I made a couple of bash scripts to backup and restore my UT phone home directory a while ago and decided to put them up on github in case they are useful to others.

Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 host and OnePlus One Bacon OTA-15

• Requires Android debug tools on linux host system
• Interative selection of directories to backup and restore
• Creates dated backups for later restoration
• Not tested for cross device restoring or restoring after updates
• Includes hidden directories but not special directories

Run

UT_Backup_Tool.sh

to make a dated backup in a folder next to the scripts.

Run

UT_Restore_Tool.sh

to selectively restore the home directories. You will get to choose the backup and which directories to restore.

I have been messing around with my 6T trying out Postmarket OS w/Posh and Ubuntu Touch after having /e/ OS on the phone and ended up bricking one slot on the phone as a result of how /e/ OS uses the A/B slots. Since I am a daily Linux user for a long time I do not have access to a Windows machine to use the factory restore tool available on XDA (I think it is called MsMdownloadTool). I tried a Linux tool that is supposed to work the same but it was just extra problems.

In the end I found how to flash the stock Oxygen OS via Fastboot and made a bash script to automate the process on Linux. My script uses all the .img files from the fastboot 9.0.17 oxygen release found here.. My script is based off the windows scripts included in the download. Note: The included version of TWRP did not work for me and I had to use the one below.

TWRP Fajita version from here.

EDIT: See below

I would like to try and port SuperTuxKart over to a Clickable for Ubuntu Touch but I really do not know enough about SuperTuxKarts code or Clickable so I am not really getting anywhere.

You can install SuperTuxKart via Libertine since it has an Arm build already but you can not click on anything or enable the touch screen controls.

There are videos of it running on a pinephone but I think it is running Pure OS. There is also an Android build of it.

I have installed everything needed to compile STK and I have all the clickable dev tools installed. I have created a project with clickable but now I am not really sure what to do. Is there anyone out there willing to give a hand or point towards a app porting tutorial for clickable that would be relevant in this case, STK is mostly C++

Thanks

I have remade these scripts making everything interactive and allowing you to select which slots you want to flash for both the system and recovery.

The entire thing is now on github. The release section now has all the scripts and the binary img files for Oxygen OS9 so you no longer need to create the scripts and find the files.

You just need to run

flash_all.sh

and it will guide you through reflashing the phone back to OOS9. For OOS10 just use the factory update feature.

To reflash one slot without losing data on the other slot skip wiping data and skip flashing 'persist'.

@commandersozo

Please read https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/porting/

1. Unlikely. It needs a Lineage OS port first, then that turned into a Halium port before you can port Ubuntu Touch. Current UT ports are based off of Halium 7.1 and 9 which is Android 7.1 and 9. So with that phone having Android 11 it is really unlikely unless you really know what you are doing.

2. That depends on how you define stable?
   Doesn't crash? Not too long.
   Has every feature? Keep following to find out when at least one phone actually has everything working and then you will know.

3. IMHO Anbox is nothing more than a gimick. It is terrible right now and with all these Android 9+ phones having A/B partitions, dual boat is far easier and actually works. Just be sure to install a degoogled OS on the other partition and never use OTA updates on the Android one.
   I do not think any UT phone has true Full Camera Support with everything you get on Android with the same phone.
   Convergence is not as useful as it sounds currently.

I think the fastest phones right now being ported are the Oneplus 6/6T, Pocophone F1 and then I think it is the Pixel 3 series.The Oneplus 6/6T, Pocophone are a community devices and is not ready for daily use unless you are willing to have things not work. The Pixel 3 series is much closer as it is being developed by the core team. But again it will take time before being 100% if it is ever reached.

@cliffcoggin If you have a computer on your network with Wake On LAN enabled in it's bios/uefi menu and that computer is turned off you can send it a signal over the network to turn it on. It is mostly used for servers and requires a wired connection unless the device has some kind of deep sleep where it keeps the wifi enabled some how.

@kugiigi Thank you for the suggestion and you are probably correct, but I am not the kind of person that does live or private chatting.

