README | Using Ika | Configuration | Graphics | Building | Downloads | Changelog

イカ · Ika Virtual Desktop

Ika /ee-kah/, Japanese for squid or cuttlefish, runs Android on your Linux desktop: LineageOS 23.2 (Android 16), built as a desktop operating system, in a Cuttlefish virtual machine, with its apps in windows of their own.

Features

• A desktop Android: LineageOS 23.2 with resizable app windows, a taskbar and split screen, and a TV mode with Android TV's interface.
• The console: Android's desktop in a window of your Linux desktop. Its display follows the window's size at the host's density, pixel for pixel.
• App windows: each Android app can open in a window of its own, from your desktop's app menu, where Ika lists every Android app.
• Start options per app: fullscreen, the keyboard, the mouse and gamepads passed through to Android, the keyboard as a gamepad, and touch input.
• GPU acceleration: OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan on the host's GPU, through gfxstream.
• Your files: Android's storage is mounted on the host, in the file manager's sidebar, while Ika runs.
• Camera: a webcam, or a Mac's FaceTime camera, as Android's camera.
• Backups: your apps, files and settings, saved and restored with one command.
• Root: ika root roots Android with Magisk.
• Your choice of Google: builds with microG, with MindTheGapps (Google Play), or with no Google services at all.
• Many hosts: x86-64 and ARM64, Apple Silicon included, on Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu and Arch Linux, in X11 and Wayland sessions.

Requirements

• An x86-64 or ARM64 computer with hardware virtualization (KVM), and 4 GB of memory or more.
• Fedora 44, Debian 13, Ubuntu 26.04 or Arch Linux. On Apple Silicon, Fedora Asahi Remix with its 16 KB-page kernel.
• Mesa 26.1 or newer. Debian 13 gets it from trixie-backports, Ubuntu from the Kisak Mesa PPA; Fedora 44 and Arch Linux have it.
• A GPU with a Vulkan driver, for the best performance. Without one, Ika renders with the CPU's software driver and runs in a lighter low-CPU mode.

Install

1. Download ika-base and ika-lineageos for your distribution and architecture from the Downloads page, or build them from source.

2. Install both:

   # Fedora
   sudo dnf install ./ika-base-*.rpm ./ika-lineageos-*.rpm
   # Debian, Ubuntu
   sudo apt install ./ika-base_*.deb ./ika-lineageos_*.deb
   # Arch Linux
   sudo pacman -U ./ika-base-*.pkg.tar.zst ./ika-lineageos-*.pkg.tar.zst

3. Reboot after the first install. The packages add you to the kvm, cvdnetwork, render and video groups and set up the host's devices and limits, which take effect at the next boot; logging out is not enough. Updates need no reboot.

4. Start Ika from your desktop's app menu, or with ika start.

First steps

• ika start boots Android and opens the console, Android's desktop in a window. The first start takes longer, as Android sets itself up.
• Your Android apps appear in your desktop's app menu under Android Apps (Ika). Each opens in a window of its own; right-click one for its Ika Startup Options....
• ika stop stops Android, and ika help lists every command.

Using Ika explains the console, app windows, input and gamepads, TV mode and the everyday commands.

Documentation

Page	Contents
Using Ika	The console, app windows, start options, keyboard, mouse and gamepads, TV mode, files, camera, apps, backups, root
Configuration	Every command and option, ika.ini, environment variables, defaults, files
Graphics	GPU modes, Vulkan, Apple Silicon, graphics troubleshooting
Building	Building the ROM and the packages from source, on x86-64 and ARM64
Downloads	Prebuilt packages
Changelog	Changes in each release
lineageos/README.md	The LineageOS Desktop ROM: its products, source layout and build
scrcpy/IKA.md	Ika's changes to scrcpy, the console's client
CONTRIBUTING.md	How to contribute