How to Mirror and Control Your Android Device on Linux – Part 1

In the last 3 years I was searching for an easy to use app or a useful tool to display and control my Android smartphone. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time searching unsuccessfully – I think the problem was with my research method – until I found last week what I was looking for that made me forget my past suffering.

If you are interesting in mirroring and controlling your Android device on Linux , you are on the right place as I will share with you in this tutorial my humble experience with the discovered application.

The application is scrcpy “copies a screen”: it provides display and control of Android devices connected on USB (or over TCP/IP “Wirelessly”). It does not require any root access. It works on GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS.

Scrcpy Installation

• For solus users:

sudo eopkg it scrcpy

• For other distro users (Ubuntu/Manjaro…): 

sudo snap install scrcpy

Mirror and Control of Android Devices Connected on USB

1. Enable usb adb debugging on your device: go to Settings > About phone , tap Build number 7 times to unlock Developer options, then enable USB debugging under Developer options.

2. Plug an Android device, and execute: 

scrcpy

Mirror and Control of Android Devices Wirelessly

1. Connect the device to the same Wi-Fi as your computer.
2. Get your device IP address (in Settings → About phone → Status).
3. Enable adb over TCP/IP on your device:

adb tcpip 5555

4. Unplug your device.
5. Connect to your device:

adb connect DEVICE_IP:5555 (replace DEVICE_IP)

6. Run scrcpy as usual.
7. It may be useful to decrease the bit-rate and the definition:

scrcpy -b2M -m800

💬 Did that tutorial help you ? let me know in the comment section below.