Hello,

I have a samsung galaxy s3 which I have broken the efs folder of nd therefore lost connection to the mobile operator I am with. They refused to fix it because of evidence of third party repair work so I have tried many things to fix this myself and none of them have worked so I thought that maybe instead I could install a linux os on it. Does anyone know how this can be done? I have tried the complete linux installer from google play and the ubuntu installer from google play too but that is not really what I want because that seems to only give a virtual linux os using vnc server and client. What I really want is to remove android completely and install linux.

I'm surprised somebody won't fix it, even by replacing a pc board or whatever.

That said, Your path is probably: root the thing; install a mod(a fork of the Android system); Then try a linux install. Search xda-developers.com, and the website of the mod of your choice (The only one I know at all is cyanogenmod, but there are others) for info on how to proceed. Nice if you wrote up the result and posted back.

With the mod, and root access, you may not even want linux.