If you ended up on my first tutorial showing how to get ‘android back’ I did post that too hastily and forgot that Cyanogen mod is a much, much safer version of android because it doesn’t connect to the mothership of Google. If you have been running Ubuntu on the Nexus 4 and been challenged and need a temporary solution while some bugs are worked out at ubuntu, this is a safer option while you buy some time. I hope this is helpful resource so that busy and broke people can stick with Ubuntu during times of code tribulation.
This tutorial assumes you already have adb set up on your Ubuntu desktop/laptop.
This tutorial assumes you have Ubuntu on your laptop/desktop. If not, good luck. You’re on your own, sorry…
NOTE: Cyanogen mod does not come with a google play store.
- get recovery image from here: https://dl.twrp.me/mako/ (note if you want more info you can go here: https://twrp.me/devices/lgnexus4.html)
- download cyanogen mod for nexus 4 here: http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=mako
- plug in phone with usb
- navigate with terminal to place where you downloaded that twrp.img thing above
- type fastboot flash recovery and start typing name of big twrp file and hit ‘tab’ to auto-fill it
- press enter
- when done, should say ‘finished’ in terminal
- test to see if it worked by using your volume up/down button until you come to ‘recovery mode’ on your fastboot screen. should get some ‘team messages’
- swipe to allow modifications to partitions (not sure if you should but I did for speed)
- push the cyanogen mod install .zip file onto sd card by entering this in terminal: adb push filename.zip /sdcard/ where ‘filename’ is the name of the cyanogen mod install thing you downloaded in step #2 above. You can again use the tab button to auto-fill your filename after you start typing. My command looked like this as reference: adb push cm-12.1-20151007-SNAPSHOT-YOG4PAO334-mako.zip /sdcard/ – this takes a bit of time and will show you how much moved and how long it took when complete. Don’t interrupt it until it’s complete.
- Within the TEAM thing again select ‘wipe’ and ‘factory reset’. Of course don’t do this if you haven’t backed up pictures of the wife and kids…
- Super root your phone if it’s not done already…. skip this if you have
- ‘install’
- select storage (in this case it’s internal storage since the dumb thing didn’t come with SD card)
- you’ll see your cyanogen mod file sitting there that you moved over from step #10 above. go ahead. touch it.
- swipe the blue arrows to ‘swipe to confirm flash” if everything goes well you will see stuffs happening and your phone will be heading towards a slightly less evil version of Android. the phone will turn off, then turn on again, and you’ll have blue arrows to swipe again to unlock.
- Unlock it.
- Reboot system. Phone will turn off again (I sound like a broken record!). Cool looking blue robot thing will show up.
I hope this helps a few Ubuntu fans keep their Nexus 4 alive for days with less bugs if you are in desperate need of the phone for business or otherwise during the pioneer days. We are very close to no longer needing Cyanogen and other versions and because Ubuntu will soon converge into desktop, laptop and tablet, there really is no need to explore other OS.
That said, I’m very thankful for Cyanogen mod and the folks who built it and it was very good while google reigned in terror and thanks for this tutorial upon which I based mine: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_mako
