Hi everyone!

I know it can be hard to grasp what UBports does.
It's hard for people to buy a device (often very expensive), install Ubuntu Touch on it and realize it's not what they expected.

Many people are disappointed because some things are taken for granted, considered: "normal" or "basic".
Also people come with "needs" related to their phone usage.

I'm lucky because what I consider "needs" are very simple:
Shelter, food, oxygen and friends
The rest is nice to have and I consider it privileges.

This intro is to put things into perspective and to explain what is done at UBports.
When considering Ubuntu Touch at the moment, it is important to make the distinction between:

• The device ; produced and sold by a manufacturer,
• The port ; made and supported by the maintainer(s),
• Ubuntu Touch ; initiated by Canonical and now maintained by a tiny subset of our community,
• Apps ; built by developers within this community.

The foundation UBports encourages porting to new devices and is set to promote the best ports or at least to give a clear picture of the features you can expect.
The foundation also depends on app developers to build and grow a catalog of apps that users might expect.
This is a difficult task as most app developers are focusing on iOS and Android in order to earn money and very few are willing to give their time to bring killer apps to Ubuntu Touch.
Currently, the foundation's efforts are focused on the maintenance of Ubuntu Touch ; rebasing on 24.04, bringing support for VoLTE and 5G which are critical tasks.

With this in mind, it's easy to understand that, with a skeleton crew, it's very hard to fight all those battles at once.

We are also facing a "battle" within. This one is related to our users and is about "support".
This aspect of things has been brought up lately and some community members start to get fed up with it.
My understanding of the origins of the problem is that we needed to bring more people onboard with us to help:

• porting to new devices
• maintaining the OS
• developing or maintaining apps

This effort to widen the community attracted also people that did not help with those tasks and generated support.
Ideally newcomers would learn from the elders and then help back newer users.
In reality it mostly falls back on the same highly motivated people which for some are also helping in porting, developing apps or maintaining the OS (sometimes all of the above).

So first of all I would like to thank all the people helping this amazing community.

But my goal today is to ask people to understand the situation we are in and to encourage them to help us out.

Ubuntu Touch and the UBports community have a lot to fight for and it will be really hard in the coming months.
So if you feel you can help us out a bit more, then please do.

We need skills to port or maintain current ports.
We need skills to maintain the OS, test it out and fix issues.
We need developers to maintain and create new apps.
We need money to keep paying the bills for infrastructure.
We need sponsors or crowdfunding to invest on some targeted features and give some money to people who already invest so much in this community.
We need volunteers to give back a bit of what they got from this community: support, moderation, communication, organization, management, lobbying... anything you think we lack of...

Complaining is natural and understandable but it's not helping... and we are in desperate need for help.

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 @jojumaxx

As I often write and now say, you can come and express that something is annoying for the end user.
That's fine, but it doesn't help in any way.

We are all aware of the issue, and there are many ways to react when facing a problem:

• My favorite is to take the matter in my own hands
• Second is to ask how I can help

People get angry, some demand, some others are menacing, ...
IMHO either you have patience and hope for the best or you can try one of the constructive ways I shared.

Moem mentioned work done by Alfred on an alternative browser.
You can try donating to keep him motivated on this matter that is important and useful to you.
You can propose your help in testing (or developing if you have the skills).
You can help us bring Morph to a more recent version of Qt (meaning moving from V5 to V6)
You can also help out people working on uFirefox or other alternatives you tried.

If I had a magic wand, there would be no post just stating things.
There would be statement + question on how one can act with the skills they have.
Or statement + a tangible and actionable proposal (PR always welcome)

We are a community. When one is on the forum they are one of us.
So questions like: what is being done about X?
Those are not helpful if asked to oneself.
Can I do X or Y for us? OR Is it better to do J or K?
Those are useful even if you direct the question to yourself...

I'll make a T-Shirt about this and save the world :face_with_tongue:
Sorry for the rant, but people indulge me when I do that from time to time.

May Yumi be with you all.

@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.

Hello everyone,

This year, due to unfortunate events, UBports will not attend FOSDEM in any official capacity.
But I'm sure many of our community members will attend.

