Q&A 62 Saturday 2nd of November at 19:00 UTC

alan_g · 2 Nov 2019, 19:07

Someone turned up on the "UBports Unity8 Development (Not a game engine)" group today asking about installing Unity8 on Ubuntu.

There doesn't seem to be anything helpful on the unity8.io property about this, and I linked to an out of date blogpost: https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-blog-1/post/unity8-on-the-desktop-95 as the least bad option.

I know that desktop is not the focus of the core developers, but I think there is interest in the community to keep this information up to date if "drive by" corrections and changes were possible. Could something like a Wiki be used on unity8.io for the current status of desktop, install instructions, etc.? And linked to from the landing page?

poVoq · 31 Oct 2019, 17:52

Q: With all the new "desktop space" in the latest unity8 (from edge), will there be some sort of desktop widgets? Maybe support for the KDE ones?

Edit: maybe that could be linked to background daemons? i.e. small widgets that have a background checking ability and that can be made to open an foreground app?

dobey · 31 Oct 2019, 20:03

@poVoq See https://forums.ubports.com/topic/2579/i-wanna-go-home as I don't think this will be re-discussed during the Q&A (as it's been discussed at length already)

Aury88 · 1 Nov 2019, 09:49

Q1: Has the establishment of the Ubports foundation already enabled advantages for the project and/or agreements with other companies / foundations?

Q2: with the edge merge and the migration from Mir 0.24 and Unity8 (from 2015) to Mir 1.x and Unity8 (from 2017) you will have once again shown us the special effects and accustomed us to them ( ) ...my question is, after all this, what do you plan to do to keep up the hype ( ) ? what will be the next big thing in the short, medium and long term?

libremax · 1 Nov 2019, 14:44

@Aury88 In 2020, I hope for ubuntu 20.04 migration (with new Qt Stack,...) + pinephone port + librem 5 port.

It would already be a big achievement.

matteo · 1 Nov 2019, 15:53

Question for Q&A: a topic being discussed very often is regarding the unconfined status of apps: some people think it's good to have unconfined apps published in the OpenStore (in its origins, OpenStore was designed to have mostly experimental and unconfined apps, if I'm not mistaken), others are much more strict, I would say evangelically against it and they think the unconfinement shall only be reserved to the OS itself and to its functionality, some others have an average opinion, i.e. unconfined apps can be published to the OpenStore but those shall be segregated into a different section and well recognizable from the confined ones. I understand what's the purpose of having confined apps on a modern OS like UT and all the risks of not strictly implementing the apparmor rules; but, at the same time, I believe exceptions could be taken into account, given some barriers and conditions to be overcome and satisfied first: for instance, it shall be judged the reputation and reliability of the app developer (in case he/she is a member of the UBports Community for a long time), if the proposed app is considered or not an asset for the Community, if the app has an open source code to be dug and deeply checked in order to find any malicious intention....To summarize, in my humble opinion there shall be clear rules to be followed but I think up to now there was lack of official instructions in this regard. I would like to know what you guys think about this topic. Thank you in advance for any attention you might pay to the present question. Matteo

TotalSonic · 1 Nov 2019, 16:17

Has there been any actual communication from UBports with the Volla people regarding their advertising possible support for a UT port (if "stretch funding" of over $400k is met) to their proposed phone that is now having a KickStarter?
Info here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/volla/volla-phone-freedom-through-simplicity-and-security

Best regards,
Steve Berson

A Former User · 2 Nov 2019, 08:24

i just wared to say "Thank you" for the new UT - I LOVE it - and express my gratitude for your continued hard work.

domubpkm · 2 Nov 2019, 08:47

@3arn0wl What do you call "new" UT ? OTA-11 or new devel ? Anyway, we are on the same page, both are fine !

A Former User · 2 Nov 2019, 08:59

Hehe The new new, @domubpkm - the beautiful dev channel.

extraymond · 2 Nov 2019, 16:02

Q1: What's the plan onward about libertine?
With libhandy and kirigami maturing, we can assume more desktop's app's will be mobile optimized. It seems to be easier finding desktop apps that support mobile then the other way around. It aligns with the convergence goal too.

Q2: What kind of specification would new ports need for convergence to work? More broadly speaking, are there specific plan about this?

Guys you rock!!!

poVoq · 2 Nov 2019, 16:37

Q1: Any plans to work more on the mobile screen part of convergence, e.g. the stuff that shows up on the phone screen when also connected to larger screen? Maybe something together with to KDEconnect support?

Q2: What is the status of Miracast support on UT? Is it still working?

TotalSonic · 2 Nov 2019, 17:03

@poVoq - Miracast is working fine on OnePlus One and Meizu Pro 5 on OTA11 in my tests, when using a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter. Font rendering is a tiny bit blurry but display is otherwise works fine (including video playback), although there is a bit of lag when using a bluetooth keyboard/trackpad with it

Best regards,
Steve Berson

GizmoChicken · 2 Nov 2019, 19:07

@alan_g said in Q&A 62 Saturday 2nd of November at 19:00 UTC:

Could something like a Wiki be used on unity8.io for the current status of desktop, install instructions, etc.? And linked to from the landing page?

@UniSuperBox Until very recently, the landing page for https://github.com/ubports/unity8/ (to which the unity8.io page (and elsewhere) still links) included instructions for installing Unity8 on Ubuntu. However, the instructions for installing Unity8 on Ubuntu were removed when the "readme" file was removed. Could you at least add back the "readme" file?

PhoenixLandPirat · 2 Nov 2019, 19:48

QUESTION: This is aimed at Dalton, are your legs good again yet?

GizmoChicken · 2 Nov 2019, 20:02

@GizmoChicken said in Q&A 62 Saturday 2nd of November at 19:00 UTC:

@alan_g said in Q&A 62 Saturday 2nd of November at 19:00 UTC:

Could something like a Wiki be used on unity8.io for the current status of desktop, install instructions, etc.? And linked to from the landing page?

@UniSuperBox Until very recently, the landing page for https://github.com/ubports/unity8/ (to which the unity8.io page (and elsewhere) still links) included instructions for installing Unity8 on Ubuntu. However, the instructions for installing Unity8 on Ubuntu were removed when the "readme" file was removed. Could you at least add back the "readme" file?

I submitted a pull request to add back the old "readme" file, which includes instructions for installing Unity8 on Ubuntu desktop. See https://github.com/ubports/unity8/pull/221

matteo · 3 Nov 2019, 09:01

@matteo thanks @NeoTheThird, @mariogrip and @UniSuperBox for replying to my question regarding the unconfined apps in OpenStore. Incidentally I'm developing an app which is unconfined not because I wanted to by-pass the apparmor rules, but because I had no choice in order to make it work (see dataMonitor).
If there will be the chance to add a confinement layer tailored on apps needs, it would be great. I hope one day my app functionalities will be included in the OS "Settings" section, but in the meantime I could eventually think to publish it on the OpenStore, following the instructions of the UBports team .