UBPorts 16.04 updates + feature tests

Discuss The Products
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21

New camera and front camera is still upside down. Didn’t check the flash.

Edit: also checked flash, doesn’t work.

22

Using the updater app I installed version 16.04 r219

What works for me

  • call / be called
  • send SMS / receive SMS
  • internet via WiFi
  • internet via mobile network (4G)
  • USB connection to PC / MTP
  • USB OTG
    • changing to correct physical keyboard from the status bar works
  • automatic screen rotation
  • keeping the time zone after reboot
  • bluetooth
    • audio speaker: MusicMan BT-X2
  • screenshot (press + hold Vol-up and Vol-down)
  • external sd card
    • I can access existing photos with the gallery app
    • I cannot navigate through the existing folders (maybe need to try formatting it)
  • shutting down the phone
    • only causes reboot instead of shutdown on LineageOS
  • openstore
  • camera (new camera module)
    • flash does not work
    • front camera image is upside down
  • contacts app
    • using CardDav
  • calendar app
    • using my CalDav calendar
    • times of appointments seem to be broken
  • gallery app
  • file manager app
  • terminal app
  • music app
  • notes app
    • list of notes doesn’t show note name
    • after creating a note, one has to close and edit again before one can actually type something
  • calculator app
  • weather app
  • enabling ssh
  • the syncevolution script to set up my owncloud account

What doesn’t work for me

  • alarm
    • clock app crashes before I can set an alarm
  • flash (new camera module; known issue)
  • Adding an owncloud account (in settings > accounts)
    • existed in 15.04, in 16.04 just Ubuntu One and Google accounts available
      /ubuntu-touch/issues/447)
  • Spotify
    • web player has no way to login on a mobile phone
    • login fails with CuteSpotify
  • email
    • app “Dekko 2” loads forever
  • media app
    • cannot open any of the files I tried
  • logviewer app
    • immediately exits
  • telegram app
    • hangs at phone number verification step
  • Android apps
    • anbox is not yet supported on the FP2

Didn’t try so far/again after last update

  • location (as far as I know, GPS doesn’t work)
  • External monitor via WiFi direct (with a Samsung BD-J5500 Blu-Ray player)

Some more points

  • I get a few random reboots that usually don’t happen on LineageOS; but not as many as other UT users report (but then, I don’t use it as daily driver…)
  • enabling ssh used to require this workaround: https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/444#issuecomment-370507393
    • not sure if that just survived the OTA update and still needs to be done on fresh installs
5 Likes
23

Small update: found time to try wifi direct but no devices are found (that at least worked with 15.04)

24

Again just a small update. After not running UT 16.04 for quite a while I now updated to 16.04 r.259.

The only other thing I did was installing a working package of the Telegram app (AFAIK not available in the Openstore yet). Just download the latest click package at Release Final release: API53 · ubports/telegram-app · GitHub

Then, on the phone or via ssh (in the download folder) type

pkcon install-local --allow-untrusted com.ubuntu.telegram_2.5.3.2_xenial_armhf.click

Replace “2.5.3.2” with whatever version you downloaded.

25

Found something nice: at https://github.com/rubencarneiro/custom_bootlogos you can download images to flash custom boot screens. For all those who are a little irrated that it still says “Powered by Android” even if you run UT on the FP2 :wink:

splashFairphone2
splashFairphone21080×1920 80 KB

And, using the updater app I installed version 16.04 r299

What works for me

  • call / be called
  • send SMS / receive SMS
  • internet via WiFi
  • internet via mobile network (4G)
  • USB connection to PC / MTP
  • USB OTG
    • changing to correct physical keyboard from the status bar works
  • automatic screen rotation
  • keeping the time zone after reboot
  • screenshot (press + hold Vol-up and Vol-down)
  • external sd card
    • I can access existing photos with the gallery app
    • I cannot navigate through the existing folders (maybe need to try formatting it)
  • shutting down the phone
    • only causes reboot instead of shutdown on LineageOS
  • location (GPS)
  • openstore
    • installed the store app for xenial (was shared in the UT QA telegram group)
  • camera (new camera module)
    • flash does not work
    • front camera image is upside down
  • contacts app
    • using CardDav
  • gallery app
  • file manager app
  • terminal app
  • music app
  • calculator app
  • weather app
  • logviewer app
  • telegram app
    • a working version for xenial was shared in some of the UT telegram groups
    • the xenial openstore also shows the telegram app, so it may now work “out of the box”
  • enabling ssh
  • the syncevolution script to set up my owncloud account

