Screen replacement on volla phone 22

stelloni

Hi all,

after I accidentally broke the screen of my volla phone 22, I ordered a replacement screen from volla.online site. However, although I replaced the new screen, the new screen didn't work correctly.
I contacted the volla support and they told me that the screen I ordered wasn't compatible with the current version of Ubuntu touch but only with the latest Android.
Does anyone know where I can order a compatible replacement screen for volla phone 22 with Ubuntu touch?

thank you

MrT10001

@myrtaki Hi, have you reverted to Android and tested the screen out to make sure it isn't faulty?

stelloni

@MrT10001 There's only ubuntu touch on the phone but even if I wanted to install android now, how could I do it without a screen? (The original is broken ).

The volla support was confident that there was a compatibility issue ( I had shared with them a screenshot of the blinking after I installed the new screen ). I have also opened the phone again to check if the monitor cables were correctly in place.

Keneda

@myrtaki
Maybe try a gigaset GS5 screen ?

It's a bit odd that Volla, who sells phones with UT preinstalled, sells spare parts that are not compliant with it, and doesn't feel right for you.

MrT10001

@myrtaki If possible, connect the old screen and see if you can revert to Android. I have had a few faulty "new" screens on other devices. I test the screen before putting the device completely back together from past experience.

DenMoore

@myrtaki I think I read somewhere on telegram that an update for the new screens would be released at end of this month or early August. I would check with customer service again, or ask here https://t.me/hello_volla before buying another screen.

stelloni

@Keneda said in Screen replacement on volla phone 22:

It's a bit odd that Volla, who sells phones with UT preinstalled, sells spare parts that are not compliant with it, and doesn't feel right for you.

I have also asked for refunding but I got the answer that there will be an OS update by the end of the July that would make this screen functional. They also said that they would try to find me a quicker solution and I never heard back from them.

stelloni

@Keneda said in Screen replacement on volla phone 22:

@myrtaki
Maybe try a gigaset GS5 screen ?

Is this considered compatible with Volla phone 22? If so, I could try to find it.

Keneda

@myrtaki said in Screen replacement on volla phone 22:

Is this considered compatible with Volla phone 22?

I can't say you yes 100% sure, but i can tell you that GS5 is the Volla 22 basis.
https://www.gigaset.com/hq_en/gigaset-gs5/

Now i can't say either if a gs5 screen is easy to find, wether directly from gigaset or from any store online.

Maybe also you'll get from gigaset the "updated" screen.

OTA 2 comes in a matter of days/weeks, maybe you could wait untill there to see if this fixes your issue.

deathmist

The replacement screen is different model from the original that shipped with the device; I believe the originals all ran out so only the compatible-with-Android 12 panels are provided, which means Ubuntu Touch side also has to be rebased to Halium 12 (from Halium 11). I've started this in https://gitlab.com/deathmist/volla-mimameid/-/commits/halium-12/ but it's not ready to push as an update yet due to non-functional Wi-Fi for example.

@myrtaki If you're more technical and won't mind taking the very work in progress build for a ride you could try the following:

Enter bootloader mode on the Volla 22 (which could be tricky entirely blind but doable when checking fastboot devices and holding power button otherwise to retry; on Linux computers dmesg -w output may also be handy to better see the boot status of the device)
Download https://ota.volla.tech/volla-12.1-20230701-stable-mimameid-signed.zip and unpack payload.bin using https://pypi.org/project/payload-dumper/ or similar
fastboot flash most *.img files to their respective partitions excluding vbmeta ones, boot, product, system and vendor (we'll come back to vendor later)
Download and unzip https://gitlab.com/deathmist/volla-mimameid/-/jobs/4610670029/artifacts/download?file_type=archive
Flash the boot.img extracted from the previous volla-mimameid artifact archive
Reboot to recovery (at this point the display should work properly already)
Enter fastbootd mode
Flash ubuntu.img to system partition
Flash previously extracted (from payload.bin) vendor.img to vendor partition
Reboot and hopefully have all your Ubuntu Touch data intact just now running on top of Halium 12

I can perhaps publish updates here as more of the current issues with newer builds (will have to manually reflash ubuntu.img once available) are fixed as it gets closer to becoming the new official build available simply through UBports installer.

stelloni

@deathmist I've been dealing with my broken screen for 3 months, you are my hero!

So,
I followed exactly your instructions. The new screen was functional as soon as I flashed all the images except the ones you told me not to. At the next reboot I flashed system with ubuntu.img and the result was an Ubuntu touch 20.04 with all my files and settings. Thank you!

Until now I have identified 2 problems

wifi is not working
mobile data is not working as well (synchronizes to 2G only)

@deathmist Please update this post in case any newer ubuntu images are released. Can you point me to the correct repo where I can open these two issues? ( unless there are already opened)

magnargj

Where exactly can I get hold of a new screen for my Volla 22? Doesn't seem to be in the volla shop?

Dave

@magnargj See also this topic that I just created:

https://forums.ubports.com/topic/10388/volla-phone-22-replacing-a-broken-display

I contacted Volla directly via their website's contact form and they offered to sell me a screen. Though I'm now waiting for roughly a week for them to reply to my last email, following up on my request to actually place the order.

Also I asked in one of the shops that are listed as Gigaset service partners here:

https://phone-service.de/gigaset/

and they appear to be able to repair the Volla 22 phone, as that is the same (?) hardware as the Gigaset GS5. Though there is still the question whether the latest ubports firmware is recent enough to support the newer screens which appear to require newer driver support compared to the stock screens (see the new thread that I linked above).