Modern Devices
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hello may i ask you please for my knowlage
why can't we see new devices supported ?
after i tried my UT on nexus which is very old device UT was fast and nice except apps loading is little tiny slow. that made me wonder how it will be on a new phone . oneplus 6T for example reasonable price for the specs and not too old . -
In short, blame the chipset and handset manufacturers for creating the problem.
Unlike the x86 world, ARM hardware is highly customized, poorly documented (sometimes even secret), and porting to new each device is tremendously difficult and time consuming. It would be simpler for a manufacturer to port to their own device than for the community to do it with so much less information and access to specifications.
Easiest would be if we had open hardware platforms. Fortunately that is starting to come true with early revisions of Pine64's PinePhone and Purism's Librem 5 coming to market. But these devices - while new - will seem rather old in their specification.
Until/unless a chipset manufacturer or a handset manufacturer does the work to port to a recent chipset or handset, it's unlikely we'll see an alternative operating system running on flagship or near-flagship devices.
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@stan give it a time. There will be Pinephone, Librem 5 , brand new pure Linux phones. Also bunch of newer devices as Sony Xperia X, Oneplus 3/3t some Xiaomi devices,and so on, are being worked on and are near ( hopefully ) completion. There is now one major push to bring new Mir and Unity 8 to old ( supported) devices and then ( if I remember right) will be focus on Anbox and Halium 8,9 to allow, help, to bring more recent devices that were shipped with Android 8, 9. Ubports dev are working around the clock, but it's unpaid ( with some exeptions) work and they lacking a skilled developers. So anyone is welcome to help.Even with financial support or bug reporting... We need to be patient.
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thank you both so much for helping me understand more.
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To give you an idea, I was looking into 4 devices so far to port over the last years. 2 of them I cancelled since they were too ld for UT or the sources were not usable (HTC is a crappy vendor when it comes to software quality).
The other 2 I am working on and the minimum time for a part-time porter is 6-8 months (with 2hrs each day to work on), AND you must buy the device.
So our porters are not only squeezing their free time nto this but also have to make expenses for hardware. For example, I broke one of the phones I am working on and had to buy a new one for 150,- - So this is one of the reasons why so few newer devices are being worked on. They are expensive.
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@Flohack thank you very much for the answer, the more answers i get i realized how difficult it is and i wish i can be a programmer and developer .
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@Flohack is it possible to make a scheme of steps dumb enough to be followed exactly by non dev people like me . to both help us learn and test a device to a cretin level to take some work load.
not sure if what i said i just realistic, but i'm welling to learn just don't know how -
@stan Well, if you are interested you can have a look into the documentation and give it a try, but I am afraid its not that easy. I imagine thats why most ports get abandoned at some point.
The porter of the Xpiera X spent more than a year in porting the device until he abandoned it some weeks ago. -
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what i mean if the documentation contain a lot of data and explanation.
what i mean is to make is a steps 1, 2, 3 and if there result is x report if the result is z do 1 2 and report . like that , simple people like me can follow and report and on the side i will research what i'm doing to learn .
but mostly step to follow and report what happens
a very over the top idea is to make the UT installer to detect the device (from a list of pre approved modern phones) and show you the step and the more u follow correctly the more steps it reveals
again i don't know how difficult what iam asking but if non developers like me can be used as muscle i think it will help -
I ask myself this question: is the OP3 intended to become a core device (if there was the blessing of @vince1171 ) ?
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@domubpkm I hope so! I have Oneplus3t and UT is rather good on it ( yes with bugs for now) would be awesome to have the device promoted to core.
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I always thought the word "supported devices" brings confusion to newcomers for a while until they understand the issue. "Supported" implies some devices get support and some others could be used but they don't get support. "Ported" is a much clearer word, and once it is explained what takes to port a devices, then there is no confusion any more.
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@wgarcia That implication is accurate though. Supported devices can be flashed with the installer, get OTA updates, etc… Just because a port might be mostly working, doesn't guarantee any of that, or that the person who did it will necessarily finish it, even if many things work. And clearly the goal of any device port is to become supported at some point.
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@stan Sorry to say but its not that easy.
If there would be just a few steps that would work for every device we would have much more supported devices already. Instead, what porting means also is you need to research which changes from Android sources are necessary to make things work. You need C/C++ coding knowledge, scripting knowledge, understand how a Linux kernel works basically, how it needs to be configured. You need a fairly good command of the Android toolchain and Git especially, understand how patches work, how to manually try to apply patches when they dont succeed automatically.
Finally, you need to understand how a Linux-based OS like Ubuntu Touch is booting, how init system works and the startup scripts, understand how to analyze logfiles in Ubuntu Touch as well as in the underlying Android container that is being started. you need to get details from your device and vendor that might not be documented very well, so expect some hours in front of Google trying to find solutions for things that wont work.
As a summary, you must be a digital native with Linux and better have some years of experience with development of basic stuff (mostly in C) before its recommended to get hands on for porting.
Its not an offense, but we see a lot of people that dont fit this profile. They struggle a lot with not understanding whats happening, and then they copy/paste us all error messages into Telegram inhoping we can fix it for them. But, alas, thats not how it can work. The experienced porters, people who do this for a long time, spend hours and hours themselves with hard-to-crack nuts. Giving basic programming/debugging introes for people via Telegram is simply impossible for them.Also, we try to document knowledge when it becomes secured, but every vendor, every device might need different tricks to make it work. Simply writing commands into a shell window will almost 100% not work. You need to develop your port yourself, get acquainted to your device and understand its needs by listening closely, so to say.
If I invest my free time into porting I dont want to spend all night in front of Telegram looking into other peoples logfiles and screenshots and trying to guess whats the problem.
So, this is just my point of view. This is not "porting" like porting an Android ROM which is 100x easier. You will enter unchartered world by trying to port Ubuntu Touch, and it can be the frustration of your life. Choose wisely. -
I was just trying to apply
one of George carlin sayings ''Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups'' lol
and if the non programming guys like me can do anything other than donation to speed things up
but looks like is that we can't i think maximum is too buy the new devices to report bugs -
May i ask what is most recent and best device that will soon be supported,
so i start looking for one as where i live finding nexus wasn't easy . i want to be prepared -
@Flohack thank you very much for this detailed answer i will try to use it as a guide
for where and what i should start try to learn -
@stan Have a look here for the closest. I am using an OP3 for my daily driver. Still a few gliches but coming along well. Have a read through the threads for the devices you are interested in to see how they are coming along.
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@Lakotaubp thank you so much will start looking for op 3 or 3t