That time again (sadly)

Well its assignment time again for me at Uni so my time for working on this has once again been cut alot. I do plan to try and get a new 12.04 image out this week and also update the free ubuntu app and the backtrack app with the new v6 boot scripts and other small updates. But in a few weeks time I should again have plenty of time and push hard with getting X11 working and a better more automated installer!

Looking for new logo(s)

I am looking to create a better logo for the linuxonandroid project along with new logos for all the apps, and new header images for the market pages.


If anyone would like to come up some designs for any of the above please email me with them.


zac@zpwebsites.com


As this is something I do not have much time right now to do this so any help from people would be great!

Now live on Twitter and Google+

We are now live on Twitter and Google+ completing the trio of social networks I shall be using to beam the content straight to you!
https://plus.google.com/b/113616906427358521992/
https://twitter.com/#!/Linuxonandroid

Enjoy :)

Linux On Android is now on facebook!

So I have decided to start setting up 'official' social media pages for the project (I have been posting through my google+ and twitter), This gives everyone easier ways to follow whats going on in the project, and a range of ways to contact me and users if you have any problems or questions/ideas etc etc.
I have decided there will be a google+ and twitter accounts along with the facebook just set up, so get liking :) and I shall update with info of google+ and twitter accounts tomorrow!

Thank you all

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Linux-on-Android/203421269765824

What do you want to see in the 12.04 builds?

So after Canonical posted about there 'amazing' 'new' ubuntu running on android, I started thinking about some of the features they where offering and thought that for the best part it would be quite easy to integrate some stuff e.g pictures and videos taken on the android device, music stored on the device etc etc, after all the sdcard is already mounted might as well put it to use.
But the question is does anyone really want this?
Perhaps it should wait for my stable 12.04 and I should work more on getting unity and native X11 working first?

Please let me know what you want to see first in the next few releases, after all we have a good few months until stable 12.04 might as well see what we can cram in before then :)

You have control over what comes first!
(of cause keep it sensible no I am not going to port WINE and port windows programs to arm :P at least not right now.....)

New 12.04 full image

Another update to the 12.04 image has just been pushed and a update to the paid app has been uploaded to the market to include this image.
The image change log is:

*Synced to updates as of today
*Fixed boot not asking for screen size (had left defualt boot saved)
*Installed Midori as a working web browser and removed Firefox (kept crashing)

Get it from source forge now:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxonandroid/files/Ubuntu/12.04/full/

Or wait for the paid app update to come to you to download from my server

Paid app updated to V2.1

The new update has just hit the market which includes:

*PAID new 12.04 images in testing
*PAID now includes 12.04 image install guide
*change logs now for script/images/app apart in app
*New V6 boot script which allows you to place the files anywhere and it will boot, along with other bug fixes (see boot script change log)
*Install guides grammer fixed and updated in line with newest images
+More see the change logs in the app for more details!

It might take a short while to hit the market but the update should be pushed to a device near you soon!

Change log archive

In the new app update the change logs will be split to app/bootscript/image to make it easier to find whats changed in what, as such the old change logs will be removed so here they are below as a archive, its quite nice looking back at how much progress has been made in little over two months!

29/01/12
*New V5 small image featuring fixed Java even more lightweight (now around 1.2GB free) and user can set screen size on boot
*PAID New Build guide which shows you how to build your own Ubuntu images
*Brand new UI To make the whole thing more useable
*PAID new one click boot feature to allow quick booting from either the widget or inside the app
*PAID new widget to activate the one click boot
*PAID app install guide changed in light of one click boot\n*Fixed keyboard mapping of random letters in Gnome

21/01/12
*Large ubuntu image now allows user to set screen size on boot!
*Large Ubuntu image now lets you select between LXDE and Gnome desktops\n*Large Ubuntu image has been recompiled to fix the likes of Java (note some of the above changes will be included in the small image in the future)
*FAQ section updated with more answers to questions I have been getting
*Install guide updated in light of the new large image

05/01/12
*PAID app file downloads now use new fast FTP server and support direct downloading (click the button to download a image and it starts to download right away)
*New boot script which has fixed problems with it not booting on alot of devices, and fixed problem which some people getting a grey screen when loading UI
*Boot script now downloaded in zip file to fix problems with downloading script
*Both apps fixed to support low resolutions
*Both apps cleaned up

