Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad
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I'm going to throw in a "nice to have" feature. I wouldn't say it is a bug.
Having a filter to only show my native Ubuntu Touch Apps, Desktop Apps, and Waydroid apps would be very helpful. Putting them all together can cause some user accidents. Oops...I just accidentally opened a desktop app, but I don't have a proper screen near by to see what I am doing. Oops...I just accidentally opened Waydroid and I can expect some loading times and more battery usage, etc. I can see how that can be potentially frustrating.
Sometimes I want my phone to only be an Ubuntu Phone phone with native Ubuntu Touch phone apps. Sometimes I want to run Waydroid when I know I have enough battery, and other times, I want it to be a "Pocket PC" when I have a proper screen, keyboard, and mouse.
Being able to select what I want to show would be helpful, and if I want to show all, I could do that too.
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@atarilinux Maybe adding an icon in a corner for indicating desktop app or waydroid app or snap might be a first step to reduce such mistakes. But I agree, having a filter might be good in the long run if we have more apps of those types (thinking also of crackle or nix).
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Improvements on the bug I reported above after 24.04-1.1:
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Sometimes the phone will boot with only one of the 2 sim working or even none of them,
Seems completely solved -
"The interface is sometimes kind of sluggish, or will freeze for a fraction of a second" : Has improved significantly with 24.04-1.1. Still not always perfectly fluid, but honestly this is very acceptable, the system is quite fast.
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"Gps positioning does not work reliably in webview (in comparison to puremaps)" : There is some improvements with 24.04-1.1, it sometimes works in ideal conditions, but it is still unreliable and will still freeze/crash very easily while it works reliably on Pure-maps.
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'It often looses celular data connection.': I'm progressing in the investigation, seems to be an IP loss problem, I might be able to write a script to automatically do dhclient when needed as a temporary workaround. https://forums.ubports.com/topic/11700/bug-data-mobile-interface-looses-ip
Which means we're getting closer and closer to a system perfectly suited to my needs, thank you so much.
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@gpatel-fr said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
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.
I felt my post looked quite similar to many others early in the thread, and I don't understand the point you are trying to make, but sorry if I somehow misunderstood the purpose of this thread. I found out about this thread because I watched Ubuntu Touch Q&A 179 ( https://youtu.be/jIcfYORt6P4?t=1322 ), where Marius described it as "Making U.T. more attractive for the masses", while his opening post says "the stuff that actually stops UT from being a usable daily driver". And I felt that's pretty much what my points were (you may think them minor, but as a potential new user I found most of them major annoyances if not actual blockers).
Well, I won't argue further. I was trying to contribute to this thread, and having done that to the best of my ability, I'll move on. Once Waydroid gets better on U.T. (and some of my bugs apparently don't exist for others), then it's quite likely to become my main phone.
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said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
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.
I obviously pressed some of your buttons. I'm not going to get drawn into a debate, or answer your straw-man false accusations, but I will say that I see Waydroid as helping ease the transition from an Android phone, and some Android apps as an unavoidable necessity until U.T. gains alternative native apps.
If U.T. doesn't want any Android apps, then why does it have a port of Waydroid? Why does Wine or Steam exist on Linux? No need to answer my rhetorical questions (I won't reply as it's off topic!), I am just trying to nudge you towards a less black & white perspective. Not everyone is the same as you!
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@Sentinel said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
I felt my post looked quite similar to many others early in the thread
Well, yes, absolutely, I was too harsh in singling you out, because for sure some other people were also doing the same.
The point I was trying to make is that a big part of being a leader is to priorize, and it's particularly important with a small project like UT, and thinking that priorization is easy is a very big mistake, leaders are not omniscient people who know miraculously how to best priorize. Putting a few dozen prople together to enumerate all what is bugging them is not so useful if no reasoning is done on why the points made are important from the point of view of wider adoption.
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Excellent project, many thanks to Marius and all others involved!
Priority 2:
-RCS: lacking RCS isn't a bug exactly. But where I live it's a missing part of core phone functionality at this point, especially when UT's MMS lacks Group Messages and (for me, across devices) has always missed some messages outright. This is the single biggest reason I haven't gotten anyone to switch to UT here in Canada. MMS/RCS is an expected baseline way to communicate in Canada and USA, and increasingly RCS is ubiquitous. It's a much bigger problem now that iOS and Android talk to each other smoothly, as people expect you've seen their message, and you don't know anything was sent.
But that's probably a big task, and I know this isn't a big issue in lots of the world.Priority 3:
-Autocorrect: I may be in the minority, but I've always used autocorrect in UT. I've heard it dismissed in Q&As as not worth using, but it's really not that bad, and I think a lot of new users expect decent autocorrect. I wouldn't expect it to get to the level of android/iOS with context-dependent editing, but fixing a few bugs that I'm long since accustomed to would make the existing UT autocorrect pretty decent. Happy to chat in greater detail about specifics.-Screen flicker during calls: on Oneplus 1, Oneplus 5, and Oneplus N10, 16.04 and 20.04, when on a phone call the screen will sort of flicker off and on, making it difficult to use anything else while on a call, and sometimes also hard to shut the screen off. I have not yet tried 24.04.
-GPS crashes/freezes navigation apps: this occurs in Morph, uNav, and Puremaps in different ways for different users. Most of us have some workaround, but it'd be a very nice bug (or set of bugs) to have fixed.
Priority 4:
-Notches and Rounded CornersPriority 5:
-AGPS
-Backup/Restore: some native OS way to handle this, including backing up data from apps that store your work outside the normal home folder, like Recorder.Thanks a million to the developers who're working on this. I really think this is exactly the sort of effort that could grow the userbase, which leads to more devs, more donations, and as such more progress in a positive feedback loop
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(had to post as picture, as the text was for some reason flagged as spam by Aksimet on this forum) -
Priority 1: Core System Stuff - Boot loops, crashes, phone completely unusable. Fix immediately.
