Hey y’all, I was reading this self hosting user survey at selfh.st and noticed that some people said they self-host on a mobile phone.

I have an Android phone here I could use and I can picture setting up the phone and then just leaving it plugged in, in a corner somewhere. That seems like a good use for all that computing power but I’m not sure how to get started.

I found this article showing how we can use a phone for a web server:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/host-a-web-server-on-android

But is there any way to host other apps / services on a phone? Does it have to be rooted first?

Any pitfalls or other tips you can share when to doing this?

Thanks!

  • perishthethought@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    Does anyone know how long the battery might last in this scenario? Any articles testing this sort of thing? I just searched and couldn’t find any facts, just suggestions / concerns.

    • knF@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      Based on my personal experience at least one year on a 5 years old mobile. It can last longer but I decommissioned it because I got a NUC.

      I had setup a charge limiter (between 20% and 80%) with Magisk, initially it was through an automation in homeassistant but the battery usage was very high.

      In terms of charge cycles it was one or two per day max

      • perishthethought@lemm.eeOPEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        Thanks. I’m wondering if maybe I could just use something simple like a lamp timer, to control when juice comes through to the phone’s charger/cable. I could enable that only for like 6 hours a day and keep it “off” otherwise.