Issues after one week using ubports on Fairphone 3

[picrard]

Hi I have used ubports Ubuntu now for near a week,
I have now collected some issues using my new system.

First, it's great to use a real Linux on a smartphone,
a big thank you to all the people who are and where involved in the
creation of this, it now works far better than the first
Android system I've installed once apon a time on my Nokia N900
I don't know where to post this but maybe there are some
solutions from other users, could you please help me?

Bugs:

WAYDROID issues:

• copy past problem in Waydroid(copy past not supported?)----> hope the fix will work (reinstall)

• some apps crash waydroid and ubuntu system, ubuntu restarts

  • discogs
  • castbox ----> (maybe using now podbird(found it today!) from the ubports app store instead)

• WhatsApp issues

  • phone rings/vibrates but will not wake up/turn on screen
    you have to enter pin or pass phrase, then go into WhatsApp Waydroid, then you can answer, somethimes you're to late
  • when use phone on whatsapp, I only able to use loudspeaker not the little for the ear,
    so I use external headphones, not the best fix, but headphones work.

• somethimes waydroid crashes completely you have to restart the phone

• no WIFI or Bluetooth support(yet?!?)

  • connection to Bluetooth watches
  • connection to kodi via remote

• sometimes I have problems with switch from wlan to mobile, when using a internet radio station

• rotation of screen, only rotates on one half of the screen, so half of the rotated screen is blank(black)

---

UBUNTU issues

• some apps ovverride the main volume of the phone, so if you have muted the phone, some apps still loud
  you have to toggle volume in the app, and when you have raised the main volume, you still hear nothing,
  so you also have to toggle the volume in the app, the not synced

  • Radio
  • Videoplayer

• phone screen not really shut down when using telephone,
  screen flashes always off and on, will not dim until end of conversation

• once, I wanted to enter my pin, then I've entered the wrong pin, have shaked my phone
  an the screen rotated, after this I wasn't able to enter anything, just stuck at the first letter,
  had to restart the phone

• fingerprint reader still not available for Fairphone 3+(maybe in future??)

• sometimes I have problems with switch from wlan to mobile, when using a internet radio station

• I've installed truecrypt(need a program to decrypt containers) after
  sudo mount -o rw,remount /
  but it doesn't work on ubport ?!

---

Otherwise the phone works really nice,
for a still in progress system,
battery duration is good, could use it as a daily driver,
I also like this flip menues,
but other desktops like Gnome or KDE or E17 would also be great
but maybe I must reinstall Android, cause there are too much issues for me,
described in the upper text, which makes live not easy,
when you have to use your phone very quickly,
so some things need time, and somethimes you have no time...

or... I maybe use my old Honor 8 for Android and the Fairphone 3+ for Ubuntu

Other ideas, maybe for the creators:

User defined short cuts for the power button, when in sleep mode,
maybe 'open camera' or 'flashlight', very useful, have usaed it with my old Honor 8 and also the Fairphone 3,
it's nice to have a quick flash light accesss, without free phone with pin.

O.K., hope this was not too much text.

Thank you!

[Ian]

@picrard I can'r comment on most of your findings but the last one is easy. Put your finger on the top bar and pull down. Select battery and then select flashlight. Light without entering the pass phrase/pin.

Welcome to UBports!

[Keneda]

@ian
I don't know if this is a default setting "on" or "off", but you have to allow top bar to be active when phone locked to do so.

This can be set in settings app > security and privacy > lock and unlock > notifications and quick settings

[Ian]

@keneda Always worked for me. If phone is off press power button so top bar becomes available. Is there a setting that dissables this? Why?

Sorry, had a long day. Those settings are there, but they must have defaulted to on on Aquaris E5, Nexus 5, and Volla Phone X.

[gandalf]

@picrard said in Issues after one week using ubports on Fairphone 3:

somethimes waydroid crashes completely you have to restart the phone

Install the waydroid helper from the Store. It offers to add a "Waydroid Stop" app. With that you can fully stop waydroid after a crash and usually open it again without rebooting.

I've installed truecrypt(need a program to decrypt containers) after
sudo mount -o rw,remount /
but it doesn't work on ubport ?!

you need "sudo mount -o remount,rw /" the order matters here and the rw has to be the last argument. You can also install the "UT Tweak Tool" from the store. It has a toggle to enable writing to the fs among other things.

