[Android/Termux] Fix duplicate UI and repeated auth prompts caused by relauncher loop and resize remounting

[heihuo000]

This issue report describes two major UX problems on Android/Termux.

1. Relauncher Loop (Duplicate Logos and Auth prompts):
   When Termux is moved to the background, Android often kills the high-resource child process. The parent monitoring process then restarts a new child, leading to duplicate ASCII logos and repeated OAuth login prompts.

2. UI Remounting on Resize:
   Virtual keyboard toggles trigger terminal resizes. The current React key mapping forces a full remount, which clutters terminal history with new Headers.

Proposed Fixes (Tested):

• In packages/cli/src/utils/relaunch.ts: Disable relauncher if os.platform() is 'android'.
• In packages/cli/src/gemini.tsx: Use a stable key for AppContainer on 'android' to prevent full remounts.

Full technical details and patch were verified in a local Termux environment. Improving stability for mobile CLI users would be a great addition to Gemini CLI.

[heihuo000]

Additional Suggestion: Improve Installation Experience on Android/Termux

Beyond the runtime UI/auth issues, the initial installation of Gemini CLI via npm install is currently very difficult on Android/Termux.

The Challenges:

• Native Dependencies: Components like tree-sitter-bash require a working NDK environment to compile from source. Most Termux users do not have a full C++/NDK toolchain configured, leading to frequent installation failures.
• Environment Constraints: Termux handles paths and system libraries differently than standard Linux distros, causing many post-install scripts to fail.

Proposed Optimizations:

1. Provide Pre-built Binaries: Distribute pre-compiled binaries for aarch64-linux-android so users can download and run the tool without needing a local build environment.
2. Robust Fallbacks: Ensure that if a native component (like tree-sitter) fails to load or build, the CLI gracefully falls back to pure JavaScript alternatives (e.g., regex-based shell parsing) instead of crashing.
3. Official Support for Termux: Add Android/Termux to the CI/CD pipeline or testing matrix to ensure a seamless "out-of-the-box" experience for mobile developers.

Mobile CLI usage is growing, and making Gemini CLI "just work" on Termux would greatly expand its reach among developers who rely on mobile environments.

[cocosheng-g]

Triage Summary

This is a well-described Android/Termux specific issue causing UI remounting and relaunch loops. The community PR #18969 proposes a targeted fix for these issues. Categorized as Help-wanted.

@imadraude, apologies! It looks like your PR #18969 was incorrectly closed by our bot. I have reopened it and assigned this issue to you. Would you like to continue working on it?

[gemini-cli]

A platform-specific bug on Android/Termux that causes React UI remounts and duplicated logos.

Effort Analysis:
The issue specifies paths packages/cli/src/utils/relaunch.ts and packages/cli/src/gemini.tsx where a relaunch loop and React remounting issues occur specifically on Android/Termux environments. Because this bug is platform-specific (Android) and requires cross-environment setups to reproduce the OS-level process killing and terminal resize events, it MUST NOT be rated as effort/small. The required testing overhead and Ink state management (preventing full remounts) place this squarely in effort/medium.