feat: terminal fail safe

[RohitKushvaha01]

Closes #2084

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR adds a "failsafe mode" setting that launches the AXS terminal server directly via the system linker, bypassing proot — intended for devices where proot fails. To support this, init-alpine.sh was refactored to run all one-time setup unconditionally, and Terminal.js/terminal.js were updated to pass the failsafeMode flag through to startAxs.

• init-alpine.sh restructured: One-time init (chmod, motd, acode CLI, initrc) now runs before any argument checks. The --installing branch was simplified, but the timezone setup (ANDROID_TZ → /etc/localtime) was accidentally dropped, meaning new installs will run Alpine in UTC.
• Failsafe branch in Terminal.js: When failsafeMode=true, axs is launched via the architecture-appropriate system linker without proot; known issues with PID tracking and unquoted paths were flagged in prior review threads.
• Settings wired end-to-end: terminalDefaults.js defaults failsafeMode to false, and terminalSettings.js exposes the toggle; non-English locale files received only the label key, not the info description.

Confidence Score: 3/5

The normal terminal path is broken and new Alpine installations will silently run in UTC instead of the device timezone.

The --installing branch drops the ANDROID_TZ timezone setup that was the only mechanism for giving Alpine the correct local time, affecting all new installations. Combined with the normal-mode axs startup regression flagged in a prior thread, both core code paths have active defects.

src/plugins/terminal/scripts/init-alpine.sh requires the most attention — the timezone removal and the removed axs startup are both in this file. src/plugins/terminal/www/Terminal.js also has open issues with PID tracking and unquoted paths in the failsafe command.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
src/plugins/terminal/scripts/init-alpine.sh	Script restructured to run one-time init unconditionally; timezone setup was silently dropped from --installing branch, and axs server is no longer launched in normal mode (known issue from prior threads).
src/plugins/terminal/www/Terminal.js	Adds failsafeMode parameter to startAxs; failsafe command writes the outer sh PID instead of the axs PID, and file paths are unquoted (both flagged in prior threads).
src/components/terminal/terminal.js	Passes failsafeMode from terminal settings to startAxs; getTerminalSettings import is correct and failsafeMode defaults to false.
src/settings/terminalSettings.js	Adds failsafeMode toggle to the settings UI; toast message is hardcoded in English and info key is missing from non-English locales (flagged in prior thread).
src/components/terminal/terminalDefaults.js	Adds failsafeMode: false as a safe default in DEFAULT_TERMINAL_SETTINGS.
src/lang/en-us.json	Adds failsafe mode and info-failsafeMode keys; non-English locales only received the label key (info key missing, flagged in prior thread).

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[createSession] --> B{isAxsRunning?}
    B -- No --> C[getTerminalSettings]
    C --> D{failsafeMode?}
    D -- Yes --> E[startAxs with failsafeMode=true]
    D -- No --> F[startAxs with failsafeMode=false]
    E --> G["Executor.start sh\nchmod +x axs\necho $$ > pid\nlinker axs -c sh -i"]
    F --> H["Executor.start sh\nsource init-sandbox.sh"]
    H --> I["init-sandbox.sh to proot to init-alpine.sh"]
    I --> J["exec /bin/bash --rcfile /initrc\naxs not started"]
    G --> K["axs HTTP server running\nsh PID in pid file not axs PID"]
    B -- Yes --> L[Poll up to 10s]
    L --> M[createSession via HTTP]
    K --> M

Loading

_{Reviews (2): Last reviewed commit: "feat: terminal fail safe" | Re-trigger Greptile}

[greptile-apps]

axs server and pid file no longer started in normal mode

The old init-alpine.sh wrote echo "$$" > "$PREFIX/pid" and then launched "$PREFIX/axs" -c "bash --rcfile /initrc -i" in the no-args (normal terminal start) branch. The new code replaces both with exec /bin/bash --rcfile /initrc, which runs bash inside proot but never starts the axs HTTP server.

createSession() in terminal.js connects to http://localhost:{port}/terminals — which only works when axs is running. With no pid file, isAxsRunning() always returns false, so startAxs is called on every session open; the 10-second polling loop exhausts, a toast fires, and then the fetch to the axs endpoint fails. The terminal is effectively broken in the default (non-failsafe) mode after this change.

[greptile-apps]

Unquoted ${filesDir} will break on paths containing spaces. All three uses should be double-quoted within the shell string.

Suggested change

	await Executor.write(uuid, `chmod +x ${filesDir}/axs; echo $$ > ${filesDir}/pid; ${linker} ${filesDir}/axs -c "sh -i"; exit`);
	await Executor.write(uuid, `chmod +x "${filesDir}/axs"; echo $$ > "${filesDir}/pid"; ${linker} "${filesDir}/axs" -c "sh -i"; exit`);

[greptile-apps]

Failsafe mode: axs process is orphaned when stopAxs() is called

echo $$ > ${filesDir}/pid stores the PID of the outer sh shell (started by Executor.start). stopAxs() then does kill -KILL $(cat $PREFIX/pid), which kills that outer shell. However, the ${linker} ${filesDir}/axs child process is not in the same process group and is not covered by --kill-on-exit (that flag is proot-specific). On Android/Linux, killing a parent with SIGKILL orphans its children — axs survives.

On the next createSession(), isAxsRunning() finds the old sh PID dead and returns false, triggering another startAxs. The new axs instance attempts to bind the same port while the old orphaned instance still holds it, causing the new start to fail silently. Users end up with leaked axs processes accumulating across terminal restarts.

Consider writing the axs PID directly — e.g., start axs in the background, capture $!, write that to the pid file, and wait for it — so stopAxs kills the process that actually owns the port.

[greptile-apps]

Hardcoded English toast and missing info-failsafeMode in non-English locales

toast("Restart terminal to apply changes") is not passed through the strings i18n map, so non-English users see English text. A corresponding key (e.g., "restart terminal to apply changes") should be added to all locale files and referenced via strings[...] here.

Additionally, every non-English locale file in this PR only received the "failsafe mode" key; none received "info-failsafeMode". The setting's info field will render as undefined for all non-English users.

[UnschooledGamer]

Wow, Mini Termux-like.

[RohitKushvaha01]

TODO: convert axs to a pie executable

[RohitKushvaha01]

@greptileai