Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Ubuntu 13.04 on Google Nexus 7

Canonical has recently released a developer preview of Ubuntu 13.04 for Google Nexus devices.

I figured, what the heck, may as well try it out on my Google Nexus 7. Following these instructions, the installation went off without a hitch.

I used a laptop running Ubuntu 12.10 to perform the installation.

Following the installation, I ran into the issue during First Boot where the on screen keyboard didn't work. I don't have an OTG adapter cable, but do have a Bluetooth Logitech Android tablet keyboard. As stated in the instructions, the Bluetooth keyboard doesn't work during first boot.

That is, initially :-)

I got around this by clicking the Gear icon in the upper right corner and clicking System Settings -> Bluetooth. I clicked the add button and put the keyboard into connect mode. The keyboard successfully synced with the tablet.

Great, however now I couldn't find a way to close the System Settings window. I could move it around, but couldn't get the focus away and back to the First Boot screen.

No problem, click the Gear icon again and select restart. Upon reboot, the Bluetooth keyboard works fine on the First Boot windows.