So I'm here to suggest to show some love to our beloved @fredldotme in attending his talk on Saturday at 14h55.
More information here

Sadly I personally cannot be there with you all this year, but I intend on being there next year.
Enjoy the event.

My best wishes to Alfred for another great talk.

A huge thank you @Capsia for your work.
Thanks to all contributors as well for their various contributions (content, illustration, review, etc.)

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.

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.

@kristatos said in 20.04 Focal: uNav freezes with GPS enabled:

And for me, that was the case under Xenial.

On Focal it navigation works fine with Pure Maps, I tested it earlier this year.
But since I'm testing Noble, I don't use Focal so much...

Hi @lduboeuf

Not sure what the problem is, there might be several...
I noticed some freezes, but I can overcome them and I managed to have to location updated while walking.
When freeze occurs it's often after making a search or new navigation or this kind of operation.
Edit: to be thorough only uNav freezes.

I don't remember exactly but I think I make my search before asking to locate me.
Basically there is an order that work ; search the location, then start the navigation, then location activation.

I'm using a FP5 on Noble and Pure Maps doesn't work on Noble yet.

Hi @atarilinux

Thanks for this message.
The testing required is technical.
I'm sure @fredldotme can (and is willing to) point you in the right direction to test things out.

Of course to embark on this journey, you'll need to have another daily driver as it will require to be on the devel channel.
Also it'll require to check various logs on the device to investigate the possible bugs and try to find a suitable solution.

It's not development per se IIUC, but more integration, so building the big picture, understanding how different component rely on each other and interact.
And some times when fixing issues or propose MR on those components.

If what I described is difficult to understand, maybe you can try to find people with the required skills around you. But if you understood but are not sure you can do it, I would encourage you to give it a go and see where it lands...

Hi @gdegrez

The Volla Tablet is available with Ubuntu Touch working on it.
I'm currently at the Volla Community days and I will test a couple of apps if I can.

There is a lack of tablets compatible with Ubuntu Touch, but what you're saying about running desktop apps on Ubuntu Touch is changing ; with a keyboard and mouse/touchpad apps available for ARM should run on Ubuntu Touch and with the compatibility with snaps it brings a lot of apps to try out.

Of course we cannot guaranty full compatibility, but it might work...

Also the best way to have something is not just raise an issue in a forum, you can create a real issue (feature request) on Gitlab and sponsor developers or raise founds to get the feature you want.
This is a community, which means the effort is also shared across our community members.
Sitting idle is not being part of a community (and to be clear I don't say that you are, I'm just encouraging everyone to contribute)

@Ian I agree.
100 percent

@Ian
The only way to access the external keyboard layout is from the drop down menu.
What you can find in the settings is the ine for the OSK.

A better UX is being discussed and the current leading idea would be to have the drop down menu available only if an external keyboard is connected.

@developerbayman said in Setup a shared folder between UT and Waydroid:

Does Ubuntu touch have a "autostart” feature?....if it already does not exist that could be a clickable....auto start clickable apps or run scripts.....surly someone did this already?

Not sure what you put behind "autostart feature", but Ubuntu Touch uses systemd to start services at boot time.

@Eric-H said in Device recommendation for VoLTE support:

@wally
Regarding VoLTE on the Pixel 3a, this is a new port under Android 12 that was developed to enable this feature.
However, I am not aware of the current status of this port, nor whether the effort will continue or has been abandoned.

Alfred was clear that he cannot test this out.
So consider it abandoned, but if anyone is willing to push this further, he'll be able to assist, so it's open for contribution.

Hi @AnhVu

You had the correct setting and Vietnamese is very well missing.
They got confused with the settings for external keyboards that support most existing layouts.

The On Screen Keyboard (OSK) needs a bit of work to deisgn the keys ans actual layout of the keys.
You were on the right track with the lomiri-keyboard-<language> list that you shared.

Hi @HarryBass

That's not what OP was asking for.
This setting is for external keyboards, they are looking for the OSK which is more limited in options.