@alan_g said in Observations on battery life - please share your experiences:

I've replicated what follows from the Telegram Supergroup, as that's no place to collect observations from people using a variety of phones. Hopefully some patterns will emerge that inspire improvements.

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I have a Nexus5 and, since 16.04, regularly get over 24hrs from the battery. OTOH I have noticed that there are (still) issues:

1. Sometimes it gets to a state that "eats" battery very quickly when not in use. Shutting down (which, in this state often need two tries before the screen goes fully black) and rebooting seems to fix this.

Glad you brought this up. N5 just eats the battery in idle state. Wifi, Data, LTE etc are all off. I tested this matter on Android (stock rom and Pie 9 rom) and the battery didn't drain at all. So, it should be an OS problem. I wrote about that here, https://forums.ubports.com/topic/1958/n5-battery-usage-in-ut-and-in-android

Hope something can be done about this problem. Some apps don't go to sleep correctly, I suppose.

As @Keneda understood, it was a question, not a request. It is a question to those young and enterprising people here. If someone can find a solution, I'd quite happily implement it. If not, the question is dropped.

Its time for me to go away and enjoy life, as the rest of it is not much to the time I was present on this planet Earth.

I found the answer to my own question. There is a light on the bottom of N5 that keeps flashing, and the envelope icon on top becomes green.

It took a long time for me to find a decent N5 to try out UT. N5s are pretty old and practically not available in my country in any 2nd hand shops. The other officially supported phones also are not available. I've been searching for one for few months, and finally got this N5.

Installing UT was a breeze. It was different and it was nice. But, the battery use is not that good. Fully charged in the evening phone lost about 40% overnight. Checked at 9 a.m.

Now that I have this N5 and had got UT on it, I thought of reinstalling Android back to have check. Reinstalling stock Android was quite easy. Battery lost only 8% by 9 a.m. the next day. In both situations, WiFi was on, but the LTE was off. And, it was both stock UT and stock Android.

@lakotaubp I let the phone fully discharge thrice, recharging until it becomes white. I checked this battery loss for few days. Then I moved N5 to stock Android, just to check how the battery works in it. Its 11.25 now, and N5 with stock Android had lost only 9%, while with UT, I had to start recharging at this time; it rapidly went down. Wifi on, LTE off, no phone calls, no smses whatever, just idling. I am going to check this for next few days with Android.

Btw, this should be in General, rather than Support. There is nothing much we can do to support old hardware. This N5 is made in May 2014, used by one person quite carefully. It took me quite while to find a decent one.

If the battery works quite well in Android, but poorly in UT, we have a problem, not with the hardware. The stock Android is using 3.4 kernel from September 2016. I think UT is using 4.4 kernel.

The battery drain problem should have to be looked into in this device, or a newer device to be found, with a known better battery life to port UT to. Android 9 Pie fork for this N5 is doing quite well -- normal usage, few calls, few smses, few looks in the web, the battery had lost only 26% since yesterday 11 p.m (full charge). Now it is 5.15 p.m. Bit more than 18 hours. (Thinking of buying a N6 or N6P to test too.)

@dobey Explaining this matter, the last time.
I bought this N5 after reading this https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io and whole lot of forum posts here. N4 and N5 were supposed to be ones that would work fully with UT. Bought the phone only for testing UT. (I have no interest in buying an older phone to use with Android, mind you.) When I noticed the battery drain, I had to choose; either change the battery or check how it works in its original state. So, I chose check the N5 in its original state. I posted the results, thinking it would help the community, rather than antagonizing it. I am new here, by the way.

I agree as it is my phone, it is my problem.

@Lakotaubp says OPO's battery is doing well. There are few OPOs out here to buy, for more less the same price as the N5. The idea is to test UT with a phone. If I buy it, it is my problem then, so won't post on the battery status, or on any other matter.

@advocatux Well, if you think it is not a real problem, then that's all right with me. I might as well forget about UT completely.

@dobey It is too old a phone to worry too much about it. The battery just drained, so I moved it back to stock Android to see how it works with it. It is the same battery and the same phone.

(Two hours ago, I moved the phone to Pie 9 based on Lineage OS 16.0, also experimental. Swiping from bottom, all installed apps are shown, swipe from top notifications bar - editable, open apps can be seen moving from left to right and back at half size. And, it has only 12 apps, other than the system ones.)

This old phone is going to be used for experimenting. Going back and forth from Android to UT is easy. Hope one day, a better phone would be ported to UT. Cannot use N5 for daily use with UT, would have to carry a powerbank. After all that flashing and all, the battery state is 39% now, at 6:30 p.m on the 2nd day with Android.

