Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
This month, in a departure from the norm, I present a quick HowTo on getting X apps installed on an Ubuntu device.
DISCLAIMER: Not all X Apps will work on all devices, and some that do work may not behave well. Most do work fine, but I just want people to know that this is not 100% every time.
In a desktop terminal, install phablet-tools:
sudo apt install phablet-tools
Connect your device to your PC with a USB cable. Turn on the screen and unlock your device.
On your device you need to enable ‘Developer Mode’ – this is in: System Settings > About > Developer Mode.
In a desktop terminal, try connecting to your device using:
adb shell
If you get:
error: device not found
try using:
sudo adb shell
I had to use sudo with adb to get it connected to my M10 tablet.
Your command prompt should change from something like:
ronnie@ronnie-desktop:~$
to showing:
phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$
It means that you are now connected to the device.
First run:
libertine-container-manager list
You should see only:
puritine
That’s the default container for the pre-installed apps. Don’t mess with this container. Be safe and create a new one for playing around in. This is done using:
libertine-container-manager create –id my-container –name “My Container” –distro vivid –type chroot
This (libertine-container-manager) will create a new container. In this example: • The container’s ID is my-container (which, of course, you can change) • The container’s Name is ‘My Container’ (which, again, you can change) • The distro is vivid (as that’s what is on all current Ubuntu devices as I write this article in August 2016).
After a short time, you will now have a new container to play in. For my first test, I wanted to install MyPaint which is a desktop app I use quite a lot.
The command I used (with my puritine2 container) to install MyPaint was:
libertine-container-manager install-package –id puritine2 –package mypaint
That installed MyPaint into my puritine2 container.
NOTE: In some cases it may be necessary to add the PPA with this command:
libertine-container-manager configure –id puritine2 –archive ppa:achadwick/mypaint-testing
Obviously, change puritine2 to the name of your container.
On checking the X Apps scope I see it listed!
Upon giving it a poke, and to my surprise, it loads!
To uninstall an app, you would use:
libertine-container-manager remove-package –id my-container –package PACKAGE_NAME
Again, substituting PACKAGE_NAME for the package name (eg: mypaint)
If you’ve hidden apps in the X Apps scope, and need a list of what’s in a container:
libertine-container-manager list-apps –id my-container
So there you have it. Desktop apps on a mobile device. Incredible!
I’ll say it again just to be safe: not every app will work flawlessly, and not all will behave as they should.
Sources:
Popescu Sorin and Sturm Flut - For bringing this awesomeness to my attention.
http://kylenubuntu.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/running-x-apps-on-ubuntu-devices.html - for the necessary commands, and detailed info.