Taking the plunge

O.o.

More observations:

I tried to set a new background with a random image: it previews okay but it doesn't work in the actual background. In the end, I had to scale the image to the exact size of the Fairphone 5's display (1224x2700), save it as a PNG, and now it's displayed properly in the background.
I enabled the SSH server with the terminal (kind of a pain to type without TAB emulation in the on-screen keyboard - none that I can see anyway) and from there, it's just plain old Linux. I can now ssh into it and type comfortably - and more importantly scp stuff into it.
I didn't need to install anything to setup my VPN in UT: I just recreated the ca.crt, client.crt and client.key files from the .ovpn, configured the VPN manually, and it connected rightaway. I will fault it a bit on not saying much: I would have liked to have a notification telling me it connected - or not. But no: apparently if it works, it connects silently.

I'm gonna take a break from that thing and have me a nice beer with a few friends now

O.o.

In that regard, you might be interested in this:

https://github.com/JamiKettunen/lomiri-notch-hax

Yes!

There's no FP5 patch for it, so I used FP4 and it's close enough. It's not quite wide enough where the camera hole is in the middle, but it's wide enough to make out 3/4 of the icons on either sides. And the time is now displayed totally outside the corner.

Brilliant! Thanks!

O.o.

Well I'll be damned: my obscure Yubikey-authenticator-like NFC authenticator works like a charm in Waydroid. Meaning the NFC stack is properly exposed to the Android VM and everything.

I'm properly impressed by that!

@Vlad-Nirky said in Taking the plunge:

If you do something for the yubikey, i will be glad to see it because i use it too

If you use the Yubikey Authenticator on Android, I expect it will work in Waydroid too if your cellphone supports it in Ubuntu Touch, because my obscure app is actually a fork of it. Underneath it's the same app.

arubislander

@O.o. said in Taking the plunge:

I enabled the SSH server with the terminal (kind of a pain to type without TAB emulation in the on-screen keyboard - none that I can see anyway)

Tapping once in the terminal app will input a TAB character, also works as autocomplete.

I didn't need to install anything to setup my VPN in UT: I just recreated the ca.crt, client.crt and client.key files from the .ovpn, configured the VPN manually, and it connected rightaway.

Using the nmcli commandline tool you can import ovpn files as is.

O.o.

@arubislander said in Taking the plunge:

Tapping once in the terminal app will input a TAB character, also works as autocomplete.

Nice to know, thanks!

@arubislander said in Taking the plunge:

Using the nmcli commandline tool you can import ovpn files as is.

Hmm true, I didn't think about that.
Oh well, the hard way works too I guess...

O.o.

If anybody in Finland is interested, the Posti app works perfectly in Waydroid too: it complains briefly that it won't work without Google Play, but after that it simply carries on setting itself up without a hitch.

O.o.

Well, there is one thing that doesn't work in Ubuntu Touch on the Fairphone 5: charge limiting. I know the FP5 has the hardware to do this, so it's just not supported in the software.

wally

@O.o. There's an app in the Openstore called Upower Indicator Fork which I think can halt chargimg on some devices. Otherwise you'll atleast get a notification at a set charge level. You'll find more info on the gitlab linked from the Openstore.

Welcome to the community by the way! Thanks for showing your work here. Nice to see how well you've been able to get things working (although a swipe keyboard may be a long way off, and autocorrect has its bugs).

O.o.

@wally said in Taking the plunge:

There's an app in the Openstore called Upower Indicator Fork which I think can halt chargimg on some devices.

I've installed it. The charge control button is greyed out. The documentation in the repo says it's only supported on OnePlus3.

I've also tried to write values in /sys/class/power_supply/battery/charge_control_limit and /sys/class/power_supply/battery/charge_control_limit_max and it doesn't do anything. I think it's just not implemented.

The next best thing would be to use one of my Chargie external charge limiters, but the control app is Android only, doesn't work in Waydroid, and wouldn't be a good option anyway since Waydroid doesn't stay running all the time.

I contacted the author to ask whether he would be willing to port his app to Linux (unlikely, but if you don't ask, you don't know) and I've offered to do the port myself, or at least code a daemon to control it as a user service, if he's willing to disclose how the hardware works.

Worst case, I might do my own thing. It's just a mosfet and a simple control script after all.

But clearly native charge control through the existing phone hardware would be nicer.

@wally said in Taking the plunge:

Welcome to the community by the way!

Thanks!

@wally said in Taking the plunge:

a swipe keyboard may be a long way off,

Well, it's kind of a niche OS, so I'm happy with what I got going already. It's a lot more polished than it has any right to be if I'm honest.

wally

@O.o. Agreed, I've always been amazed at how nicely UT works.
If you do make progress on a charge limiter, one way or another, I'm sure others will be interested to hear!

O.o.

So at the end of the day, a lot of the apps I need are in fact running in Waydroid - including email annoyingly, because Dekko2 chokes on my antique Dovecot server's SSL certificate.

This is a bit concerning, because LineageOS is just as doomed as all the other deGoogled ROMs, and sooner or later, the apps I need will stop working (for commercial or closed-source ones) or will become abandonware.

So I am wondering whether I just moved my problem to a virtual machine rather than eliminate it...

