Is it possible to install a full GNU/Linux distro into a chroot container and then VNC into it with graphics? How might we do it? And why is there no tutorials on that?

Somebody likened it to running a distro off a live CD, and modern docker/containers could be viewed as a similar concept to a chroot jail in terms of apps or whole operating systems as an alternative to virtualization.

And this concept resulted in a very popular application on Android named Linux Deploy; however, it seems that chroot is not without it's limitations, resulting in only a minimalistic installation of GNU/Linux with restrictions on what can be done inside.

Unfortunately, there's just not enough information/discussion on how it works and why there would be limitations sharing the same kernel. For example, apparently not all commands will work under a chroot container - but since nobody seems to be testing full distros outside of Linux Deploy it's hard to know.

i'm pretty sure linux deploy weren't the only ones using this technique, and i'm pretty sure it can run a GUI, too, yes.
isn't e.g. Ubuntu on ChromeOS (crouton?) essentially the same?

It doesn’t work because apart from the files, the chroot’ed system would share everything with the main system, in particular the process table (how can you run two copies of init?), networking and inter-process communication.

Now there is a technology that separates the process table, networking, IPC, the mount table etc. and allows you to run several Linuxes on top of the same kernel. It’s named “containers”.

Yeah, containers/dockers would be the ultimate, but I don't think this is possible on Android without redoing the whole kernel. Therefore, LinuxDeploy appears to have been achieved entirely from CHROOT and BusyBox.

LinuxDeploy downloads a minimalistic distribution and then somehow gets it up and running within a CHROOT jail, albeit usable for the most part, but not fully functional; hence many apps like GParted doesn't start up and neither do heavyweight desktop environments.

I tried to do a CHROOT myself inside a rooted android phone, but I kept coming across commands that didn't work, and I wouldn't know what sources to consult for CHROOT jails anyhow.

Can anyone reproduce a list of commands that might be used by LinuxDeploy to get an OS up and running on a restricted Android version of Linux?
https://github.com/meefik/linuxdeploy

You may want to ask your question in the Android forum. Before you do that, mark it as Closed here, so that it doesn't attract other forum participants.

I would rather get to know CHROOT itself under a normal environment before I focus on Android, so this is more a general topic to try to get further info about CHROOT and it's capabilities/constraints as a function within Linux at large. Again, I came here because I don't understand how the kernel/distro work together (see my other topic), and I want to know the best resources for CHROOT as a precursor to containers. I've seen it used for bringing the main data partition back to life, so I will also start a new topic about GRUB and UEFI and how we can manage "dead" partitions. I got a book called Linux Server Administration, but it's explanation of GRUB was pitiful to say the least.

So what's the furthest anyone has got with CHROOT beyond the basics? I really want to know what it can do in terms of getting close to running full GNU/Linux distros in parallel. Please don't answer all at once!

you are asking questions in a way that answering them would mean to give you a full, step-by-step walkthrough of something you envisioned.
in other words, a satisfactory answer would mean doing all of your work.
also this is becoming increasingly android-specific, and android instructions are often device-specific, and rarely a simple "list of commands".

you keep saying there's no information on the subject, but have you researched?
may i ask which search engine and which terms you are using?

Yeah, I am after a step-by-step guide unless one already exists?

I did some research on Google, which revealed a few use case scenarios that were not tailored to my goal of a full distro. I also found a couple of books were published, but I don't know how comprehensive they are.

Therefore, all the info I came across seemed very fragmented, so not a good starting point for me.

Is Android Linux really that different? I thought it used the Linux kernel like all the desktop distros - but with Java on top instead of a desktop environment. Could it be that they use stripped-down kernels? One of my questions in another topic is: does the kernel exist in as many variations as the distros?

maybe you should consider escaping the search engine filter bubble.
tried https://www.startpage.com/ or https://duckduckgo.com/ ?

yes, and yes, and yes, not only stripped down but also containing blobs.