How does ubuntu for android work

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To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Canonical is announcing its Ubuntu for Android platform today, a fusion of both Google's mobile operating system and the Linux-based Ubuntu desktop OS. While you're on the move it works like any other Android phone, but when you place the handset into a dock, it becomes a fully-fledged version of Ubuntu with Unity UI. Canonical sees devices like this as the future of personal computing, giving you access to all of your data wherever you are and changing the user interface in response to the situation you use it in.

For those of you who are reminded of Motorola's Webtop interface , you aren't far off — Canonical is using an Atrix 2 with modified software to demonstrate the concept.

However, Ubuntu for Android offers far more functionality than the browser-oriented Webtop. The two halves of the phone are deeply integrated, designed to make switching between Ubuntu and Android as seamless as possible. To this end, all of the desktop apps are set up to access their counterparts on the Android side — Thunderbird shows email from the Android Mail app, Rhythmbox shows music from the Android Music app, Chromium restores your active browser session from the handset, and so on.

On top of this, you've also got access to the dialer and your SMS messages within the Ubuntu interface, as well as access to the Android launcher and full range of apps.

Pick up your phone, and you'll be able to resume exactly where you left off. More Insider Sign Out. Sign In Register. Sign Out Sign In Register. Latest Insider. PathArc QtQuick. PathAttribute QtQuick. PathCubic QtQuick. PathCurve QtQuick. PathElement QtQuick. PathInterpolator QtQuick. PathLine QtQuick. PathPercent QtQuick. PathQuad QtQuick. PathSvg QtQuick. PathView QtQuick. PauseAnimation QtQuick. PinchArea QtQuick. PinchEvent QtQuick.

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PageHeadStyle Ubuntu. PageHeaderStyle Ubuntu. PullToRefreshStyle Ubuntu. Which Ubuntu releases does dual-boot support? How is the user data partition shared between Android and Ubuntu? Is booting into recovery no longer possible when dual-booting? How can I do an Android upgrade with dual boot installed? Can I uninstall dual boot? The dual boot app installs a copy of the the SuperUser app.

Can I use another SuperUser app instead? When installing Ubuntu, can I switch channels without deleting user data? Can I make boot to Ubuntu the default and move the Android boot to the recovery partition? Why do you use the recovery partition to boot Ubuntu, rather than a combined boot image for Android and Ubuntu? I already have CWM recovery installed and know how to use it, can I use a zip file and flash manually instead?

Why does the Ubuntu Installer app need to be installed to the system partition via recovery? Ubuntu Dual Boot Installer is provided as a tech preview for developers who want to run Ubuntu and Android on a single device. It is not intended to be used by regular users, neither at this point nor as its ultimate goal. Those developers installing it should be familiar with the Ubuntu and Android partition layouts and should also feel at home with manually flashing partitions in case something goes wrong.

Ubuntu Dual Boot Installer was born as an internal skunkworks project some Canonical Engineers dedicated a limited amount of their time to. Seeing the good progress, it was decided to release this preview for the developer community to test, study and contribute to. Dual boot is not part of the regular Ubuntu release. What to expect after installation A single device with the ability to switch between fully functional Android and Ubuntu images On Android: an Ubuntu Installer app to install Ubuntu, as well as to boot into Ubuntu On Android: the Super User app to grant permissions to the Ubuntu Installer app On Ubuntu: an Ubuntu Dual Boot app to boot into Android Ubuntu system updates are not yet supported from the Ubuntu side, but they can be done via the Android app Requirements To install dual-boot, you'll need: A Nexus 4 device other supported Nexus devices should in theory work but have not been tested at the time Android 4.

Dual boot installation or upgrade instructions The procedure at this point is effectively the same for both new installations and upgrades of an existing dual boot installation.

Installing the Ubuntu Installer app in Android Note: if you had installed a previous version of Ubuntu dual boot, please make sure to uninstall Ubuntu from the Android app before upgrading to the new Ubuntu dual boot.

You can keep the user data, only uninstallation of the base system is recommended. Now follow the instructions below to install Ubuntu from Android. Installing Ubuntu from Android Note: 2. Make sure you tick on the "bootstrap" option.