Your Android phone is a powerful ARM64 computer — and charch lets you treat it like one. Short for Chroot Architecture, this ultralight 4.77 KB Magisk module by tytydraco installs the ChArch container manager systemlessly on your device. Download a Linux rootfs, run mkarch, and within seconds you have a full Alpine Linux, Arch Linux ARM, Debian, or Ubuntu shell running natively on your Android — no emulation, no virtual machine, zero translation overhead.
Core Chroot Capabilities
A professional-grade Linux container environment on Android — designed to be fast, portable, and accessible to both beginners and power users.
Native ARM Execution — No Emulation
charch uses chroot, not QEMU or any virtualization layer. Linux processes run natively on your device's ARM64 processor — the same CPU that runs Android. The result is near-zero overhead: full Linux performance with no translation penalty.
Raw Filesystem — No Loopback
Unlike competing chroot solutions that use loopback image files (.img), ChArch stores rootfs instances as raw directory trees directly on your storage. This eliminates loopback overhead, speeds up I/O, and makes the rootfs directly accessible from Android's file manager.
Multiple Concurrent Instances
Run multiple Linux rootfs instances simultaneously — Alpine in one terminal, Arch in another, running in parallel in the background. Each instance is a fully independent directory with its own filesystem, packages, and user sessions.
One-Command Setup
Provide a rootfs tarball URL and ChArch handles everything automatically — download, extraction, mount point setup, and environment configuration. A complete Linux instance is ready in under one minute. No manual tar extraction or mount scripts required.
Portable Rootfs
Because rootfs instances are plain directories, they are fully portable. Move them to an external drive, back them up via tar, or copy them between devices. Your configured Linux environment travels with you.
Ultralight Module — 4.77 KB
The entire Magisk module is 4.77 KB — it is nothing more than a collection of shell scripts. The Linux distribution itself is downloaded by mkarch on demand. No bloat, no pre-bundled rootfs taking up storage until you actually need it.
What is a Chroot and How Does charch Use It?
chroot (change root) is a Unix system call that changes the apparent root directory for the current process and all its children. Once inside a chroot jail, the process sees the new directory as / — it cannot access the parent system's files, and it uses the libraries, binaries, and package manager of the new root.
On Android, the Linux kernel that powers the OS is already a standard Linux kernel. By providing a complete ARM64 Linux rootfs (downloaded from a distribution's official mirror), ChArch can chroot into it and give you a fully functional Linux shell — running on top of Android's kernel, sharing its network stack, and accessing your Android storage — all without modifying the Android system or requiring a second OS install.
The Magisk module component installs the ChArch scripts (mkarch, rmarch, and helpers) into the systemless overlay at /system/bin, making them available in any root shell. ChArch itself depends almost exclusively on BusyBox (already provided by Magisk) plus bash — making it highly compatible across different Android ROMs and kernel versions without any additional dependencies.
Quick Start Guide
After installing the module and rebooting, open a root shell (via Termux + root, or adb shell) and follow these steps:
- Verify the module is active:
mkarch -h— this should print the help text. - Create a new rootfs from Alpine Linux (recommended for beginners, very small):
mkarch -U https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/releases/aarch64/alpine-minirootfs-3.20.0-aarch64.tar.gz - ChArch will download, extract, and configure the rootfs automatically. Wait for completion.
- Enter the chroot environment:
charch(or the path shown after mkarch completes) - You are now inside Alpine Linux. Update packages and install tools:
apk update && apk add bash git python3 openssh
What Can You Do Inside the Chroot?
ffmpeg, htop, curl, wget, vim, tmux, and thousands more.nmap, netcat, tcpdump, and other network analysis utilities.apk (Alpine), pacman (Arch), or apt (Debian/Ubuntu) to install and update thousands of pre-compiled ARM64 packages.Frequently Asked Questions
mkarch command and ChArch handles the rest.
mkarch -U <rootfs_tarball_url> to download and set up a rootfs instance. ChArch will configure it automatically in under a minute. Then use the generated charch command to enter the environment and start using Linux commands.