How to install ubuntu on the Droid 4

greekchampion04 said:

Notes:
* It does not have to be on the external SD, but if you put it on the internal SD you will have to modify things as needed-- if you dont know what needs to be changed, just put it on the external SD.
** Screen size can be whatever you want it to be, but 960x540 is the size of the D4 screen.
*** This is a fairly involved process... especially when it comes to editing the .sh file in vi things can get very frustrating and hard, but just take your time and you will get it. As always, doing anything with root access on your phone, especially on the command line has risks. I am not responsible if anything goes wrong with your phone... proceed at your own risk!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I actually got it up and running on my internal sdcard partition. Pretty much just have to modify the Mount remount command, and a few lines in the script.
Here's the original command
And the modified one

Only things you have to change are the device location(179:57) and mount location(drop the -ext after sdcard)
Now, after that you also have to modify the script a bit. Just go through it, and anywhere that you see sdcard-ext, drop the -ext off the end.

Is anyone else getting just a gray screen when they remote in? What could be causing this?

I used the sh file included. I did however fix the problem, when mounting at the start i confused vold with void. I did not get the file system mounted properly. This method does work!! however I am currently trying to get bash on my droid to replace sh as the shell. I've checked the forums but have not found anything yet about someone installing bash on the droid 4. With no way for nandroids I feel i should wait before I kill sh.

Sent from my DROID4 using XDA App

If you mod your init.sh in your root directory to the following, your vnc will work on startup without issue. It will also shutdown vnc on exit.



#!/bin/bash
#############################################
# Asks User to screen size and saves as REZ #
#############################################
#echo "Now enter the screen size you want in pixels (e.g. 800x480), followed by [ENTER]:"

#read REZ

##############################################
# Pick which desktop environment to use, this#
# is done by having a xstartup file for each #
# desktop, then renaming the one you want to #
# use to 'xstartup' before boot #
##############################################
echo "Please select which Desktop environment you want to use, type the number to select it then press [ENTER]"
echo "1 - LXDE"
echo "2 - Gnome"
echo "Make your Selection:"
read DESKTOP
if [ $DESKTOP == 1 ]
then
mv /root/.vnc/lxstartup /root/.vnc/xstartup
fi
if [ $DESKTOP == 2 ]
then
mv /root/.vnc/gxstartup /root/.vnc/xstartup
fi

###########################################
# Tidy up previous LXDE and DBUS sessions #
###########################################
rm /tmp/.X* > /dev/null 2>&1
rm /tmp/.X11-unix/X* > /dev/null 2>&1
rm /root/.vnc/localhost* > /dev/null 2>&1
rm /var/run/dbus/pid > /dev/null 2>&1

############################################################
# enable workaround for upstart dependent installs #
# in chroot'd environment. this allows certain packages #
# that use upstart start/stop to not fail on install. #
# this means they will have to be launched manually though #
############################################################
dpkg-divert --local --rename --add /sbin/initctl > /dev/null 2>&1
ln -s /bin/true /sbin/initctl > /dev/null 2>&1


###############################################
# start vnc server with given resolution and #
# DBUS server, (and optionally an SSH server) #
###############################################
dbus-daemon --system --fork > /dev/null 2>&1
/etc/init.d/ssh start
vncserver :1 -geometry 960x540
echo
echo "If you see the message 'New 'X' Desktop is localhost:1' then you are ready to VNC into your ubuntu OS.."
echo
echo "If VNC'ing from a different machine on the same network as the android device use the 1st address below:"
##########################################
# Output IP address of android device #
##########################################
ifconfig | grep "inet addr"

echo
echo "If using androidVNC, change the 'Color Format' setting to 24-bit colour, and once you've VNC'd in, change the 'input mode' to touchpad (in settings)"

echo
echo "To shut down the VNC server and exit the ubuntu environment, just enter 'exit' at this terminal - and WAIT for all shutdown routines to finish!"
echo

