Ubuntu (mobile) on my Nexus 4

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Well this is unusual! I'm posting this from my N4 which is running the Ubuntu mobile developers' preview released by Cannonical today. It's a very early preview with lots not working but there's enough that is to make for a fun (and apparently safe) little mess around. Mobile networks are not accessible but wi-fi is. Typing's a bit cumbersome (sans swiftkey obv but also without carriage returns or commas!) The UI is a very refreshing change though. I'm gonna sign off and have a play but will post some links tomorrow. What fun!

[Guest The Soup Thief]

And normal service is resumed...

Had a play and now back on Jellybean after restoring my backup (good to be back with a decent keyboard).

I have to say though, 1st impressions of the "Ubuntu Touch Preview" (as it seems to be called) were pretty good - surprisingly intuitive UI.

Have a look at this linky and have a go yourself, why don't ya? http://androidheadli...m-recovery.html

EDIT - the morning after - a few cautionary words:

I noticed last night that (though plugged into power) while running ubuntu my n4 got v warm and the battery level sank - only by 1 percent every couple of minutes, but considering I was on charge, it's one to watch

Then I saw this among the release notes from this page:

In rare circumstances, the Nexus4 may get into a state where it may not boot at all after the battery is drained (even into recovery). If this happens, the only way to restore it is to disassemble the back of the phone and unplug/plug the battery connector.

In view of this I'd strongly recommend making sure your battery is well charged before booting into this and keeping a weather eye on your power level while playing with it

For info, when I restored and booted back into Jellybean (I used TWRP, but Clockwork works fine too I read over at xda) it seemed to take a couple of goes to get the phone to boot; the first time, I saw the "Google" screen and it stayed on without booting. Just held down power button for 5 seconds and it booted normally into my backed up setup

Incidentally, the Ubuntu install page is here

It includes a decent description of what this is, including the following:

The Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is intended to be used for development and evaluation purposes only. It is an experimental development snapshot that can potentially brick your device. It does not provide all of the features and services of a retail phone and cannot replace your current handset. This preview is the first release of a very new and unfinished version of Ubuntu and it will evolve quickly.

This process will delete all data from the device. Restoring Android will not restore this data.

Though of course if you've created a back up in clockwork/TWRP or similar then you're golden

Edited February 22, 2013 by The Soup Thief