Used to work but not at the moment

  • bluetooth
    • audio speaker: MusicMan BT-X2 (can’t connect; may be temporary)
  • calendar app
    • using my CalDav calendar
    • times of appointments seem to be broken
    • app comes up but then crashes on interaction (that’s new; used to work)

What doesn’t work for me

  • alarm
    • clock app crashes before I can set an alarm
  • flash (new camera module; known issue)
  • Adding an owncloud account (in settings > accounts)
    • existed in 15.04, in 16.04 just Ubuntu One and Google accounts available
      /ubuntu-touch/issues/447)
  • Spotify
    • web player has no way to login on a mobile phone
    • login fails with CuteSpotify
  • email
    • app “Dekko 2” loads forever
  • media app
    • cannot open any of the files I tried
  • notes app
    • list of notes doesn’t show note name
    • after creating a note, one has to close and edit again before one can actually type something
    • note contents are not saved
  • Android apps
    • anbox is not yet supported on the FP2

Didn’t try so far/again after last update

  • External monitor via WiFi direct (with a Samsung BD-J5500 Blu-Ray player)

Some more points

  • I get a few random reboots that usually don’t happen on LineageOS; but not as many as other UT users report (but then, I don’t use it as daily driver…)
  • enabling ssh used to require this workaround: https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/444#issuecomment-370507393
    • not sure if that just survived the OTA update and still needs to be done on fresh installs
3 Likes
26

Short update:

3 Likes
27

First release candidate for UT 16.04 is out. This time I didn’t just update my FP2 but did a clean install (manually installed FPOS, then used the UBPorts Installer including “wipe”). I had used the phone to test so many OSes/versions that I wanted to rule out any side effects/old misconfigurations.

So now I’m on version 16.04 (2018-06-23/2 or r351)

What works for me

  • call / be called
  • send SMS / receive SMS
  • internet via WiFi
  • internet via mobile network (4G)
  • USB connection to PC / MTP
    • it takes some time before folder contents are shown (used to be faster)
  • USB OTG
    • changing to correct physical keyboard from the status bar works
  • automatic screen rotation
  • keeping the time zone after reboot
  • screenshot (press + hold Vol-up and Vol-down)
  • external sd card
    • I can access existing photos with the gallery app
    • I cannot navigate through the existing folders (maybe need to try formatting it)
  • shutting down the phone
    • only causes reboot instead of shutdown on LineageOS
  • location (GPS)
  • openstore
  • camera (new camera module)
    • flash does not work
    • front camera image is upside down
  • bluetooth
    • audio speaker: MusicMan BT-X2
  • alarm
    • some people report crashes (cause might be having more than one alarm or an repeated alarm; didn’t dare try that yet)
  • contacts app
    • using CardDav (via syncevolution script)
  • gallery app
  • file manager app
  • terminal app
  • media app
  • music app
  • notes app
  • calculator app
  • weather app
  • logviewer app
  • telegram app
  • enabling ssh
  • the syncevolution script to set up my owncloud account
  • Adding an owncloud account (in settings > accounts)
    • uses HTTPS with self-signed certificate (needs to be set up as described in this earlier post about the syncevolution script: March 4th)

Used to work but not at the moment

  • calendar app
    • using my CalDav calendar (via syncevolution script)
    • app comes up but then crashes on interaction (that’s new; used to work)
      • some people suspect all-day events to cause this kind of crash