It may just be that it takes me longer to understand and I need to be able to reread, lookup terms and go over the information many times in a way that live chatting does not allow. I also kind of see it as only helping one person and the questions end up having to be asked over and over and are not searchable and accessible days, weeks, months later.

Does anyone have a timeline for when a newer GSI will be available for testing? Or better when the 6/6T will get UBports installer integration and OTA support?

Also for anyone installing this be sure to use the files from the release section of the repo not the old ones linked to in the README. EDIT: I have created a pull request on GitHub to update the links in the README.

The newer release has proper sleep. I have had my phone on (without a SIM card) for 3 days and it is at 50%. The wifi shuts down while asleep and takes some time to initialize after waking up. Also the camera now works and that includes flash and zoom unlike in the OP's review.

On linux it is in the hidden home cache folder.

home/{user_name}/.cache/ubports/{device_name}/ubports-installer.log

@goodguy98 You do not uninstall Ubuntu touch. You install something else. Just like how when you installed Ubuntu touch you did not uninstall whatever was there already.

Search XDA forums for how to install Lineage OS or the stock Android version or any other flavour of Android available for Nexus 7 (2013)

UPDATE Feb 28, 2021

I am making progress. You can find the repo here

There are still some issues. Maybe one of the people here that actually know what they are doing can spot what I am doing wrong. I also have an open dialog with the STK developers in github.

Clickable Arm64 build

This one builds completely and creates a clickable. I tried installing it on my OnePlus 6T which is running a GSI from a few months ago. It is the only arm64 device I have and is not a stable device.

I get

Fatal error: /home/phablet/Downloads/supertuxkart_1.2.0-ubports_arm64.click fail
WARNING:root:signiture check failed, but installing anyway as requested
Cannot install /home/phablet/Downloads/supertuxkart_1.2.0-ubports_arm64.click F

There may be more to the message but UT_tweak tools output window does not wrap and has no side scroll I could find.

Clickable Armhf build

Armhf builds all the object files and only fails at the last step creating the executable which fails at

Linking CXX executable bin/supertuxkart
lib/angelscript/projects/cmake/libangelscript.a(as_callfunc.cpp.o): In function `CallSystemFunction(int, asCContext*)':
as_callfunc.cpp:(.text+0x1e4): undefined reference to `CallSystemFunctionNative(asCContext*, asCScriptFunction*, void*, unsigned long*, void*, unsigned long long&, void*)'

I get the feeling

as_callfunc.cpp.o

should be a call to

as_callfunc_arm.cpp.o

and that means it is not detecting the architecture correctly?? It appears to be related to Anglescript (Again https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues/2411 https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/pull/2195 https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues/2569 and others) and compiling for arm. Again I am not sure how I would do this without modifying STKs code. I would rather do it from the clickable build files.

Clickable desktop build

I can build all the object files and even build an executable but it fails at the very end with.

Installing /home/Projects/stk/stk-code/ubuntu_touch/manifest.json
Installing /home/Projects/stk/stk-code/ubuntu_touch/supertuxkart.apparmor
Installing /home/Projects/stk/stk-code/ubuntu_touch/supertuxkart.desktop
Installing /home/Projects/stk/stk-code/ubuntu_touch/icon.png
Successfully built package in './supertuxkart_1.2.0-ubports_amd64.click'.
/home/Projects/stk/stk-code/ubuntu_touch/build/x86_64-linux-gnu/app/supertuxkart_1.2.0-ubports_amd64.click: pass
non-network local connections being added to access control list
Mounting device home to /home/.clickable/home
[error  ] FileManager: Could not find file 'supertuxkart.git'in any standard location (esp. ../data).
[error  ] FileManager: Last location checked '/./share/supertuxkart/data/'.
[fatal  ] FileManager: Set $SUPERTUXKART_DATADIR to point to the data directory.
Command exited with non-zero exit status 1, see above for details. This is most likely not a problem with Clickable.

The solution is here I think https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7595 but I would like to implement it from the clickable build files rather than modifying anything in the STK code or having to do it manually but I have not figured that one out yet.

@keneda I do not know the answer to your question but I have tried anbox on my OnePlus One and it was not a good experience.

