Trying out UT on Pixel 3a XL for review article
-
@wally said in Trying out UT on Pixel 3a XL for review article:
To my mind, as data collection grows and grows, (and as authoritarianism rises worldwide) the need for smartphone alternatives starts to seem kinda dire. AOSP-based ROMs are good until Google decides not to share anymore, which it kinda sounds like they're already starting to do.
Thanks for your detailed response. There is a lot of useful information for me there and I've been learning a lot.
I'll try the uFirefox link. I was happy to learn that Open Store files are sandboxed - a good thing!
The paste issue persists on my device, which basically means I won't be logging into my tuta.com on that device for now, but that's ok, because I usually access mail on desktop. But when traveling, this could be an issue.
I agree 100% with what you wrote in the quote above. I like that UT is working on different phone models and not as dependent on Google continuing to share information, as for example GrapheneOS, my current daily driver, is. It would be great to have a mainstream Linux mobile OS that 'regular' people can try out.
You mention UT is a 'true Linux OS', but I've read that it still requires some aspects of Android to communicate with the hardware (unlike something like PostmarketOS). Any thoughts on that as a vulnerability to the UT project?
Using the Nextcloud integration apps has been mostly a great experience. I get more out of my home server with UT than I have with other operating system. But the dated browser is a real barrier to user-friendliness, since having an up-to-date browser is essential to most online actions, whether your use Webber to make a webapp or just work in the browser.
-
@theprivacydad Bad news is that uFirefox (and I think also uWolf?) doesn't have copy/paste integrated with the rest of the system yet
It's a solid work in progress, but not fully featured. The lack of up-to-date browser is just gonna make things clunky til its remedied.And y'know, my "true Linux OS" comment is super unclear. I have no idea what makes something a true Linux OS.
With notes that I'm faaar from being among the more knowledgeable around here.. aside from Pinephones and maybe some other devices of which I'm not aware, most UT ports use Halium, an abstraction layer that's able to talk to the Android firmware involved in the components of the device. My understanding is that Postmarket OS, when used on an Android phone, is in a similar boat and uses libhybris to talk to hardware.
I'm sure it's not perfect, but I struggle to imagine a serious privacy/security risk given the sandboxed nature of UT.
As for vulnerability of the project though, I take your point, and it's a good one. I hadn't thought of that while running my mouth about the vulnerabilities of AOSP based projects
Does Halium make use of code that is at present open-sourced by Google, but could become not so at Google's whims? I don't know. But I bet somebody does.. -
@theprivacydad I see. There's a couple of things here.
First is that clipboard doesn't work yet on apps running via Wayland/XWayland which uWolf is. So sadly you can't copy paste there.Second, what version is your Nextcloud? I believe mine is NC 30 and it works fine and I can download files.
Lastly, you're most likely using Beta version of Ubuntu Touch 24.04 Noble. That one isn't released yet and most of your issues seem to be because of that. For example, Notes app is still not compiled for Noble hence the blank screen. UBsync might also need to be recompiled to work properly. OpenStore allowed focal (20.04) apps to be installed in noble (24.04) to allow users to use apps that hasn't been rebuilt or adjusted for noble. Many apps will just work but sadly that's not the case for every app.
-
Hi @theprivacydad Developer of uWolf here.
LibreWolf is focused on privacy and security, By default LibreWolf will delete cookies when closed you can change that in about:settingscopy/paste as mentioned already is one of many symptoms of being forced to use XWayland there is a fix on the way but until it is merged no dice unless you want to install it through the qa tool and remove the XWayland flags from the launch script in uWolf but I would not recommend that.
-
@ChromiumOS-Guy said in Trying out UT on Pixel 3a XL for review article:
By default LibreWolf will delete cookies when closed you can change that in about:settings
Thanks, useful to know! I and thanks for the work you are doing!
-
Thanks for the good info. I'm running NC 31.
@kugiigi said in Trying out UT on Pixel 3a XL for review article:
you're most likely using Beta version of Ubuntu Touch 24.04 Noble
Oh, wow. You are right. I will have to start over with my notes, most likely, after installing the stable channel.
I have now found this page: https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/about/process/release-schedule.html via the small link in the installer.
I don't know who to report this to, but if the UBPorts installer is designed to lower the barrier for non-tech people, can I suggest putting the stable channel as default in the drop-down menu? Someone new to all of this will read 'daily' and not understand what that is. I read right past it and continued the installation.
Thank you! I'll reinstall today sometime.
-
@theprivacydad I haven't used the installer lately but I would think the stabl channel is the default and I think the noble channel was still hidden but maybe now it's not?
-
@kugiigi It's no longer hidden, no. And channel sorting has always been an issue with the installer when new channels become available. Now the sorting is probably from newest to oldest as a way to default to noble when it became the default.
-
@arubislander It looks like that, yes, from newest to oldest.
-
@arubislander An easier fix might be a highlighted warning message in that particular window of the installer to newcomers to choose the latest 'stable' version. That way the changing order doesn't matter.
-
@theprivacydad I think defaulting to the current stable version, whichever that might be is the correct way to go about it.
Opening an issue about it on the Installer's issue tracker will keep the info from getting lost.
-
@arubislander said in Trying out UT on Pixel 3a XL for review article:
Opening an issue about it on the Installer's issue tracker will keep the info from getting lost.
Done! https://github.com/ubports/ubports-installer/issues/4177
