Ubuntu Touch as second operating system

Opino

I successfully installed UT as second OS on Volla Phone X23 (on SD Card). The Volla Boot Manager installed the version OTA-4. In the meantime a version OTA-5 was released. I found 3 ways how to update the OS to the newest version. However none of those worked:

the update option in Volla Boot Manager shows, that there is no update.
the Update option in UT System Settings offers to install an update, but this just reboots the phone to Recovery mode and nothing happens.
I found a guide to use ADB tools and command "sudo system-image-cli -v -p 0 --progress dots" but this also just rebooted into Recovery mode without further action

Can someone advice please how to update the UT running as a second OS?
Might be remounting the root filesystem into write mode and run apt update sequence? Is this a recommended way?

Thank you for any advice.

arubislander

@Opino As dual booting is a feature developed and maintained by Volla, it is not possible to offer support on that here on the Forums. I am afraid the only supported way is to update via the Volla Boot Manager.

It is up to Volla to provide their users with the updates. Maybe you should contact them about it. There might be legitimate reasons for them to hold off on offering the update widely to their users. Maybe there is some regression on their devices that they find is detrimental to the user experience. Or maybe they just haven't gotten around to it. Whichever the case, as a Volla customer your best bet is getting in contact with them about this.

Opino

Thank You. I contacted them via email and got a reply, that the update will be available soon. However it takes already few weeks since the reply. Might be I just have to be more patient.

sermountain

@opino
I support the topic, have same issue. I see that four month passed, but update from Volla side is still not available. Maybe you have found another way to update UT?

Josele13

@Opino Try switching to the RC channel and updating Ut. It may be an error in the Ut installed on the SD card, with an important file missing.

regards...

sermountain

@Josele13
I have switched, but no luck, it always reboots to recovery mode, and I don't know what to do next. Do you?

phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ sudo system-image-cli -v --switch 24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) running state machine [24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim]
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) Looking for blacklist: https://system-image.ubports.com/gpg/blacklist.tar.xz
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) [0x7fb9053f70] Requesting group download:
	https://system-image.ubports.com/gpg/blacklist.tar.xz -> /var/lib/system-image/keyring.tar.xz
	https://system-image.ubports.com/gpg/blacklist.tar.xz.asc -> /var/lib/system-image/keyring.tar.xz.asc

[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) Allow GSM? Yes
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/e422141127054f0799f7cba5954b1253] Running group download reactor
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) self: <LDMDownloadManager at 0x7fb9053f70>, self._iface: <Interface <ProxyObject wrapping <dbus._dbus.SystemBus (system) at 0x7fb9676b80> :1.135 /com/lomiri/applications/download/e422141127054f0799f7cba5954b1253 at 0x7fb906e340> implementing 'com.lomiri.applications.GroupDownload' at 0x7fb906e400>
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/e422141127054f0799f7cba5954b1253] Group download reactor done
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:11 2026 (5101) Local blacklist file: /var/lib/system-image/blacklist.tar.xz
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) Looking for: https://system-image.ubports.com/channels.json
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) [0x7fb966f6d0] Requesting group download:
	https://system-image.ubports.com/channels.json -> /tmp/system-image-9o_srvf0/channels.json
	https://system-image.ubports.com/channels.json.asc -> /tmp/system-image-9o_srvf0/channels.json.asc

[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) Allow GSM? Yes
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/76893544301a4d7a8798172e0997cc18] Running group download reactor
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) self: <LDMDownloadManager at 0x7fb966f6d0>, self._iface: <Interface <ProxyObject wrapping <dbus._dbus.SystemBus (system) at 0x7fb9676b80> :1.135 /com/lomiri/applications/download/76893544301a4d7a8798172e0997cc18 at 0x7fb9053f70> implementing 'com.lomiri.applications.GroupDownload' at 0x7fb906e370>
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/76893544301a4d7a8798172e0997cc18] Group download reactor done
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) Local channels file: /tmp/system-image-9o_srvf0/channels.json
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) got channel: 24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) found channel/device entry: 24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) [0x7fb966f6d0] Requesting group download:
	https://system-image.ubports.com/24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim/index.json -> /tmp/system-image-9o_srvf0/index.json
	https://system-image.ubports.com/24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim/index.json.asc -> /tmp/system-image-9o_srvf0/index.json.asc

