Questions before upgrading to Focal

Rondarius

Hi @Kamikaze
You could try Focal and if it dosen't fit your needs at this point in time, You're still able to revert back to Xenial through the Ubports installer on a pc. Just remember to untick Wipe and Bootstrap.

kugiigi

@Rondarius Although that's possible, it's not advisable since there are many changes as well as data migrations so you may get weird random issues.

@Kamikaze Focal is fairly stable now though I can't comment about Pixel 3a since I only have an FP4. Apps that are not listed in the OpenStore app can be manually download from site however, the results may vary. I tried Quickddit and so far it works fine. I advise checking if the apps that you really need works on focal. Some apps may even be easy enought to compile for focal if you really need them.

MrT10001

@Kamikaze My opinion, Pixel3a works and well on Focal (OTA-2), but as a daily driver for me, no as the battery life is not great, much like Xenial. That could also be down to the device(s) being second hand and i don't want to replace a screen just to replace the battery (very delicate screen).

domubpkm

I don't have the same phone but the real 'like' Xenial is expected for OTA-3. And Focal apps are not complete at this point : they lack essentials for me like Tedit and UT Tweak Tool (version as functional as xenial).

Lakotaubp

@Kamikaze Really like my 3a on Focal but as @kugiigi said check the apps you need first and see if the non Focal ones you need will run on Focal ( most info on forum somewhere) and also I would not recommend a back and forth approach again as @kugiigi said it throws up issues.
As for battery I charged mine once a day but am quite a low user just calls and a little mobile data when out and about.

OtaDr

my informative Test = comparison of 16.04 and 20.04 Xiaomi Redmi 7 note
16.04 OK

20.04 calling and texting OK
internet problems when switching wifi to mobile data
Media playback not working with bluetooth output
Battery drain 25% more.
Non-functioning indicator led control.

Not a criticism just my experimental comparison I'm glad people are dedicated to this OS and moving forward.

Kamikaze

Hi,

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions they were a great help.

I've only just ended up moving to Focal on my Pixel 3a, about 30 minutes ago.

Please don't take any of the the following as a criticism - I am happy on UBPorts and it's on my daily driver, but in case it helps anyone considering the upgrade this was my experience:

Selecting the 20.04 Stable channel somehow went wrong, and it downloaded and installed 16.04 Development (!?) without me realising until it had installed
Attempting to select the 20.04 Stable channel was an issue - it seemed to switch randomly to other channels (!?). Eventually it "stuck" on the 20.04 Stable, and I could see that the Ubports update it was downloading was labelled as 'Update 3' or 'Version 3' or some such which gave me some hope.
Install of 20.04 worked, and it rebooted into 20.04 fine. Had to re-select language and location. It also began the introductory tutorial again.
Noticed the UI scaling had changed and become larger (more on this later)
Keyboard theme had reset, UI theme had reset to the standard white theme (more on this later)
Essential applications still appear to open and work, for me these are:
- Axolotl
- Quickddit
- Google Mail
- Authenticator NG
- Messaging/Phone (actually untested, because it's late here, but they open)
Camera app has started working again - this had failed in 16.04 for me. I knew this was software related and not hardware as the 'Tagger' app would work with the camera.
OpenStore is misbehaving - it doesn't appear to update applications properly, and they disappear from the app drawer after I try, but after a reboot the updated applications re-appear and also seem to have updated okay. OpenStore continues to misbehave.
Two terminal apps show up. One was non-functional. It was easy to uninstall the old one through OpenStore.
Investigating scaling / theme change... and I need UT Tweak Tool which isn't available in OpenStore for Focal!
- Existing UT Tweak Tool install doesn't work (not surprised at all about that, but thought it worth pointing out for others)

Now I realise why domubpkm in an earlier comment wanted UT Tweak Tool available for Focal. I installed UT Tweak Tool ages ago on Xenial and forgot about it. Turns out I must have had the scaling turned down and a custom dark theme installed and just didn't remember. Now I'll have to live with the larger UI elements and white theme in Focal. I'll live

All in all, pretty good - I have the essentials and can work around the odd behaviours. I might consider re-installing OpenStore as per it's about page, but wasn't sure if there are potential downsides.

arubislander

@Kamikaze After updating to Focal, only the apps that come preinstalled will have been replaced with their Focal versions. (not always succesfully, as with your Terminal app)

To update any other app you might have installed with their Focal updates (if available), go to System Settings -> Updates -> (cog wheel in upper right corner) -> Reinstall all apps

This will download and install all the Focal versions available for the apps you currently have installed. This will probably also fix the Open Store for you.

messayisto

@Kamikaze For switching themes there is an app called themeswitch.

domubpkm

@Kamikaze

@Kamikaze said in Questions before upgrading to Focal:

Now I realise why domubpkm in an earlier comment wanted UT Tweak Tool available for Focal.

https://gitlab.com/deathmist/ut-tweak-tool/-/jobs/4304232784/artifacts/download is the best focal UTTT avalaible currently with missing functionality outlined in https://gitlab.com/myii/ut-tweak-tool/-/merge_requests/109. Thanks @deathmist for his work about UTTT.