I recently got a new phone, so I’ve installed ubports on my old nexus4. I’m a dev by trade, and find myself drawn to write my own code for my phone. My question is about where to do this.

I have discovered that I can do this either in the ubport main image, and also in the libertine container image. But libertine is awkward, and doesn’t help gui – in fact the lubuntu software center is unusable due to gui issues. Command line only programs, like git, work just as well in either image. But I’ve read in the forums that installing and compiling in the main image will lead to end of device problems. I also cannot find this limit mentioned in the documentation. And I wonder if this is true, how does it affect development of clickables.

Going with android is even worse – I haven’t found any environment where Anbox actually works, let alone on ubports.

So what is the deal? Can I skip enabling libertine and develop straight into the main image? Or am I required to use libertine?

@mrt10001 I found a tutorial for restoring to stock on xda developers site. That worked. Thanks!

It turns out it cannot perform the most basic function of a phone. The microphone doesn't work so you can't even use it to talk on the phone. This should not be available for testing by the general public. I'ts misleading to do so. This project is an enourmous waste of other peoples time.

@mrt10001 I found a tutorial for restoring to stock on xda developers site. That worked. Thanks!

Earlier this year I installed ub on my old Nexus4. It didn’t go well, and when I tried using the camera, my phone black screened and wouldn’t reboot. Eventually, I was able to flash TWRP and install /e/, this verified for me that the handset itself was still functional, but I really don’t need another Android. Recently I read a press release that the new UBPorts release now supported more phones, including Nexus4, so I thought I’d give it another go...

I installed the latest installer snap onto Ubuntu 20.04, and the installer doesn’t really match up with the video at https://snapcraft.io/ubports-installer, and when I get to the part where I boot into recovery mode, and click continue, it just goes into a waiting loop and never installs,

I’ve tested the cable – I am able to use it to push a test apk from Android Studio, so I know it works on this phone. Any idea what’s going on? I’m wondering: Is there is a different workflow since the video doesn’t match up? It’s from 2018...

I thought maybe my reaction to UBports was premature; many of you said you use it daily, and after reinstalling, I had better luck with phone calling. But other than that, this is a useless phone.

As I've already pointed out, the microphone doesn’t work.

File Manager is treacherous. I highlight a file, select delete, and it deletes something else. I tried several times. It does not work reliably.

Battery life is about 12 hrs. when unused. If I use it, I have to charge 3 or 4 times per day. I’ve rarely ever had to charge oftener than once per day on this phone in the past.

Browser has many issues:

Too much white space, it uses the screen real estate poorly. Google Sheets is almost usable, I can only view 1 cell at a time. Surprisingly Office.com works pretty well.

Many web sites don’t' work. Games not much at all. The most common errors are:

Hardware acceleration not enabled.

Unable to obtain GLES2 context.

It is slow. Slower that I’ve ever seen a browser work.

My credit union web app doesn’t work. There goes my primary use case for a phone, which is managing my bank account and paying bills.

Many apps from the Open Store don’t work. Some, like Tux Racer, are unable to install. As I’ve already pointed out, Recorder and Guitar Tools do not work due to missing microphone functionality.

Unable to get my voice mail. When the voice mail alert pops up, and I select it, it just clears the notification. All other phones I’ve ever used will activate the hand set and take me to my voicemail. That is what this phone used to do.

Music playback is low quality, has too much crackling noises. I can’t use it or I get a headache.

Camera doesn’t work. In fact when I clicked on the camera icon, my screen went black. Now it will not reboot not even recovery mode. The phone is bricked.

I’ve wondered about using a linux phone. I have been skeptical that it can handle it on a daily basis. Now that I know, I’ll stick with Android.

This should be considered resolved. The main point was that I could not talk on the phone, that was fixed by reinstalling. The microphone is not required for basic functionality, it will impact fewer users.

My carrier is dropping support for this phone at the end of the month because it’s 3g. For me, it has no purpose except to play with.

So, I installed again, using these instructions: https://www.martinkaptein.com/blog/ubuntu-touch-on-nexus-4-in-2018-installation-and-review/, and now I can hear my voice when I make a call, but the microphone is still not working; I verified this using the Recorder app from OpenStore.

What’s the difference? It shows entries in /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules that were not included in the install instructions I follows. I see that they are also listed on https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/install.html, but I didn’t see that until after the first install.

The first install was rough – it crashed over and over, and took me about 5 tried and 2 hours. I was following the instructions on ubuntu-touch.io for ElementaryOS, and I see today, there is a new web page that does not include those instructions for elementary, arch, etc. So I used the AppImage version.

The new install took about 10 minutes.

well, I just held my breath, and used the generic instructions at https://developers.google.com/android/images?hl=pt-br, and it worked!
Thanks

Well. I found instruction on ubuntu,

https://phone.docs.ubuntu.com/en/devices/reinstalling-android

however it fails and ubports is still installed... So I guess I'm stuck with ubports? Oh well, it was headed to the recyler anyway.

darko@barsoomian:~/Downloads/occam-lmy48t$ adb reboot bootloader
darko@barsoomian:~/Downloads/occam-lmy48t$ sudo ./flash-all.sh
[sudo] password for darko:         
target didn't report max-download-size
sending 'bootloader' (2264 KB)...
OKAY [  0.076s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  0.414s]
finished. total time: 0.490s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.002s]
finished. total time: 0.052s
target didn't report max-download-size
sending 'radio' (45537 KB)...
OKAY [  1.438s]
writing 'radio'...
OKAY [  2.890s]
finished. total time: 4.329s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.002s]
finished. total time: 0.052s
extracting android-info.txt (0 MB)...
extracting boot.img (6 MB)...
target didn't report max-download-size
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'dtbo.img'
archive does not contain 'dt.img'
extracting recovery.img (6 MB)...
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
extracting system.img (815 MB)...
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
archive does not contain 'vbmeta.img'
archive does not contain 'vendor.img'
wiping userdata...
Couldn't parse erase-block-size '0x'.
Couldn't parse logical-block-size '0x'.
mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
/tmp/TemporaryFile-nuveVP: Unimplemented ext2 library function while setting up superblock
/usr/lib/android-sdk/platform-tools/mke2fs failed with status 1
mke2fs failed: 1
error: Cannot generate image for userdata

@lakotaubp I am not able to call on my device. I doubt I ever would, it's a secondary phone. More important to me is the working microphone. which he says will not be fixed. My plan is to port a guitar amp I am creating in ubuntu; I think it will scale better as a small portable device.

I installed ubports on my nexus 4, and ran into a problem that the microphone does not function. Per issue #1001 (https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/1001)

“Agreed this will never be fixed. Marius Gripsgard tried and concluded it was too difficult to be worthwhile.

So, my next step would be to install LuneOS; it appears their nexus4 support is current. But first I need to go back to Android. Per this thread (https://forums.ubports.com/topic/5606/no-way-to-use-the-ubports-installer-on-a-nexus-4/7?_=1612644857045) that would likely brick both Nexus 4 & 5.

Does anybody have any experience in installing another OS after installing UBports? What do you recommend?

@lakotaubp According to this issue reported 2 years ago:
https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/1001

'Agreed this will never be fixed. Marius Gripsgard tried and concluded it was too difficult to be worthwhile.'

So why is it exposed on your website?>