I turned an old Android phone into a server for my LAN - here's how and why

an old Android phone into a server for my LAN - here's how and why">

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I often adapt old phones and tablets for uses other than their intended purpose. Usually, it's just for fun; sometimes there's a method to my madness . Over the weekend, I decided to try turning a phone that had been resting silently in a drawer into a server…specifically, a Linux server.

That's right. I wanted to see what I could do with Apache and a few other bits and pieces. In the end, I wound up with a fun little website as a test, and now I'm going to show you how I did it.

Also: I found a free Android app that makes deleting photos as easy as swiping left

Termux is a free, open-source Linux terminal emulator that lets you run a Linux environment on Android. It's not exactly a 1:1, perfectly binary-compatible match (there are some permissions issues and a few other quirks that prevent it from behaving exactly like a true Linux distribution), but it's close enough.

You can install Termux from the Google Play Store, but don't. The version available on the Play Store is out of date. Instead, you need to install F-Droid (download the APK from the F-Droid site and then sideload it), and then install Termux from within that app.