[Nexus 7 General] devwithzachary:
While this project is also in the main Android Dev section I have decided to maintain it here as well, I feel the nexus 7 is really a great platform for my project, sadly being a poor student I will not be getting my nexus 7 right away so while I want to support this device directly I will need your guys help doing so by testing and let me know how it goes and any bugs etc!

The TEAM!

While for the past 5 months it has just been me its time to bring the project to a level I can't maintain by myself, cue the birth of the Linux on Android TEAM :D

The team consist of:

Myself

tuxling

Think you have something to bring to the team? then contact me and we shall talk :)

What is this all about?/Why put this on my device?

This projects aim is to bring a range of linux distros to your android device through a method known as 'chroot', see it has running a linux distro within a virtual machine on your phone. You can access this virtual machine and run it on your phone without causing any damage to your device, or having to overwrite anything. Why might you want this? well my apps are designed to make the install and set up process as easy as possible (more so in the paid apps) while still giving you some flexibility. Once you have the distro up and running then you can pretty much run and install any linux software you like (so long as there is a arm port or it is not architecturaly depenedent), sure there a very few big benefits over what android itself can do but it is still pretty dam cool. (and with the free ubuntu version, hey its free does it matter how useful you find it?)

Wait this uses VNC why shouldn't I just VNC to a computer?

VNC is used to access the GUI as at the moment I have not yet implemented a native way of viewing the GUI. But the Linux distro itself is running within the phone and can be controlled via the terminal app so if your a seasoned Linux user you may never even want to use the GUI

What is Chroot?/How does this work?

"A chroot on Unix operating systems is an operation that changes the apparent root directory for the current running process and its children" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroot

This method of running linux distros with android has been around for some time. I have worked on my scripts to make the process more user friendly and give you far more options from the word go.

The scripts start by mounting the ubuntu image file within the android file system and then mounts the sdcard and if ou have it internal memory within the ubuntu file system.

Chroot is then used to change the root directory to that of the mounted ubuntu and a bash shell is then opened to allow you to control Ubuntu this is kind of like 'booting' the OS.

The likes of VNC and SSHD are then set up when ubuntu is 'booted' to allow you to connect to the GUI if you require it.

Interested?

Ok so you want to get one of the support linux distros on your device, great welcome to the team :D

But first you will need to find out if your device is compatible with the method before anything else, this method 'should' work with pretty much any device but some ROM's/kernels will not work as they do not have loop device support etc.

HERE is a list of working devices and ROM's/kernels but remember just because its not on the list simply means no one has told me its working, it could still work!

Free Apps/Files

There is now one free app called the Complete Linux Installer (NEW) which can be downloaded from the market, along with the image files.

Complete Linux Installer (NEW)

App [MARKET]

Ubuntu 12.04 v4 Core [SOURCEFORGE] [TORRENT FILE] (just the basic install of ubuntu no GUI about 200MB to download and 750MB once extracted)

Ubuntu 12.04 v4 Small [SOURCEFORGE] [TORRENT FILE] (Includes the LXDE desktop about 400MB to download and 2GB once extracted giving about 1GB free space and includes normal programs like firefox)*

Ubuntu 12.04 v4 Full *[SOURCEFORGE] [TORRENT FILE] (The image you have been waiting for including Unity! plus a range of programs this is 1.3GB to download and 3.5GB once extracted with about 1.5GB free space)

Backtrack V8 Image *[SOURCEFORGE] *[TORRENT FILE]

Debian Core v4 *[SOURCEFORGE] [TORRENT FILE]

Debian Small v4 [SOURCEFORGE] [TORRENT FILE]

Debian Large v4 [SOURCEFORGE] [TORRENT FILE]

Paid Apps*

The paid apps are donation keys which unlock the extra features in the Complete Linux Installer (NEW), all the keys are the same but different prices to let you decide how much to 'donate'

Complete Linux Installer Donate £4 [MARKET]

Complete Linux Installer Donate £2 [MARKET]

Complete Linux Installer Donate £1 [MARKET]

Or if you donate more than £1 via paypal I shall send you a custom Donate key to unlock the extra features (if you donate more than £5 you will be added to the contribution list here and on the blog)

You can donate via paypal HERE

Once you have downloaded and installed the app just read through the install guide and soon you should have a complete linux distro running within your android device!

Something not working?

If you can't get it to run please post in this thread your device/ROM/kernel and what app/distro you are trying to use. Please also post a screen shoot of what the terminal app prints out when it try's to boot so we can help debug whats gone wrong