I am looking at making a budget media centre. I am new to Linux and have not yet installed it but think I can manage. I want to use Ubuntu and would like to use my Android phones to control or work as a remote for media playing to a TV.
My setup will be the media box to TV via HDMI (no keyboard or mouse connected) then to my Wi-Fi router via Ethernet.
So I want to be able to turn this PC on and after it's booted directly from my phone control the PC remotely to open the media application and run videos and open photos directly to the TV.
I am using a Samsung Galaxy S II and soon a new Sony for the wife.
If you install the xbmc packages (and use that environment), you can control your machine from android, because there is an app called xbmc remote in google play. It works flawlessly for me.
You can use anyRemote too
There's actually an Android app written specifically for this use case. It's called Couch Potato. In addition to providing a virtual mouse and keyboard, it allows you to register your machine, and subsequently boot it by sending a Wake-on-LAN packet.
Full disclosure: I'm the developer.
I found only one app that is free, generic (not written specifically to work with a certain program), doesn't require installing special custom server software for that app, and is able to connect to my computer (well… after working with the author to find and fix an unreasonable restriction).
It is XMouse and it is open-source. No ads and no nags. You can use it as a mouse, keyboard, or remote control with programmable buttons (execute any command you want). Maybe not the greatest user interface (takes some time to understand and get used to it), but it works well.
The only requirements are ssh and xdotool (well, xdotool is not 100% required, but I think it's at least needed for the mouse and keyboard functionality).
If you use VLC (a popular video/music player) in Ubuntu you could use one of the apps from the Google play store.
I used the standart VNC server (
Desktop Sharingapp in Ubuntu) and PocketCloud.It's easy to setup and works well.
You can find instruction here: click.
VNC
There is a way to do it and its free plus also no need to use the Internet.
Install any VNC server from the list like TightVNC, UltraVNC, TigerVNC, or RealVNC, although encryption is not supported with the latter.
Create a hotspot without internet if you want and connect your laptop and your Android phone in the same network.
Install bVNC Secure VNC Viewer on your Android phone.
The bVNC app is a VNC viewer.It can also emulate a touchpad or let you use Android as a mouse with support for touchscreen gestures. You can save sessions, zoom and scale the Linux desktop on the Android screen, and share the text in the clipboard between Android and PC.
GSConnect/KDE Connect
GNOME Shell Connect (GSConnect) lets you use the KDE Connect mobile application to control (recent) versions of Ubuntu running GNOME Shell.
In my experience it works very well OOTB and is quite configurable, with support for custom launchers, two-way push notifications, message replies, file sharing, media control, etc. in addition to keyboard and mouse support.
An application that comes close to doing this is RemoteDroid. It makes your touchscreen phone work like a wireless touchpad + keyboard combination.
There are two separate applications you need to download for this - one for your linux machine (server) and another for your Android Phone.
I have good experience with Home Remote Control. Works good with linux.
You can control:
All those are "shortcuts" organized to "shotcut groups" and are implemented / can be configured with custom commands.
There is no need to install anything on Ubuntu (just xdotools for media control by commands). The connection is by username/password or by ssh-key/passphrase