[MOD] Ubuntu *Working On Epic!!* NOW UPDATED TO V1.2 (03/13/2011)

IMPORTANT INFO
First I gotta give a shoutout to KellyLewis3985 because he's helped so much with modding the script to need less work for install, run faster, and have more programs work.

NEEDED!

Must Be ROOTED
1. Busybox (Preferrably the most updated version).
2. Superuser.
3. Android SDK (With knowledge on how to use it).
4. AndroidVNC (Search exactly that in the market. It will say "Android VNC Viewer").
5. Terminal Emulator (Also available in the market).
6. Patience when working with this.

UPDATE!!

Thanks to the persistance of urboy4mbx, we now know a little more information to get it working. While both KellyLewis3985 and myself were running custom ROMS, we didn't think about testing it for the stock build. So due to urboy4mbx's will to get this installed, we now know you MUST have a custom ROM installed. There's probably ways to get it to work on the stock build, but it's going to take a little more work. For now, make sure you have a custom ROM, download, and install the files, and if we got our scripts right, it should boot right up for you.

DOWNLOAD FILE!

NOTE: When you download this zip, you will need to extract it, and inside the extracted folder will be the folder "sdcard", DO NOT!! Place this entire folder in your "ubuntu" folder, simply open it and copy all the files from it to your "ubuntu" folder on your sd card.

Download File...

Ubuntu: Epic Edition v1.2 <---These are the files you will need to run Ubuntu. It will come with "bootlinux", "fsrw", "mountonly", "ubuntu.img", "ubuntu.sh", and "unionfs".

INSTRUCTIONS!


Options For Transferring Files To Phone

First Option...
Your first option of course is the easiest. Simply connect your phone to the computer, and mount your sd card. Once on the sd card, you are going to create a new folder labeled "ubuntu". Open this folder and transfer all the files from the downloaded zip file into this folder. After you have transferred the files to your "ubuntu" folder on the sd card, unmount the sd card, but leave the phone plugged in.

Second Option...
Your second option is "adb push". Here is the command for "adb push" if you cant, or don't feel like mounting your sd card.

First you need to create your destination folder. Do so with this set of commands.

cd C:/sdk/tools (Of course you might have your sdk folder in a different location, just cd to that location)
adb shell
su
cd /sdcard/
mkdir ubuntu
exit

Now you should be back at "C:/sdk/tools", or wherever you have your sdk folder located. Next, you push the files to your folder. In order to push the files, you first need to open the zip folder, and copy all the files into your tools subfolder in the sdk folder. Then push the files with this set of commands.

adb push bootlinux /sdcard/ubuntu
adb push fsrw /sdcard/ubuntu
adb push mountonly /sdcard/ubuntu
adb push ubuntu.sh /sdcard/ubuntu
adb push unionfs /sdcard/ubuntu
adb push ubuntu.img /sdcard/ubuntu

The "ubuntu.img" file may take a little longer, as it is the largest file that needs to be transferred.

NOTE: You cannot have your sd card mounted to use adb. You must be unmounted.

INSTALLATION

1. Ok, first thing you have to do is make sure you're still cd'd to "C:/sdk/tools". Now you need to type "adb shell". You will then most likely be prompted with the symbol "$". To continue, type "su" and the symbol should then change to a "#". NOTE!!!! After adb shell, YOU MUST TYPE "su", or the program will not boot!!!

2. Next you are going to cd into the Ubuntu folder on your sd card. (cd /sdcard/ubuntu) Once in, you're going to type the command "sh ./ubuntu.sh".
After that runs through, the next thing you're going to enter is "bootlinux". Once you get the prompt "root@localhost" you have successfully installed ubuntu on the Epic.

With this new update, there is no need to install any other files, as we have added them into the image file for you so it should do so automatically. If you have issues, let us know and we will try to fix it.

PREPARING YOUR VNC TO LOAD UBUNTU!

NOTE: There is no need to type this into your adb shell. This is for information purposes only, i've displayed the code and it's position at the bottom of this post along with screen shots to show you what it should look like.

With our new update, it's a lot easier to get everything up and running, but we don't have the capability of storing the vnc server to start every time we start up ubuntu, as it was causing issues. Until we get this issue fixed, you have to start the vnc server like this:

rm -rf /tmp/.X*
export USER=root
vncserver -geometry 1280x800 (Or whatever you would like your resolution to be. We have found this to be the nicest so far.)

Ok, at this point, everything should be set up to run.

NOTE: After the initial install of ubuntu on your phone, when you want to get it to start again, all you have to do is go into the terminal emulator, first type "su" to give it superuser permissions, then type "bootlinux", it will run through it's script and give you the "root@localhost" prompt. After you get that prompt, simply type the "rm -rf /tmp/.X*", "export USER=root", and "vncserver -geometry 1280x800" prompts and you can then start vnc again.

All the info you need for vnc will be as follows.

Nickname: "root"
Password: "ubuntu" (This is a set password, so it will be the same for everyone.)
Address: "localhost"
Port: "5901"

Change Log

Version 1.2
-Modified to make it ext4 compatible.
-Modified img to make it a little faster and more stable.

