How to get Visual Studio Code to run on Android with Termux -- Mar 2023 Update

Morrison Chang — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 05:51:39 +0000

Every below is from before 2020 so Don't use Termux from the Play Store use Termux from F-droid

Getting code-server is now easier with the following commands:

pkg install tur-repo
pkg install code-server

Start old stuff

~~Termux from Play Store~~ is an app which provides a Unix/Linux-like environment on your Android device. But getting an familiar IDE like Visual Studio Code previous required a number of steps. Recently this seems to have been streamlined by the various package maintainers and now can be done in fewer steps.

First is that we will be installing the the open source version of Visual Studio Code (VS Code), called code-server.

code-server is an Electron app and needs support from nodejs environment.

In Termux run the following commands:

pkg install nodejs

pkg install yarn

Per the Termux NodeJS wiki also install:

pkg install build-essential

pkg install python

pkg install git

As they are needed for building native extensions.

And finally install code-server itself.

yarn global add code-server

Note: Installing code-server will take a while

code-server is now installed and will be the back end server to your front end client, a Chromium browser, like Chrome for Android or Microsoft Edge.

Now from the command line run code-server or have it run in the background by adding an ampersand like code-server &.

code-server &

You'll get some output logs about where the password is located.

In my case I used cat ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml to find out what was configured.

Open up a browser, as I was using Samsung DeX as a desktop, I used Samsung Internet, connected to 127.0.0.1:8080 and entered the password.

Once connected, you can install plugins. As you can see, the MS Python plugin appears to work.

A few caveats:

code-server is not Microsoft Visual Studio Code The summary is that not all plugins are supported, YMMV.
I'm using Termux and code-server with Samsung DeX so I don't have any the soft keyboard issues that others have encountered.

Updating VS Code/code-server to latest (1.50.0)

Step 1: kill code-server if running

Step 2: Now update all of the packages (check above list)

pkg update

Step 3: In order to force a rebuild, use yarn to remove code-server

yarn global remove code-server

Step 4: And add/install code-server (yes it will take a while)

yarn global add code-server

Getting Search to work

Thanks to yozman on this issue ticket

Install the package ripgrep:

pkg install ripgrep

And add to the code-server directory

which is in my setup can be reached by:

cd /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/code-server

a softlink to the rg binary:

ln -s $PREFIX/bin/rg ./lib/vscode/node_modules/vscode-ripgrep/bin/rg

The Story on SD card storage for Android on Chromebook

Morrison Chang — Sat, 02 Dec 2017 18:07:04 +0000

Since Android apps are now available on Chromebooks via ARC++ (Android Runtime for Chrome 2nd version), developers coming from a traditional File storage background will have to make sure their apps conform to take advantage of how to access the SD card.

The Chromium team has implemented USB On-The-Go access for the SD card on ChromeOS 62 (Chromium M-61?) or higher. What this means is that developers who expect their apps to work with the SD card as if it was under the battery in their phone will be disappointed. This is due to the fact that a 'hot swappable' SD card such as those found on a Chromebook isn't considered Adaptable Storage by the Android Framework.

Additionally if you want to use the MediaStore APIs to access it, you are still out of luck as the Android Framework does not support access to removable hardware. The Chromium team is aware and considering options:

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=789045&desc=3

So what to do?

Use: Android Storage Access Framework

See this Commonware's post on Removable Storage for further details.

Originally a StackOverflow answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44123748/295004

DEV Community: Morrison Chang

How to get Visual Studio Code to run on Android with Termux -- Mar 2023 Update

The Story on SD card storage for Android on Chromebook