Ubuntu OS Touch Developer Preview has just been released for several Nexus devices offering Android and Ubuntu enthusiast a glimpse of what the guys over at Canonical, the team behind Ubuntu, have been brewing for the past several months. An official guide has been put up for those who want to install it on their phones, but sadly, the instructions only uses Ubuntu and leaves out other operating systems such as Windows and Mac.

As a person who has never used Ubuntu, I couldn’t understand a single instructions on the official page. After fiddling with the files a bit, I finally managed to flash it on my Nexus 4. Here are the instructions on how you can flash it on your device without even depending on any desktop Operating System.

Requirements

Before we proceed, please ensure that:

1. Your device’s bootloader is unlocked. Instructions.

2. You already have made a NANDroid backup of your phone/tablet using a custom recovery such as ClockWorkMod (CWM) or Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP).

How to Flash Ubuntu OS on Nexus 4 / Galaxy Nexus / Nexus 7 / Nexus 10

Step 1. Download the required files:

Please double check that the software code for which you’re downloading the device zip file (mako, grouper, etc.) matches your device’s code by going into Settings > About phone. For example, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus (toro) isn’t officially supported. Sorry guys.

Step 2. Copy both the zip files to your phone’s internal storage and reboot your phone into recovery mode by simultaneously pressing Volume Up + Volume down + Power buttons while your phone is switched off.

Step 3. Scroll down and select Wipe data / factory reset option. When completed, next select Wipe cache partition.

Step 4. Select install zip from sd-card and browse the ‘quantal-preinstalled-armel+XXXXX.zip’ that you had downloaded earlier, where XXXXX stands for your phone code.

Step 5. We’re almost done! Again select the install zip from sd-card option and this type browse for the phablet-ARMHF.zip file and flash it.

Step 6. There is no step 6. Reboot and enjoy Ubuntu OS on your phone! 😀

I’ll be updating this post with photographs as soon as I’m able to capture them. Feel free to shoot your questions if you have any.