New, FLX1 with UT (and multi boot)

wally

@alaskalinuxuser I'm not sure there's any published way to install UT yet, unless there's something from the Furiphone people that I haven't seen. It's not in the installer.
But I will be very interested to hear your report if/when you're able to install!

alaskalinuxuser

@wally Good point, just tried the installer, and you are correct, it is not listed as a device, even for choosing manually. The latest blog post from Furiphone said that dual boot of UT was now working, so I thought it was streamlined already. I am talking with "Jason" on Telegram currently who is walking me through it. I used to use UT years ago, but had to switch for other reasons. But if it will work now, that would be super!

alaskalinuxuser

Installation instructions:

From Jason: (https://t.me/ubports_porting/217354)
[In reply to alaskalinuxuser]
Yes pretty painless, but I found a workaround as it wasn't working as intended>

In Branchy select> Bootman gui> ubports
Let it download and install
Wait for Successful...
Click OK
In Bootman
Name> Ubuntu Touch 2nd Local Partition
Size:> 20.00 GiB
Select Download Icon
Select 2nd option> Ubuntu Touch
Reboot
In Boot Manager> Select Rootfs
After start
Bootman
Select Download icon to install the software
Wait for> Successfully installed Ubuntu Touch!
Reboot
Select 2nd option> Ubuntu Touch 2nd Local Partition
Setup Ubuntu Touch

Rewriting the instructions to fill in the blanks for people like me who have no idea what we are doing....

on the FLX1, open the terminal (or ssh to it from your computer)
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install furios-app-branchy (This installs the branchy app on the phone screen.)
In the branchy app, type bootman in the search to save you from scrolling. Select> Bootman gui> ubports
Click apply, and let it download and install
Wait for Successful...
Click OK
open the terminal (or ssh to it from your computer)
sudo apt install furios-app-bootman (This installs the bootman app on the phone screen.)
Open bootman app and click the + icon to add a boot option.
Suggested settings:
-Name> Ubuntu Touch 2nd Local Partition
-Size:> 20.00 GiB
-You can choose where to install it, internal or external, I chose internal.
-Select Download Icon
It will say the download is qued. Now you need to reboot the phone, it will not install until you reboot.
You will see the new boot manager, choose rootfs for now.
When you log into your normal FLX1 furios, open the bootman app.
Select the download button next to the Ubuntu Touch 2nd Local Partition. It will give you a drop down, select Ubuntu Touch (the alternative is another Furios).
It will show a pop up with a progress bar as it downloads the 3.5GB file. Wait for it to complete.
Now it will start installing that file, and then will prompt you several times for your Furios pin/password because it is running various commands as sudo. Enter your password/pin and let it complete. Eventually, it will say it was sucessful.
Reboot the phone.
On the bootman screen, select the Ubuntu Touch boot partition.
Setup and enjoy Ubuntu Touch!

alaskalinuxuser

Initial impressions are great!

There were two updates as soon as I booted, the camera app was one, and you do need it for it to work properly, so I installed it, and then the camera had issues with video recording, but the app suggested I restart the phone, which fixed it.

So, initial testing, the camera took pictures front facing, rear facing, and took video with sound. There is a slight delay when you select record for the video recording, it hangs almost long enough for you to think it froze, then it starts recording and updating the viewer screen. Same pause when you stop recording video, it looks like it hangs for a few seconds, then is fine.

Sound worked, the screen was good and responsive, touch worked, all the usual stuff just worked! WiFi was good.

I turned it off, put in my sim card, booted up, picked up my carrier right away. Data worked. I could not make a phone call, but that is not UT's fault. My carrier still uses 3g towers, and the FLX1 does not support my local 3g tower bands. So that is not Ubuntu Touch's fault.

Now I just have to check on how UT handles SIP calls, as I use that. But yeah, seems to be working great overall!

stanwood

@alaskalinuxuser I'm very impressed to see that Ubuntu Touch works on the Furiphone FLX1, which is also Dual Boot!

4G calls (VoLTE) are now supported by Ubuntu Touch, but this has to be ported specifically to each device. This is the implementation of an IMS technology plugin in the Ofono module. (I don't know what the situation is with the FLX1, but it must be feasible).

Out of curiosity, do you know which update channel the device depends on? Will it be upgraded to Noble as well?

alaskalinuxuser

@stanwood I do not know about the update channels. Sorry, I'm not very knowledgeable. Interesting about the VoLTE, glad to hear that UT got it worked out, on a per phone basis. I hope that they work it out on the FLX1 soon.

But, for those wondering, my JLAB Bluetooth headphones connect and work great! If there is anything else folks are wondering about testing, let me know, I can try it out (unless it is a specific Bluetooth item, as I don't own every Bluetooth device...).

stanwood

@alaskalinuxuser Thanks for the feedback. You can easily check the update channel through Settings => Updates => (On the top right of screen, click on the serrated wheel) It's the second line.

In my case it's "20.04 Stable"

Hope to see it in the official device list as well, sometimes in the future.

wally

@alaskalinuxuser Really appreciate the feedback! Reports on SMS and MMS (photo, video) messaging would also be useful, if possible. Nonfunctional Group MMS is a known bug across UT devices. MMS can sometimes take fiddling with APN settings, but usually mostly works. This said, some devices have workedbetter than others for me.

SIP has been worked on by some folks on the "UBports North American Carrier Issues" Telegram channel, I believe. Might be worth asking around there, if it doesn't immediately work? I don't know the state of things in that area. Hope it works for you!
Neighbourly salutations from a former Yukonner.

DenMoore

@stanwood The only update channel available is dev. It does update via OTA.
VoLTE,sms & mms worked from first boot. No luck with Waydroid yet.
All in all, very nice port so far!

stanwood

@DenMoore Oh thank you! Nice start indeed!

I think WayDroid needs some patches to run properly, this is a "porting" stuff. I'm sure it will come further.