mcserver-termux

A simple and detailed guide to run a Minecraft Java server on your non-rooted Android phone.

Requirements

• Termux - Do not install the Google Play version, it is severely outdated.

• Material Files - Needed in order to manage your server easier without cp, ls and mv commands.

• Android phone with Android 11 and up installed and at least 4GB of RAM (recommended for a stable small server experience).

• 1.5GB of free storage in your device.

Basic installation

Open Termux and run the following command:

termux-setup-storage

Your phone will prompt a menu asking for all files permissions for Termux. Select Termux and exit the menu. That's needed in order to manage your server files later.

Now update Termux's packages with the following command:

pkg update && pkg upgrade -y

This command will check all available mirrors, all upgradeable packages and then automatically install them. Some packages will require you to select certain options, in this case, always select Y.

Now you will need to install proot-distro, a utility that lets you easily install any (compatible) Linux distro on Termux, and openjdk-21, which is the full Java 21 package that lets you create and run your Minecraft server.

Note

JDK 21 is only needed for 1.20.5+ servers. If you wanna run an older version of Minecraft Java, check this link to check which version is suitable for you.

But well, here's the command.

pkg install proot-distro openjdk-21

Now, you will need to install a distro directly from proot-distro. I will be installing Debian, but Ubuntu works in the exact same way.

proot-distro install debian

Once it's finished, process in which should take around a couple seconds, you can log-in into your distro with proot-distro login <distro-name>.

You will need to do the same update process again with Debian, now with the following command:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Normally, it will not have any package to install, as it is in the latest version available. That's normal.

You will also need to install nano for text editing and wget to transfer files directly from the internet.

apt install nano wget

For a basic installation, there's no need to install any more packages. In order to install your server, you will need a proper folder for it.

For this, use the command mkdir alongside the name of the folder you wanna create. In my case, it will be named server.

mkdir server/

Now, select your newest server directory with cd and the name of your folder.

cd server

In order to create your server, you need a specific .jar server file from the internet. It can be any game server that you want, but i will use PaperMC.

Hold the download button from the website, copy the link of the file, and download it into your server folder with wget.

wget https://fill-data.papermc.io/v1/objects/1798de5d5f81f6aa4deedf8372326e17796a2566d46a55486bfbc9fbc47c7394/paper-1.21.8-56.jar

Note

This is just a command example. This guide will eventually be outdated over time, you don't need to copy this exact file, just grab the one you want.

Once it's downloaded, just for simplicity, i'd recommend cleaning up the file's name with a 'mv' command. In this case, i will rename it to just paper.jar.

mv paper-1.21.8-56.jar paper.jar

Now, run the actual server with java -jar and the name of your .jar file.

java -jar paper.jar

An error will be prompted, saying it needs you to agree with Mojang's EULA in order to execute the server. That's what nano is for.

Edit the EULA confirmation file with nano eula.txt and change EULA=false to EULA=true.

In order to save your changes, press CTRL + X and then Y on your keyboard. If you do not have a physical keyboard connected to your phone, there is a CTRL button in Termux's integrated keyboard.

Now do the same command you did previously to execute the server, and it should run perfectly fine now! You can check if the server is running using your local IP address, which is found with the ifconfig command.

Managing your server files

Now that the server is installed, you wanna find a way to configure your server properties and install/configure plugins and mods without having to use Termux for everything. That's understandable.

Open the Material Files app, and it will ask you for all files permissions, accept it.

Select the upper left icon with 3 bars, and go to Add Storage, External and then select the Termux app in the storage options of your default Android file manager.

Now you will get a new /home/ folder in the app, but that's not enough. You need to get access from the distro you have installed.

Go back to Termux, enter a new session in case you are still running your server, and send this exact command.

ln -rs $PREFIX/var/lib/proot-distro/installed-rootfs $HOME/proot-distro-rootfs

Notice how it will now create a proot-distro-rootfs folder inside the /home/ directory. That's the folder that redirects you to all the files from your Linux distribution.

Your server file is located inside the root folder. You can delete, rename, extract and transfer files from and to it, without needing to use commands constantly.