Turn a Android Phone with broken screen into dedicated Web server

Question

I have a Nexus 4 with a broken LCD/Digitizer, I have no control via touch at all. The other parts of the phone are functional. Now, what I want to do and hope is possible is to clear the phone and install some Linux distro via Usb. The trick is, I need to be able to control the installation via wifi or USB directly after the upload of the Linux package. After this I want to run it as a dedicated Web server of some sort. I welcome any type of solutions. All I want in the end is to use my phone as a dedicated Web Server which I can control remotely.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts, Majk! We support end-users with Android-specific issues, but cannot help you setting up a Linux server on a device, though it was running Android before. Still, some helpful hints:

• There are means to control your device even with a broken screen. We've got several issues reported where people wanted to do exactly that. Please check e.g.:
  • My screen got broken, how to see on the computer what I'm doing in my device?
  • Control Android with broken screen from PC
  • Use android phone with broken screen as WiFi camera
  • Broken Screen + Using adb shell to run vnc server
• There are several web server apps available for Android as well. Even some supporting/including things like PHP and MySQL. Some examples:
  • AndroPHP
  • Ulti Server: PHP, MySQL, PMA
  • KSWEB: server + PHP + MySQL
  • NAMP nginx android web server

I guess that should get you started if you want to solve your issue using Android. And as I initially wrote: Doing that with any other OS, even on an "Android device", is beyond the scope of this site. But I would wonder if you will really need that, after these details – right? :)