Last week I did some research on the menu bar of Ubuntu Touch. I tweaked a few qml system files to create a temporary solution for the notch and rounded corners of the Volla Phone. I have raised the menu bar height so that the bottom matches the camera notch. In addition, I increased the margins of the indicators and application title, so that no information disappears under the rounded corners.

You can find the tweaked qml files on my GitHub: https://github.com/SanderKlootwijk/vollanotchfix

Shell.qml goes into /usr/share/unity8/
Panel.qml and PanelMenu.qml go into /usr/share/unity8/Panel/

Once again, this is a workaround until a universal and better solution for phones with a notch comes along.

Thank you @moem for documenting this and @danfro for maintaining the Cinny app! I've found bridging to Matrix very useful for WhatsApp. Personally, I use Beeper as a homeserver for this. It's an iOS and Android app that lets you connect multiple chat services and protocols in one place. Beeper uses Matrix underneath, so you can also log in to Beeper with Cinny once your account is set up. Here's how I got it working:

• Create a Beeper account on iOS or Android. I set mine up using the app installed on WayDroid. If you see a popup with a recovery code during setup, be sure to save it for later.
• Link WhatsApp (or Signal, or any other supported chat service - I haven't tested them all) to Beeper through the Beeper app.
• Install Cinny on Ubuntu Touch and set the homeserver address to beeper.com.
• Get a password for Beeper:
  • This is necessary because Beeper's official app only uses email codes for login and doesn't require a password.
  • In Cinny, enter your Beeper username and click on Forget Password?.
  • Follow the instructions in the email to generate a password for your account.
• Verify Cinny as a Matrix client. A red shield will appear in the left sidebar. Click it, choose Verify Manually, and enter the recovery key you saved when setting up your Beeper account.
• That's it! Your bridged chat services should now appear in Cinny's sidebar.

I wanted to use my MacBook Air to develop Ubuntu Touch apps. After a lot of trial and error I've got clickable working. So here's is a guide on how to set up clickable for macOS.

Install Homebrew
First off, you'll need to install Homebrew with this command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Dependencies
After installing Homebrew you'll need to install pip3, adb and docker with the following commands (open the macOS terminal):

brew install python3

brew cask install android-platform-tools

brew cask install docker

After installing Docker, open the Docker application (via Launchpad or by pressing Command + Space and searching for it with spotlight). Click OK in the Docker needs privileged access dialog and enter your user password. A whale icon will appear in the status menu and the symbolic links for docker, docker-compose, docker-credential-osxkeychain and docker-machine are created in /usr/local/bin. Confirm that docker is running, by clicking the icon in the status menu. If it says Docker Desktop is running you're ready to test out clickable! :party_popper:

Run clickable
Open the macOS terminal app and cd into the directory you want to store and build your app. Run the command clickable init to create a new app project. cd into your app project folder. Run clickable to build your app and push it to your Ubuntu Touch device through adb!

Clickable desktop
clickable desktop is not working. I've installed XQuartz but I get the following error:

Successfully built package in './test.sanderklootwijk_1.0.0_all.click'.
non-network local connections being added to access control list
Mounting device home to /Users/sander/.clickable/home
docker: Error response from daemon: Mounts denied: 
The paths /dev/snd and /var/lib/dbus and /run/501/pulse and /home/sander/.pulse
are not shared from OS X and are not known to Docker.
You can configure shared paths from Docker -> Preferences... -> File Sharing.
See https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/osxfs/#namespaces for more info.
.
ERRO[0000] error waiting for container: context canceled 
Command exited with non-zero exit status 125, see above for details. This is most likely not a problem with Clickable.

Atom
Atom with the language-qml and atom-build-clickable packages, works great for developing Ubuntu Touch apps on macOS. Get the Atom text editor here and install language-qml and atom-build-clickable (Atom > preferences > install).

@gt After looking at the system files once again, I figured out how the menu bar is organized. The indicators request a preferred position in the bar. For the date and time this preferred position is 20 for example. The date and time appear on the far right of the bar. The message indicator has a preferred position of 100, so it appears on the left side of the bar.

In an ideal fix, this entire system would have to be rewritten, with some fixed indicators appearing to the right of the notch and the rest placed to the left. But now the bar is indeed dynamically laid out and updated from the right side of the screen, causing some indicators to disappear behind the notch.

It's possible to change the position of indicators. You could temporarily give the messages indicator a preferred position of 22. The envelope will then appear to the left of the date and time in the bar.