What doesn’t work for me

  • flash (new camera module; known issue)
  • Spotify
    • web player has no way to login on a mobile phone
    • no app available for xenial (didn’t try CuteSpotify vivid app)
  • email
    • no app available for xenial (didn’t try Dekko 2 vivid app)
  • External monitor via WiFi direct (with a Samsung BD-J5500 Blu-Ray player)
    • device is not found
  • Android apps
    • anbox is not yet supported on the FP2

Some more points

  • I get a few random reboots that usually don’t happen on LineageOS; but not as many as other UT users report (but then, I don’t use it as daily driver…)
4 Likes
28

Indeed, congrats to the UBPorts team ! :slight_smile:
More info about the new RC on this blog post.

I’m not a daily driver neither… But from what I read :

2 Likes
29

I was testing the new version of the UBports installer (0.1.17) and by that upgraded my phone to 16.04 (2018-07-04/2).
Not doing a full feature test but so far it seems that the calendar app crash is gone.
Also, several previous installer versions didn’t work 100% (on windows), so in the past I mostly reverted back to 0.1.9, but this seems to no longer be necessary.

30

Hello! You wrote that in order to do a clean install you first manually installed FPOS, then used the UBPorts Installer including “wipe”. I also have a FP2 and I thought that a clean install was always the result when using the “wipe” option, so I wonder: why was it important for you to manually install FPOS first? Is that something I should also do, if I want to ensure a clean install?

To be clear, the way I am installing is that I have an Ubuntu laptop with the UBPorts Installer installed, I just connect my FP2 to that and choose to install using the “wipe” option. So I do not install FPOS first, I install UT directly. Should I install FPOS first, and if so, why?

1 Like
31

To be honest, I don’t know if installing UT with “wipe” is enough. For example IIRC there was a topic somewhere here on the forum (or maybe in the UT forum) that somebody did a factory reset and some stuff survived the procedure where the user expected something different. And also, by installing FPOS first I made sure I had the latest firmware.

So if you haven’t switched back and forth between 6 OSes on your FP2 I guess just using the wipe option is fine.

32

Hello !
A german lady that I met in the last Aachen Fairphone meeting asked me if I can install UbuntuTouch on her FP2. She’s not a “geek” but she’s interrested in the idea of getting rid of google on her smartphone. She just want to call, send sms, take pictures and use the agenda :blush:.

In your opinion, is it better if I install 16.04 RC-OTA4 or 15.04 stable-OTA3 for her??
She comes on Sunday, so those two existing version are the choices I see…

PS: I decided to become a fairphone angel ! :smile:

2 Likes
33

Why did she spend so much money on a smartphone then? :wink:

In any case, I’m not sure I can answer that question, because I don’t actually use UT on a daily basis. The random reboots occur a lot more often on UT than on Android. From what I read in the Telegram groups, many FP2 UT users disable all kinds of things (mobile data, WiFi, …) to make it usabe in terms of stability and battery life. Which makes me think why they’re using the phone at all.
For her use-cases I see problems in a non-working flash in case she has the new camera (and the camera app takes ages to open). And if she wants to synchronize her contacts/calendar with anything (e.g. her mail provider) my feeling is she’ll run into trouble. Besides from the little tests I did I find the calendar app rather crappy and maybe even buggy.

Isn’t Fairphone Open OS an option for her? If she’s no geek that might be the most hassle-free solition.

And honestly, if I were to choose a non-Android OS for my FP2, I’d prefer Sailfish over UT at the moment.

2 Likes
34

Good question, could be that she wants to support the movement…

Le portable que j'ai est un fairphone2. Je le possède depuis 2 ans et quelques mois sans jamais l'avoir connecté  à l'internet. C'est pourquoi il y manquent tous les "updates" de fairphone

She said she has her FP2 for over 2 years, without having it connected to the internet. So this FP2 had no update at all! :open_mouth:
Sometimes it’s hard to believe for geeks like us trying to use the most functionality possible, that some people just use a smartphone the “non-smart” way, as a simple phone and camera :wink:

1 Like
35

Or use the remarkably stable SFOS Port provided by @mal which does all she is going to do.

