I would like to contribute to the documentation and have a few questions.

• There are a number of open issues in the Github repo for the documentation. If there are no objections, I would suggest beginning with these: evaluating them to see if they are still relevant, closing the ones that are not immediately, and making updates / creating new content for the ones that still are. Who would be the right person to coordinate with, i.e. who is in charge of the documentation?
• The move from UT 16.04 to 20.04 may have rendered some sections of the existing documentation outdated. Will UT 16.04 continue to exist alongside UT 20.04? If so, might it be a good idea to preserve the existing documentation as it is, create a copy, and update the copy / create new content to reflect the current functionality of UT 20.04?

I have solved the problem and will post a detailed guide on how to set up automated Syncevolution sychronization of contacts with Nextcloud (CardDav) using a systemd service and timer in the next few days.

@mrt10001 said in Does Ubuntu Touch actually replace Android or does it somehow run on top of it?:

unless its' Apple or Google, most users are not interested

To be perfectly honest, if the choice were between Apple and Google, I would choose not to have a smartphone at all. I'm absolutely serious about that.

@kristatos said in Few thoughts regarding coming back after several years:

I don't understand why people want to change from iOS/Android to UT but on the other hand still want to use all their services. In my opinion one effort of UT is, that you don't have to use accounts and services from these big companies and still have a functional and free phone in your hand.

I agree. Big Tech surveils you 24/7, exploits your most private data, and tries to control what information you have access to. I am so not down for that. If the only choice was Apple or Android, I would not have a smart phone.

I'm afraid I can't spend any more time on this right now, so I'm going to have to wrap it up: Here are the key points:

• cron is gone in UT 20 and is not coming back
• Anything that relied on cron previously does not work anymore.
• The recommendation I received from a member of UT's core development team is to use systemd timers instead.
• I have tried countless variations and combinations of bash script files and systemd services over the past two days, but I am unable to get a systemd service to sucessfully execute a Syncevolution synchronization.
• I suspect that this has something to do with the requirement to export the DISPLAY and DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS variables as well as the user account used to execute the syncevolution command, but I do not have the expertise to solve the problem at this time.

@moem Yay! It works! Thanks!

@arubislander said in Cron not installed?:

That implies the promise or possibility of future work.

As does "outside of the (current) goals of the project and design of the software", I would say. In that case, I would simply state "outside of the goals of the project and design of the software". This leaves no ambiguity regarding possible future work on whatever it is that the user is trying to achieve.

Now we can use that to nail down what the red line is that makes an action "unsupported". If I derive it from the above definition, then I arrive at a red line that is much more stringent than just making your system image writeable. Maybe some procedures/tutorials show you how to do advanced things that don't require making the system image writable. It's irrelevant. If what you're trying to achieve is not within the scope of the goals of the project and design of the software, then it's "unsupported".

@arubislander said in Cron not installed?:

I feel that if you are going to do 'unsupported stuff', it is best to know what you are doing and be willing to do the research if and when it breaks stuff.

And I agree with you.

The vibe that I'm getting is that if something is "supported", or more precisely "within the scope of the goals of the project and design of the software", then if a user tries it and gets in trouble, the likelihood that someone can help is high. On the other hand, if something is "unsupported", or "outside of the goals of the project and design of the software", and a user attempts it and messes things up, then there may not be anyone with the knowledge to help, and, as a consequence, a complete reinstall may be the only solution.

If we can agree on this, I think it is a very good basis for a clear message to users, and it also enables us to unambiguously label tutorials as "supported" or "unsupported".

Thinking further ahead, one thing that we might communicate to users is that if they want to attempt something "unsupported", then they should be aware that they may brick the system and a full re-install may be the only solution, so they should be comfortable with re-installing UT from scratch before they attempt it. What do you think?

@Moem said in How to sign up to telegram on ut?:

Wow, that's suboptimal. It used to be, you only needed a phone that could receive an SMS to verify your phone number. I guess those days are over.

I tried that several times at first, but it never worked. I also contacted support, but they never responded. On the bright side, the process isn't too bad:

1. Insert your SIM card into any Android or iOS phone that has the Telegram app installed
2. If someone else is already logged in on the phone, log them out
3. Create and verify your account on the phone
4. While still logged in on the phone, initiate login process on any Telegram desktop app
5. Use logged in account on phone to verify login attempt from desktop app (QR code, verification code via Telegram message)
6. Log out on the phone, remove your SIM card, put other person's SIM card back in, etc.
7. Done. As long as you always have at least one active, valid session on any device, you can use it to verify other devices and never need the phone again.

I was just browsing the documentation and I found some info on repo2.ubports.com, so I decided to check it out. If you just copy/paste the name of the server (without "https://") you get an unencrypted connection. SSL is enabled, and navigating to https://repo2.ubports.com/ gives you an encrypted connection. I think a permanent redirect http > https might be good.