- Nothing
Priority 2: Basic Phone Features - Calls, SMS, WiFi, Bluetooth, notifications, camera. If these don't work, it's not really a phone.
- PinePhone misses calls and sms. There is no trace of the received call or sms. (ofono?)
- Some devices such as the VollaPhone lose the ability to record sound after a call. This happens on Xenial, Focal, and Noble.
Priority 3: Daily Use - Browser crashes, app store issues, keyboard problems, file management. The stuff you hit every day.
Priority 4: Polish - Like those tiny contact navigation arrows that are impossible to see. UI glitches. Things that make UT feel unpolished.
Priority 5: Nice to Have - Advanced features, edge cases, stuff that matters to specific users.
Possibility of having a configuration for the notification LED. For example:
- Telegram: green LED.
- Dekko: blue LED.
- SMS: yellow LED.
- Missed call: two-color LED.
I'm not sure if it's worth it, as it's becoming increasingly difficult to find devices with LEDs, and some LED are not multicolored.
P.S. Thank you all (not just the developers) for all your hard work.
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I would like to add to my list, a new priority 2 that since I upgraded my Vollaphone 22 to 24.04-1.1, I have recurrent crashes / freeze, seems an Out of memory problem, and might be related to the dialer and/or VoLTE. I did not have any similar problem before. It greatly reduce the reliability and usability of the phone unfortunately. -
Hello Marius,
For me it is priorty between 1 and 2
I have an issue what cost me time and a lot of nerves:
For my work I send a lot of voice messages. And every second time the microphone don't work. So I have to start the phone again.Eric H meant, it is a bug and gave me this link:
https://gitlab.com/EricHeintzmann/ubuntu-touch/xiaomi-surya/-/issues/26
I would appreciate it very much, when it get fixed.My smartphone is a Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC
The chat you will find on: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/11722/no-network-connectivity-microphone-is-not-working?_=1769183571861
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Not sure if it is still ok to add some things to this post, but there are a couple of things I've noticed as I keep working with Ubuntu Touch. Again, this is mostly on the "nice to have side."
- Lock Screen Widgets
I play a lot of music on my phone, but everytime I need to change something, I have to unlock the screen. Having a quick way to play/pause, change tracks, etc. would be nice. Other widgets could be weather, etc.
- Music Organization (More app specific)
Music is incorrectly organized. Search by artist and two artists have the same album name, the songs are grouped togeter. It looks like it groups on Artist Name, Album, or Song without any "keys."
- Hardware Docking stations
Not sure about other phones, but I can't use a hardware dock with mine to turn it into a computer.
- Sharing Libraries between Waydroid and Ubuntu Touch
Often times, I need to send a picture or download a picture in one OS and do something with the picture in another OS. Having an easy to find "Shared" folder between OS's and having folders that aren't shared could help with this scenario. I'm fine with transferring by USB if I need to. I can understand if this is not recommended for any security issues.
- Safely Remove USB
Sometimes the USB Drive can be safely removed...others times it can't. It gives an Unmount Error. It is kind of inconsistant.
- Volume too loud message
I play music via AUX in my car. The volume on the phone is all the way up on the phone, but the volume in the car controls how loud or soft I want to hear the music. The message gives me a Volume Too Loud message with an OK or cancel. Sometimes when I hit OK it seems like I can't toggle the volume on the phone. Due to this, the fidelity is not as good.
- Music File Formats
The music player can't read ALAC. Some people transferring these file formats would need to look at other formats to play the music.
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@atarilinux said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
- Lock Screen Widgets
I play a lot of music on my phone, but everytime I need to change something, I have to unlock the screen. Having a quick way to play/pause, change tracks, etc. would be nice. Other widgets could be weather, etc.
For the play / pause at least, if you pull down from the indicator panel on the lock screen, under the volume indicator you get media controls.
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3. Hardware Docking stationsNot sure about other phones, but I can't use a hardware dock with mine to turn it into a computer.
Support for hardware docking is dependent on exactly that, the hardware of the device.
- Sharing Libraries between Waydroid and Ubuntu Touch
Often times, I need to send a picture or download a picture in one OS and do something with the picture in another OS. Having an easy to find "Shared" folder between OS's and having folders that aren't shared could help with this scenario. I'm fine with transferring by USB if I need to. I can understand if this is not recommended for any security issues.
Have you noticed the app waydroid files in the Open Store? I don't have any use for it myself, but it seems to do exactly what you need, based on the description.
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7. Music File FormatsThe music player can't read ALAC. Some people transferring these file formats would need to look at other formats to play the music.
What formats can or cannot be played on the device is also dependent on the codecs the device comes with.EDIT (2026-02-26): As @gpatel-fr correctly pointed out, this is not the case for audio codecs. And strictly speaking it is not the case for video codecs either. But it is just that for for unsupported video codecs you could get apps to render the videos, but that would not be hardware accelerated, and the playback would probably be choppy, or use a lot of CPU.
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Thanks for your detailed response! I will try some of the things you mentioned!
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@arubislander said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:
What formats can or cannot be played on the device is also dependent on the codecs the device comes with.
You seem to imply that it is a device specific problem and that it's all a matter of what the Android version could support. I just tested a fix for my phone not being able to play .amr files and it did not imply any Halium trickery, I'm pretty sure that any UT phone has the same problem and that the fix would apply for all.
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@gpatel-fr Aha, so for audio codecs it is a question of the right flags and necessary libraries. I will amend my answer then.
