[Galaxy Tab 2 Themes and Apps] wd5gnr:
I tried loading Ubuntu using one of the market Ubuntu installers on the 4.0.3 install and convinced my self the kernel did not have loop support. Now I'm not so sure. I tried again with 4.0.4 and realized that the kernel had support, but the mount and umount tools did not. But busybox's commands support loop!

View attachment 1200329

I'll update as I figure out more, but the basic drill was:

Download "Complete Linux Installer (NEW)" from Market. You don't really have to do this, it just is a "guide" and has a nice launcher which (so far) does not work because we need some hacks. You could probably download the image off sourceforge and be as well off, but I was trying to get this to work. You download a 3.5MB zip file and then use a zip program (ES choked on it but Astro did ok) to extract ubunutu.img into /sdcard/ubuntu

Since the launcher crashed, I went here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=962023&page=2

I followed the script by hand in an adb terminal. I suppose you could use a local terminal too. I didn't do the redirects and things I knew I didn't need. All worked except for the pts which I am still investigating. (oops a typo). Also this line:

busybox mount -o bind /sdcard/external_sd /data/local/mnt/external_sd > /dev/null 2>&1

Should be (for us):

busybox mount -o bind /mnt/extSdCard /data/local/mnt/external_sd > /dev/null 2>&1

The script will ask you the size (1280x800 although probably should use 1280 x 720 or something to handle the bar at the bottom of the screen.

Then you pick LXDE or Gnome. I picked LXDE.

Off you go. You can connect with an X server, a VNC client, or keep using the shell. Awesome!

I'll update if I fix the pts.

UPDATE: My bad. A typo on the pts line. That script actually works fine as-is except for the difference in the sdcard.

Now need to find a good onscreen keyboard although a real keyboard should work pretty well. The ones I have tried have trouble sending <ENTER> and want to dismiss the keyboard instead.

A few other notes. The init from the app has some output, so you need to NOT redirect the chroot. Also, has to run as root for the chroot to work (unless I have wonked some permission).

There are a few other issues with the image I used.

1) Need to update emacs23 for it to work (from a Ubuntu terminal: apt-get update; apt-get install emacs emacs23)

2) /etc/bash.bashrc needs to have the sudo hinting taken out or you get annoying error messages

3) The scripts attached do not clean up all processes. This may not be a problem if we can get the launcher to work, I'm not sure if it cleans up better or not.

I will post my modified/customized scripts in just a minute. The directory structure is such that /system is all on the android side and everything in /data/local/mnt should be at the ROOT of the Ubuntu files (that is, put them in while running Ubuntu or at least mount Ubuntu and then put everything in the mounted place).

I pulled these off my sdcard so you will need to patch the permissions for the scripts:

For example:

chmod 755 /system/xbin/ubuntu

Here are the files in tar format (use tar xzvf ubuntu-files.z.tar to extract):

View attachment 1201142 Version 2, 15 July 2012 (fixed bad path in loop mount)

Once you have everything installed, start a terminal and execute:

su -c ubuntu

I have tried making a BTEP shortcut but with no luck yet.

Enjoy!

There is a thread about this including the image links etc (thanks to zacthepack for pointing me to it, now I've got to read it ;-) ).

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1585009

P.S. Of the VNC apps I tried that were free Jump (https://play.google.com/store/apps/...GwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5wNXN5cy5hbmRyb2lkLmp1bXAiXQ..) seemed to work the best. The free version only lets you have one connection.

PocketCloud wasn't bad but you can't get the onscreen mouse all the way to the bottom (it tries to shrink it, but I think it doesn't know about the "permanent" ICS bar down there. If you have a real keyboard/mouse then the AndroidVNC team version works well, but it is a pain to use without a keyboard.