"Installing Ubuntu Phone Demo on Galaxy Nexus from Mac OS X"

Props to Mirko85 for this post which spelled it out for Windows.

STANDARD DEVICE WARNINGS: You'll violate your warranty probably, and you might brick your phone. You have been warned.

  • Install adb and fastboot for Mac

  • Download these files from Ubuntu's server

    • quantal-preinstalled-boot-armel+maguro.img
    • quantal-preinstalled-recovery-armel+maguro.img
    • quantal-preinstalled-system-armel+maguro.img
    • quantal-preinstalled-armel+maguro.img
    • quantal-preinstalled-phablet-armhf.img

  • Plug the device in via USB

  • Open Terminal and navigate to the directory you downloaded the files to
  • If you haven't unlocked the device, execute "fastboot oem unlock" and follow onscreen instructions
  • Power down the device
  • Enter fastboot mode by pressing volume up, volume down and power buttons at the same time until you feel it vibrate

  • Once in fastboot mode, execute the following commands from Terminal

    • fastboot flash recovery recovery-quantal-preinstalled-armel+maguro.img
    • fastboot flash system quantal-preinstalled-system-armel+maguro.img
    • fastboot flash boot quantal-preinstalled-boot-armel+maguro.img

  • Using the volume keys, select recovery mode and press power

  • In Terminal, execute "adb sideload quantal-preinstalled-armel+maguro.zip"
  • Wait for the command to complete (if you see "fixing fs_size in crypto footer", ignore it, it's done)
  • Use volume keys to navigate to "advanced", press power, select "reboot recovery" and press power again
  • Once back in recovery mode, execute from Terminal: "adb sideload quantal-preinstalled-phablet-armhf.zip"
  • Once the command has completed, use the volume keys to select "restart device" and press power button