[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) Allow GSM? Yes
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/9a6aeaa6ef324edf83601eb1850572df] Running group download reactor
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) self: <LDMDownloadManager at 0x7fb966f6d0>, self._iface: <Interface <ProxyObject wrapping <dbus._dbus.SystemBus (system) at 0x7fb9676b80> :1.135 /com/lomiri/applications/download/9a6aeaa6ef324edf83601eb1850572df at 0x7fb9658d30> implementing 'com.lomiri.applications.GroupDownload' at 0x7fb9658640>
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/9a6aeaa6ef324edf83601eb1850572df] Group download reactor done
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:12 2026 (5101) Upgrade path is 7:8
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:19 2026 (5101) [0x7fb966f6d0] Requesting group download:
	http://system-image.ubports.com/pool/rootfs-444d054e5ba1448d405454b844251e822931bd3b014e10d3d960437a65076ccd.tar.xz [/android/cache/recovery/rootfs-444d054e5ba1448d405454b844251e822931bd3b014e10d3d960437a65076ccd.tar.xz] -> c2af90ee05bb697d20da09ce67dd084c7a8d9104a8b88b76a1db35114a9657ce
	http://system-image.ubports.com/pool/rootfs-444d054e5ba1448d405454b844251e822931bd3b014e10d3d960437a65076ccd.tar.xz.asc -> /android/cache/recovery/rootfs-444d054e5ba1448d405454b844251e822931bd3b014e10d3d960437a65076ccd.tar.xz.asc
	http://system-image.ubports.com/24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim/version-7.tar.xz [/android/cache/recovery/version-7.tar.xz] -> fb73da2eb69692210b1ffe5e08b6021d8a7c73bd51899f7095867054b7c73cd8
	http://system-image.ubports.com/24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim/version-7.tar.xz.asc -> /android/cache/recovery/version-7.tar.xz.asc
	http://system-image.ubports.com/24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim/version-8.tar.xz [/android/cache/recovery/version-8.tar.xz] -> 7131b09629d5479cf156e893f9e1f7aab87ce40585ad6a1210544ead68186eb5
	http://system-image.ubports.com/24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc/vidofnir_esim/version-8.tar.xz.asc -> /android/cache/recovery/version-8.tar.xz.asc

[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:19 2026 (5101) Allow GSM? Yes
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:19 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/fde799296e6a4fc98570e99754989716] Running group download reactor
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:36:19 2026 (5101) self: <LDMDownloadManager at 0x7fb966f6d0>, self._iface: <Interface <ProxyObject wrapping <dbus._dbus.SystemBus (system) at 0x7fb9676b80> :1.135 /com/lomiri/applications/download/fde799296e6a4fc98570e99754989716 at 0x7fb906e460> implementing 'com.lomiri.applications.GroupDownload' at 0x7fb906ea00>

[systemimage] Jan 15 22:37:16 2026 (5101) [/com/lomiri/applications/download/fde799296e6a4fc98570e99754989716] Group download reactor done
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:37:21 2026 (5101) all files available in /android/cache/recovery
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:37:21 2026 (5101) preparing recovery
[systemimage] Jan 15 22:37:21 2026 (5101) applying
Rebooting with argument 'recovery'.

sermountain

said in Ubuntu Touch as second operating system:

sudo system-image-cli -v --switch 24.04-1.x/arm64/android9plus/rc

And if I try to do "Format data / factory reset" from the recovery after that, I got "ERROR: recovery: Read state file failed: No such file or directory"

Nothing changed in UT after that, I still have an old OS version, it resets only Volla OS