or two phones.

What's new

• Game controls. Turn them on from a game's side menu (swipe in from the edge): a thumb stick that holds W, A, S and D, a look area for mouse-look, and buttons that hold Fire, Run, Jump and Reload. First-person games that expect a keyboard and mouse now play by touch. The Keys page gains Enter, which game menus want.
• GPU: antialiased OpenGL windows no longer crash. A bug in Mesa's Zink crashed apps asking for antialiasing on their first frame (SFML games such as AntWare from Flathub). Tessera's driver carries the fix.
• Software OpenGL on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and newer. Apps drawing without the GPU died of "illegal instruction": LLVM used SVE instructions these cores have but Android leaves off. Fixed in PRoot and chroot mode.
• Sound no longer stutters in games. Apps asking for a small audio buffer (OpenAL games) played a gap of silence every 85 ms; every app now gets a 120 ms buffer.
• Flathub apps per engine. PRoot and chroot mode each have their own Linux system. A Flathub app installed in one now offers Install in the other, instead of failing to start.
• The task manager sees everything Tessera runs, its own X servers and root helpers included, even ones left over from an earlier run, and only samples while it's on screen.
• Fixes for runaway processes: a helper could spin at full CPU forever after a process it was reading exited, and root helpers could outlive the app. Both are gone.
• Tapping a home screen icon no longer stacks another copy of the launcher.
• The README now covers Tessera as a full Linux shell, beside Termux, AnLinux and Andronix.

Install

Download tessera-v0.3.0.apk below and open it. Requires Android 7 or newer, arm64. It updates 0.2.0 in place, keeping your Linux systems and apps. With Obtainium, add this repository's URL.

Known limits

• Tested on a Xiaomi 13 Ultra (Android 16, Magisk).
• Game controls have one layout for now, made for first-person games.
• Flathub installs have failed on a Huawei phone (Android 10, PRoot); not yet diagnosed.
• See ROADMAP.md for what's done and what's next.

SHA-256: 0c16618deca8fafd097e5eccc02397f40a15e04b30d101f58c1e6eeb85194d55

Tessera 0.2.0 (alpha)

Alpha. Expect rough edges: much of it has only been tried on one or two phones.

What's new

• A Linux desktop. The button next to the search bar opens a whole desktop, through the same sheet as any app. Windows move, snap to half the screen and minimize, in addy-dclxvi's Circela style redrawn in your phone's colors: title bars that match the apps, ring buttons sized for fingers, your wallpaper behind it all. A floating Material dock (a rail in landscape) has the Start menu with search and categories, your pinned and open apps, Show desktop, the battery and the clock. Icons and files live on the desktop (~/Desktop): drag apps there from the Start menu, files from Linux apps or from Android. Flathub apps open in it too. It runs full screen.
• Search is a pill in the Apps bar, with full-screen results.
• Flathub sets up on a fresh system (it now installs the CA certificates it needs).
• Android 10 and older: sound and USB no longer depend on a hidden API that those versions refuse.
• Chroot mode no longer leaves background processes (D-Bus, PulseAudio, gvfs) running after sessions end.
• Installable and kept up to date with Obtainium: add this repository's URL.

Install

Download tessera-v0.2.0.apk below and open it. Requires Android 7 or newer, arm64.

This release is signed with a new key. If you have 0.1.0 (or a self-built version), uninstall it first. That deletes its PRoot Linux system; a chroot system in /data/local/linux stays. Releases from now on keep this key, so later versions update in place.

Known limits

• Tested on a Xiaomi 13 Ultra (Android 16, Magisk); the desktop only there, in chroot mode.
• Flathub installs have failed on a Huawei phone (Android 10, PRoot); not yet diagnosed.
• USB devices in the desktop are untested.
• See ROADMAP.md for what's done and what's next.

SHA-256: d2c6bdc55341e07b9ed04b92f96d81e179d92204b431085eee954d1e5fc8352e

Tessera 0.1.0 (alpha)

Alpha. Expect rough edges: much of it has only been tried on one phone.

The first release of Tessera: a launcher that runs desktop Linux apps on Android, each in its own window with its own permissions.

What's in it

• Two engines. PRoot works on any phone, no root needed. Chroot (with root) is faster and enforces each app's permissions in the kernel.
• Linux apps as phone apps. Every app gets its own X server and Android window, one Recents card per window, a keyboard that comes up for text fields, sound, and a shared clipboard.
• GPU acceleration on Adreno phones (Turnip and Zink): OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan.
• The phone's look. Apps take Android's colors and follow its dark mode live: GTK 3 (adw-gtk3), GTK 4/libadwaita, Qt, LibreOffice, Firefox. They also get a white, rounded pointer.
• Store. Debian's app catalog, plus optional Flathub: one tap sets it up, then its arm64 apps install and run like any other app, GPU included.
• Per-app permissions. Folders, network, sound, USB devices and root, editable from each app's sheet.
• Files tab, task manager, terminal, shortcuts. There's also a window panel with right click, keys, live scaling per app, casting and USB.
• The phone as a PC trackpad over USB or Bluetooth.

Install

Download tessera-v0.1.0.apk below and open it. Requires Android 7 or newer, arm64. On first start, Setup downloads and installs Debian 13.

This build is signed with Tessera's release key. If you have a self-built (debug) version installed, uninstall it first. That deletes its PRoot Linux system; a chroot system in /data/local/linux stays.

Known limits

• Only arm64 is tested, on a Xiaomi 13 Ultra (Android 16, Magisk).
• Flathub: windowed apps only (no console apps yet), no updates from the app yet, and no Flatpak sandbox (Tessera's own permissions apply instead).
• See ROADMAP.md for what's done, what's built but untested, and what's next.

SHA-256: 876ddf95e59e5569ba5c645033dbfff9a7fc1b053e32bc71f2f62b3ee840acad