Porting Ubuntu Touch (@UBPorts) to karin (Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet SGP771) and karin_windy (Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet SGP712)

Guf

I've been working on porting Ubuntu Touch on karin and karin_windy, a high end Sony Xperia Tablet Z4-serie got out on market in late 2015 with Android 6, so suitable to work with Halium-7.1.
See the HAL port specific details: https://github.com/Halium/projectmanagement/issues/44 created by Andreas Pokorny.

The device is equipped with:

Dimensions: 10,1" IPS 2560x1600 (299 PPI)
RAM: 3GB,
ROM: 32 GB,
Qualcomm(c): MSM8994 
Snapdragon(c): 810
CPU: Octa-core Cortex-A53 & Cortex-A57 4 x 2.0 Ghz + 4 x 1.5 Ghz
Architecture: arm64
GPU: Adreno 430
SIM:  Nano-SIM (4G LTE)
Bluetooth:  4.1 with A2DP + aptX 
Wi-fi:  802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Hotspot
Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Light sensor, GPS
Camera: (front) 5.1 MP F/2.4, No flash, (rear) 8.1 MP F/2.0, LED flash
Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 6000 mAh

as its specs are available in this page.

Already successfully tested to boot from systempart, as required by Ubuntu Touch OTA: ready to be a community device.

Nowadays the device has reached an interesting level of support, as the following features works well:

Kernel 3.10.84-perf+ (arm64)
Graphical User Interface: works with unity8/lomiri (8.20+ubports) and mir (0.31.2+0) for 64 bits libraries,
Wifi: works, 
Audio: works (audio and video playback),
GPS: works
Sensors (HAL, rotation, ...): work,
Buttons: work Power, Volume up and down buttons
Printscreen: works by pressing at the same time Volume+ and Volume- during 2-3 seconds
Notification: works,
Vibration: works,
Cameras: main and selfie cameras both work with @peat_psuwit's gst-droid and nemo-qtmultimedia-plugins
LED: works
Apparmor: works
Convergence: works with MHL cable (even though in poor resolution)
Bluetooth: works (update 2020-11-14)

What does not work yet:
[ ] Data connection: GSM/4G/SMS, Sim is not detected yet
[ ] Hotspot (tethering with linked devices)

Sources (devices):
Kitakami (common part of platform): https://github.com/ubports/android_device_sony_kitakami-common
Karin: https://github.com/ubports/android_device_sony_karin
Karin_windy: https://github.com/ubports/android_device_sony_karin_windy

Sources (kernel):
Kitakami (common): https://github.com/ubports/android_kernel_sony_msm8994

Sources (devices) from LineageOS:
Karin: https://github.com/LineageOS/android_device_sony_karin
Karin_windy: https://github.com/LineageOS/android_device_sony_karin_windy

Available images:
System: system.img
~~Halium-boot: halium-boot.img~~ (old)
Recovery (only to be tested when it will be a community device): recovery.img
Otherwise TWRP: TWRP-3.1.1-lineageos-karin-20170520.img

Important note for UT rootfs to work
You can download you latest nightly built rootfs here.
If you can't access to ssh, in TWRP you need to execute the following commands:

$ mount /data/rootfs.img /mnt
$ echo manual | tee /mnt/etc/init/rsyslog.override
$ umount /mnt
$ sync

To bootstrap from system partition, in TWRP, you need to:

$ mount -o loop /data/rootfs.img /system
$ cp /data/system.img /system/var/lib/lxc/android/system.img
$ umount /system
$ dd if=/data/rootfs.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p44
$ sync

To manually enable bluetooth to work (update of Nov 14th 2020), you need to:

if you bootstrap from systempart, then flash the following halium-boot, more commonly if you install your system with halium-install, flash this halium-boot,
both enable HCIUART and HCIUART_H4,
execute the following commands:

root@ubuntu-phablet:~# hciattach -p -t 30 /dev/ttyHS0 bcm43xx 115200 flow
bcm43xx_init
Cannot open directory '/etc/firmware': No such file or directory
Patch not found, continue anyway
Set Controller UART speed to 115200 bit/s
Device setup complete
4669
root@ubuntu-phablet:~# hciconfig -a
hci0:	Type: Primary  Bus: UART
	BD Address: B6:balblablabla:97  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 64:1
	UP RUNNING PSCAN 
	RX bytes:745 acl:0 sco:0 events:50 errors:0
	TX bytes:3943 acl:0 sco:0 commands:50 errors:0
	Features: 0xbf 0xfe 0xcf 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87
	Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 
	Link policy: RSWITCH SNIFF 
	Link mode: MASTER 
	Name: 'ubuntu-phablet'
	Class: 0x3c011c
	Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing, Object Transfer, Audio
	Device Class: Computer, Unknown (reserved) minor device class
	HCI Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Revision: 0x2000
	LMP Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Subversion: 0x230f
	Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)
root@ubuntu-phablet:~#

ignne

Thanks for the detailed writeup, although I prefer booting from an .img instead of the partition. This way I can just reflash boot and have my Android back

By the way, I saw that you are struggling with the bluetooth as well. Did you make any progress there (assuming that karin has the same bcrm43... as suzuran)? I believe (might be totally wrong) that Bluedroid is located pretty deep in the kernel, and you cannot really get access from the outside (meaning that this is a kernel issue). I never found what to (back)port from other devices to make it work, though.