@MrT10001 said in Possible to install UT 20 over UT 16 on Google Pixel 3a XL using UBports Installer without first flashing Android back onto the phone?:

Yes, I would use the installer rather than the update channel and tick the "wipe data" option to start afresh. This will remove all your data so back up first. This will remove all apps as well so you won't have incompatible ones left.

Thanks! It appears that I may have achieved a similar result by first installing UT 20 over 16 via OTA, then resetting the device using Erase & Reset All. Certainly, all of my installed apps, all personal files and all configurations were wiped.

@MrT10001 said in Possible to install UT 20 over UT 16 on Google Pixel 3a XL using UBports Installer without first flashing Android back onto the phone?:

I would only ever reinstall Android back on my UT devices if they "soft bricked" and even then I have found it is not always necessary.

Yes, that seems to fit a scenario where either the "correct" version of Android or some functioning version of UT would be a prerequisite to install UT via Installer.

@AppLee said in Flight Mode does not work reliably on my Google Pixel 3a XL:

my provider sends an SMS on missed calls without voicemai.

Yes, mine does too - and I sometimes receive the SMS notification when I'm in flight mode lol.

Occasionally when flight mode is enabled, I can still receive a phone call. However, after a few seconds, the call is cut off, and I have to disable flight mode to call back.

I also receive text messages sometimes in flight mode.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. If not, it's ok. My UT installation is very old. I even upgraded from Xenial back in the day instead of doing a clean install. It's always worked just fine, except for this one weird bug. If it's just my device/installation, I can do a fresh install.

I would like to contribute to the documentation and have a few questions.

• There are a number of open issues in the Github repo for the documentation. If there are no objections, I would suggest beginning with these: evaluating them to see if they are still relevant, closing the ones that are not immediately, and making updates / creating new content for the ones that still are. Who would be the right person to coordinate with, i.e. who is in charge of the documentation?
• The move from UT 16.04 to 20.04 may have rendered some sections of the existing documentation outdated. Will UT 16.04 continue to exist alongside UT 20.04? If so, might it be a good idea to preserve the existing documentation as it is, create a copy, and update the copy / create new content to reflect the current functionality of UT 20.04?

@Moem said in How to sign up to telegram on ut?:

Wow, that's suboptimal. It used to be, you only needed a phone that could receive an SMS to verify your phone number. I guess those days are over.

I tried that several times at first, but it never worked. I also contacted support, but they never responded. On the bright side, the process isn't too bad:

1. Insert your SIM card into any Android or iOS phone that has the Telegram app installed
2. If someone else is already logged in on the phone, log them out
3. Create and verify your account on the phone
4. While still logged in on the phone, initiate login process on any Telegram desktop app
5. Use logged in account on phone to verify login attempt from desktop app (QR code, verification code via Telegram message)
6. Log out on the phone, remove your SIM card, put other person's SIM card back in, etc.
7. Done. As long as you always have at least one active, valid session on any device, you can use it to verify other devices and never need the phone again.

This is correct. The Telegram servers see Teleports as a desktop app, not a mobile app. Telegram does not allow you to create an account using only a desktop app.

To create a Telegram account, you must first install the app on either iOS or Android and create your account there. I used my wife's old iPhone for this purpose.

@kristatos said in Few thoughts regarding coming back after several years:

I don't understand why people want to change from iOS/Android to UT but on the other hand still want to use all their services. In my opinion one effort of UT is, that you don't have to use accounts and services from these big companies and still have a functional and free phone in your hand.

I agree. Big Tech surveils you 24/7, exploits your most private data, and tries to control what information you have access to. I am so not down for that. If the only choice was Apple or Android, I would not have a smart phone.

I like UT for two reasons: It's not Google and it's not Apple. Oh, and it works. That makes three reasons.

@Darkice I had similar problems when I updated to 20.04 via OTA. The good news is, I didn't have to completely reinstall UT to solve them. The bad news is, I did have to do a reset, which (as far as I can tell) deletes all apps, settings and personal data.

But maybe someone else knows of a smarter way to do it with less data loss.

Just one more question: The README.md also says "Please make sure that you're in the right place".

That page, which was also part of the wiki, was a list of bug trackers for different purposes. Here is a snapshot of the page:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170622144801/https://wiki.ubports.com/wiki/UBports-Bug-Trackers

I didn't find anything similar in the current documentation, but I think such a list is quite useful. If it does not yet exist, then since the logical place to (re)create it would be the documentation site, and since it would take a while to create it and get it merged, I would suggest creating a short, temporary list directly in the README.md file. If you have time, please have a look at my proposed changes here: https://github.com/RayCulp/ubports.com/tree/master

If it seems like I'm a little unsure of myself, that's because I am. Up till now I've only ever used Github to host my own private repos. I've never actually created a single pull request.

@arubislander said in Github repo for main website source?:

The readme is in a GitHub repo, so you don't need special access. Fork the repo to your own account, make the necessary changes in your fork. And then propose the changes back as a PR (Github) or MR (Gitlab) to the main repo.

Very true, didn't think of that.

@arubislander said in Github repo for main website source?:

Lastly, bug someone

Yeah... I'm not so sure about that part.