Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad
-
@gpatel-fr Yes, that's one option plus "Sound"->"other vibrations" (I'm using german localization , don't know exactly what it's called under with english localization)
-
G gandalf referenced this topic
-
New one that I've found! Hide notification content setting does not hide notification content. Don't know if it's something apps have to opt in to, but at least WhatsWeb notifications are plainly visible while device is locked.
Edit: more on this problem. So it turns out that the notifications are blurred when the notification is received and pops up on the screen. It is, however, not hidden in the indicator when you slid it open after the fact!
-
@kugiigi said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
Ideally, an easy to use backup/restore solution as well.
+1
The ability to, the most easily possible way, save and restore (all) user data is a loooooooong time lack...Also, another thing that can prevent people from testing UT is the lack of migrating tool, forward AND back.
When my
N5@UTbecame unusable as daily, I had to migrate underFP5@FFOSand lost all my messaging data, now there's a stable port for FP5, but that very bother me to loose, again, all my SMS/MMS (not talking about RCS...).If people can migrate from android to apple and the other way without worrying about their data, that's because those companies understood people will not migrate if their data can't migrate with them.
-
Hi
I'm trying to ditch Google/Android, and have been testing-out both Ubuntu Touch 24.04 (on a Poco X3 NFC) & Sailfish OS (on an Xperia 10 III). What UT has implemented is really impressive for a non-commercial community effort, but most of the problems below are issues that Sailfish OS doesn't have (and hence I'm strongly leaning towards that, despite really favouring UT as an Ubuntu geek & finding the battery life of Sailfish OS to be unreliable).
Priority 1: Core System Stuff
Priority 2: Basic Phone Features
- Waydroid cannot be installed, as it ALWAYS fails to download Android images (at least on my Poco X3 NFC), both from the Terminal & using Waydroid Helper. If I Ctrl-C the Terminal, I see that Python has been stuck on connect(), i.e. the download never even starts. The only way I can get it to install is manually download the needed images to the right place & then run "waydroid init -f". No idea why, as Android apps can access the network just fine, and sourceforge.net doesn't block me from accessing it (but maybe it blocks Python's default user agent?).
Priority 3: Daily Use
- Waydroid randomly glitches or stops working every few days (a real problem if I'm not notified of new messages or events), and using Waydroid Helper to stop & restart it rarely fixes it - the only way is to reboot the whole phone, which is not practical for something I must rely on a daily basis.
If stopping & restarting Waydroid would fix it, then having a script to restart Waydroid every night at 4am would probably make Waydroid reliable enough to use. Unfortunately I can't currently use UT without many Android apps. - Waydroid does not have access to GPS, which means I can't use highly polished & reliable Android satnav & related apps. I view them as essential & not something I could live without.
Priority 4: Polish
- I'd like the phone to not lock as soon as I turn the screen off, but to wait for my "Lock when idle" timeout (like Android). It's very cumbersome that I have to enter a PIN (let alone a password!) every time I briefly stop using my phone (and turn off the screen to avoid distractions, for privacy & to save power).
- The status bar at top of screen is obscured by camera cut-out & screen's rounded edges, e.g. I cannot see the full time. (I believe someone is already working on fixing this?)
- The inability to re-order the app grid feels like a major limitation you'd only get on a toy OS (sorry!). Pinning apps to the sidebar isn't sufficient, as I have more than 15 commonly used apps. If manual reordering isn't easy to add, then what about having custom 'folders' that you can move apps into? (Would allow me to hide apps I rarely need, as well as grouping apps I am most interested in or that have similar purposes.)
- '3D' task switching feels somehow back-to-front & clumsy. On Android the most recently-used app appears at the front & close the right side (where my hand is), where-as on Ubuntu Touch it appears at the back (behind all the other apps), and on the left side (furthest from my right hand). I'm not sure if I will ever get used to this! A setting to swap the order would be great; at least have the most recent app on the right side, but preferably also in front of the other apps.
- Add an option for the 'app grid' to appear as soon as you drag from the left to show the 'task bar'. The two-step process of revealing the task bar & only then being able to tap the 'start button' makes switching to a new app feel much slower & clumsier than on Android (where I can just tap the Home button to see everything).
- Controlling the Terminal seems very difficult (compared to say Termux on Android).
- Scrolling up/down through the command output is very difficult to initiate reliably, and usually scrolls through my command history before I've even activated the hidden scrollbars (which IMHO should either be wider & permanently visible, or else I should be able to stop dragging from scrolling the cmd history at all). In Termux I can just drag to scroll the display & it's wonderful. Maybe scrolling through the command history should be done by dragging left/right instead? (Although that might still be too easy to trigger accidentally.)
