Ubuntu is a popular operating system from Linux and is used by over 20 million users on their PCs. The OS is simple, fast, stable and looks great. While some users are still trying to install the Ubuntu OS on their Windows based PCs, others have already installed the OS on their Android smartphones. Yes, you can now install the full Ubuntu platform on your Android smartphone and get the openness of Ubuntu that you won’t find in any other OS. Follow this guide to learn more.
Prerequisites
Firstly, you need root access and without it, you won’t be able to install Ubuntu on your Android device. You will also need support for loop devices on your Android phone. The latest Android phones do come with this so if you’re using a smartphone from even a year earlier, you should be fine.
Step 1
Download the Ubuntu firmware on your PC. You can get the firmware through this link. The file size is over 600 MB so you might want to do something else while the file is downloading.
Step 2
Next, install Android SDK on your PC if you don’t have it installed. You can get the SDK installer through this link. Once downloaded, you can install Android SDK like any other PC app. Also, if you haven’t installed drivers for your Android device, you need to install them as well. You can download the drivers using this link.
Step 3
Enable USB Debugging on your Android device. You can do this by going to the Settings app, tapping on Developer options and checking on USB Debugging.
Step 4
Now, connect your Android device to your PC via a micro USB cable.
Step 5
Unzip the Ubuntu firmware file the you downloaded earlier and copy the Ubuntu folder to the root directory of your SD card.
Step 6
Open Command Prompt on your PC and go to the Android SDK Tools directory. This might depend on where you installed the SDK but most users will find this in \sdk\tools. In order to go to the directory in CMD, type this command or any other command if you have SDK installed somewhere else. cd \sdk\tools
Step 7
In order to check whether your device is connected and recognized, type this command in CMD: adb devices If you get a message with some numbers and digits, then you’re good to go.
Step 8
Now, type these 4 commands in CMD. After typing each command, make sure that you hit the enter key. adb shell su cd /sdcard cd /ubuntu
Step 9
Next, type this command sh ubuntu.sh This will run a script through CMD and it might take a while. You might also get several errors while the script is running. Don’t worry about them and just let the script load.
Step 10
Ubuntu is now ready to run on your Android device. In order to start it on your Android device, type this in CMD: bootubuntu That’s it! Your Android device should now be running the full Ubuntu operating system.
Conclusion
There is not doubt that Android offers almost everything that a user would want in a good smartphone and you can also find third party applications from the Google Play store for features that are not built into your device. Also, this particular OS is perfect for using on touch screen devices, meaning that the platform is specially designed for smartphones in order to give users a better feel of the software. Even though you won’t find similar responsiveness and fluidity of the Android OS on other platforms, you can do a lot more by installing Ubuntu on your Android device. You can even share your new OS by taking screenshots or recording what you do on the OS. It won’t bring many of the features that Android is currently offering and most of the functions might not work but you can still enjoy the OS and do basic tasks on it. In order to install the Ubuntu OS on your Android device, you can follow the steps mentioned above. This will not work on all Android devices and you should only install Ubuntu at your own responsibility. Make sure you follow all the instructions correctly and feel free to shoot any questions below.
