This is the last of a series of alternative mobile OS installs and the easiest install by a country mile !

Install

Everything is quite well documented here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Install.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools<br></br>sudo apt-get update<br></br>sudo apt-get install phablet-tools android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot<br></br>phablet-flash ubuntu-system --channel devel --bootstrap

That is it really ! This is how a OS change on a mobile should work !

Issues

Ubuntu touch can not yet handle the radio firmware past Android 4.3 devices. So if your N4 was upgraded to Android 4.4 (KitKat) you need to flash the radio to the Android 4.3 (up to Version 2.0.1700.84) else WIFI will not work.

The ability to connect Android 4.+ devices to Ubuntu using the USB Mass Storage interface has always been a pain. With Ubuntu 13.04 a new MTP back-end (gvfs-mtp) is going to be introduced, but I have had some issues with the 13.04 Beta so I found this backport PPA to Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp<br></br>sudo apt-get update<br></br>sudo apt-get install gvfs<br></br>sudo apt-get upgrade

Kudos to Phillip Langdale for the work and maintaining the PPA !

As a Galaxy Nexus Owner I have been waiting for months for an OTA (over the air) upgrade to the factory installed Firmware (4.0.2). I am finally sick of waiting and complaining to Google (an absolute lost cause).

After some research it turns out that (contrary to popular opinion) not every unlocked Google Nexus actually has the ‘official’ Google Firmware. Some of them have a Samsung variant (WTF !?) of the firmware. Now I really don’t want to get off the technical topic, but I personally think that this means Google is misleading their most loyal customer base. The reason I chose a Nexus device over the (from a hardware perspective) superior HTC One X was the fact that they were supposed to have the official Google Firmware and I did not have to wait forever for bugfixes from the manufacturers.

To use a Samsung Galaxy Nexus as a media device (MTP) there is a utility called gMTP.

sudo apt-get install gmtp mtpfs mtp-tools

NOTE: Unfortunately there is a bug in the 64-bit version at the moment (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mtpfs/+bug/936165) – which means it’s not all that useful to me at the moment.

One of my oldest pieces of hardware is a trusty Nokia SU-8W Bluetooth Keyboard. I have tried to revive it on an Android 1.6 & 2.0 device with not much luck. However I got it working successfully on a Gingerbread (2.3.4) Google Nexus S.

Pre-requisites

• SU-8W Manual (http://nds1.nokia.com/phones/files/guides/Nokia_SU-8W_Wireless_Keyboard_UG_en.pdf)
• BlueKeyboard JP (https://market.android.com/details?id=elbrain.bluekeyboard.ime)

Steps

1. Install the BlueKeyboard JP from the Android Market
2. Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Bluetooth Settings
3. Scan for devices and click to pair the Nokia SU-8W
4. Enter a passcode (I used the highly inventive 0000 combinaton) on the phone and click ‘OK’
5. Enter the same on the SU-8W (need to use green ‘fn’ keys for numbers) and hit enter
6. The phone should show the Nokia SU-8W as paired but not connected
7. Go to Settings > Language & keyboard > BlueKeyboard JP Settings
8. Select the Nokia SU-8W as the keyboard and make any other changes you might need
9. Click the ‘Back’ symbol and tick the option box to enable the ‘BlueKeyboard JP’ keyboard
10. In any data entry field (i.e. GMail) hold the finger on the input box and click ‘Input method’ and select BlueKeyboard JP
11. Wait for the keyboard to connect.

Enjoy !