I can confirm this works
I don't believe there is a native Odin application for Ubuntu. Try using VirtualBox, and run Odin under Windows.
I can confirm that ragnarokx's suggestion will work. I had issues with it originally and got it working finally, using Windows virtual guest inside my Linux Host.
Here's how I can net out my experience... The Samsung phone has a different USB signature depending on whether it is normally running (or in download/DL mode, with the yellow digger icon). So I had to start the phone in DL mode, under Ubuntu (or whatever flavor of Linux you use), then look at it via the lsusb command. You'll notice that it is listed differently in DL mode than when the phone is just normally booted and you plug it in.
So, what I did was to verify that Linux picked it up while in DL mode (using the lsusb command), it did.
Next I start VirtualBox (I imagine it is very similar using VMWare or KVM) but before I start my Windows virtual machine, I bring up its' settings and under USB I removed existing USB filters and then clicked to add a new filter (VirtualBox will query the Linux system to find available Plugged-in devices).. You should see your phone here. Mine was listed as something like "Gadget Serial". I included pictures that show you that the phone advertises itself differently depending on the mode it's in (different USB productID).
Once you've got that USB filter setup in VirtualBox, you can keep the phone connected and just launch your Windows VM. Then you can just launch Odin, In my case, when I launched Windows and Odin, I already had the phone attached and it just worked. Odin showed my phone connected and I went ahead with flashing.
- [optionally] restart Linux - Had to do this on a few occasions
- Put phone in DL (Download) mode - keyboard's 1 key plus power button
- do an lsusb command in Linux and find your phone (lsusb -v gives you all details)
- Start VirtualBox and create a USB filter
- Launch Windows
- Launch Odin
- Hopefully you'll see the device there and can proceed.
** I can not 100% confirm this but my only success has been on a particular USB port. It might just be coincidence (I'm thinking it is), but until I'm able to confirm it, it wouldn't kill you to try an alternate USB port if one fails after rebooting Linux.