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My friend has Nexus 4 with a broken touchscreen. The display works though so in theory it's possible to use it with Ubuntu and an external mouse/keyboard.

But is it possible to install Ubuntu without ever touching the screen? Will external mouse work in Android? Will it help unlock the bootloader? Is there any way to unlock it from adb?

Update

According to this XDA page the unlock prompt can be used with hardware keys:

You will now be prompted with a warning message, use the volume keys to highlight Yes and select it using the power button.

3 Answers 3

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Unlocking bootloader does not require a functional touchscreen, boot menus are fully controllable by hardware buttons.

Commands history:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-sdk-team/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ubuntu-device-flash phablet-tools

# Press Down and Power buttons on the phone, connect the USB cable
fastboot oem unlock
# Up, Power to agree
ubuntu-device-flash touch --channel=ubuntu-touch/stable/ubuntu --bootstrap --developer-mode --password <password>
# phablet-config writable-image
# phablet-config welcome-wizard --disable
adb shell

sudo nmcli dev wifi con "<ssid>" password "<password>"

USB mouse through OTG cable doesn't work, but generates a stacktrace from kernel in dmesg, maybe it will work later.

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Will it help unlock the bootloader? Is there any way to unlock it from adb?

To unlock the bootloader you run fastboot oem unlock, but you need to confirm this on the phone, so for this part you need the touch screen.

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  • Will external mouse not work?
    – int_ua
    Jan 19, 2016 at 16:57
  • In fastboot mode? I never tried, but I don't think so. Recovery mode and older custom recovery images worked with the volume buttons, but I think this particular menu relies on the touch screen.
    – LiveWireBT
    Jan 19, 2016 at 17:02
  • Check the update, there is an XDA page that says hardware keys must work. Will try it tomorrow maybe.
    – int_ua
    Jan 19, 2016 at 23:57
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    Hardware keys worked.
    – int_ua
    Jan 26, 2016 at 19:35
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On the Android Central Forum website where I read this, what they did was to cut a sheet of graph paper and place it over a working phone of the same model, of course, and mark where the presses were required for imput. Then they placed the paper over the broken phone and were able to get everything working.

This assumes that the screen is broken but presses are still being recognized.

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  • Thanks for the info, in my case touchscreen is completely dead.
    – int_ua
    Jan 26, 2016 at 22:49

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