26/12/11
*PAID app now supports 960x540 qHD resolution
*ALL Ubuntu lightweight images cleaned up even more saved another 300MB of space
*ALL Ubuntu images updated with all new updates
*ALL Ubuntu images now in .zip format to fix problems with some peoples devices failing to extract the .rar files
*Boot script updated, once booted now terminal acts like a command line interface for Ubuntu, and some boot problems now fixed
*Image and boot script now downloadable separately to allow easy updating of the script

20/12/11
*FREE APP new lightweight ubuntu images for 800x480
*PAID APP new lightweight ubuntu images for all resolutions\n\n15/12/11
*Ubuntu updated with all updates as of today
*FREE APP ubuntu image now resolution 800x480 to fit most phones
*PAID APP ubuntu image now has four resolutions 800x480, 854x480, 1024x600 and 1280x800"

12/12/11
*New 10.10 image update
*New built in script in Ubuntu to start vncserver and other services on boot
*SD card is accessible from within Ubuntu
*Image changed to 3.5GB to fit if you have a 4GB SD Card
*The ubuntu boot scripts are now on easy to use script!
*More working programs (including software centre etc)
*Default desktop changed back to LXDE
*More apps for developing

New 12.04 full image and Boot script

I have two new treats for you all.
Firstly there is a new 12.04 image which includes:
*Synced to updates as of today
*Chromium still having issues so firefox also included for now
*init.sh (the second half of the boot up) now lets you save your screen size as a default
*update manger, software center and synaptic package manger installed

The biggest change is that it now lets you save your default screen size so if your using my one click boot after the first boot you don't have to type anything into the terminal at all! (this is saved in a 'defaultboot.txt' file in /root to remove the defualt just delete this file)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxonandroid/files/Ubuntu/12.04/full/ubuntu12-full-230212.zip/download

There is also a new version (V6) of the Boot script, this script will work with both my 10.10 and 12.04 images and includes:
*Using relative links within the script which mean you can now place the script and image where ever you like and the script will work! (note however that the one click boot will still only work if the files are in sdcard/ubuntu)
*Script now checks to see if you have an external sdcard mounted and will mount it (not just if it’s on the sdcard/external_sd)
*Error massages fixed and cleaned up
*More Documentation within the script to make it easier to see what does what


http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxonandroid/files/Ubuntu/ubuntuV6-script.zip/download


The paid app will be updated hopefully today or tomorrow with the new boot script and new 12.04 images


enjoy

Canonicals post on Ubuntu within Android

As some of you may have seen Canonical (the company behind ubuntu) has posted information 'running ubuntu on dual core android' seen here http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
The XDA forums threads for my app have had a few people asking about this and I would like to put my views across (of cause these are my views not facts).
It seems to me that they are looking to join forces with phone manufacturers to start building ubuntu on/with android on future devices, they seem to only worry about wanting devices with at least two cores..which is very odd, my desire s runs ubuntu fine its only signal core!

As such getting anything usable from this 'project' may well not been seen for some months and even then may be very limited on how it works and on what devices it works on, its likely a 'cleaner' method would be found to running ubuntu but this would simply mean less devices could run it.

I am basing this on the Ubuntu TV project that was released a while ago but nothing has been seen for the open source/community.

Now the other question some might be thinking after seeing this, what about my app?
Well I will certainly not be giving up this project unless all interest in it dies, everyday I work close to getting more devices running and making the process even easier, with the release of my 12.04 images the focus is speed, usability and getting more devices the sweet Ubuntu love!

Once again thank you all for your interest, this project has blown my mind at how many people are interested!

First 12.04 full image now online

The first of my full 12.04 test images is now being uploaded and will be ready within  the hour.
This image is:

*Using LXDE for now due to problems with unity
*Chromium is included as browser but has problems displaying anything (will fix for next release)
*As this is the first release there are a whole host of issues please email me issues (zac@zpwebsites.com) if they are not already reported in mainstream ubuntu 12.04

As always these are test images so they are very unstable!
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxonandroid/files/Ubuntu/12.04/full/

Hears a picture of the newer LXDE desktop while you wait

Just hit 1000 Sales

I have just clocked up 1000 sales (including both backtrack and ubuntu sales) and would like to thank everyone that has support the project so far, its great to see such a response to something that started so small and I hope it continues to grow!

So thank you once again everyone who has bought my app and lets hope it keeps as strong so I can find the time to keep working hard on bringing new and easy ways of getting linux on your android devices!

Hopefully later tonight the GUI build will be ready but a note that it will not be unity to start with as there are issues with it, so for now the GUI will be LXDE until this bugs are fixed.

[UPDATE] 12.04 test images hit Source-forge!

