People are often enthusiastic about the project and want to help it grow but sometimes we don't know how to help.

Let's start with some definitions because it never hurts:

Ubuntu Touch: Is the name of the OS
UBports: Is the foundation maintaining Ubuntu Touch. That's also the name of our community.
Lomiri: Is the DE of Ubuntu Touch
Ofono: Is the module that handles the telephony for Ubuntu Touch
Halium: Is an abstraction layer used by Ubuntu Touch to communicate with proprietary firmwares on ported devices.
Anbox: Is an option to run android apps (highly experimental and not currently maintained)
Waydroid: Is the new name for a new approach to replace Anbox, it only works for devices based on Halium 9 (and 10 IIRC) and is still in early stage of development.

Now I'll try to give some tips on how to help/get involved:

First you can head over to https://gitlab.com/groups/ubports/-/epics
There you'll find the roadmap for the UBports foundation.
At the moment, this is mainly about the work necessary to get Ubuntu Touch to work based on Ubuntu 20.04.

You got a rough idea on what is going on and want to help? Great!
Helping is possible in many places. You can work on translations, documentation, testing, reporting or developing.
Also shop infrastructure like moderating, sorting and prioritizing issues, ... also require some (wo)manpower.
Please check our documentation where some instructions are already provided: https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/contribute/index.html

Eager to help developing? A good starting point are open issues:
https://gitlab.com/groups/ubports/-/issues
https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues
You want make an impact? Some core apps do still need a maintainer (https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/blob/master/CORE_APPS.md).

Issues, bugs or feature requests need developers to tackle them, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. There are certainly more of them. And not only developers are needed. Browse through issues and see if you can help by

• confirming issues
• testing
• providing ideas on how to solve something

When testing and reporting, please follow some general rules:

• report any bug you encounter
• check the list before reporting to make sure there is no already existing report
• provide information on how to reproduce and hopefully fix
  comment on existing reports if you have helpful information

If you have a broad idea of something that would help to improve Ubuntu Touch, please consider these steps:

• be specific, no "let's save the world" attempts
• draw a mockup or write something up with your ideas
• depending on your idea find the right spot to place it (github/gitlab, forum, telegram, ...)
• maybe build something to provide it for tests
• find others to team up, ask for help

If you cannot act on your own and need endorsement from the foundation, for example to create new partnerships, then

1. Draft an email for any contact you may have in an organization
2. Submit the idea and explain how you think it might help each party to the UBports foundation (use the social media, Telegram or the forum to get redirected to the right people)

(Be patient. Tweaking is a luxury we can't afford right now. 20.04 is the absolute priority. That means that many other things are not a priority. No harm in storing up feature requests somewhere, but don't expect short term actions by the core team at the moment.)

To sum it up, I would say, you don't need to ask, feel free to act.
Action proves your interest.
Acting on an idea is a good way to test it out and see the possible flaws in our thinking (i.e. does it require money, connections, skills, etc.).

Oh and if, like myself, you are willing to help but don't have much time to give, you can always give money: https://ubports.com/fr/donate

I hope some of you might find this helpful.
Cheers

Sorry in advance for the long answer

First of all and to answer the question : I'm willing to pay for Ubuntu Touch

Now to address the deeper issue at play here, I see various topics and feelings associated with them.
First of all, I don't like the feeling I have that the community is passive and "asking" the foundation.

1. It should be clear what the foundation do and can do. For example, hosting, notification system, updates, etc.
2. I agree with @Alter displaying the financial need of the foundation is an incentive so we know when to donate and how much and what it is used for.
3. Maybe showing off the sub-communities of UBports like Open-Store, Waydroid and some key apps like Teleports, uNav or Pure Maps, uAdBlock, UT Tweak Tool, ... (to only name a few)

My idea is to take the opportunity to make a change to the UBports Q&A format.

1. Invite various actors of the community to pitch in and show other aspect of the UBports community than the foundation.
2. Show the financial aspect and thanks the sponsors and explain the target once a year.
3. "Drive" the community by setting the focus on various topics (where the UBports foundation show was saying we cannot do much because our resources are full, the UBports community show could say there is this interesting topic that needs our attention, this will require this kind or resources, who's up to it?)

I appreciate Dalton's work and I think the visible part (the show) of his work should be his legacy and as such could be a reminder that we (the community) should be caring for each other and sharing the weight so together we can achieve a better Ubuntu Touch.
The UBports foundation is a central component of this community and will hold an important seat at the table but the UBports Show can be widen to the community so we feel more involve and less acting like customers.