That's really all I had to do for this version, as it was working before.

Version 1.1
-Modified the scripts to run smoother, faster and use less memory while running.
-Added some custom wallpapers.
-Mozilla Firefox now works.
-Modified scripts to make Ubuntu more interactive.
-Modified the .img to install everything needed instead of you having to do it.

Issues

-Firefox randomly closes. Just reopen and restore.
-After using the vncserver Ubuntu doesn't truly shutdown without a reboot. Fix in progress.
-When wanting to start Ubuntu, after initial install, you have to go into the terminal emulator and type "su", then "bootlinux", allow that to complete giving you the "root@localhost" prompt. Then type "rm -rf /tmp/.X*", "export USER=root", and "vncserver -geometry 1280x800" to start the vnc server. After that you can go right into vnc and start Ubuntu up. We ARE currently working on a fix for this issue.



If you have any issues please post. Your input helps us make this better for you.

Here's a couple tricks we picked up.

1. You can use the arrow pad on your keyboard to direct the mouse.
2. If you long press on the screen and keep your finger on it, you can slide the mouse with your finger.
3. Long press on something, is a left click.
4. Double tap on something, is a right click.
5. To get symbols to appear, such as "-", you have to HOLD the function key while hitting the symbol.

And i'm sure there's more, but there's a couple for now.

After the installation and the first time you setup the vncserver. You have to use this command everytime to start the vncserver again.
rm -rf /tmp/.X*
export USER=root
vncserver -geometry 1280x800

New links.
Ubuntu
http://db.tt/4z8uDst

New Scripts.
http://db.tt/lDjNNQn

Were working on a fix for this.

Here is the latest update. I dont know if its going to work for everyone. I suggest creating a folder inside the ubuntu folder to put the scripts you have in. Unzip this and replace the scripts in the ubuntu folder.
Please make a backup.

If you have any issues please post. Your input helps us make this better for you.

WOOT more options!!

First of all thank you very much for your work here. I am very interested and will start playing shortly. I am a little timid as I am new to Android and just feeling out rom's and Kernels and such and fear branching to OSs will retard my progress. My apprehensions are not strong enough to stop me. . .I am typing while downloading all the stuff I need.

I have a couple of questions for this mod.
- From the instructions this appears to be something that you would not be booting into but would have to launch (at least with the instructions provided). Is this correct?
- Do you have typical functionality of the phone or does this covert the device to a UPMC?
- Uninstallation is as simple as removal of the files?

EDIT: I read the thread again after posting and saw someone saying it runs as a VM on top. . .I would assume that this address question 1, minimizes questions 2 and 3. . .but I am still curious.


This is really fascinating. I will likely press on with it knowing I can restore the puppy if I need some functionality lost or it is booting to this and I can figure out how to go back. a big thing is that it is annoying me that I cant print without some online service. . .but that is another story.

Now onto:

mkasick said:

Because it legitimately detracts from the quality of an otherwise fine thread.

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You know how they say that you should only say 20% of what you think. I thought the original person making comments was the same type of douchenozzle that corrects spelling errors in chats and stuff. . .not identifying that casual forms of computer mediated communication offers more allowances than . . .say an academic study. I have seen this before, and frankly did not want to call that guy out because he probably does not know better.

IMO - the people legitimizing his complaints, which were not constructive to the spirit of the thread, top him in douchnozzlism and are the reigning champions of douchebaggery. Are you really so spoiled that the deviation from "normal" grammatical rules (in a forum where the norm is more of a deviation really) so distracting that it reduces value from the content the OP was attempting to present. I would argue that all of your comments (and regrettably now mine as well) go a much greater distance in detracting from the quality of an otherwise fine thread then any style, font, color, or other PERSONAL PREFERENCE that the OP could have possibly done.



Sorry. . . grammar Nazis have always been somewhat of a pet peeve of mine.

Thanks OP for the effort of not only putting this together but sharing it with others to enjoy. Sorry for detracting from the quality of your posting with my slight rant above but I am sure that the quality of your posting will survive me and the remainder of the douche clan.

J

First, Exit From The Terminal Emulator, And Open It Back Up. Type "su" Then "Bootubuntu" Without Any Other Commands. It Should Boot It Up Still And Then When You Get The Localhost Prompt, Type "Exit" And "Bootubuntu" Again. This Time It Should Come Up Localhost:2 ...As Long As You Copied My Code, It Should Have Put The VNC Server In The Boot File So When Ubuntu Was Booted Up, It Would Automatically Start The Server. Anyways, When You Get "localhost:2" Change Your Port To 5902. Do That And Let Me Know What Happens.

infamousjax said:

Why Do You Type Like This? It's Really Annoying!

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Because That's How I Type... You Aren't Required To Look At This Thread, So If It Bothers You, Just Hit The Back Button. Otherwise, How I Type Should Be Of No Importance, So If You Want Ubuntu, Run The Script To Get It And You'll Never Have To Worry About How I Type Ever Again. It's Completely Up To You.