[UPDATE]
core image is now online sorry about that
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxonandroid/files/Ubuntu/12.04/core/ubuntu12-core-180212.zip/download

Well after much posting saying that I will be building new images, and nothing happening for a while, the day has come.

In the past I have built my images from 10.10 and people have asked why I havn't updated this was because I was waiting for a buildable version of 12.04, which I have finally got working.

These images are purely for TESTING and in no way stable (after all 12.04 is only alpha 2 right now!) but I will be uploading images to source forge for you all to test if you wish.

New releases will be made to follow the releases of milestone versions of main Ubuntu (i.e alpha, beta etc) and possibly other releases between then as I make changes reading the build as a final build once the final official version is released. Until the final release if you wish something that is stable please stick to my 10.10 images, however the 10.10 images will no longer be updated. Before you post a bug please check on the Ubuntu bugs to see if it is something Ubuntu related and not related to just my build.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/TechnicalOverview/Alpha2

There will be two types of build 'core' and 'full'.

The 'core' images include only the most basic Ubuntu build with no GUI (however tightvncserver is set up if you wish to install one).

This is perfect if you do not want a GUI or want to install everything yourself, plus the download is much smaller

The 'full' images include a GUI and a range of programs, for now these images are like the old 'lightweight' images. 

But once we hit stable release I will build a larger image with the complete range of software.

The first core image is now live with a full image coming hopefully tomorrow!

For now enjoy :)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxonandroid/files/Ubuntu/12.04/

What have I been up to???

So the its been a good few days since I have posted, so what have I been up to?
Well firstly today I released a 2.0.1 update for the backtrack app as there was a error which meant it downloaded the wrong boot script.

Other than this there is yet to be more updates primarily because its once again Uni assignment time, which means my free time is very limited. But trust me I have plenty ideas for future releases which include a few of the following some of which i have started to already work on, these include:

• New updates to the boot script to make it work no matter where you put it!
• New updates to the multi-boot system to make it far smarter and less bugy
• Brand New 12.04 (alpha 2) 'test' image
• Working device database
• Plus more that I have forgot about at the moment.

So don't worry the project isn't dieing or anything simply slowing down for a week or so (possibly 2) while I do Uni work, then I am right back in to the project!
as always if you have anything you would like to see in future releases please post!

Ubuntu Installer Free 2.0 released

The new version of the free installer has now been released, featuring the same UI as the other installers and updated download links to source forge. The app also features a feature list comparing what you get in the free and paid apps.

If you have the free app installed check for updates now!
And if you are reading this and don't have my free or paid ubuntu apps then download and try it!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zpwebsites.ubuntuinstall

(might take a few minutes for the new version to show up, but its loaded!)

Backtrack installer 2.0 live!

The 2.0 update for Backtrack installer has just dropped on the marketplace!
Get it while its hot.
And for those that have not bought it yet, with this update the price point has been changed to 99p to be inline with the Ubuntu paid image.
You can have both Ubuntu and Backtrack on your sdcard at the same time (so long as you have the free space) so if you fancy trying a different linux distro get it while its hot!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zpwebsites.backtrackinstallguide

Backtrack V5 image cooked

The new version of the backtrack image is now cooked and ready, I shall be uploading tonight/tomorrow and then just have to finish up the app itself and then all will be ready to release.

A few have asked what are my plans after 2.0
Well I shall for atleast a week or so have to slow down development as this terms assignments have been released for a few of my Uni modules, so need to get these out of the way.
After that its back on the apps, a few features I will look to include are:

• Set location of the boot script/image for one click boot feature
• Mount both internal and external storage on a wider range of devices
• App automatically will create folder, download image and extract at the push of a button (this one will take some work but will get there for sure)

If there is anything else you would like to see in future releases please let me know!

Backtrack 2.0 in the works

I have decided to wait to push the free Ubuntu update until I have updated the Backtrack app, as I think it would be very much unfair to those that have paid to not get updates before those that haven't. The change log for the backtrack update will look something like this:


*User can set screen size on boot
*Brand new UI To make the whole thing more useable
*New 'one click boot' feature to allow quick booting from either the widget or inside the app
*New widget to activate the one click boot
*App install guide changed in light of 'one click boot'
*Fixed keyboard mapping of random letters

It is of cause subject to change before really but should give you a good idea of whats to come.
With the release of the update I shall also be permanently changing the apps price to 99p to keep it inline with the paid version of the Ubuntu app. A release should be finished by the end of the weekend with then the free Ubuntu app being pushed shortly after that.