Hello everyone,
I've been wishing for a long time now that there was a MobileSheets version or another program for Linux that could at least do half as good a job.There exists unfortunately nothing of the sort and I've been stuck using Windows pretty much just to use MS, while doing everything else on Linux. I first tried to make it work by emulating the UWP from the Microsoft Store with Wine, but it is, as far as I can, tell impossible. It seems however that there is a way to get it to work on Linux using the Android .apk and that is through a program called Waydroid, which emulates the Android system and allows you to install Android apps, which also have their own neat little icons in your menu, just like the rest of your installed software.
It is however a bit tricky to install, as the mainline Linux kernel lacks some features present in the Android kernel which are necessary for this program to work, namely binder and ashmem (though binder might be included at this point, I am not sure). I am no Linux expert though, so I can offer the steps I followed to make it work on my own Linux distribution (Fedora 35 with Gnome), but there are definitely other ways and you might face different problems, which I will probably have no idea how to solve. The guide I followed is this.
As you can see you need to install a modded kernel, or you need to build the kernel yourself with the right configs. I think there is also a way (or...) to install ashmem without a different kernel, but I have not tried it. Xanmod works fine for me though. There is also a Telegram group for the Waydroid program where you can ask for help.
After the installation you can simply download your .apk files, for example the MobileSheets E-Ink.apk that I installed, and install them via terminal with
waydroid app install <insert-apk-name-here>.apk
or you could also install a store like Aurora Store to install apps graphically. Its emulated storage can be found in .local/share/waydroid/data/media. There you can find, for example, the Downloads folder or MS's own folder to place your sheet music.
If it says failed to start Clipboard service, you need to install python-clips. The command is
pip install pyclip
Another thing I need to do was edit the waydroid_base.prop file with
sudo nano /var/lib/waydroid/waydroid_base.prop
and in there set:
ro.hardware.gralloc=default
ro.hardware.egl=swiftshader
or else it flickers and is unusable (for me).
A couple of notes:
First of all, do not expect it to be terribly stable. So far sometimes it does not start and I might need to stop and restart the Waydroid service. It does seem to be a very active community however and I expect good things from it. Be sure to add psi=1 in GRUB if you use Xanmod.
Secondly, it does not seem to work with Nvidia GPUs, so be sure to boot with your integrated GPU, if you do have a discrete one too.
Thirdly, I have not been able to get it to register pen input to annotate the sheet music within the emulated MS. Not sure if it is possible yet and I'm doing something wrong. Very likely.
Finally, as I said I'm on Fedora 35 with Gnome. Maybe you will have a problem with KDE, I don't know. Maybe you'll have a probem with Ubuntu. Who knows. I don't.
Hopefully you find this useful, do let me know.
I've been wishing for a long time now that there was a MobileSheets version or another program for Linux that could at least do half as good a job.There exists unfortunately nothing of the sort and I've been stuck using Windows pretty much just to use MS, while doing everything else on Linux. I first tried to make it work by emulating the UWP from the Microsoft Store with Wine, but it is, as far as I can, tell impossible. It seems however that there is a way to get it to work on Linux using the Android .apk and that is through a program called Waydroid, which emulates the Android system and allows you to install Android apps, which also have their own neat little icons in your menu, just like the rest of your installed software.
It is however a bit tricky to install, as the mainline Linux kernel lacks some features present in the Android kernel which are necessary for this program to work, namely binder and ashmem (though binder might be included at this point, I am not sure). I am no Linux expert though, so I can offer the steps I followed to make it work on my own Linux distribution (Fedora 35 with Gnome), but there are definitely other ways and you might face different problems, which I will probably have no idea how to solve. The guide I followed is this.
As you can see you need to install a modded kernel, or you need to build the kernel yourself with the right configs. I think there is also a way (or...) to install ashmem without a different kernel, but I have not tried it. Xanmod works fine for me though. There is also a Telegram group for the Waydroid program where you can ask for help.
After the installation you can simply download your .apk files, for example the MobileSheets E-Ink.apk that I installed, and install them via terminal with
waydroid app install <insert-apk-name-here>.apk
or you could also install a store like Aurora Store to install apps graphically. Its emulated storage can be found in .local/share/waydroid/data/media. There you can find, for example, the Downloads folder or MS's own folder to place your sheet music.
If it says failed to start Clipboard service, you need to install python-clips. The command is
pip install pyclip
Another thing I need to do was edit the waydroid_base.prop file with
sudo nano /var/lib/waydroid/waydroid_base.prop
and in there set:
ro.hardware.gralloc=default
ro.hardware.egl=swiftshader
or else it flickers and is unusable (for me).
A couple of notes:
First of all, do not expect it to be terribly stable. So far sometimes it does not start and I might need to stop and restart the Waydroid service. It does seem to be a very active community however and I expect good things from it. Be sure to add psi=1 in GRUB if you use Xanmod.
Secondly, it does not seem to work with Nvidia GPUs, so be sure to boot with your integrated GPU, if you do have a discrete one too.
Thirdly, I have not been able to get it to register pen input to annotate the sheet music within the emulated MS. Not sure if it is possible yet and I'm doing something wrong. Very likely.
Finally, as I said I'm on Fedora 35 with Gnome. Maybe you will have a problem with KDE, I don't know. Maybe you'll have a probem with Ubuntu. Who knows. I don't.
Hopefully you find this useful, do let me know.
