Linux Terminal Finally Gets Some Love with One UI 8.5

Android’s Linux Terminal feature was introduced by Google last year with Android 16. It allows people to run a full Linux system inside a virtual machine on their devices, powered by Android’s Virtualization Framework (AVF) introduced with Android 13. We saw last year that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 was the only Samsung device that supported this feature. Now, Samsung is preparing with One UI 8.5 and Android 16 QPR2 update to bring some new improvements.

Linux Terminal now supports graphical apps and expanded storage access

According to a new report from Android Authority, the One UI 8.5 update will bring Linux Terminal graphical apps and expanded storage access. Google already introduced these features in Android 16 QPR2, and Samsung build One UI 8.5 on top of it. This is a welcome change.

Let’s start with graphical apps support. On One UI 8.5, you can access it by tapping the display icon from the top-right corner. This means you can run apps like Chromium Browser, Doom, and more, instead of being limited to command-line tools like on One UI 8.0.

With One UI 8.5, Samsung also brings storage ballooning support. With this new addition, the Linux Terminal can use all the available storage from your phone. Also, the Terminal app now has access to all of device’s storage folders, like Screenshots, Videos, Photos, and more. Although these new features might not arrive to everyone.

Only Exynos-powered devices can run Linux Terminal

Samsung brought Linux Terminal support last year on the Galaxy Z Flip 7. And the same story repeats itself yet again this year. Only Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ with the Exynos 2600 chipset can run Linux Terminal. The Galaxy S26 Ultra can’t, and the reason is the same for all Snapdragon-powered devices.

The Qualcomm chipsets only support Protected Virtual Machines, while some Exynos, MediaTek, and Google Tensor chipset-powered devices support Non-protected Virtual Machines, and that’s a big check box for the Terminal app to work.

The report also mentioned that with One UI 8.5, you can’t access the Linux Terminal app anymore from the Developer Options. You can still access it, but only via ADB commands. Maybe Samsung will fix this issue with a future update, but until then, only time will tell. With these new updates, power users who use this feature will have a fully working Linux environment on their Galaxy devices.