Also a note on what mentionned @Flohack in another thread.
The "voice" of the show could be a native English speaker for ease of communication, but they do not have to hold all the burden.
Other people can write scripts, a bit similar to what Matteo does for the highlighted apps, so it is not so much of what Alphred, Dalton, Florian or Marius (in alphabetical order and for the recurrent hosts) did during the last couple of weeks, but really a what happens within the community and what should be its future.

Thanks for reading and if you like this idea maybe we can start to draft something in a dedicated thread.

My philosophy is that I have to make something positive from a tragedy.
So let's make Dalton proud of us and of what came from the ashes of his burn out.

@domubpkm
News is still fresh but going viral : https://ubports.com/blog/1/post/271

Hi, I'd like to take the opportunity of this thread to point out several things.

The first one is the list given by Dalton is not a decision made or something definitive for other phones.

This leads to my next point, what the UBports foundation can do and what the UBports community can do.

The UBports foundation is maintaining Ubuntu Touch (the OS).
And the move to 20.04 is necessary as 16.04 is not maintained anymore.
But 20.04 has some constraints regarding the kernel.

On the port side of things, updating the kernel for a given phone is not easy or even impossible...
If a version of android 9 or 10 was made for the device, then a port based on halium is possible.
But in case of old phone abandoned by manufacturers a long time ago building a recent enough kernel for the device and using the existing firmware is almost impossible or very expensive and difficult.

The foundation does not have the ressources to make a 20.04 compatible port for older, marginally used phones.
Maintainers might not have the required time, resources and knowledge to do it either.
So some devices will be left over on 16.04 without updates because maintaining the 16.04 branch is to expensive for the UBports foundation.

So if you want a specific device to survive, you'll need to get in touch with the porter for this device and ask them if they are still willing to do the job or to assist.
Then you'll have to gather people willing to help to bring create a port compatible with 20.04 requirements.
This is a community matter and effort to save a specific device.

For the BQ4.5, I do not know what can be done but it seems a very difficult task.
As @CiberSheep wrote, you have several options but overall it's a good thing this device was available for that long.

@domubpkm
As you understood, that's just an opinion.
And on certain circumstances I could make an exception for app X or Y.

But I prefer to live without the convenience than becoming slave of it.
It's a personal choice and I understand that people make another one.
That's the beauty of freedom.

I think the main message for the survival of your individual device is to take action.

• Gather a group of people interested in savekeeping this device
• If you gather enough people and knowledge maybe your device team will be able to successfully port 20.04.

I think the foundation and core team will help as much as they can.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As a reminder, UBports foundation is not a company. Driving a living community of beings is not as easy as leading a company.
We are no customer but members and contributors.

A company answers to money and customer depending on how much they spend have an impact on it.
Loosing a member has a different impact on a community depending wether or not this member was contributing a lot or less...

Acting like a company would mean stop listenning to members whose contribution is considered not important enough.
I think we can all agree it won't be a good thing.
So keep that in mind when pondering the decision made by those who contribute a lot, listens to others and try to satisfy the most people.

I think everyone in the core team, the members of the foundation and major contributors are doing a fantastic job.
They explain what they do, why they do it. They try to federate people and ask for contributions because UBports depends on it. The people paid to work on Ubuntu Touch cannot maintain the OS and port it to devices by themselves.

Money and talents are required, that's true, but UBports is not a company.

Many don't know how to do this task.
It's really useful for people searching for the same problem.

So here is a little tutorial I made for this:

First you need to locate the menu buttons for the whole topic it's always on top of the screen on desktop.
Then use the cog wheel menu (labelled "Topic Tools")
Then choose "Ask a question"
Now your post is "unsolved"
Use the previous menu
And then choose "Mark as solved"

And for those who are lucky to be able to see there are the steps in picture:

Hope it will be helpful.
Enjoy

@domubpkm
In fact there are 6 of them.

This is a picture I took of my BH. The label on the left describes what they are for.
Sorry for the blur macro is bad with the phone's camera.

@nexus5
Hi, you just opened 4 threads in a row just with complains about the OS.

We are a community and everyone can contribute. But simply asking for stability, customization or anything that is convenient to you does not help.
I don't say your ideas are bad, just that if you take the time to read a bit more and learn about what is currently done you'll know that anything you ask here is far from being a priority.

