Installing Ubuntu on Nexus 7 2013 deb (LTE)

doniks · 29 Aug 2016, 16:21

@marxjohnson said in Installing Ubuntu on Nexus 7 2013 deb (LTE):

I attempted to follow these instructions, but after I see the message "Rebooting into recovery to flash" in the terminal, the tablet gets stuck on the "This phone needs restoring from a PC..." screen.

I had that originally as well, but now I did use the boot.img and recovery.img zubozrout provided in the google drive link and then it worked. Did you use those?

doniks · 29 Aug 2016, 16:52

@zubozrout said in Installing Ubuntu on Nexus 7 2013 deb (LTE):

I did that https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/phone/devices/porting-new-device#anchor3 before I built the revocery.img and boot.img.

Ah yes, I followed the link in "Retrieving the proprietary blobs from Android" and extracted the three archives and now my boot.img seems to work.

.... now, how do we get this into the ubports repository?!

marxjohnson · 29 Aug 2016, 19:35

@doniks Yes, I followed the instructions just as shown; ran the --bootstrap command, flashed the boot.img and recovery.img, booted into recovery and ran the second flash command.

doniks · 29 Aug 2016, 20:00

Mhm, strange. Not sure what that could be. You are sure you have a deb and not a flo?

marxjohnson · 10 Sept 2016, 12:46

@doniks Definitely:

mark@coachz:~/Downloads/deb_images$ ubuntu-device-flash ubuntu-device-flash --server
http://system-image.ubports.com touch --channel ubuntu-touch/rc-proposed --bootstrap
2016/09/10 13:33:52 Expecting the device to be in the bootloader... waiting
2016/09/10 13:33:52 Device is |deb|

doniks · 10 Sept 2016, 12:56

lets take a step back, maybe we can figure it out.

can you install the recovery and then boot into it? what do you see?

doniks · 13 Sept 2016, 18:49

@zubozrout said in Installing Ubuntu on Nexus 7 2013 deb (LTE):

What doesn't work:

bluetooth

for some reason camera, but this one should work - may be fixed with server update

It sounds like you are less optimistic about bluetooth than about the camera. Do you know why bluetooth is not working or can you share anything that might help getting it to work?

zubozrout · 13 Sept 2016, 19:27

@doniks unfortunately I don't know much on this subject. The reason why I made this statement was the fact I was using Ubuntu on my Nexus 7 deb for a long time, originally with Vojtěch Boček's http://system-image.tasemnice.eu/ server that had unfortunately started to be problematic by the end of 2015 and completely stopped working in February this year. Bluetooth never worked with his builds on Nexus 7 deb while camera did work quite well. However, if you flash flo's image on deb I think that Bluetooth works so perhaps this info may be usable.

doniks · 13 Sept 2016, 19:44

@zubozrout I just tried booting the boot.img for flo from the ubuntu server, but that doesnt make a difference. Maybe installing the complete flo image would make a difference, but I dont feel like setting everything up again. One of these days Ill try.

zubozrout · 14 Sept 2016, 07:27

@doniks Yup, that is what I meant ... the complete official flo image. You can try installing it without the --bootstrap option and if you are lucky you won't lose any data. But I am not sure if that will suffice. It is possible that if and when mariogrip compiles the whole system with the drivers we compiled our recovery and boot images the camera and Bluetooth will miraculously start working - though I know nothing about that process so take it just as a very wild guess.

marxjohnson · 19 Sept 2016, 11:22

@doniks I finally got it working! I had to use the -w flag when doing the fastboot commands.

The full steps I used for the successful flash:

ubuntu-device-flash touch --channel=ubuntu-touch/stable/ubuntu --device=flo --bootstrap
# Reboot into bootloader
fastboot flash -w boot boot.img
fastboot flash -w recovery recovery.img
# Boot into recovery
ubuntu-device-flash --server http://system-image.ubports.com touch --channel ubuntu-touch/rc-proposed

doniks · 24 Sept 2016, 16:38

@marxjohnson good!

doniks · 24 Sept 2016, 16:53

@zubozrout said in Installing Ubuntu on Nexus 7 2013 deb (LTE):

@doniks Yup, that is what I meant ... the complete official flo image. You can try installing it without the --bootstrap option and if you are lucky you won't lose any data.

I did try it now:

device boots fine
no data loss
OTA 13
camera works
audio does not work
video playback does not work
initially wifi didn't work either, but it does work now .... dunno
initially bluetooth didn't work either, I was about to give up, but after the Idon'tknowhowmanyreboots it works!

Mhm, now how do I get sound and video back ?!

zubozrout · 24 Sept 2016, 23:36

@doniks There is no way I know of. You are either stuck with not really functional flo's image or you flash the deb stuff on it again but you'll have to say good bye to the bluetooth and camera. The only way to fix this is either to somehow compile the whole image on your own or ask the owner of this server for some help - if he would be kind enough to talk to you. In any case, good luck - I was stuck at that point long enough to lose interest :(, that is the only reason why I got rid of my N7.

doniks · 25 Sept 2016, 05:13

@zubozrout said in Installing Ubuntu on Nexus 7 2013 deb (LTE):

@doniks There is no way I know of. You are either stuck with not really functional flo's image or you flash the deb stuff on it again but you'll have to say good bye to the bluetooth and camera.

Yeah, seems like. I have switched back now by replacing the android lxc system.img inside the ubuntu system image in the new flo installation with the one from the ubports device.tar.xz . Camera and bluetooth gone, sound and video back, but ota13 remained.

Also, judging from the kernel configs, it seems that in the flo image there is a newer kernel, but I cant see any difference in the running system.

The only way to fix this is either to somehow compile the whole image on your own

I wouldnt mind doing it, Im just stuck. I was staring at repo manifests, Makefiles and lunch, brunch scripts, but I couldnt figure out what I would have to do to get the source tree I got with repo from either ubports or canonical to change it such that it builds a flo image. Also, I would suspect, that 'just' building it would only bring you to the point without bluetooth.

or ask the owner of this server for some help - if he would be kind enough to talk to you.

Didnt get very far there. Dont wanna put words in his mouth, but seems he doesnt have an N7, so he cant really test.

In any case, good luck - I was stuck at that point long enough to lose interest :(, that is the only reason why I got rid of my N7.

Thanks! Your tips where most helpful!

flohack · 3 Mar 2019, 21:47

@zubozrout we have fixed the problem on the system image server, you can try to install deb now with the installer or ubuntu device flash and everything should work, without any hacking!

zubozrout · 4 Mar 2019, 07:12

@Flohack Thank you. Sadly I don't have that device for something like 2.5 years but am very happy it got fixed. Nice work :).

doniks · 4 Mar 2019, 17:32

@marxjohnson could you give it a spin?

paultimperley · 23 Mar 2021, 16:20

@flohack Hi there, I appreciate this is quite some time after the thread was active, but I still have a Nexus 7 2013 LTE unit, whereby the bluetooth non-function issue and telephone audio issue are present. I wonder, is the thread for further ongoing improvement of this N7 2013 LTE ubports distribution mothballed, or is there chance to continue? Honestly, i'd have a go at contributing, but I just don't think I'm knowledgable enough as yet, though i suppose I could test. Your thoughts much appreciated. PT

Lakotaubp · 23 Mar 2021, 17:29

@paultimperley You are probably better off re posting here https://forums.ubports.com/category/58/google-nexus-7-2013-lte-wifi in our newish sub categories. Let me know when you have done so and I will lock this thread.