2

in our company we developed an android app installed on nexus 7 tablets and on tablet we release to several customers. This app stays in foreground active 24/7 but we have problems in monitoring the devices due to the restrictive access policies of unrooted Android devices.

We can't for example reboot the device remotely.

We are evaluating the possibility of installing Ubuntu touch to replace android on this tablets. Does Ubuntu touch offer more freedom for the remote access of the device? May I do remotely everything I could do normally with the tablet?

Moreover, are the apps developed with ubuntu sdk stable enough to run 24/7?

Thanks

2 Answers 2

3

To allow communication between your Nexus 7 and your host system you'll need to enable the developer mode on your Ubuntu-touch device.

Go to System Settings -> About this phone -> Developer mode:

enter image description here

With the developer mode activated, you have several options to start a ssh connection to your device:

  1. From the Ubuntu SDK (you can even reboot from there):

    enter image description here

  2. Using the phablet-tools package (sudo apt-get install phablet-tools):

    Start the connection with phablet-shell and once connected type sudo reboot as you would normally do on a desktop system:

    $ phablet-shell
    /home/sylvain/.ssh/known_hosts updated.
    Original contents retained as /home/sylvain/.ssh/known_hosts.old
    Warning: Permanently added '[localhost]:2222' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
    Welcome to Ubuntu Utopic Unicorn (development branch) (GNU/Linux 3.4.0-3-flo armv7l)
    
     * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/
    Last login: Fri Oct 17 09:50:34 2014 from localhost.localdomain
    phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ sudo reboot
    [sudo] password for phablet: 
    
4
  • Thanks Sylvain, do you think enabling this developer mode on devices released to customers is a good practise? Moreover, is there the possibility that Ubuntu in the future will remove or limit this freedom of access? Thanks again
    – frankieta
    Oct 17, 2014 at 12:54
  • @frankieta Enabling the developer mode to test your app is ok, but no, delivering a product with this mode enabled by default is a bad idea / a security hole. Unfortunately I can't tell you how this feature will evolve. To follow the ubuntu-touch development you can subscribe/post to the mailing list (launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone). You may also find this post interesting. Oct 17, 2014 at 13:08
  • Do you have a link to some detailed technical info like this on Ubuntu Phone??? (or should I ask a question?) ;-)
    – Fabby
    Jul 2, 2015 at 23:17
  • @Fabby It depends on what sort of info you'd like to find. You may have better luck on the phone mailing list for technical details. Jul 3, 2015 at 7:16
0

On Ubuntu Touch 15.04 r4 I was able to enable SSH following this elegant method using good old netcat.

Now it is possible to reboot the device remotely with just ssh phablet@PHONEIP sudo reboot

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .