Canonical has announced Ubuntu Touch for tablets which is their full operating system on a touch device. Currently there are no tablets that run Ubuntu but that will change quickly. Canonical has released a developers preview version that can be installed on Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 devices. This is an alpha build and cannot in any way be used as a daily driver. But if you are a developer or just an enthusiast that want to see what Ubuntu is like then you can install it on your device. You’ll need a Nexus device that is rooted and running a custom recovery. Then it’s just a simple file install and you’ll be booting into Ubuntu.
In order to install Ubuntu you only need two files that need to be flashed in custom recovery. Instructions are below and more info can be found on the Ubuntu Wiki. Leave a comment if you have any questions.
- Download quantal-preinstalled-phablet-armhf.zip (all devices) and put on SD card
- Download quantal-preinstalled-armel+grouper.zip (Nexus 7) or quantal-preinstalled-armel+manta.zip (Nexus 10) and put on SD card
- Get into recovery mode on your Nexus device (power+volume up+volume down)
- Make full nandroid backup of current system (very important!)
- Flash device specific zip followed by phablet zip
- Reboot and you’ll boot into Ubuntu. Have fun.
Leave a Reply