- Common controls are spread through different Scr/Fn/Ctrl sections (clumsy & slow to switch between), rather than just having one section that contains Arrows (U/D/L/R), Tab, Esc, Ctrl+C (maybe followed by Page Up/Down, Home/End, Del).
- Selecting text to copy/paste is inaccurate & a bit slow. I have to press the screen for far too long before the menu options (not customisable). I can get the menu immediately by tapping the top-right icon, but after I click on Select, why is there no icon in the top-right to cancel selection mode? (Going all the way to the bottom of the screen feels harder than going to the top right.) Accurately selecting characters is almost impossible as my finger hides what I am selecting (unlike Termux which has selection handles I can drag).
Priority 5: Nice to Have
- Morph Browser & Waydroid not supporting USB or NFC access to "physical passkeys" aka FIDO2 devices (e.g. Yubico security keys) will likely become a show-stopper for me in the future, as my most important accounts (e.g. ProtonMail) will become ONLY accessible using a FIDO2 key. This may seem niche to you now, but they are rapidly gaining in popularity, and anyone really worried about their online security will be using them.
- Android apps all appear on one Waydroid 'virtual phone' rather than with native apps in the main task switcher. (I believe there are plans to eventually fix this, but it's waiting on QT to accept a pull request or something??)
- Ubuntu Touch's display only appears to be 30fps, at least on a Poco X3 (where-as Sailfish OS looks like 60fps). Doesn't really bother me, but a friend would find Ubuntu Touch unusable.
- Lack of easy access to Waydroid files (and Waydroid not having easy access to any UT files) is kind of a big issue. I've created a SystemD service to auto-mount the Waydroid folder on UT side, but most people won't be able to do that.
- Unlocking UT using the fingerprint sensor doesn't seem to be supported? At least not on my Xiaomi Poco X3, even though devices.ubuntu-touch.io lists it as working.
Thanks for listening, and sorry my list is so long! Despite all the above, UT feels like it is pretty close to being a usable phone for many people (e.g. with VoLTE now working).
-
Sorry if my post upset someone, but this thread is about reasons why people can't switch to or keep using UT, so clarity & honesty seems best. If I don't mention what I am comparing UT to, how can you accurately judge what needs doing?
-
@Sentinel Hi
I'm surprised by some of the bugs you report because I don't have the same ones on my poco x3 nfc.
For example, I was able to download Android images without a problem with Waydroid Helper, waydroid has access to GPS or my fingerprint reader works perfectly...Anyway, I'm interested in fixing poco x3 bugs, for example I'm currently testing a kernel patch that should improve the stability of waydroid.
But this being off-topic, can you join us on the Telegram Group https://t.me/ut_pocox3 (Bridged to #ut_surya:matrix.org on Matrix)? -
@Sentinel said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
Lack of easy access to Waydroid files (and Waydroid not having easy access to any UT files) is kind of a big issue. I've created a SystemD service to auto-mount the Waydroid folder on UT side, but most people won't be able to do that.
Could you share that system unit in another topic maybe?
-
@Sentinel said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
this thread is about reasons why people can't switch to or keep using UT
Not the person who downvoted you - I never do that - but I'm not sure you understood fully the topic. If you reread it, you'll notice that it states something like 'we all know that UT has rough edges'. And the title specified 'bugs that drive you mad'. It was an incitation to priorize, not throw the kitchen sink at everything that crosses your mind about what could be better. In my reply I have strived to think about the problem giving the better ratio effort/result.
There is a whole web site dedicated to Windows annoyances, believe me when I say that it's far from empty and this is an OS that was a runaway success.
Listing everything is not useful and can be demoralizing for a small team, and using demeaning terms can be seen as bad even if adding a perfunctory 'sorry', and adding another for the length of your post. While your post contains interesting points, being long shows that you did not read the topic carefully. Sorry
-
@Keneda said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
If people can migrate from android to apple and the other way without worrying about their data, that's because those companies understood people will not migrate if their data can't migrate with them
Are you saying that there is integrated into Android and IOS a way to get at your history from the other operating system and get back all your SMS threads and telephony calls ?
I am not caring about this particularly, for the record I just give it a look and found the telephony history into a sqlite3 database under ~/.local/share/history-service and (I think since it's more murky) the sms data is under ~/.local/share/nuntium. So backing the home directory should be enough to back up all this data (rsync could be used even if a cloud backup could be seen as a great idea by many), however I don't think that investing time to port/get this data from every OS under the sun would be a great idea given all the Really Important Things (TM) that need to be done.
-
It's sifnificative that the main use of UT is Waydroid. So, we want to use a Linux distro to run .exe files. Maybe, you do not want to use a Linux distro, maybe you want to use Windows but you don't like it.
-
@CiberSheep Waydroid runs .apk files, not .exe files. So: Android apps.
That said, it's as true now as ever that the happiest UT users are those who aren't interested in running Android applications.
