back to article Ubuntu unleashes dual boot tool for Android mobes'n'slabs

Canonical has just given curious Reg readers something interesting to to do in the dead days between Christmas and whenever you go back to work: figuring out how to dual boot an Android phone. The Ubuntu custodian company has slipped out a developer preview of a new dual boot tool that allows owners a limited number of Android …

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  1. Tristan Young

    Cool idea, not that dual-booting is a new concept.

    I can't think of any good reason to boot into anything Ubuntu/Canonical. I'm so fed up with Ubuntu and Canonical.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Dual boot on my Mac, fine, but why would I want to dual boot my iPhone when it is so perfect?

      1. Tommy Pock

        heeeeeeeee!

      2. Flippit

        Christmas irony, always a winner ;-)

  2. M Gale

    Cool idea, not that dual-booting is a new concept.

    On a phone?

    Just be glad the fruit merchant didn't do it, otherwise they'd have a patent on it by now. Yes I know, the chances of Apple even entertaining a dual-boot iPhone are about the same as the chances of anything coming from Mars.

    (Well, excluding our own Martian).

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      On a mobile device. The terminology matters.

      Now where's my patent?

    2. Geoff Campbell Silver badge

      On a tablet, certainly.

      I've had dual-boot Android/WebOS on an HP Touchpad for a while now (couple of years? Can't remember when the Touchpad fire-sale happened).

      GJC

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: On a tablet, certainly.

        But which one do you actually use?

        1. pepper

          Re: On a tablet, certainly.

          I got Maemo Fremantle, NITDroid and Debian on my N900 with Dual Boot. there is also a KDE version I still have to give a go(got a SD card for that recently).

          1. JeffyPoooh
            Pint

            Re: On a tablet, certainly.

            "... on my N900..."

            Harrumph. My N905, that's five units better, boots straight into Kobo. ;-)

            Merry Xmas.

            1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
              Stop

              Horrible!

              I regard this as a cruel and unusual punishment.

              The drooling classes already have a major headache having to actually make a decision as to which particular type of shiney they should buy next - and from which vendor. To then force them to decide on two different operating systems is just inhuman.

      2. FraK
        Thumb Up

        Re: On a tablet, certainly.

        Same here, I got mine on eBay though. I think I've booted into WebOS once since I got it.

    3. John Savard

      Windows 8

      Of course, Windows 8 is a bit like an Android system that lets you drop into Linux; but without rebooting. Since Android is Linux-based, that would be possible for it as well.

      1. M Gale

        Re: Windows 8

        If you mean "lets you drop to a Windows command line", you might want to check out Busybox for Android (there's non-root versions too). Lets you open up a terminal window, erm, without rebooting.

        Other than that, Windows 8 isn't really like Android at all, except perhaps both being designed around toy fondleslabs and the default UI being a bit shit on anything that's not a fondleslab.

    4. Fuzz

      I had windows mobiles that booted 6.5 and an early Android

      When any "new" feature is touted for mobile you generally find that either Nokia or Windows mobile had it years ago

  3. lupine

    hmmm

    stuck touch on my old s2 a while back (maybe 6 moths ago) and while it looked alright...that was about it. lacking in functionality and i scrubbed it and went back to cyanogenmod.

    it's not going near my nexus 4 due to the lack of internal storage (yeah...i bought the 'cheap' 16GB version).

    1. Pseudonymous Coward

      Re: hmmm

      > it's not going near my nexus 4 due to the lack of internal storage (yeah...i bought the 'cheap' 16GB version).

      The 'cheap' version had 8 GB, that's the one I have.

      1. lupine

        Re: hmmm

        you're quite right...had some doubts not long after posting... i have the 'not that cheap' 16GB version...

  4. Tom 7

    What is the point of that

    there can't be more than a few hundred thousand free apps that will now run on your phone?

    Wish I'd got one with a pen tho!

  5. Vociferous

    Interesting concept.

    Is Ubuntu good on phones? I'm not sure what advantages one would get by booting Ubuntu instead of Android.

    What I would really need is any way to allow Windows Phone phones to boot some other OS. Any other OS.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Trollface

      Optional

      Well, now that Nokia is no more and Elop finished his job, Microsoft could put an OS people do want on the Lumia and get them to sell for a profit at last. Oh well, it is nice to dream...

    2. JEDIDIAH
      Linux

      Re: Interesting concept.

      This could be useful for old devices that you would otherwise send into the landfill. Boot it into a new OS and give it a new lease on life. I really can't see putting this on one my current devices though.

    3. EPurpl3

      Re: Interesting concept.

      "Is Ubuntu good on phones? I'm not sure what advantages one would get by booting Ubuntu instead of Android."

      Gimp will be great on a tablet. Inkscape too, especially if you will be able to use the touch as a graphical tablet.

  6. The Grinning Duck

    Any chance they can...

    ...do the same thing for my Chromebook?

    It would, on occasion, be useful.

    Not, of course, that I regret purchasing a device based primarily on the fact that the keys are all in lower case...

    Not at all. Not in the slightest...

    But seriously, the Chromebook just what I need 90% of the time, and then utterly useless for the remaining 10%, which I knew in advance, but dual boot would solve that issue neatly.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Any chance they can...

      Have a look for a thing called crouton which flips you into a linux and apparently you can toggle between the two without loosing state - cant guarantee that as I've not tried it nyself.

      1. Flippit

        Re: Any chance they can...

        I've got a chromebook ARM3 from Samsung running Ubuntu using crouton and it's fantastic - the series 3 machine foes have it's limitations but is surprisingly capable running Ubuntu 12.04 and unity. I use it for some ruby and Python development. It's a great improvement over the base chrome o/s and it only took about an hour to set up too...