###############################################################
# Spawn and interactive shell - this effectively halts script #
# execution until the spawning shell is exited (i.e. you want #
# to shut down vncserver and exit the ubuntu environment) #
###############################################################
/bin/bash -i

#########################################
# Disable upstart workaround and #
# kill VNC server (and optionally SSH) #
# Rename used xstartup to its first file#
#########################################
killall -TERM Xtightvnc
/etc/init.d/ssh stop

Also save the follow lines between ### as remount.sh on your system partition. Then chmod 755 /system/remount.sh. Now you can just run run from a terminal /system/remount.sh and voila it remounts correctly and starts ubuntu(with the above fixes). Im still working on the unmounts.

####### for the internal sd card
mount -o remount,rw,exec,suid /dev/block/vold/179:57 /mnt/sdcard
/mnt/sdcard/ubuntu/ubuntu.sh
######

OR

####### for the external sd card
mount -o remount,rw,exec,suid /dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/sdcard-ext
/mnt/sdcard-ext/ubuntu/ubuntu.sh
#######

feel free

Feel free and take, modify, repost or edit anything I touch.

QUESTION:

After I delete all the ^M and ^ what do i do next? I try to hit the command ":x" to exit and save changes but it just creates another line. Also when I press VOL UP + E to escape nothing happens.

PhanTuhC said:

QUESTION:

After I delete all the ^M and ^ what do i do next? I try to hit the command ":x" to exit and save changes but it just creates another line. Also when I press VOL UP + E to escape nothing happens.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

In vi, the command to save and exit is :wq (probably short for write and quit).

OK I fixed it but now its not letting me connect with androidVNC. All the settings entered is correct but when I try to connect it says:

"VNC connection failed!" localhost/127.0.0.1:5901 - Connection refused"

ok, i've gone thru this a few times (slowly and deliberately) and must be missing something...the directions seem pretty straightforward! here's what i know...

busy/terminal/vnc are all installed
small 2.5gb image is unzipped in /sdcard-ext/ubuntu directory
the attached .sh file from page 1 is in the same directory
i removed all ^M using vi
but when I try sh ubuntud4.sh i get an error...

"mkdir failed for /data/local/mnt/ubun, No such file or directory"

(plus a few other errors)

should the directory be "ubun" or "ubuntu"? am I typing something incorrectly?

copy and paste new script

Copy and paste the new scripts I posted. They will fix your problem. Remember to use the remount script from /system/ the rest will work perfectly if you are root. I'll check back later on your progress.

Ok, well I started from scratch (deleted both .img and .sh files) and it's still not working.

I have all the apps installed (and yes rooted, SU works just fine)
I used Ubuntu Installer app to download the image zip (tried both the large and small img)
I downloaded the .sh file from the first post
The /sdcard-ext/ubuntu/ folder now has two files: "ubuntu.img" and "ubuntud4.sh"
All ^M characters have been removed from .sh file
Still no joy...

Ideas? What am I missing?

In terminal, I can set SU permissions and the mount/cd commands work just fine...it's the last sh command that spits out a bunch of errors about not being able to create/find the directories.

I'm going to format the sdcard and try again...any help is appreciated.

Update: Even after re-formatting the SD and following the steps exactly, no luck!

Did you remember to remount the sdcard with exec and suid permissions?

Andbuntu will work much better than this method. It works on every single phone with modification to the "environmental variables".

http://code.google.com/p/andbuntu/

Follow the directions in the script to make the process much easier than the first post.

instructions:
generate an image with rootstock on an ubuntu computer.
put it on /sdcard/ubuntu/ubuntu.img
run the script on your phone with "sh /path/to/script"

Here is the script. http://andbuntu.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/uboot

Also, run "firstRun" to make things like terminals work properly.

Adamoutler: That didnt work for me. The permissions were incorrect on the mounted partitions.

Sent from my DROID4 using XDA App