How to install Ubuntu on Android Tablet PC

[Marc Anthony]

I have a Wespro Android tablet. I had seen some videos on Youtube where people are using Ubuntu on tablet pc. I also want to install that. But I am not sure about the same. I want help to add Ubuntu on my tablet without touching the existing operating system. Is that possible.

[Lankesh]

Ubuntu work on Android Tablet PC. But this does not works on every device. There are some tablets only which supports. And for installing Ubuntu you have to root your device. Rooting will void the device warranty. It will also modify the installed operating system. If you are ready to do that then there are ample of guide on web.

[Namchan]

Go on Google Play and search for Ubuntu installer. The best among them is Ubuntu Installer for Android by Linuxforandroid. The app is paid and you have to pay Rs.137.65 to buy. It is all in one installer that runs Ubuntu easily on Android tablet. I am not sure that every model will work. The process starts from rooting. There are number of tools for that. Rooting will give you superuser access on the tablet rom so that you can modify the content.

This is actually locked. To run Ubunut you need a tablet with minimum 1Ghz cpu. And it will not work on those tablet who have older Android version. Atleast your device must be on Gingerbread. Another requirement is aleast 4GB space on SD card. Now when you are done with that you have to download the Ubuntu 10.10 mobile image. This is completely optimized operating system for tablet pc. Do not expect to run pc editions. The image will install Ubuntu inside your existing operating system. You can have a light gnome desktop that works smoothly. You can run update and use basic apps.

[ApariChitt]

It is a very basic edition. I had did that. You have to download the Tablet Customized image of Ubuntu. This is available on web. You can download and install that. I think this would be removed once you run factory settings. Somehow it affects the apk file installation. You might loose your Android desktop also.

[Jimuta]

I can provide you a short procedure on the same to install Ubuntu. But remember that you must do this on your own risk. Backup your data and other settings if possible. Because this might wipe the tablet content. Now run Samsung Kies and set your tablet on USB debugging mode.

You can find that inside Settings > Applications > Development. Enable usb debugging mode. As mentioned above you have to root your device or else this method will not work. Keep some space in your sd card. You can download Ubuntu image for android from web. The last version that I saw was 12.04. There are three editions you can go for. The first is core where you will get the GUI only.

The second one is the small edition which will offer you more addition in the desktop and the last is Full edition which is around 3GB. If you are on a high speed wifi network then you can download that automatically from the tablet. Once the download is over create a folder and name it Ubuntu in the memory card of tablet. then you have to run the terminal to run specific commands. You can do that on the factory restore screen. First type "su" and hit enter. Then type the location of file which his "cd/sdcardparth/UbuntuFolder". Now the next command is "sh ubuntu.sh". Manage the settings and you are done. You can configure different to options here. This does not install Ubuntu but just run the shell to give you a simple Ubuntu interface. No modification is done to your internal operating system.

[Makayla-alex]

I hope that is safer. But how does the size of tablet image is so large. The regular that we have for our desktop comes packed in 700mb cd. While you had mentioned to leave 3GB space. That would be quiet resource intensive.

[Radames]

There is a free Ubuntu installer also available. The only important thing you need is to root your phone. The image file runs through a shell command and can be terminated as per your need. Those who love Ubuntu can port that on the tablet. The image is customized to extent so that it can perform well on the tablet. It wont crash nor it fails to work properly. I had checked and use number of options in that. It is good for surfing and chatting also.

It works same like Ubuntu. I am hoping to get a much better version for coming Tablets. Some options through which you can dual boot your system. This is yet not possible on tablet. With a simple operating system you can do a lot more thing compared to Android. And it will be secure also. The images that I found are not compatible with every tablet. And you cannot make changes to a product like Kindle or Nexus.

[jAYASENA]

Rooting is what I am not ready to do. Isn't there is some option by which we can run that without rooting. I hope we can also get a Windows Phone image of tablet pc. I tried to search number of downloads on Torrent but did not worked.

[Sarasi]

Yes rooting is one thing that really affects the tablet warranty and no one want to loose that. Because that can be helpful in future. I had did the same with a android phone, but it lags a lot. There is touch interface issue with Ubuntu. It is not well ported. It works fine on greater devices like Samsung Galaxy S. They have a good processing ability and nice hardware support. While tablets like Wespro will not at all work well. There is optimized version of each device that you can go for.