Most apps need access to things not available through anbox.
It slows your device and the apps run slower than they would natively.
It reduces your battery life.
You have a bunch of extra Android stuff cluttering up your app drawer.

The idea is great and I am sure on newer faster hardware it will reach a point of being usable but for now on older slower hardware I would say it is not worth the effort to install it when available and definitely not worth the effort to get it working if it is not already available.

@phoenixlandpirat

See the repo for before and after pictures

Alpha testing

---

I have successfully built an Arm64 click package of SuperTuxKart. I am unable to test it due to my only arm64 device thinking it is armhf.

From talking with the people over at STK it may work out of the box without any other changes since this version uses sdl2 to interface with the touchscreen and sensors.

If you would like to test it out you can download it here.
https://github.com/Intrinsically-Sublime/stk-code/releases/tag/V1.2.0-alpha

Download it directly on the phone to the downloads directory.

Then from the command line.

cd ./Downloads
sudo pkcon install-local ./supertuxkart_1.2.0-ubports_arm64.click --allow-untrusted

I honestly do not know if it will do anything at all.

@keneda @Moem

At least where I live they can do whatever they want. It is your choice to use their service and if you do not want to use it you can go somewhere else. It isn't even the law that you have to accept the countries national bank notes as a form of payment. It can be an essential service and they can say we only accept x as payment even if you have no access to that payment method. The rich make the rules and they are always to their benefit,

@totalrando Have you tried my instructions for unbricking a 6T? When I was researching it I read that you could use the same technique to flash a t-mobile phone to turn it into a global phone. It may be worth trying. https://forums.ubports.com/topic/5715/restore-bricked-oneplus-6t-on-linux/1

@abmyii Thank you very much you have saved me having to figure out how to add the libs. I had looked through UBports development guide for dependencies but wasn't sure exactly how to go about it. I now see with your information it is this section.

@kugiigi It is easy for me to add the libs but difficult to figure out which ones it needs without a working device.

No pressure on anyone to test this, it can wait until I have a working device. People can fork my repo and build it themselves too. I have included build instructions in the ubuntu_touch folder README. I have just updated the repo with the current clickable.json incuding the known needed libs so far.

Conclusion :
Everything required to install an instance of Anbox in a container on a OnePlus One Bacon (and a few other devices) is now installed but not active. It only appeared to be active for me because of residual .desktop files from previous Anbox tests.

One of the first things I noticed while testing OTA-16 Release Candidate on my OnePlus One Bacon is Anbox is installed already which for me is such a huge disappointment. I realize people are always asking for Anbox but it should be a choice rather than forced on UT users. One of the reasons I (And possibly many others) use UT is to not use Android. I do not want Android settings, clock, calendar and all the other things that get installed with Anbox.

I tried Anbox a few months ago just because I test everything and installing apps is a pain, they rarely worked, they ran poorly and you got way to much Android. Removing it was harder than installing it and it was still worth all the effort to remove. I have never come across a post praising Anbox or even really promoting it, just saying it is interesting proof of concept that needs a LOT of work.

How do we remove Anbox now that it is preinstalled? I have rolled back to stable and turned off automatically downloading updates to prevent updating until I can remove Anbox or stick with OTA-15 for the foreseeable future.

@totalrando From my research the driver you speak of is only needed for the MsMdownloadtool and other similar types of flash tools. My restore only uses the command line to send commands via fastboot. The entire reason I made that post was because everything else online I found did not work. My script pushes the files regardless of knowing what the device is. As long as fastboot works the script should work. Now if you can not communicate with fastboot after installing the ADB and Fastboot tools then that is different. So I would try from your Debian machine using ADB and Fastboot to flash the files.

@unisuperbox I would love ask them but it is really hard to tell who the "GSI's publisher" is. The GSI images are under UBports GitHub account https://github.com/ubports/porting-notes/wiki/Generic-system-image-(GSI) but link to build.lolinet.com with GSI images that do not match the ones I have used on my 6T from a UBports github repo that further links to a GitLab repo that does not have the GSI at all. It is so confusing. It is really hard to tell where the work is being done, by whom and how to get involved.

Are there instructions for building a new GSI somewhere? I have a server running 24/7 I can put to work compiling if I need to.