For this you need to edit the file "com.canonical.indicator.messages". This can be found in "/usr/share/unity/indicators/".

Note the selected line "Position = 22". Don't forget to restart Lomiri after the adjustment.

This also is a hacky solution, but hopefully it will solve temporary frustration, until the notch problem is properly and universally addressed.

@jojumaxx Hello! The file system is read-only by default. You should make it read-write before modifying system files.

But to save you the trouble, someone made a way better and user friendly approach of my fix.

You can find the fix over here on GitHub: https://github.com/JamiKettunen/unity8-notch-hax

Just follow te steps under Applying the patch in the terminal on your Volla.

I don't know if he's on the forums here, but thanks to Jami Kettunen for making this fix a lot easier to apply!

For some reason I can't update the post above. But before you're able to run clickable, you'll need to install it of course. I forgot this step in the guide :grinning_face_with_sweat:

Install clickable with the following command:

pip3 install git+https://gitlab.com/clickable/clickable.git

Now you'll be able to run clickable!

@domubpkm As @AppLee says, you'll need to replace the original system files with the ones from my GitHub page. After that, a reboot or restart of Lomiri is required. But I might create an install script, to make installation a bit easier.

I'm Sander, from the Netherlands. I live close to Amersfoort.

Thank you @moem for documenting this and @danfro for maintaining the Cinny app! I've found bridging to Matrix very useful for WhatsApp. Personally, I use Beeper as a homeserver for this. It's an iOS and Android app that lets you connect multiple chat services and protocols in one place. Beeper uses Matrix underneath, so you can also log in to Beeper with Cinny once your account is set up. Here's how I got it working:

• Create a Beeper account on iOS or Android. I set mine up using the app installed on WayDroid. If you see a popup with a recovery code during setup, be sure to save it for later.
• Link WhatsApp (or Signal, or any other supported chat service - I haven't tested them all) to Beeper through the Beeper app.
• Install Cinny on Ubuntu Touch and set the homeserver address to beeper.com.
• Get a password for Beeper:
  • This is necessary because Beeper's official app only uses email codes for login and doesn't require a password.
  • In Cinny, enter your Beeper username and click on Forget Password?.
  • Follow the instructions in the email to generate a password for your account.
• Verify Cinny as a Matrix client. A red shield will appear in the left sidebar. Click it, choose Verify Manually, and enter the recovery key you saved when setting up your Beeper account.
• That's it! Your bridged chat services should now appear in Cinny's sidebar.

@peat_psuwit said in Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch Focal OTA-4:

Thank you for your info. The output seems to indicate that our battery software (UPower) is unable to figure this information from what your device's kernel provide. Unfortunately, debugging this issue further requires more information than we can communicate via this forum post, so please file an issue at your port's issue tracker so that your port's porter can have a look.

I will do that!

A quick question: are you also upgrading from Xenial or this is a clean install (or with wipe) of Focal?

This is a clean install, with wipe, of Focal. If I remember correctly I did switch between stable, developer and RC channels since I used the installer, but it has not been updated directly from Xenial.

@peat_psuwit said in Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch Focal OTA-4:

Sadly, I can't find any interesting information from this. If you could help, could you please get the output of command gdbus introspect --system --dest org.freedesktop.UPower --object-path /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/DisplayDevice?

Here is the output: https://pastebin.ubuntu.com/p/BnHxXdsPRX/

And for this, please help me get additional information. To avoid getting too much clutter, please follow these steps in this order:

1. Go to System Settings > Language & Text > Display language, so that you're in the language chooser. Don't choose a language yet.
2. Over ADB or SSH connection, run the command sudo dbus-monitor --system sender=org.freedesktop.Accounts destination=org.freedesktop.Accounts. The command will output a few lines, and then wait for more.
3. Choose a language and confirm, so that you're asked to reboot. Command in 2.) will output a lot more. Press Ctrl + C to stop waiting for more output.
4. You can now reboot the phone. Please send the output from 2.).

I've once again changed the display language from Dutch to English (US). This is the output of the command: https://pastebin.ubuntu.com/p/bsjsPMqRVB/

@peat_psuwit said in Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch Focal OTA-4:

This is weird. Please get the result of command upower -d, executed either via ADB, SSH, or the Terminal app.

This is the output, while charging my phone: https://pastebin.ubuntu.com/p/GGQKnC8YKn/

I can reproduce this, how this seems to be purely cosmetic. Either you or @Moem, please file an issue at https://gitlab.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch so that we don't lose track of it. Since this doesn't seem to break the actual camera usage, it will probably be fixed in the next OTA.