@Flohack said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:

No matter what we do, there will be unhappiness. We have learned to live with it

It is not a matter of unhappiness. If anyone is using UT/UBPorts, it is because it brings happiness. So, if anyone is suggesting something, it is not "complaining."

As @Keneda understood, it was a question, not a request. It is a question to those young and enterprising people here. If someone can find a solution, I'd quite happily implement it. If not, the question is dropped.

Its time for me to go away and enjoy life, as the rest of it is not much to the time I was present on this planet Earth.

@Flohack said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:

No matter what we do, there will be unhappiness. We have learned to live with it

It is not a matter of unhappiness. If anyone is using UT/UBPorts, it is because it brings happiness. So, if anyone is suggesting something, it is not "complaining."

I had the chance to have the older version of UT, where you swipe from bottom to get to the App Drawer, so there wasn't a need to swipe from the left -- no launcher. Two things are needed in a mobile phone, a way to get to apps menu and look at all the open apps. Maybe, one needs a space for a favourites apps dock, but it could be a part of the app menu, and if it has to be a column, then its background should be without a background colour, and stay away completely unasked. If it has to stay seen, the with no background colour, it would be just icons arranged vertically. By the way, the Ubuntu icon should match the other icons. Well, this is up to discussion, maybe even the developers would have shot at it. Good day!

@dobey said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:

@chdslv said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:
Ubuntu Touch is not Android. It doesn't have the same gestures. If what you want is Android, then you should probably run Android, and not Ubuntu Touch. Complaining that Ubuntu Touch is not Android won't change anything.

Who's complaining?
I bought the N5 only to use Ubuntu Touch from Ubports in the last quarter of 2018. And, it'll run that until its last breath. So, it is going for 2 years. Telling me to go for an Android is just nonsense. I have Android too, also in an older phone N6 Shamu, but with the newest Android (August 2020). Both phones were produced in the same year, 2014. So, I have something to compare with. Having an additional sim with unlimited country calls plus 10GB internet is quite cheap, just 5.66 euro per month (equivalent currency). So, I can continue to play/test with UBports/Ubuntu Touch and Android.

I rarely come here, only when I have a serious question, or a suggestion. I always upgrade, so the problem. If one is testing, one should upgrade. I will, of course, upgrade when time comes for the next OTA 13.

@syper said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:

@chdslv I don't understand what you want to do.
Once deactivated, it will no longer be possible to launch an application.

OK, I understand you. The thing is, if UTTT can resize to icons up to min. 6, maybe there's a way to decrease the icons down to 1px, then the launcher would become 1px thick. Can that be achieved?

@AppLee said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:

@chdslv
@syper might be able to help you find the QML file.
But I'm not sure if he's available (holidays season)

Thanks. I'll ask him in a few weeks.

@dobey said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:

@chdslv The launcher is where favorite (and running) apps appear. It is not an "additional dock" but a core part of the shell. I'll agree it's not ideal to have it and the app drawer open on smaller devices like Nexus 4, as then you only get two columns of icons in the drawer, rather than three, but I don't think that's cause for the extreme view of it shouldn't exist.

If the device is 10" and more, such as a desktop, having the launcher is not a problem, considering the width of the launcher to the rest. But, on a mobile phone, it is just a waste of space. A special vertical column for favourites is not a necessity on a mobile (or even on a desktop) these days. I am using a N5.

On my Nexus 6, I have the latest (August 2020) Android 10 - Colt OS. There's 5 "favourites," which I can change whenever they stop being such. Swiping up any place on the screen would bring in the app drawer. No need to go to the left side to swipe. I can open all the open apps by swiping from the bottom and move through them left to right, vice versa. By swiping from the right or left edge, I can move back through last open pages. It is a question of ease of use. And, of course, the look.

Ubuntu Touch/UBPorts on N5 looked nice sometime ago, without the black launcher/dock on the left. Now, it is ugly.

You know, UBPorts doesn't have to look like Ubuntu. It should look like a mobile phone.

The top left edge is a black, meeting of a black vertical and horizontal areas, making my N5 look even thinner. Bottom has a square Ubuntu logo that doesn't match with other icons. If that launcher is not there, the phone would look clean and nice.

@garyn4 said in UBPorts - Redmi Note 7 anyone seen this?:

It loses the connection to the cell network.

Then, its a problem, after all its a ceel phone.

@CiberSheep said in Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?:

The Launcher is a part of the shell (it's not «installed»). You can edit the qml to hide it but you are on your own there

How do You do that? Where is the qml file, what should I do?
The thing is, swiping from the left the app grid would appear, but the launcher too. It is practically useless and takes space. Atm, it is autohidden using the tweak tool. I need to disable the launcher completely. The icon on the app grid is the launcher for the given app. An additional dock is not needed.

Is there a possibility to completely disable/uninstall the Launcher?

@garyn4
How is it working for you?