What hardware will the Ubuntu Touch support?

Question

With the announcement of the Ubuntu Phone OS I'd like to know what phone models are supported at this time.

_{Note from foss & Oli: We are making this the master question for all future "Will this work on <insert random tablet/phone here>?!" questions}

Answer 1

The Touch Developer preview is out

Supported Devices

• Galaxy Nexus
• Nexus 4
• Nexus 7
• Nexus 10

There's really no way to tell which future devices people will choose to work on, however there is a working list of devices that the community is working to enable here:

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices

Release Notes

• Be sure to check for Known Issues before you proceed.
• And Device Specific Issues as well.

Applications Available

The Developer Preview comes with the following functioning applications:

• Gallery
• Phone (Dialer, SMS, Address Book)
• Camera
• Browser
• Media Player and
• Notepad.

Other non-functioning sample applications are included for demonstration purposes only:

• Weather
• Music Player
• Calculator
• Ski Safari.

Only for Evaluation

• Quoting from Ubuntu Wiki:

  The Touch Developer Preview project provides the open source code for enthusiasts and developers, to familiarise themselves with Ubuntu's phone and tablet experience and develop applications on spare devices.

  It is currently work in progress and intended for enthusiasts who want to contribute testing and building the platform.

• Further quoting from their Install page:

  It does not provide all of the features and services of a retail phone and cannot replace your current handset.

  This process will delete all data from the device. Restoring Android will not restore this data.

  So be sure to do a complete backup before venturing out.

Flashing the device

Head here for instructions on flashing your device.

What to expect after flashing

• Shell and core applications
• Connection to the GSM network (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4)
• Phone calls and SMS (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4)
• Networking via Wifi Functional camera (front and back)
• Functional camera (front and back)
• Device accessible through the Android Developer Bridge tool (adb)

Restoring Android

Instructions are here for you to restore your Android once you have played enough.

Answer 2

It's certainly not slated as a supported hardware and I would say it's unlikely to ever officially become such. The only two tablets supported are the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. Phone support is again only slated for Nexus devices (Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus).

You may be able to hack it on but given the differing hardware, you'd have to do quite a bit of work.

Answer 3

I have started an Ubuntu Touch FAQ in order to have some answers to frequent questions available:

please look here: On which devices does this Developer Preview run?

and here: Can you make it run on my device xyz as well?

Answer 4

As of tomorow (02-21-2013) there should be downloadable images available that will work on the Google Nexus (by Samsung), Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10.

They will only work on those 4 devices cause they've been specifically compiled for that hardware.

Since the code will be published online it is to be expected that over the coming weeks and month many other devices will get ports – either officially from Canonical or from independent developers – that will allow you to flash it on your specific hardware.

Good places to look for future information regarding 'Ubuntu for Tablets/Phones' (and especially ports) would probably be OMG! Ubuntu! , Phoronix or ubuntu-news

Update:
See this page for more official information of porting Ubuntu touch Ubuntu Wiki as of tomorow (02-22-2013) it will have detailed information of what needs to be done to port to other devices.

Answer 5

I think you can use any Hardware/Device in as much it meets the following requirements.

The hardware requirements are quite acceptable. The Entry level Ubuntu smartphone needs to have at least a 1Ghz Cortex A9 (single core as the bare minimum), 512MB or 1GB memory, a 4-8GB eMMC + SD for storage, and Multi-touch capability.

The high-end Ubuntu "superphone" is a little more demanding and will need at least Quad-core A9 or Intel Atom processors, minimum 1GB for memory, minimum 32GB eMMC + SD for storage, and Multi-touch.*

I don't know if it support tablet because of screen resolution. it will be awesome though on tablet.

Sources: Click Here

Answer 6

On OMG!Ubuntu → (link now doesn't work) http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/01/ubuntu-phone-download-will-be-ready-late-february. Source of Ubuntu Phone OS (UPOS) will be aviaible. But that is build for Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4, don't Nokia.

.IMG file - probably

N9 is great phone, and UPOS can be installed... also, hardware is same as lot of phones, one of that is Galaxy Nexus, phone where UPOS is presented.

If developers can build Android for N9, developers can build UPOS for N9. Wait, and N9 will be on UPOS support list in future.

Also, Android drivers can be used for UPOS. Android drivers for N9 exist. Android drivers + Nexus UPOS build = N9 UPOS build. That's my mind.

Answer 7

It seems it will be for the high end handsets from what I have read. Apparently the first handset to get a image will be the nexus handset, which is googles own device. The galaxy nexus is the device that it was running on for showing the techys at CES I think...

So if your device is along those lines hardware wise then you possibly could but, I wouldn’t hold your breath. Unless you have the skills to port it over to the handset yourself you will need to wait for somebody to port an image of the OS onto it.

Answer 8

Will Ubuntu for phone run well on a Samsung Galaxy Tab2 with 3G?

Some background:

• The Ubuntu for Phone build is for phones.

• The Samsung Galaxy Tab2 (7" or 10.1") is a tablet.

• A tablet with 3G has mobile 'broadband' data capabilities.

So, with a 3G-capable tablet you can use VoIP, but not make 'mobile' phone calls. (Unless you add some add-on 'device' to the tablet.) That equally applies regardless of what OS is present on the tablet.

---

A different question (which you did not ask) is whether there will be a version of Ubuntu that will work on the Galaxy Tab2.

Answer 9

Canonical gives its specifications on the Operator and OEM Partner page.

Answer 10

OmgUbuntu reported on a meeting of Mark Shuttleworth anouncing that the first Ubuntu Phones will be available in October 2013.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/02/first-ubuntu-phone-available-october-says-shuttleworth

So hopefully we will see the first devices soon.

Answer 11

The makers of Ubuntu will not be supporting the development of its tablet operating system on other devices, but they clearly state that the source code will be available. That means anyone willing to work on it can port the operating system to any device that supports its seemingly hardware intensive interface.

Answer 12

I wrote about this a while back but I figure this may help those who stumble across this in the future.

Top 5 devices you can buy right now that we know support Ubuntu Touch

Answer 13

Now, you can either install the app Ubuntu on tablets or try the develop preview mobile operating system. You can read more details from this page.