I'll file an issue for this.

This is also weird, and I can't reproduce this - although my phone is originally set to English. Could you please get content of file ~/.pam_environment and file /etc/default/locale, and also the output of command locale? Again, this can be done via ADB, SSH, or the Terminal app.

These are the results with the system language set to English (US).

Content of ~/.pam_environment:

LANGUAGE        DEFAULT=nl_NL
LANG        DEFAULT=nl_NL.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC      DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TIME DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY     DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_PAPER        DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NAME DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS      DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE    DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT  DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION       DEFAULT=en_US.UTF-8
PAPERSIZE       DEFAULT=letter

Content of /etc/default/locale:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Output of locale:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

• Have this ever happen before with the previous OTA?

I have not changed the system language before. It has been Dutch since I flashed Ubuntu Touch. So I don't know what the behavior would have been on previous OTA's.

• Does the reboot seem to happen fully? In other words, does the Google logo appear after reboot? I'm looking into a possibility that the reboot might not actually happen, but instead our shell (Lomiri) crashes create a reboot-looking situation.

After clicking 'Restart Now,' a full reboot occurs. I see the Google logo, and I have to enter my SIM PIN again.

I've updated and tested on my Pixel 3A.

Things that work:

• The ADB prompt works reliably on both macOS and Ubuntu.
• My ringtone is still the same as it was before updating.
• Permission requests work.
• Changing my PIN works.
• Waydroid still works.
• Morph seems to be working fine for my everyday browsing. 1080p YouTube videos playback fluently.
• Video playback in Teleports and the Media Player works.
• Vibrations from app notifications or calls work.
• The dark mode switch in the Settings app works great

Things that don't work:

• I don't see charging information on my lock screen, even though it is enabled in the Settings app.
• In the camera app, I can see the same strip of background that Moem describes.
• I encountered a weird bug: when changing the system language from Dutch to English, the system is partly in Dutch and partly in English. After a second reboot, this issue still persists. When changing back to Dutch, the entire system (apart from some untranslated strings) is in Dutch again. I've also tried other languages and there is still a mix-up with Dutch. I've added two screenshots where I've set the system language to English.

@jeroenbaten I sent you an e-mail

@jojumaxx Hello! The file system is read-only by default. You should make it read-write before modifying system files.

But to save you the trouble, someone made a way better and user friendly approach of my fix.

You can find the fix over here on GitHub: https://github.com/JamiKettunen/unity8-notch-hax

Just follow te steps under Applying the patch in the terminal on your Volla.

I don't know if he's on the forums here, but thanks to Jami Kettunen for making this fix a lot easier to apply!

@gt After looking at the system files once again, I figured out how the menu bar is organized. The indicators request a preferred position in the bar. For the date and time this preferred position is 20 for example. The date and time appear on the far right of the bar. The message indicator has a preferred position of 100, so it appears on the left side of the bar.

In an ideal fix, this entire system would have to be rewritten, with some fixed indicators appearing to the right of the notch and the rest placed to the left. But now the bar is indeed dynamically laid out and updated from the right side of the screen, causing some indicators to disappear behind the notch.

It's possible to change the position of indicators. You could temporarily give the messages indicator a preferred position of 22. The envelope will then appear to the left of the date and time in the bar.

For this you need to edit the file "com.canonical.indicator.messages". This can be found in "/usr/share/unity/indicators/".

Note the selected line "Position = 22". Don't forget to restart Lomiri after the adjustment.

This also is a hacky solution, but hopefully it will solve temporary frustration, until the notch problem is properly and universally addressed.

@domubpkm As @AppLee says, you'll need to replace the original system files with the ones from my GitHub page. After that, a reboot or restart of Lomiri is required. But I might create an install script, to make installation a bit easier.

Last week I did some research on the menu bar of Ubuntu Touch. I tweaked a few qml system files to create a temporary solution for the notch and rounded corners of the Volla Phone. I have raised the menu bar height so that the bottom matches the camera notch. In addition, I increased the margins of the indicators and application title, so that no information disappears under the rounded corners.

You can find the tweaked qml files on my GitHub: https://github.com/SanderKlootwijk/vollanotchfix

Shell.qml goes into /usr/share/unity8/
Panel.qml and PanelMenu.qml go into /usr/share/unity8/Panel/

Once again, this is a workaround until a universal and better solution for phones with a notch comes along.