Unbrick dead Google Nexus Galaxy – Install Ubuntu

Yesterday, I tried to turn on my Ubuntu Google Nexus phone and it was pretty dead… I couldn’t turn it on or charge it. I finally fixed it by following these steps:

Step 1: Install Windows 7

Step 2: Download the following drivers:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/q9fyyjo2yh8i48h/OMAPFlash.rar

Step 3: Unrar them (I used 7zip on windows – free and open source) and install them by pressing:

Start button -> Search for “Device Manager” -> Open Device Manager from search results

In Device Manager go to: Action -> Add legacy hardware -> Next -> Search for … (Recommended) -> Next -> click Show all devices -> Select TI Boards -> Have Disk… -> Browse -> choose the directory where you unrar the above OMAPFlash.rar and select usb_drv_windows/omap_winusb.inf

Repeat the step for usb_drv_android/android_winusb.inf

Step 4: Unplug the phone and remove the battery

Step 5: Plug the phone WITHOUT the battery

Step 6: Run the omap4460_tuna_hs_pro.bat (to find the cmd: Start -> Search for cmd -> Select cmd.exe)

Step 7: Put the battery back and press the closing button, the volume up and the volume down buttons all together

If everything is ok you ll see the bootloader at next boot…

After the successful unbrick I still I didn’t have a sane OS to boot (actually whatever I was selecting from the bootloader’s menu was resulting to a black screen).

So, as a next step I installed Android.

Then:

I plugged the phone back to my laptop that runs Ubuntu:

I downloaded this image (maguro): https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/yakju-jdq39-factory-b2ebb5f3.tgz from here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images and ran:

Then having the phone plugged and on (I was in the bootloader start screen) I ran:

1- $ fastboot devices (to get sure that my laptop can see the device)

2- Then I untared the image (tar xvf …), cd the extract directory, ran ./flash-all.sh (might need root permissions, I don’t remember)

3- I booted Android…

4- I went to Settings -> About

and I pressed 7 times the Build number (to enter developer mode)

5- I went back to Settings -> Developer options

and checked the USB debugging

Next step:

Ubuntu installation!

1. Being on Android and with the phone plugged in I ran:

# phablet-flash -b

At some point when installation was done, there was at about 1 minute where the phone was not responding, but that’s nornal: I ran adb devices and the device was there…

Then finally:

I had an Ubuntu phone working! 😀