In the last Q&A Dalton gave a list of devices that will be supported with UT based on Ubuntu 20.04[1]. Unsurprisingly, the BQ4.5 isn't in that list.

To me the support for the BQ4.5 has always been a bit of a roller coaster. It was sold and supported by Caniconal, then dropped. UBPorts took over, but they weren't able to give proper support to the legacy devices. Eventually they were able to give proper support, but even when the upgrade to 16.04 happened, it was already clear that an upgrade to 18.04 or 20.04 may mean the device wouldn't be supported any more.

I think the development team has done a great job giving us a supported and well working 7 year old device. I for one thank them for that.

But now that this support will most probably end, the question is; What now? On the one hand I want to keep using UT because I really like it. On the other hand, I don't want my phone to be left in a drawer somewhere collecting dust, so what else can we run on it after the update to 20.04 happens?

I looked around a bit, but I don't really see options honestly.
We can keep using UT based on 16.04, but that means no more updates. Eventually it wont be (easily) possible to install apps (unless maybe the click-packages will be kept available somewhere online and we can download and install from there), and it may not be (easily) possible to install UT back to the device (unless the images and instructions are kept available somewhere).
I also looked around for other OS'es I know about, but none of them seem to have a port for the BQ4.5.
I looked for the following, but don't see ports for Lineageos (Besides, I'm unsure how well this would work on an Ubuntu edition device since it doesn't have the Android buttons), PostmarketOS, SailfishOS, LuneOS, Manjaro and Mobian

That doesn't leave much options of course. Maybe someone has other OS'es or ports they know of that can run on the BQ4.5? What are you planning to do once support ends?

[1] See Q&A 115 at 34:22. The list is

• Pixel 3a
• Volla Phone
• Volla Phone X
• XPeriaX
• Anything else people come in to do

I just updated from RC on BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu edition and after rebooting, I just got a black screen. After 20 minutes or so, I decided to restart (long press for power off, then power on again), and now it seems to boot correctly.

Not sure what went wrong. I don't immediately see big issues now, so no big deal I guess, but I thought I should at least mention it.

To get back to the original question; The reason why the device page says "partially working" is because FP2 came out with two different camera modules. Originally it came out with an 8MP camera, and that one should work. A year later they chose to use a 12MP camera, but that one doesn't properly work on UT (camera reacts slow and torch/flashlight isn't working).

So you probably have the 12MP version (which I think most FP2's have). You can see the difference because the 12MP has a white line between the camera and flashlight, the 8MP doesn't have that line.

One option is to see if you can get your hands on an 8MP camera module and see if that works. I see fairphone still sells them as spare parts for example.

@cliffcoggin The way I understood those words are "these devices have porters we know, so we're pretty confident that they will get the needed attention". Hence the last on the list being "Anything else people come in to do". I don't think they can really say more, because they don't know more themselves.

The thing is just that we know it's gonna be a pain for non-Halium devices, because they've already explained that in a previous Q&A. And frankly, if I were to spent time porting, I'd probably focus on a different, more available, device myself.

I won't even be disappointed if the device turns out to not be supported any more. I'm very happy that it lasted so long and I think that's a wonderful achievement on behalf of everyone involved!

@jezek I have FP2 on Stable channel (so 5.1). I took the charger out yesterday evening to test, it's now a bit over 50%. Wifi was on. I didn't use it much, mostly looking at time occasionally and a bit of web browsing, but not much (maybe couple of minutes total).

Two weekends ago I managed to drain the battery in an hour or so I think, but I was constantly using the camera, so that's prob expected.

So yes, I'd say it's over 24h battery lifetime (assuming "normal" usage).

I remember having something like that too. Iirc I was able to choose Install and then Cancel and it was gone

@bolly I agree. I think this is really the conclusion of this thread. Maintaining a 20.04 will most probably be too much work to do and maintain. Other supported OS'es for this device simply don't exist. Figuring out how to keep the apps and OTA images available should be doable.

From what I've seen poking around so far, it seems clicks and images remain available. So it's a matter of knowing where to find them and what to do with them once you have them. I was planning to further look into it this weekend and see how far I can get. (Unless someone else beats me to it, eheh)

@tim The Halium 7.1 is in worse state then the current "legacy" port and it doesn't have stable releases (yet?). Last time I checked the camera didn't work and I don't think much work has been done on it since. I didn't have to install Android when switching from one port to the other. If the instructions don't say you should, I expect it's not necessary, but I could be wrong ofc.

@peter-gamma I connect over sftp. Maybe not straightforward for a first setup, but once it's set up, I can just select my phone from my laptop's file explorer and I'm in. If it can't connect because ssh on the phone is down, I can enable it from the UT Tweak Tool.

To get this, enable SSH on your phone (this is the maybe-not-so-straightforward part)[1]. Once done, you can connect over sftp. On KDE you can just add it to your file explorer. Pretty sure Gnome also has that option, unsure about windows.

[1] https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/advanceduse/ssh.html?highlight=ssh

I just updated from RC on BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu edition and after rebooting, I just got a black screen. After 20 minutes or so, I decided to restart (long press for power off, then power on again), and now it seems to boot correctly.