Ubuntu Touch is very stable and it is one of the top priorities despite what you wrote here: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/4905/stability
That's why OTA13 has been postponed.

As I said, we're a community and here to help each other.
Opening a bunch of thread just to complain about UT not being Android is considered like SPAM.

So please ask yourself how you can help. Or if you have a specific issue you can ask for help or open an issue in gitlab if you found a bug.
But you'll have to be specific.

Thanks.

@nero355
Not being a developer is not an excuse
I'm not an electrician, but I installer new heaters in my flat.
I'm not an electronician but I managed to solder a board for a simple circuit I needed.
I'm not a baker but I can make delicious cakes.

Nowadays with resources available on youtube and on websites like open classroom you can learn about anything if you put in time and effort.

So not being a developer is not an excuse so one can simply ask for things to be done and do nothing.
As part of a community and as a general rule do not ask what your country the community can do for you, but what you can bring to the community.

I have the skills, but no time, so I understand if one does not have the time to learn but just "not being a developer" is not a real excuse...

Nothing against you.
You just brought this up and I try to make people around here realize that they can be valuable for this community even if not developers.

Hi @AmauryDBZ

I'm not sure that USB audio devices are supported yet.
For jack headphones it should be fine.
Have you tried to power your device down and boot it again after a couple minutes?

Also if this does not work, can you give us the version you're running?
To see if some other people can reproduce.

@Cycle-Maniac

Thank you for the donation.
That is highly appreciated.

Hi @reeered and welcome

I was going to refer you to the link Keneda already sent (damn he's fast).

So I would avoid messing with the partition size as you risk bricking your device with an update.
The best course of action is to use the userdata partition and to make it work.

You can link folder in /opt to /userdata

But when someone asks question about this stuff it's often because this is above their skill-set.
So my advice is not to try anything that can make it worse.

Trying to hack the OS this way is a dangerous endeavor. Be sure that you understand what you're doing.

@test_root
Depending on your use case you can remount the root partition in RW and then mount the SD card.
But you need to understand what you are doing and playing with links in order to get something to work.

Of course prior to that the SD card should be formatted properly.

But as I mentioned, booting directly from the SD might be too difficult.

Hi @test_root

My advice: Do not mess with partition size.
Theoretically you can mount the SD card and boot from there. But you have to modify the bootloader in order to do so.
I don't think it is doable or worth it.

You tackle this like a phone a standard computer, which it is not.
If I would have to guess I'd say you want do "apt install" large software like LibreOffice which is deprecated. Using apt will mess with the OS and create more problems than it can solve.

Edit: I'll throw this thread in for more information: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/9231/terminal-error

@Keneda
Sorry, no idea.
Are you on Focal? Or did it disappear from xenial?
Maybe the maintainer removed it? ... Just speculation, I have no clue nor insight.

@Cycle-Maniac said in Busy, crowded app overview; Can Ubuntu Touch be converted to an iPhone interface?:

I am definitely not an Apple fanboy. But as nice and intuitive as iOS (and macOS) work; It really is unbeatable.

Sorry to disagree, but I think you've mistaken intuitive and "used to".
Because never in a thousand years would I have figured about a diagonal draw...

UI design of a smartphone is not just about "graphical design", you also have to deal with technical constraints (that can be overcome with time and money) and mostly subjectivity.
Everyone is different and everyone find great things in both iOS and Android, but no one has not a complaint and wish something was different or more like X or Y.

Having the drawer less crowded means less apps visible at a glance hence scrolling or typing action.
I thin @kugiigi is right about masking the launcher when the drawer is expended but the transition might be weird...
I thing if the drawer had the same spacing between icons you might feel it is a bit more calming and pleasing (I feel it could be an answer to your issue) but many will probably say that before they had all their favorite apps right there and now they have to scroll...

So really not a simple question.
If you come up with a mockup and if someone is willing to try and implement it, I guess we can have a poll and decide to mainstream it or make it available to tweak this out.

@koonoopidi

Have you tried running the UBports installer?
You should be able to flash Ubuntu Touch with it.

Else you'll have to follow the procedure to install android back: https://developers.google.com/android/images#sargo
As stated on this page: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/sargo

I hope it'll help you.

@muskist
Then read my post again.
You need to ask a question before you can mark it as solved.

@muskist
It works fine for me.
But we'll investigate