Termux officially does not support Android 4 (KitKat or earlier). Its minimum requirement has been Android 5.0 for years, and modern versions now require Android 7.0 or higher.
Despite the limitations, a functional Termux on Android 4 is not useless—it becomes a specialized tool. termux android 4
JuiceSSH: If you only need to access a remote Linux server via SSH, JuiceSSH is a powerful, user-friendly client that maintains compatibility with many older Android versions. Termux officially does not support Android 4 (KitKat
Despite the challenges and limitations, running Termux on Android 4 devices has some benefits: Despite the limitations, a functional Termux on Android
If you have a specific use case (e.g., running old Python 2 scripts, using rsync, SSH tunneling), I can provide more targeted steps.
The primary reason for the lack of support is a breaking change in the system libraries. Android 5 (Lollipop) introduced a new version of libc (the standard C library) that is incompatible with previous versions. Porting the thousands of Linux packages available in Termux to the older Android 4 environment would require a massive development effort that the team decided not to pursue. Top Alternatives for Android 4 Devices
After installation, immediately tap the Termux icon to open it. Before the bootstrap fails, quickly long-press the screen and select "Reload Style" (sometimes this stalls the auto-download). Then, edit the $PREFIX/etc/apt/sources.list file using nano (if installed during bootstrap) or by creating a .termux config file on your SD card.