Ubuntu Touch on Sony Xperia X

gmelchett

@beidl First of all, thanks a lot for trying to port Ubuntu Touch to Xperia X.
I'm trying to follow your guide, but I'm getting stuck at halium-install.
It wants:

adb: error: failed to copy '.halium-install-imgs.yk2k5/rootfs.img' to '/data/rootfs.img': remote couldn't create file: Permission denied
.halium-install-imgs.yk2k5/rootfs.img: 0 files pushed. 154.0 MB/s (2817704 bytes in 0.017s)
adb: error: failed to copy '.halium-install-imgs.yk2k5/system.img' to '/data/system.img': remote couldn't create file: Permission denied
.halium-install-imgs.yk2k5/system.img: 0 files pushed. 116.0 MB/s (2686648 bytes in 0.022s)

My Xperia's current status is that I've flashed twrp and the oem binaries via fastboot.
The phone is on Android 8.0, and not rooted.
Any idea what could be wrong?

fredldotme

@gmelchett Have you tried wiping data, cache and system partitions? Make sure to create a backup before wiping those partitions and flashing the Ubuntu Touch port.

gmelchett

@beidl Thanks for a quick reply. No, I didn't wipe data, cache and system partitions.

I've done that now from twrp, but there seems to be no mobile-side adb running when in twrp. And because I did wiping system, I have no Android to boot.
Any idea how to progress?

fredldotme

@gmelchett could be you're missing udev rules on your Linux host to establish an adb connection. If you're on Ubuntu 18.04 you could try the following command:

sudo apt install android-sdk-platform-tools-common

Else I could publish a much bigger version of the udev rules file in a GitHub gist.

EDIT: on the other hand, adb wouldn't even be able to respond with a "permission denied" error in case the device-side adb daemon wasn't up and running.

gmelchett

@beidl adb was running just fine when I tried halium-install before wiping system + data + cache. I tested with adb shell. (Then I couldn't even ls /data without getting permission denied.) On second though, why is halium-install pushing files to /data and not
/storage/0/emulated (or what the "internal sd" card path's is.)?

A wild guess is that the system.img that halium-install creates is the provided system.img + the .tar.gz file. Maybe that could be fastboot flash'ed into system? But then, where would rootfs.img go? Hmm.

I don't know android's file system layout good enough. Have to do some reading up.

gmelchett

Success at last! It is apparently very import to unlock at "latest android". I unlocked at Android 6.
I installed twrp like this:

sudo fastboot flash boot boot.img

It will then always boot into twrp, but I didn't manage to flashing it to the recovery area to work.
Once booted into twrp, I had to format system, data & cache since the phone got encrypted by default.

Btw, ip configurtion from console:

sudo ip addr add 10.15.19.1/24 dev -your device-

For those of us that don't have a fancy GUI to help you with.

ubports on xperia x feels a bit sluggish compared to the nexus 5. A look at top, shows that unity8 consumes quite a lot of cpu when doing some ui interaction. I suspect no hw acceleration enabled?

edit: Some language corrections.

gmelchett

I've been playing around from time to time with Ubuntu Touch on the Xperia X. Over all it works very well, but a few things that are not really working (and not mentioned not to work above):

Vibrator
GPS
Of the sensors, only accelerometer works
A fully charged battery is reported to be at 67%.
After pressing the power, it takes a few seconds before I can unlock it. Maybe related to the lack of graphic hw acceleration?

hsabun

@beidl Sir any update on ut on xperia X

hsabun

Hi any progress...

UniSuperBox

@Hsabun, volunteer developers will post their progress on their own terms. Asking for updates may be seen as impolite. Please have patience and we will get there eventually.

hsabun

Sorry, i won't be asking again.

joe

Would this port also be related to the Sony Xperia XZ? or are they completely different devices when it comes to the code?

joe

@joe said in Ubuntu Touch on Sony Xperia X:

Would this port also be related to the Sony Xperia XZ? or are they completely different devices when it comes to the code?

I have made some first step attempts with this XZ port. I will start a new thread somewhere if it gets anywhere. Feel free to contact me if interested.

fredldotme

As we are approaching full support the build and flash instructions on https://github.com/Halium/projectmanagement/issues/98 have been updated.
This should get you a working image with audio support.

Remaining issues:

Media player support (videos in Morph Browser work fine)
Camera

trainailleur

Amazing work! Exciting to see a new port approaching full readiness.

Q: Does this port support the microSD card? If so, it might very well become my next UT testing device.

hsabun

@beidl Sir can i now flush ubuntu touch on my xperia X, is it easy steps or i need to be technical

fredldotme

@trainailleur said in Ubuntu Touch on Sony Xperia X:

Amazing work! Exciting to see a new port approaching full readiness.

Q: Does this port support the microSD card? If so, it might very well become my next UT testing device.

It didn't mount the SD card the last time I tried, but I'll let you know as soon as it's ready.

@Hsabun said in Ubuntu Touch on Sony Xperia X:

@beidl Sir can i now flush ubuntu touch on my xperia X, is it easy steps or i need to be technical

If you are adventurous you can try to build the image yourself, else you'll have to wait.

chriswyatt

I've just tried it out, but I'm unable to make phone calls. I was able to receive a text from Vodafone (UK), and also check my balance, on-screen with *#1345#, but if I call 1345 (audio balance), it just hangs, and I am also unable to hang up. The device is still responsive, but pressing the button to hang up has no effect.

EDIT 1:

I tried to install Machines vs. Machines, and noticed there is no sound, so that is possibly also what's causing phone calls to hang as well. I followed the post-installation steps and double-checked I typed the right commands. The only extra command I did was a 'apt update'. I also checked that the installation of 'pulseaudio-modules-droid-24' persisted.

Environment:
Ubuntu 19.04 using the system's compiler rather than the prebuilt one.

fredldotme

@chriswyatt Thanks for testing! I've noticed audio to be flaky as well and I assumed it had to do with not-yet-committed changes. Luckily that's not the case, so that's good for finding the bug.

Currently calling doesn't work for any Halium 7.1 based port using the default ofono shipped in Ubuntu Touch, so it might take some time until calling is fully fleshed out.

I've found a fix for the screen sometimes taking seconds to turn on, which is what I'll incorporate soon. In addition to sound I'll also take another look at the camera.

chriswyatt

@beidl I also noticed the issue with the screen sometimes taking a long time to come on. I impatiently press the button lots, and the screen flashes on and off several times about 30 seconds later. It's almost exactly the same behaviour I was getting with my Nexus 7 (running LineageOS). Anyway, it doesn't look like it's far from being in a state where I can use it as an actual phone, so I look forward to the updates, particular around sound and calling. Thanks for all the hard work on this.

I used to be a software tester, so I'd be happy to help test (e.g. go through a checklist, or anything like that).