Not sure what went wrong. I don't immediately see big issues now, so no big deal I guess, but I thought I should at least mention it.

@magdesign said in Bicycle Navigation App Development (HELP needed):

Overlaying waterdrops from OSM and all kind of sustainable things like farmer shops, mundraub locations, weekly market places, shelters...

Not sure how relevant, but there's a webapp which has "themes" to show certain types of things on the map (One theme is "Drinking Water") and where people can contribute to. If you want to add something similar to another app, maybe you could also work with themes like that and use the same format/make them compatible somehow. That way themes from one app can easily be used by another as well. https://mapcomplete.osm.be/?language=en

@peter-gamma I connect over sftp. Maybe not straightforward for a first setup, but once it's set up, I can just select my phone from my laptop's file explorer and I'm in. If it can't connect because ssh on the phone is down, I can enable it from the UT Tweak Tool.

To get this, enable SSH on your phone (this is the maybe-not-so-straightforward part)[1]. Once done, you can connect over sftp. On KDE you can just add it to your file explorer. Pretty sure Gnome also has that option, unsure about windows.

[1] https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/advanceduse/ssh.html?highlight=ssh

@lakotaubp I wanted to see what I could find out about images and clicks and post here if I found something relevant. But if you prefer to lock it, please do. I can always start a new thread if I have something I think is worth sharing

@bolly I agree. I think this is really the conclusion of this thread. Maintaining a 20.04 will most probably be too much work to do and maintain. Other supported OS'es for this device simply don't exist. Figuring out how to keep the apps and OTA images available should be doable.

From what I've seen poking around so far, it seems clicks and images remain available. So it's a matter of knowing where to find them and what to do with them once you have them. I was planning to further look into it this weekend and see how far I can get. (Unless someone else beats me to it, eheh)

@cliffcoggin The way I understood those words are "these devices have porters we know, so we're pretty confident that they will get the needed attention". Hence the last on the list being "Anything else people come in to do". I don't think they can really say more, because they don't know more themselves.

The thing is just that we know it's gonna be a pain for non-Halium devices, because they've already explained that in a previous Q&A. And frankly, if I were to spent time porting, I'd probably focus on a different, more available, device myself.

I won't even be disappointed if the device turns out to not be supported any more. I'm very happy that it lasted so long and I think that's a wonderful achievement on behalf of everyone involved!

In the last Q&A Dalton gave a list of devices that will be supported with UT based on Ubuntu 20.04[1]. Unsurprisingly, the BQ4.5 isn't in that list.

To me the support for the BQ4.5 has always been a bit of a roller coaster. It was sold and supported by Caniconal, then dropped. UBPorts took over, but they weren't able to give proper support to the legacy devices. Eventually they were able to give proper support, but even when the upgrade to 16.04 happened, it was already clear that an upgrade to 18.04 or 20.04 may mean the device wouldn't be supported any more.

I think the development team has done a great job giving us a supported and well working 7 year old device. I for one thank them for that.

But now that this support will most probably end, the question is; What now? On the one hand I want to keep using UT because I really like it. On the other hand, I don't want my phone to be left in a drawer somewhere collecting dust, so what else can we run on it after the update to 20.04 happens?

I looked around a bit, but I don't really see options honestly.
We can keep using UT based on 16.04, but that means no more updates. Eventually it wont be (easily) possible to install apps (unless maybe the click-packages will be kept available somewhere online and we can download and install from there), and it may not be (easily) possible to install UT back to the device (unless the images and instructions are kept available somewhere).
I also looked around for other OS'es I know about, but none of them seem to have a port for the BQ4.5.
I looked for the following, but don't see ports for Lineageos (Besides, I'm unsure how well this would work on an Ubuntu edition device since it doesn't have the Android buttons), PostmarketOS, SailfishOS, LuneOS, Manjaro and Mobian

That doesn't leave much options of course. Maybe someone has other OS'es or ports they know of that can run on the BQ4.5? What are you planning to do once support ends?

[1] See Q&A 115 at 34:22. The list is

• Pixel 3a
• Volla Phone
• Volla Phone X
• XPeriaX
• Anything else people come in to do

@tim The Halium 7.1 is in worse state then the current "legacy" port and it doesn't have stable releases (yet?). Last time I checked the camera didn't work and I don't think much work has been done on it since. I didn't have to install Android when switching from one port to the other. If the instructions don't say you should, I expect it's not necessary, but I could be wrong ofc.

@anonymoustly This was a problem on OTA-18, but is fixed in the latest version (see https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-19-release-3779# ).

Maybe you can check what version you're running (System > System Setting... > About). This should be Ubuntu 16.04 (OTA-19). I also have a BQ4.5 and don't have this problem any more on OT-19.

@anonymoustly There's project sandcastle who's working on getting android on iphone and postmarketos can boot on iphone 7/7+ thx to it ( see https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Apple_iPhone_7/7%2B_(apple-iphone7) ). Afaict nothing but the display really works yet, though. I guess if this ever properly works, it'll be a tad bit easier to port UT to, but someone will still have to do it ofc.