UBports works or not? - Problems with installation

[oli.sax]

Thank you Paula Could you rename the title to something like “UBports Ubuntu Touch - installation instructions” and make it a wiki, so we all can summarise there what are the points to be tested in case of installation failure?

[paulakreuzer]

Well there is already a ubports wiki here:

Fairphone 2 Ubuntu Touch

Hello Fellow Fairphone 2 users, Ubuntu Touch is not dead! After the project has been discontinued by Canonical, it has been picked up by the UBports Project, a community that originally formed around the goal to port Ubuntu Touch to the Fairphone 2 and other third party devices. Thanks to the huge interest, especially in the Fairphone Community, the project picked up a lot of momentum and Ubuntu Touch can live on as a true GNU/Linux distribution for mobile devices. Read on to learn more about…

You could include the install instructions there or (probably better) start a new wiki. Wikis generally work best as one-post-topics (so you know at one glance which wiki’s were recently updated).
We can then link the guide in the first post (and the other ubports wiki) and even give it a unique tag so it can be linked to quickly (e.g. #installubports).

[Brian]

I tried to install UBports with the installer for macOS, but the app couldn’t establish a connection with my Fairphone. This wasn’t a surprise, because I failed to install Fairphone Open on macOS either and had to switch to Linux for the installation.

So I switched to Neon VM and tried to install UNPorts with the installer for Linux. Unfortunately after rebooting the device in the recovery mode, the installation process got stuck. The video of UBPorts suggests, that the process should continue.

Has someone any advice? Maybe the installer is only working under Ubuntu?

At the UBPorts forum I didn’t get an answer.

[oli.sax]

did you launched the UBPorts installer with “sudo” ?

did you checked that adb and fastboot is installed and your device recognized with “adb devices” (or with “fastboot devices” in bootloader mode) ?

[Ingo]

@Brian

Maybe the installer is only working under Ubuntu?

I have successfully used the ubports installer on Windows and Opensuse Linux, so it is definitely not Ubuntu-only. Can’t say for macOS, though. I think I remember someone in the ubports telegram groups saying there are not a lot of mac users so it could very well be it’s less tested on that system.

First you should follow the hints by oli.sax, i.e. trying to launch the installer with “sudo”. And if that doesn’t work, start debugging the issue by checking if adb and fastboot work standalone.

Additionally, the installer writes a log file. On my linux machine it is located at

<installation folder>/.cache/ubports/ubports-installer.log

There you could also look for messages indicating the problem.
Warning: don’t simply paste the whole logfile here. As far as I remember the installer logs all command lines it internally executes. That could contain your password when it’s called with “sudo”!

@Brian

At the UBPorts forum I didn’t get an answer.

Yeah, their forum isn’t that active was my impression, too. They mostly deal with problems in the various telegram groups. Did you go to their welcome channel? Typically people are very helpful there (and when you run ubuntu touch I guess there is no way around Telegram anyway). Check https://ubports.com/page/telegram-welcome

[Brian]

did you launched the UBPorts installer with “sudo” ?

No I didn’t. This is a good idea. I have launched the installer just with a double click

Edit: This worked fine. I will post a note in the UBPorts forum to update the installation guide.

did you checked that adb and fastboot is installed and your device recognized with “adb devices” (or with “fastboot devices” in bootloader mode) ?

Yes, but only with sudo I have access rights to execute commands.

I have successfully used the ubports installer on Windows and Opensuse Linux, so it is definitely not Ubuntu-only.

Ok, thus I will try it on my Windows VM either. The log file is a good point either.

Edit: There was an exception stacktrace in the log. The app did lost the connection to the phone. But after manually rebooting to the recovery mode, the app ciuld establish the connection again.

Thanks for your help.

[oli.sax]

@Brian

Yes, but only with sudo I have access rights to execute commands.

I have the same and I get used to type sudo fastboot.
However, I didn’t tested yet but there is a way to change udev rules so fastboot can work without sudo…

@Brian

I will post a note in the UBPorts forum to update the installation guide.

If you are talking about “docs.ubports.com” you can even update it yourself with git by submitting a pull request

[jjac]

Hi, I have a FP2 and I want to install another alternative OS because I don’t want to be under Google Apps. I’m thinking about Ubuntu because i saw that you just need to use a program (Im looking for easily installation). Works fine 100%? Thanks.

[Ingo]

I would wait until OTA-5 which is scheduled for early October. Some bugs will be fixed by then.

What do you want to do with the phone? Which (type of) app do you intend to use?

[jjac]

Hi, normal use like email and surfing con the internet. Apps like Signal, Firefox, and things like that.

[Ingo]

Haven’t used UT in a while, but from what I understood, still email and browser (it’s not Firefox) are not working perfectly yet.

You can check what apps are available at https://open-store.io/
But beware, some apps are listed but only available for vivid (15.04), not xenial (16.04).