[picrard]

@Keneda / @Ian an , yes I already found this out, but a greater choice, would maybe a longer press, so that the screen stays black and just the flashlight lights, second longer press will shut off Flashlight, had this on Android. On my Honor 8 a longer or two short presses on the fingerprint sensor started the flashlight.
I don't want to watch at the phone, just press and turn on, that would be perfect.

But thank you for commenting, maybe others will be satisfied

[picrard]

@gandalf ...I think the main problem is, that it doesn't work under ubports, some program issues. Any solution for a decrypt software, I can't find some in the app store?
yes, I have installed the waydroid helper...

[Moem]

@picrard said in Issues after one week using ubports on Fairphone 3:

I have used ubports Ubuntu now for near a week,

At the risk of being a total pedant: the OS you are using is called Ubuntu Touch. :smiling_face:

[AppLee]

@picrard

Regarding the power button additional feature ; I'm not saying that's a bad idea.... but

But looking for a minute at my crystal ball there will be hundreds of requests to remove it because the light turns on in the pocket and some kid got burnt, there will also be request to fire up the camera instead or the calendar or any app.
The UBports foundation and community are not equipped to manage such specific use cases.

If you want it, you can make it. If it works fine, if it is not a dirty hack and if the community recognizes it as a necessary feature then it would be integrated.
But I can assure you that this is not a priority topic to be able to launch the torch without lighting the screen. The feature is already useful enough and developers time is better used elsewhere.

Your issue with the sound is a feature for me.
I don't want the video player to be muted because I muted the phone.
I want the video player to be muted when I decide that the video I'm watching has to be muted and so without impacting my notifications.

For the PIN issue it could be simply the keyboard closing, taping the field can bring it back.
But it can also be a crash of the keyboard, it happened before.

Fingerprint drivers are scarce and closed source so it is a frequent hurdle.

For truecrypt, I never tried the operation, but I would suggest to use a command line tool and to install it with Libertine. Then you'll be able to build an app over it.
If you want to encrypt the phone then it's not supported yet.

I have no idea about waydroid as I don't want android apps on my device.

And thanks for the feedback, the maintainer knows probably about the existing bugs but if you can help testing the fixes when they come, I'm sure it will be much appreciated.

[Luksus]

@picrard regading waydroid, most issues are lying in the nature, of how waydroid works. It is not fully integrated on Ubuntu Touch yet.

What helps is closing the second (black) waydroid window after waydroid started. It makes it more fluent/responsive.
Then you maybe need to install microg for apps that needs google play services (Discogs). There is a forum topic with instructions how to do that.
I did not experience waydroid crashs or app crashs so far.

What is not working, is playing videos in the browser/youtube, though it did work in the past...

[w_m0zartUBports]

Hello all, I am stuck at installing Ubuntu touch, being unable to revert to Android 10. Is someone please able to provide a stock android 10 version for fairphone 3?

[Luksus]

@w_m0zartubports the installer provides a link to download one.

[w_m0zartUBports]

@luksus Thanks for the reply. In the meantime I also received help from another user "picrard" which provided the full FP3-REL-Q-3.A.0101-20210420.163631-user-fastbootimage_without-userdata.zip (1.7 GB). Before, I was already mentally preparing from building the image from scratch using all sources and just wanted to prevent this.

[arubislander]

@w_m0zartubports Does the link from the installer not work? If not, please report this so it can be fixed.

[w_m0zartUBports]

@arubislander I have not tested the link, since I received FP3-REL-Q-3.A.0101-20210420.163631-user-fastbootimage_without-userdata.zip
And after searching in google I also managed to get hold of the latest original Fairphone Android image FP3-REL-Q-3.A.0136-.gms-7c69ec7e-user-fastbootimage.7z

I used the latter for downgrading to get the correct Android version as prerequisite.

[Homer]

@applee Is there some documentation on how to develop/ modify the OS source code? All I know are the QML/clickable App dev docs.
Would be really interested.

[AppLee]

Hi @homer

There is this: https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/systemdev/index.html
Most documentation is there @ docs.uports.com

At least the documentation I know of.
The rest is diluted in the aether of internet forums and chat rooms as well as in people's brains.