Canonical announced developer preview of its dual-boot tool that allows anyone to flash their Android device such that it will boot into Android as well as Ubuntu Touch. The tool is meant for people who are aware of partition layouts and are comfortable reflashing their recovery partition.
We are listing out the steps involved in dual-booting your device, but we would like to warn that the tool is still a developer preview and far from being bug-free.
Prerequisites:
- Unlocked Android device
- Backup your current copy of the OS
Step 1: Logon to your Ubuntu desktop and add the repository and update it
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools
sudo apt-get update
Step 2: Install the ‘Developer Preview Tools’
sudo apt-get install phablet-tools android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot
Step 3: Unlock your Android device if you haven’t already got an unlocked device. To do so enable USB Debugging on your Android device and connect it to ‘Fastboot’ on your desktop
sudo fastboot oem unlock
Step 4: Download the installation script from here, make it executable
chmod +x dualboot.sh
Step 5: Now you need to install the dual-boot ‘Ubuntu Installer’ and to do so, run the below command while your Android device is still connected to your desktop.
If you are using a stock ROM without any modification e.g. without a SuperUser app flashed proceed with command under a) otherwise if you are using non-stock OS like CyanogenMod proceed with command under b)
a) ./dualboot.sh FULL
b) ./dualboot.sh UPDATE
Step 6: Do not worry if you device reboots several times after you execute the script. Once done you will have the “Ubuntu Installer” in the Apps section. Now to install Ubuntu type the below command in the terminal
adb shell “su sh rm -rf /cache/*”
Step 7: Tap on ‘Ubuntu Installer’ and choose “Trusty” channel. Follow on-screen instructions for providing SuperUser grants and let the installation proceed.
Step 8: Now you should find “Reboot to Ubuntu” option. Tap on that to boot to Ubuntu.