Also, one of the apps I really, REALLY need is Signal, and the one UT-native SIgnal-compatible app - Axolotl2 - doesn't work for me.

Hmm...

Oh well, problems for another day

Moem

@O.o. said in Taking the plunge:

one of the apps I really, REALLY need is Signal,

You and me both! This is how I tackled that problem.
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/10819/

pparent

@O.o.

By the way I think in Europe legally banks have to offer an alternative for online payments and double authentication, and they can't force you to own a Google or Apple device, or use Playstore or Apple app store. If you can't stand the monopoly a possibility can be to call your bank and ask for an alternative. Because the best way to avoid the monopoly is to incentivize actors like banks not to enforce it.

There are solutions based on SMS for every payment + a code valid for several years received by postmail. And some modern banks even support (to some extend) Yubikey or even standard TOTP.

gpatel-fr

@O.o.

thanks for your feedback, I'm currentl pondering the same setup.

One thing I have seen on a blog is bothering me a bit:

https://ounapuu.ee/posts/2024/03/06/fairphone5/#2025-04-14-update-im-very-disappointed

it's on FP5 but with the native Android system (not UT), so I wonder if the main blocker for this guy (bad video recording, well apart of the general support troubles) apply also for you: if it's a hardware problem or with the Android binary driver it may be the case.

O.o.

@Moem said in Taking the plunge:

You and me both! This is how I tackled that problem.
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/10819/

That's creative!

It's also rather underwhelming that one has to jump through that many hoops. You'd think the Signal Foundation would offer a version of Signal for Linux phones - especially since it's just an Electron app...

I'll investigate if the desktop version can be installed on UT somehow. If not, I'll try your solution. And if that doesn't do it, this might be the deal-breaker for me: I really need Signal. This is what my entire family stays in touch with every day.

O.o.

@pparent said in Taking the plunge:

in Europe legally banks have to offer an alternative for online payments and double authentication

I have tne alternative from my bank - a little standalone button-battery-powered TOTP doohickey with a terrible keypad. It works.

It works. But here's the thing: it's totally inconvenient, and I have to carry the damn thing separately, when I have a fully-fledged computer in my pocket that can authenticate me automatically over the internet.

Big tech doesn't get you to cave in and use their spyware by taking choices away from you, just by making the choices you prefer a lot more inconvenient to use.

@pparent said in Taking the plunge:

There are solutions based on SMS for every payment

SMS-based authentication is a terrible idea. There are few things more insecure than SMS.

Where I live, authentication online is delegated to banks. It's a complete privacy nightmare: whenever you go to any website that needs to authenticate you - social security, healthcare, your employer... anything, your bank know who and when.

You can get SMS authentication if you don't want to let your bank handle authentication - and you even pay extra for the privilege - but I'll never do it: as much as I hate my bank knowing all the 3rd party servers I authenticate with all the time, at least it's secure.

O.o.

@gpatel-fr said in Taking the plunge:

One thing I have seen on a blog is bothering me a bit:

I've just tried shooting video with the FP5. The autofocus seems to work. It's very snappy when focusing on far objects, and seems to hesitate a bit when switching to very near objects coming suddenly into view (my hand) but that might be because of low-lighting conditions. I'm not sure if the FP5 uses a time-of-flight sensor.

Anyway, I'm not a professional videographer, I'm generally easily pleased with passable tech, and this is just one quick test. I'll know for sure whether it's annoying in the long run. But at least so far it doesn't seem remotely as terrible as the post you linked to seems to suggest. Maybe the author had a bad device or something...

Moem

@O.o. said in Taking the plunge:

You'd think the Signal Foundation would offer a version of Signal for Linux phones

They don't seem to be interested. But also, there is no universal packaging format for all Linux phones. Ubuntu Touch uses click and I think we are the only ones.

The Cinny option works rather well I must say. Two niggles remain:

Notifications do not contain the text of the message.
If I send an image, the recipient has to download it in order to see it.

I can live with that for now. But who knows what the future may hold. See for exmple this topic or this one.

pparent

@O.o. said in Taking the plunge:

SMS-based authentication is a terrible idea. There are few things more insecure than SMS.

For what it’s worth, I would say there are few things more insecure than current banking to handle money in the digital era! Though in practice in my country there has been a scam boom based on these banking applications, and I would say that ironically using the SMS + long-term code protects more against these scam. Because when a fake bank advisor asks you to do something in an app, if you're not tech friendly, you may do as they told quite easily because you don't understand and you're used to be assisted, and that people do it for you (Maybe it's even your adviser that installed the app for you...). But then if a fake bank advisor calls you to ask for your personal code that you have been told to share with nobody, it can trigger way more warnings and it's way harder to justify. Security is not only about tech, there is also a human side.

But anyway the good solution based on smartphone would be to use standard TOTP, which is implemented in UT, and is simple to for users.

I'm glad I'm not living in you're country by the way, where banks handle authentications for public services... It's aslo the banks that edit passports?

pparent

@Moem said in Taking the plunge:

The Cinny option works rather well I must say. Two niggles remain:

Three niggles remain:

*You loose end-to-end encryption, and the matrix relay server gets to read your messages unencrypted.

For Signal I use Molly Foss in Waydroid.