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URL: https://dev.to/opassoca/running-native-glibc-debian-binaries-on-android-15-without-proot-1hmo

⇱ Running Native glibc (Debian) Binaries on Android 15 Without PRoot - DEV Community

🔧 TL;DR: Android 15 broke PRoot with stricter seccomp filters. After ~10 hours of debugging, I found a working solution using patchelf + LD_PRELOAD= to run native Linux (Debian/glibc) binaries directly on Termux!

The Problem

Android 15 significantly tightened its seccomp security filters. Running any Debian/glibc binary via proot-distro now fails with:

Bad system call (SIGSYS)
set_robust_list: Function not implemented

⚠️ Important: This isn't a configuration issue. The kernel literally blocks the syscalls that PRoot needs to emulate a Linux environment.

Every guide said "just use PRoot" → so I spent ~10 hours finding what actually works.

Understanding Seccomp

The Solution — Three Tiers

I developed a three-tier approach depending on your needs:

Root Cause — Why PRoot Fails

Device Information

Prerequisites

Installation Guide

Step 1: Install Debian rootfs 

# Install required packages
pkg install proot-distro rsync -y

# Install Debian
proot-distro install debian

# Define paths
ROOTFS="$PREFIX/var/lib/proot-distro/installed-rootfs/debian"
GLIBC="$HOME/glibc-root"

# Install base packages
proot-distro login debian -- bash -c "
 apt-get update &&
 apt-get install -y gcc g++ make python3 bun curl unzip zip ca-certificates
"

📖 What is proot-distro? | What is rsync?

Step 2: Extract rootfs to native location 

mkdir -p "$GLIBC"
rsync -a "$ROOTFS/" "$GLIBC/"

Step 3: Fix the dynamic linker 

GLIBC="$HOME/glibc-root"
LOADER="$GLIBC/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1"

mkdir -p "$GLIBC/lib64"
ln -sf "$LOADER" "$GLIBC/lib64/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1"
ln -sf "$LOADER" "$GLIBC/lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1"

📖 Learn about ld-linux.so

Step 4: Mass patchelf — make all binaries self-contained 

GLIBC="$HOME/glibc-root"
LOADER="$GLIBC/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1"
RPATH="$GLIBC/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu:$GLIBC/usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu"
OUT="$PREFIX/bin"

for bin in "$GLIBC/usr/bin/"* "$GLIBC/bin/"*; do
 [[ -f "$bin" && -x "$bin" ]] || continue
 name=$(basename "$bin")-glibc
 cp "$bin" "$OUT/$name"
 patchelf --set-interpreter "$LOADER" \
 --set-rpath "$RPATH" \
 "$OUT/$name" 2>/dev/null || rm -f "$OUT/$name"
done

echo "✓ Patched $(ls $OUT/*-glibc 2>/dev/null | wc -l) binaries"

📖 What is patchelf?

Step 5: Fix ownership 

su -c "chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g)$HOME/glibc-root"
su -c "find $HOME/glibc-root -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;"

Step 6: Create the Smart APT wrapper 

cat > ~/apt-debian << 'SCRIPT'
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
# apt-debian v3 — installs from Debian and auto-patchelfs

GLIBC="$HOME/glibc-root"
LOADER="$GLIBC/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1"
RPATH="$GLIBC/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu:$GLIBC/usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu"

case "$1" in
 install)
 shift
 BEFORE=$(find "$GLIBC/usr/bin" "$GLIBC/bin" -maxdepth 1 -type f -executable 2>/dev/null | sort)
 su -c "cp /system/etc/resolv.conf $GLIBC/etc/resolv.conf 2>/dev/null || \
 echo 'nameserver 8.8.8.8' > $GLIBC/etc/resolv.conf"
 su -c "chroot $GLIBC /usr/bin/apt-get install -y $*"
 AFTER=$(find "$GLIBC/usr/bin" "$GLIBC/bin" -maxdepth 1 -type f -executable 2>/dev/null | sort)
 NEW=$(comm -13 <(echo "$BEFORE") <(echo "$AFTER"))

 for bin in $NEW; do
 name="$(basename $bin)-glibc"
 cp "$bin" "$PREFIX/bin/$name"
 patchelf --set-interpreter "$LOADER" --set-rpath "$RPATH" "$PREFIX/bin/$name" 2>/dev/null
 chmod +x "$PREFIX/bin/$name"
 echo "✓ $name available"
 done
 ;;
 update)
 su -c "chroot $GLIBC /usr/bin/apt-get update"
 ;;
 *)
 echo "Usage: apt-debian {install|update} [packages]"
 ;;
esac
SCRIPT

chmod +x ~/apt-debian
mv ~/apt-debian "$PREFIX/bin/apt-debian"

Step 7: Add to PATH 

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.glibc-bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export GLIBC_ROOT="$HOME/glibc-root"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Testing

Known Limitations

Available Binaries

Understanding ELF and Dynamic Linker

Samsung Firmware Flashing Reference

Summary

Component Technology Reference
Terminal Termux GitHub
ROM ExtremeROM Nexus Android 15
Root KernelSU Exynos 9820
Distribution Debian glibc
Compatibility Layer patchelf ELF modification
Execution Method LD_PRELOAD= bypass Native execution
Device Samsung Galaxy S10e (SM-G970F) - Exynos 9820 ARM64/AArch64

Resources & References

📱 Device & Hardware

Topic Link
Samsung Galaxy S10e (SM-G970F) - Exynos GSMArena
Exynos 9820 Processor Wikipedia
AArch64/ARM64 Architecture Wikipedia
XDA Forum - Galaxy S10e XDA Forums

🔧 Development Tools

Tool Official Site
Termux termux.dev / F-Droid
patchelf GitHub
proot-distro GitHub
F-Droid f-droid.org
Bun bun.sh
GCC gcc.gnu.org
Python python.org
Git git-scm.com
htop htop.dev

📚 Linux Concepts

Topic Link
ELF Format Wikipedia
Seccomp Red Hat Docs
Dynamic Linker man7.org
rsync rsync.samba.org

🔐 Root & ROM

Project Link
KernelSU kernelsu.org
Magisk topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk
ExtremeROM Nexus GitHub

🔧 Firmware Tools

Tool Link
Odin Wikipedia
Heimdall GitHub
Eros GitHub

Credits

🔧 Developed entirely on Termux — Samsung Galaxy S10e (SM-G970F) · Exynos 9820 · Android 15 · ExtremeXT · KernelSU

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Questions? Feel free to ask in the comments!