Ubuntu OS on Fairphone 2

Hi,

I ordered a new Fairphone 2 and I want to install Ubuntu OS.

How does this work?

Thx

Greets Phil

I think itā€™s still not possible.

Of course its possible, just requires a bit of work.

https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/start/ubuntu-for-devices/porting-new-device/

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Thx r0kk3rz.

Did you try it to install?

So I only have to follow the steps from the link?

Greets Phil

No, I do not have a Fairphone 2.

ā€˜Onlyā€™ is perhaps a bit misleading, the steps should give you something bootable, but then the real fun begins of debugging all the things that donā€™t work.

Okā€¦

So it wonā€™t work properly?

Iā€™ll try, if I get my Fairphone 2, weā€™ll see if it work.

Operating Systems must be adapted (ā€œportedā€) to a new device before it can be used properly. As far as I know you need to have some deeper knowledge of how the OS communicates with the device in order to port it. Iā€™m guessing that in the next few months/years the Fairphone community (or other cummunities) will port alternative OSes (Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, Firefox OS,ā€¦) and make them publicly available so itā€™s easier for ā€œnormal usersā€ like me to install them. :smile:

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If you are not familiar with porting, modifying and building operating systems on phones I can promise you it will be a long, hard work to get it working (even for confirmed power users it is). You might be better off getting slowly into the world of mobile operating system cooking (Androidā€™s quite great for that, and Ubuntu Touch is based on it) and waiting for experienced users to do a more professional port.

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If the toolchain and build system are available and the phone is open ā€¦ itā€™s possible. So far code was not published. I think it will never work with the FP1 (it will stop with 4.4.x and the code to adapt to 5 or other OS will not be published due to licenses issues ā€¦ if I interpreted the blog entries correctly), but the full toolchain and build system was promised for the FP2. So the chances for the FP2 are not that bad. But the port will not be support by the FP project, as far as I understand (still ā€¦ just remembering and interpreting the blogs like I remember them, nothing I could link to.).

News from the well informed Ubuntu-Blog OMG-Ubuntu:

The Ubuntu-community has been working on porting Ubuntu Touch to a Fairphone 2. Apparantly, it will be showcased in the Ubuntu Booth at Mobile World Congress this month?

@anon90052001, & @Douwe, can you confirm this?

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Nice! Thats a good thing to look forward to. I was quite psyched about Firefox OS, but that went away quickly after their announcement todayā€¦ :confused:

Looks like someone needs to upgrade the progress bar :slightly_smiling: But the oneplus one is pretty much the same so this could make sense.

Yeah, we heard, this is pretty nice and amazing!

I need to stress that the work of Ubuntu (and Firefox and Jolla) although supported by Fairphone, is not our work. We are really happy with the work of the communities, but we are not always up to date ourselves what and how fast they are making stuff work. They are true community efforts.

And thus we also have nothing to say on their presentation at MWCā€¦

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New Update on a Port of Ubuntu Touch for the FP2:

@Douwe, your forum post is also quoted in the article :slight_smile:

Another very relevant quote is the following:

[quote]ā€¦be aware that the Fairphone 2 does not support MHL (a USB to HDMI technology) so cannot be connected to an external monitor through a cable to drive a ā€˜converged desktop experienceā€™.

We donā€™t yet know Ubuntu plans for wireless connection technologies like Miracast which could, in theory, support such a feature.
[/quote]

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just saw this spanish article:


Refering to Marius GripsgƄrds article.

http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Aethercast-Ubuntu-WiDi

So, the problem with lacking MHL-support might be solved, sooner or laterā€¦

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Hey everone,

here is a description how to install Ubuntu OS alpha on the FP2:

https://devices.ubports.com/#/FP2

Please note: this seems to be at a really early development stage. The only things that are currently working are: Graphics, Boot & Touch.

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I said it for Fairphone 1 and Iā€™ll repeat for Fairphone 2 : this is my dream telephone, but I wonā€™t just use it with a google account cause I donā€™t trust google, I donā€™t like google, I think google is much a greater problem for the world than the ones Fairphone is trying to solve. So as soon as I get an open source OS Iā€™ll buy it without a second thought, and Ubuntu would be my first choice.

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@ale
Well, the FP OSOS is ready for testing and works just fine. You can sign up here or wait a few more weeks (I guess) until it will be officially available.
Moreover, also Sailfish OS is available for testing and hopefully soon will officially be available.

Anyhow, it is easily powwible to install an OS without the need for a google account already.

Btw: also for the FP1 you didnā€™t need one, as the Gapps where not pre-installed.

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What do you think, are they still working on this? https://devices.ubports.com/#/FP2

Iā€™d really love to see Ubuntu running on my FP2!