Libertine is a confined sandbox where you can install deb-packaged X11-based Ubuntu applications have have them run under Unity 8.

Getting Libertine

Libertine is available in the Ubuntu archives from Xenial Xerus (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS) onwards, and has been backported to the derived version of Vivid Vervet (Ubuntu 15.04) used as a base for the Ubuntu Touch OS.

Some components of the Unity 8 shell need modification to support the aumatic surfacing and launching of contained applications through a Unity 8 Scope. The modified versions can be found in an archive called Silo 58.

Libertine is not currently available as a click package because it's a developer preview and not yet ready for general consumption. If you've got the chops to install something on your phone in developer mode, you should be able to handle the instability of a developer-ready Libertine.

Minimal System requirements for Libertine

• Libertine itself runs on any supported device, but most X11 applications work best on a system that supports external keyboards, mice, and displays. Development testing has been done on a Nexus N4 and other devices.
• At least 500 MiB storage space for a container.

Libertine on your Unity 8 device

Installation

On a phone or tablet

• Connect your device to a desktop host using a USB cable, and unlock it (you should already have developer mode enabled).

• Connect to the device.

  host: adb shell

• If you haven't done this in some other way, make sure your system partition is in read/write mode.

  $ sudo mount -o remount,rw /

You can now skip to the Next steps section.

On a PC running Unity 8

If you are running the Unity8Desktop tech preview, you can also install Libertine. Just make sure your Unity 8 session is working, and follow the Next steps section.

Next steps

• Add Silo 58.

  $ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ci-train-ppa-service/landing-058

• Pin Silo 58 to ensure the packages are installed.

  $ sudo vi /etc/apt/preferences.d/silo-058.pref

  Then add the following lines and save:

  Package: *
  Pin: release o=LP-PPA-ci-train-ppa-service-landing-058
  Pin-Priority: 1001

  Note: You will need to remove the silo 58 PPA and pinning once the packages have landed.

• Update, upgrade, and install required packages.

  $ sudo apt-get update
  $ sudo apt-get upgrade
  $ sudo apt-get install libertine python3-libertine-chroot libertine-scope xmir

Usage

Creating a container

You can use the Libertine app to create a container, but unfortunately it only supported the creation of LXC-based containers, which are not supported by the version of the kernel on most Ubuntu Touch devices.

You can create chroot-based container using the command line.

$ libertine-container-manager create --id vivid --type chroot --name 'Libertine Demo'

Installing Applications

You can use the Libertine App to install and remove applications. Alternatively, you can use the command-line tools (libertine-container-manager --help is nice).

Surfacing and Launching Container Applications

The Libertine Scope should be available from the Scopes scope, entitiled Legacy Apps. You should be able to select an application icon and click the Launch button to launch it.

Getting Help

The best way to get help is to contact one of the developer in the #ubuntu-libertine channel on Freenode.