      2. The Grinning Duck

        Re: Any chance they can...

        Thanks, folks.

        I've put that there Crouton on my Samsung, and so far so spiffy.

        Easy to do, too, even a techtard like me managed to follow the instructions without anything falling off, despite being fuelled up on Winter Solstice Merry Juice at the time.

    2. Dave Lawton
      Linux

      Re: Any chance they can...

      Some links for you :-

      Google chromebook crouton

      How to Install Linux on a Chromebook

      Chromebooks and Chrome OS

      HTH

    3. EPurpl3

      Re: Any chance they can...

      "...do the same thing for my Chromebook?"

      Did you prayed for that? Ha ha ha ha ha ha

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why the hell

    Would I want to dual boot my perfectly running Android and run a horrible slow vista mark 2 kludge exactly?

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: AC Re: Why the hell

      "Would I want to dual boot my perfectly running Android and run a horrible slow vista mark 2 kludge exactly?" Because then you have greater control over the device and it won't spend half it's time reporting back to Google and the cellular provider everything you look at, download or do.

      1. M Gale

        Re: AC Why the hell

        and it won't spend half it's time reporting back to Google and the cellular provider everything you look at, download or do.

        It'll just report it all to Canonical and Amazon. Not sure which is better.

  8. Uncle Ron

    Storage?

    Anybody know how much space it takes? Say, on an old Nexus 7?

  9. Gannettt

    "...in the dead days between Christmas and whenever you go back to work..."

    For me, Boxing Day. My last employer in the UK, before I moved out to the good ol' USA, invariably gave us the week between Christmas and New Year off; here it's off at 3 on Christmas Eve, and back to work on the 26th. :( There are a lot of things I like about living out here, but the three things I don't like are the measly 10 days' paid holiday a year, only getting Christmas Day off, and the awful plastic cheese!

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: xmas in US

      "the measly 10 days' paid holiday a year, only getting Christmas Day off, and the awful plastic cheese!"

      Yeah, I was a bit surprised to find Americans don't get Dec 26 off work. Working for a UK publisher at least means Reg staff worldwide get UK-grade time off.

      As for the cheese, well, I tried it on a 7-11 hotdog once. Once.

      Merry Christmas from balmy northern California,

      C.

      1. Hideki

        Re: xmas in US

        Plastic cheese is not limited to the USA. Unfortunately.

        Look at the ingredients list on this stuff I bought from the co-op the other day while not paying attention... (it's 89% not cheese!)

        http://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1480488_10153586397710507_1311025223_n.jpg

        1. JeffyPoooh
          Pint

          Re: xmas in US

          "...it's 89% not cheese!..."

          It clearly states on the package, "Keep in fridge...".

          i.e. Never take it out. Certainly don't eat it.

    2. EPurpl3

      Actually this article was not about you paid days.

  10. IGnatius T Foobar
    Linux

    There already is a Linux for mobiles.

    There already is a Linux for mobiles. It's called "Android" and it's the market leader by far. Why would anyone want Ubuntu -- the OS that captured the imagination and attention of the entire Linux community and then threw it all away by pushing the universally hated Unity desktop?

    Seriously guys, if you want to do something useful, find a way for us to get cheap ultra-subsidized Windoze phones and then reload them with Android.

    1. paulc

      Re: There already is a Linux for mobiles.

      [quote]Why would anyone want Ubuntu[/quote]

      Because it's NOT Android...

      <quote>find a way for us to get cheap ultra-subsidized Windoze phones and then reload them with Android.</quote>

      What and let Microsoft count them as sales figures???

      I already know that Linux will run on an Android phone, it's just the version of Linux that matters, getting Linux onto a winphone is far harder, especially with the secure boot locking for ARM devices already turned on.

      PS guys, come on, it wouldn't be too difficult to provide a simple guide as to what tags work...

    2. John Savard

      Re: There already is a Linux for mobiles.

      Android is based on Linux. Unless it's rooted, though, it can't do everything Linux can do.

    3. tracyanne

      Re: There already is a Linux for mobiles.

      quote:: then threw it all away by pushing the universally hated Unity desktop? ::quote

      There is no compulsion to use Unity. I regularly install Ubuntu for people and then install Cinnamon or Mate to replace Unity, it's easy, and you are probably some one who is sufficiently computer literate as to be able to do it. Of course there are also those computer semi literate users who actually like Unity, so I leave it there for them to use.

      So stop complaining about something that will not change, that it is unnecessary to require be changed, and which it doesn't matter if you like, or not. If you like everything else about Ubuntu then install it and change the desktop, or install Linux Mint, if you don't know how to replace Unity.

  11. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Alert

    One word of warning....

    Anyone that has rooted their mobile will know the fun and games of then trying to get it fixed under warranty. I'm pretty sure the cellular service providers will take a dim view (pun unintended) of anything that could loosen their control of the handset.

  12. Paddy

    unleash the power of your portable network.

    Hi. I have a Nexus 10 tablet in a case with a Bluetooth keyboard. Not only would I welcome proper Unix running on the tab, I would also welcome a capability to network my Nexus 5 phone and be able to run ipython notebooks on the network when travelling.

    Tablets and phones have a lot of power. A more standard Linux would allow that power to be used for traditional work tasks.

  13. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    ***DON'T DO IT!!! IT'LL EAT YOUR MASTER BOOT RECORD!!!***

    Probably not, but updating to Ubuntu 10.whatever, and the ugly Grub it rode in on, they ate the MBR on my PC. Idiots. No, I've not yet forgiven them.

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