1 Like
36

Today I found some time to try out libertine containers to run desktop apps on the phone.

In 16.04 this got easier because the container management and installation of packages can be done from the settings app.

So far I tried a few games and an email-client:

  • aisleriot: seems to work
  • claws-mail: starts, needs USB keyboard + mouse to be usable, but some dialogs can’t be operated properly
  • frozen-bubble: starts, but it uses only one small corner of the display which makes it unusable
  • xskat: doesn’t even start

In any case one needs quite some patience. The initial creation of the container took around one hour for me.

Edit: also noticed that the file manager app by now can access the SD card :wink:

2 Likes
37

Updated using the ubports-installer pre-release 0.1.21 AppImage version.
Installation went smoothly, but there is one known issue: FP2 not detected despite it is detected - split brain? #187. If that happens, simply select the device manually and continue.
It should no longer necessary to go back to very old installer versions (several after 0.1.9 had problems here and there).

So now I’m on version 16.04 (2018-07-21 or r395)

What works for me

  • call / be called
  • send SMS / receive SMS
  • internet via WiFi
  • internet via mobile network (4G)
  • USB connection to PC / MTP
    • it takes some time before folder contents are shown (used to be faster)
  • USB OTG
    • changing to correct physical keyboard from the status bar works
  • keeping the time zone after reboot
  • screenshot (press + hold Vol-up and Vol-down)
  • external sd card
    • access existing photos with the gallery app
    • navigate through the existing folders with the file manager app
  • shutting down the phone
    • only causes reboot instead of shutdown on LineageOS
  • location (GPS)
  • openstore
  • camera (new camera module)
    • flash does not work
    • front camera image is upside down
  • bluetooth
    • audio speaker: MusicMan BT-X2
  • alarm
    • some people report crashes (cause might be having more than one alarm or an repeated alarm; didn’t dare try that yet)
  • calendar app
    • using my CalDav calendar (via syncevolution script)
  • contacts app
    • using CardDav (via syncevolution script)
  • gallery app
  • file manager app
  • terminal app
  • media app
  • music app
  • notes app
  • calculator app
  • weather app
  • logviewer app
  • telegram app
  • enabling ssh
  • the syncevolution script to set up my owncloud account
  • Adding an owncloud account (in settings > accounts)
    • uses HTTPS with self-signed certificate (needs to be set up as described in this earlier post about the syncevolution script: March 4th)
  • running desktop apps with libertine (can be configured/packages can be installed via settings app)
    • initial container setup took roughly 1h, so be patient
    • tried these desktop apps so far
      • aisleriot: seems to work
      • claws-mail: starts, needs USB keyboard + mouse to be usable, but some dialogs can’t be operated properly
      • frozen-bubble: starts, but it uses only one small corner of the display which makes it unusable
      • xskat: doesn’t even start

Used to work but not at the moment

  • automatic screen rotation

What doesn’t work for me

  • flash (new camera module; known issue)
  • Spotify
    • web player has no way to login on a mobile phone
    • no app available for xenial (didn’t try CuteSpotify vivid app)
  • email
    • no app available for xenial (didn’t try Dekko 2 vivid app)
  • External monitor via WiFi direct (with a Samsung BD-J5500 Blu-Ray player)
    • device is not found
  • Android apps
    • anbox is not yet supported on the FP2

Some more points

  • I get a few random reboots that usually don’t happen on LineageOS; but not as many as other UT users report (but then, I don’t use it as daily driver…)
1 Like
38

Great work @Ingo ! I can’t wait to replace Android for good !

39

Thanks, @Guillauume but I’m actually not really contributing to Ubuntu Touch, I just happen to test their progress from time to time and let people know in this topic :wink:

1 Like
40

I know but you make it a lot clearer :slight_smile:

1 Like