Guf

@ignne I read somewhere that karin's chipset works as rome one so that it can be backported, as experienced by some xiaomi porters. I need to find some time to apply patches and try to backport for better compatibility with blue 5.x or later

masa

My install for karin (SGP771) was succesful with these instructions. Thank you.

Based on the feature list above, Anbox is supposed to work. What is needed to achieve this? The device is not officially supported and the image does not seem to work for that purpose as such:

phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ anbox-tool install
Anbox kernel is not installed! Please flash this first!

Also, how can I update to the OTA-13 release?

stanwood

@masa I guess that you first have to flash the image as described in the first green box here: http://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/dailyuse/anbox.html
Than you can install anbox tool & APKs
Read carefully the previous guide. Installing Anbox is only recommended for experienced users.

masa

Thanks @stanwood. But what would be the variable CODENAME in the green box you mentioned? I mean is an anbox image available for this device as supposed in the documentation you linked?

Keneda

@masa
I guess your device codename is "karin"...

But in the "Supported devices" for daily use from stanwood given link, there is not your device (nor mine, wich is MX4 a.k.a. "arale").

It is not listed here : https://cdimage.ubports.com/anbox-images/

Guf

@masa I worked for me with the following instructions:

sudo apt install anbox-ubuntu-touch
mkdir anbox-data
wget -q --show-progress -O /home/phablet/anbox-data/android.img http://cdimage.ubports.com/anbox-images/android-armhf-64binder.img
touch /home/phablet/anbox-data/.enable
mkdir anbox-data/data
sudo chmod -R o+wrx /home/phablet/anbox-data/data
sudo start -q anbox-container
start -q anbox-session

at this point, you need to reboot twice!
Respect the official instruction, it seems to work for me the wget command without using sudo

Guf

@Keneda Don't worry about that: information might not be up-to-date

Guf

@masa This list if for legacy and official supported device, rather than community ones (like karin is supposed to become soon).
Anyway it is not supported on kernel yet: anbox porting on karin is on going

Guf

@ignne yesterday, I got bluetooth work on my BCM43 devices. At the moment, manually:

root@ubuntu-phablet:~# chmod 0660 /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state && chmod 0660 /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/type && chgrp dialout /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state && chgrp dialout /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/type && rfkill unblock bluetooth
root@ubuntu-phablet:~# hciattach -p -t 30 /dev/ttyHS0 bcm43xx 115200 flow
bcm43xx_init
Cannot open directory '/etc/firmware': No such file or directory
Patch not found, continue anyway
Set Controller UART speed to 115200 bit/s
Device setup complete
4669
root@ubuntu-phablet:~# hciconfig -a
hci0:	Type: Primary  Bus: UART
	BD Address: B6:balblablabla:97  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 64:1
	UP RUNNING PSCAN 
	RX bytes:745 acl:0 sco:0 events:50 errors:0
	TX bytes:3943 acl:0 sco:0 commands:50 errors:0
	Features: 0xbf 0xfe 0xcf 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87
	Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3
	Link policy: RSWITCH SNIFF 
	Link mode: MASTER 
	Name: 'ubuntu-phablet'
	Class: 0x3c011c
	Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing, Object Transfer, Audio
	Device Class: Computer, Unknown (reserved) minor device class
	HCI Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Revision: 0x2000
	LMP Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Subversion: 0x230f
	Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)

root@ubuntu-phablet:~#

z4Tab

Install / Preparatory steps xperia Z4 Tab

sorry for asking my question in this thread. But there are probably still too few xperia Z4-Tab users, so that I cannot get any answers in the support thread.

I am not successful in Preparatory steps 8 & 9. I can load and save the FIle SW_binaries_for_Xperia_AOSP_M_MR1_3.10_v13_legacy.zip but after unpacking I cannot find the file: SW_binaries_for_Xperia_AOSP_M_MR1_3.10_v13_legacy.img but a complete directory tree.
How can I generate the img file from it? Is the link in the instructions really correct?

I would really like to install UT on my tablet (and also test it), but unfortunately I already fail in preparatory steps 8 & 9. Please help me, because I assume that you have successfully install UT on your Z4-tablets.

Hope for Your help ...

P.S. Thanks for porting this tablet, because I'm a ubuntu user for over ten years....

Guf

@z4tab actually I never performed these preparatory steps, so I can't help you out. My suggestion is to unlock bootloader and install twrp, then from there (recovery mode) try to activate adb sideload from twrp menu on device and on pc's terminal execute adb sideload name_of_binaries.zip.
If you want to risk to go directly on installing UT, first try to install it on datapart (the /data partition) with halium-install. Remember to use the proper halium-boot.img.
When you will be more familiarised with UT and recovery also in systempart (/system partition).

Lakotaubp

Please continue over at https://forums.ubports.com/category/84/sony-xperia-z4-tablet-sgp771-sgp712 Thank you.