Install Ubuntu Touch on LG Nexus 5 with Android 4

dobey

@MarkG_108 said in Install Ubuntu Touch on LG Nexus 5 with Android 4.0:

So, it's not possible to install Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus 5 phone that's blank (IE, perhaps freshly formatted with TWRP) and without Android (or LineageOS or whatver)?

It certainly is possible. The recommendation of flashing latest factory image first, is to ensure you have latest radio firmware available for the device.

MarkG_108

@dobey Thanks. Since it's possible, that's what I did. I had LineageOS 14.1 on the phone (Nexus 5). I used TWRP to wipe everything, including cache, system, data, and internal storage, and then I installed Ubuntu Touch. Working okay so far.

adeliepenguin

@dobey said in Install Ubuntu Touch on LG Nexus 5 with Android 4.0:

It certainly is possible. The recommendation of flashing latest factory image first, is to ensure you have latest radio firmware available for the device.

I purchased a device with old Android (Nexus 7 / Android 4.4.3). I'm in the process of upgrading it OTA to the final version 6.0.1. My question: Will I be able to use the latest radio firmware later in UT? Or is flashing the latest vendor image via adb mandatory?

How can I tell from within UT which firmware version I have? (I got my Nexus 5 pre-installed via ebay.) I'm sure this is visible somewhere in the system. Maybe boot logs?

Lakotaubp

@adeliepenguin As far as I can remember if you update to the latest android version for your device you will be perfectly Ok. I cannot recall seeing updates for radio firmware on the Nexus 7 only the 5 and that was sometime ago. Though I do stand to be corrected on that. Do a web search for where to find firmware info think I remember it in bootloader mode on Nexus 5 but........

ezze

@adeliepenguin I was upgrading radio firmware on one of my Nexus 5 after migrating from Android to Ubuntu Touch. Here is a reference:

https://forums.ubports.com/topic/815/howto-n5-update-baseband-firmware

Not sure about Nexus 7. But this is where you can check firmware images for Nexus 7:

ezze

@adeliepenguin To check radio firmware version connect your phone to your PC and enable developer mode. Then:

adb shell
/usr/share/ofono/scripts/list-modems | grep Revision

dobey

@adeliepenguin said in Install Ubuntu Touch on LG Nexus 5 with Android 4:

How can I tell from within UT which firmware version I have?

If you reboot to the bootloader screen (fastboot mode), it shows directly on the screen the radio version.

adeliepenguin

@dobey said in Install Ubuntu Touch on LG Nexus 5 with Android 4:

If you reboot to the bootloader screen (fastboot mode), it shows directly on the screen the radio version.

Thanks! I'm glad this is visible without connecting the phone to another device.

So it turns out my used Nexus 5 already has the latest version.

adeliepenguin

@ezze Thanks for the links. Very interesting reading!

(My target Nexus 7 actually is a 2nd gen. with LTE, so I will need deb instead of razor. But that's just a tiny detail.)

dobey

@adeliepenguin I always see confusion about this.

razor is the OEM image for 2013 Nexus 7 WiFI
razorg is the OEM image for 2013 Nexus 7 LTE

The OEM images are called this, because there was a 2nd generation build of the 2013 Nexus 7, which changed the eMMC, and which was called razor. However the razor images are also the same as used on deb/flo, the first gen 2013 Nexus 7 tablets.

2012 Nexus 7 is not supported by UT anyway, but I think also had a similar generational change, and the OEM images for it are called nakasi and nakasig respectively.

adeliepenguin

@dobey said in Install Ubuntu Touch on LG Nexus 5 with Android 4:

[...] However the razor images are also the same as used on deb/flo, the first gen 2013 Nexus 7 tablets.

Thanks for sorting this out. Mine says "product name: deb" in bootloader mode, but there's no such image on Google's download page. I'll use razorg then to compare firmware versions.