Google shows developers how to hack Glass and run Ubuntu

Google has shown attendees of its Google I/O event how one can go about running another operating system – namely Ubuntu – on their Google Glass. According to Engadget, the company showcased the process during a session named “Voiding your Warranty”.

The steps to install Ubuntu on Glass involve pushing the Launcher, Settings and Notepad APKs to the device using adb and a keyboard and trackpad, after which one can unlock the bootloader of Glass with fastboot. This opens up the ability to to flash a new boot image and gain root access.

The development scene for Glass seems promising

After all of this, running Linux is as easy as installing the Android Terminal Emulator and Complete Linux Installer apps, the combination of which allows you to download and then boot any Linux distribution on the Glass. Google showcased the process by booting up glass into Ubuntu.

Needless to say, this is a great example of open hardware and having the ability to run whatever operating system one might want on some specific piece of hardware. It will be interesting to see how the development community for Glass shapes up once it is made available to the general public. We could end up seeing some rather interesting custom ROMs and Linux distributions, or some developer might even get Firefox OS running on it.

Just yesterday, Google developers had announced that the company will be shipping one software update for Glass each month with new features, polish and bug fixes. They went on to add that many of the updates that would come to Glass would include suggestions from developers and those who already own Glass.