Running Android apps on the Librem 5 (Anbox, Waydroid, ect.) [Posted: 2024]

Dear Purism Community,
I hope you are doing wonderful.

I recently heard that it’s possible to run Waydroid on the Librem 5. Additionally, if this is the case, could you point me towards a guide for setting it up?

I’ve noticed that several threads in this forum discuss this topic, but they either lack definitive answers or contain information from years ago.

Given that issues often get resolved over time, I’ve tagged this post with “2024” to help community members quickly identify the most current information.

Thank you for your assistance!


Edit: I mistakenly stated the year as 2025; My understanding is that it is the year 2024. [1]

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I can’t find any debs at Librem5 / debs / waydroid · GitLab .

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Found it at Artifacts · Librem5 / debs / waydroid · GitLab

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getting this today crimson sudo apt install waydroid pureos 6.12.0-1-librem5 #2 SMP PREEMPT 6.12.75pureos1~cri1 2026-03-05 20:36:16 UTC aarch64 GNU/Linux

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 python3-gbinder : Depends: libgbinder (>= 1.1.20) but it is not installable

additionally I would like to add microg and maybe do this as I have had to be less picky in how I accept pay for work(is Revolut the worst or best choice?) [GUIDE] How to bypass new Revolut root/custom firmware check | XDA Forums

Since on waydroid there is not a recovery like TWRP(as I understand) which I have used in the past to take control of my old Android tablet I am not sure even how to use or activate the stuff I could push over an ADB. Interestingly ADB is also how Pinephone talks to the hacked modem OS.

You are using a repository that’s incompatible with PureOS.

You can grab a Waydroid deb for PureOS from Librem5 / debs / waydroid · GitLab

no .deb found on this git

Look harder:

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OK, thanks for the link, still couldn’t have found it on my own.

so dpkg -i is the old way to do it but then running apt –fix-broken just removes the locally installed package, the new feature of apt where you can use it like dpkg and get deps keeps trying to force the one on the repo without messing with pinning in /etc/apt/prefrences

I would prefer that fix-broken would just get me the deps or that the good .deb were already on the purism repos.

I havent had 4 hour of sleep in the last 50, gonna knock of for now.

I do see you Dos carrying a heavy load for us all in getting a good purism experience.

deps looping, apt/dpkg really gets pissed when I try to use the local .deb even preinstalling the deps does stuff like this The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libgbinder1 : Breaks: libgbinder but 1.1.43 is to be installed libglibutil1 : Breaks: libglibutil but 1.0.80 is to be installed

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The answer is given to you by apt already. To explain a bit:

Waydroid’s apt repository contains packages that don’t conform to Debian policies, including on how the packages should be named (among other things). PureOS already contains all Waydroid’s dependencies packaged in a more Debian-complying way (so “libgbinder1” instead of “libgbinder”, “libglibutil1” instead of “libglibutil”). You can’t install both at the same time.

Remove the packages that were installed from the incompatible repository, and remove the repository itself from your configured apt sources.

The original problem you saw came from the fact that python3-gbinder is named the same in both repositories, and apparently Waydroid’s repository now contains a newer version than what’s in PureOS, so apt attempted to install it, but couldn’t because it depends on these misnamed packaged that can’t be installed while their PureOS counterparts are installed as well.

(I’d like to get Waydroid package itself uploaded into PureOS as well, it still needs some work on the packaging though, the upstream packaging is very rough)

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The issue still remains that even when I try to install the deps BEFORE I even install waydroid I am having issues with these deps not being installable as is the case above. I can sit back and hold it seems that the problem I was trying to solve, running a fintech/banking app, is not fixable on ‘rooted’ android anyways.

You need to clean up that mess all at once, otherwise you’d need to force it to accept a broken state first to fix it afterwards:

sudo apt install ./waydroid_file_name.deb libgbinder- libglibutil- python3-gbinder/crimson-updates

This is, btw, covered by the instructions: Waydroid on Librem 5 ($1198) · Snippets · GitLab (the apt remove part would do the trick).

thanks, it has been >25 years since I had to regularly get elbow deep into apt so skills have been forgotten.