What is Syncthing?

Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it's transmitted over the internet.

What does this have to do with Ubuntu Touch?

I have packaged Syncthing into a click. This is based off the work of @ZeroPointEnergy who I am not sure is still active in the community.

My attention was drawn to Syncthing because I was looking for a simple way to sync my ebooks between my tablet and my phone, and the Nexcloud sync app did not play well with my Nextcloud setup.

Cool! Where can I get it?

Syncthing companion snap

Want to use Syncthing as a lightweight backup solution and need to install in on a server? There is now a Syncthing snap packaged by yours truly.

I have questions.

Any suggestions or questions on its functioning on Ubuntu Touch can be posted in this thread. I will do my best to help where possible. Questions on Syncthing in general are better posted on their support forum.

Links:

• main site: www.syncthing.net
• documentation: docs.syncthing.net
• main project: github.com/syncthing/synhthing
• ubuntu touch 'port': gitlab.com/arubislander/syncthing-clickable
• snap package: snapstore.io/syncthing-arubislander
• snap package source: gitlab.com/arubislander/syncthing-snap

@Inglebard said in Device compatibility/lifespan with UT:

why is it not always possible to update the kernel?

To start with your last question. It is not always possible to update the kernel because the proprietary drivers that make the hardware of the device work are compiled against a specific version of the kernel. If a newer version is used, then the drivers may stop working, and they cannot be fixed to work with the newer kernel because the source code for them is not available.

The changes needed to work with Ubuntu 20.04 could in principle be backported to older kernels by someone wanting the see these older devices keep running on later versions of Ubuntu Touch. But that is a huge amount of work in itself, and also just one step in getting some of these devices up to date.

I would like to know what makes a phone compatible with Ubuntu Touch?

The short answer is: Anyone willing to put in the work to make a port of Ubuntu Touch for that phone.

A longer answer would be: If the phone has at least 3 GB of RAM, runs on a relatively new Kernel with sources published, and there is a working Halium version available for the Android version it shipped with, that would make it a good candidate for porting.

I would also like to know how to determine if a device that is compatible with 16.04 or 20.04 will be compatible with 22.04 or 24.04, or even beyond (What is its lifespan)?

This depends on the changes that are introduced in the underlying Ubuntu version that is being targeted. For instance 20.04 no longer supported Upstart as the init system. Everything was moved to SystemD (this had happened earlier, but those versions were skipped as UT targets). This in turn meant that only kernels that could support all the SystemD features that were required in Ubuntu 20.04 to get Ubuntu Touch running, could be supported. Sometimes these features could be backported to older kernels (as is ongoing for the OnePlus One) but since different devices used different kernel versions, this work would most likely need to be re-done for each device for which support was desired.

It is not always clear before starting to work on it, what changes in the new version of Ubuntu will have what impact on Ubuntu Touch. And which changes will cause the most work to adapt to. That is why it is difficult to state beforehand how long any particular device will be able to be supported. You can assume though that once a device gets support for an new version of Ubuntu Touch, you will be able to receive security updates for that device for at least as long as the underlying version of Ubuntu is supported by Canonical. Feature updates might stop earlier due to the need to keep somewhat up to date with the current versions of Ubuntu to benefit the most from the latest improvements to the software components being used in the OS.

Last but not least, the commitment of the porter to the device determines to a very great extent how long and how good support will be for any given device.
Some ports are sponsored by, or done in collaboration with, device sellers, such as Hallo Welt with their Volla Phones, and Fairphone with the FP4. These have a better chance of seeing good support.

Ah...

It is difficult to find the right words to write.

I could write about your encouraging attitude and your clear-sightedness in envisioning a future goal, and dedication to seeing it achieved.

Or about your capacity for keeping people pursuing disparate short term aims onboard, and working together towards the common goal. Keeping all the frogs in the wheelbarrow, so to speak.

Or about your desire to give consideration to every voice in the Community and agonizing over how to do right by everyone.

I could go on, but you know you. Maybe you would see things differently, but this is what I have seen from you.

You have done really, really well by the project. Now go do really really, well by yourself. Hopefully this experience will help you find a way in future to do both, by you, and by whatever endeavor you passionately dedicate yourself to.

I look forward to seeing you shine!

@Mario-CH said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 123 call for questions:

I imagine that many UT users (like me) will finally want to pay the long overdue next donation when ...

I couldn't help reacting to this. I understand you are saying this somewhat in jest, but it exposes a common misconception about donations (and one that I have also fallen for from time to time.)

Donations, by their very nature, should not be seen as reward to a project for work done, but as a way to support the work being done at the moment.
While donating doesn't guarantee your issue will be addressed, withholding your donation until some features that is important to you is implemented or fixed will definitely not make that happen any quicker.

@ktatar156 Emotions have nothing to do with it. I was simply reacting to your stated requirements.
Of course you can install GApps on Waydroid and download your bank apps from the play store. I wasn't suggesting otherwise. The question is though, if they would run. Does your bank app run on Lineage, or on a rooted device? If that is the case it has a higher chance of also running on Waydroid.

About your question if UT will ever be a succes: Define success. The project will continue as long as there are people willing and capable of continuing it. That is both the strength and the weakness of OpenSource. It doesn't have to become a commercial succes, it doesn't have to become popular overnight. All it needs is a dedicated team of developers and a passionate community that both supports the team and whose members can in time become part of the team.
I would venture to say that since Canonical handed over stewardship of the project to UBports it has given a boost to community involvement in the project. By this metric the project is a bigger success than it ever was under Canonical.

Concerning the lack of flagship Open Source apps like Firefox. On the one hand I could say, bug the publishers of these apps and ask them to support Ubuntu Touch. Why should the burden of packaging and maintainance fall on this project alone? But publishers of Open Source are more likely to consider supporting UT if the software stack is more up to date. Well, there is great news on that front. The work to bring UT to 20.04 is in very advanced stage. And once it is released as stable sometime in the first half of this year, work will immediately continue with rebasing on 22.04, which should also be well advanced by the second half of this year. An up to date software stack opens up many possibilities for supporting additional packaging formats such flatpaks and/or snaps. This would not automagically make the software feel at home on UT (think confinement and application lifecycle) but it would be a start.

Are there any needs? Yes! There are knowledgeable developers who are balancing working on this project with their fulltime jobs and daily lives. Given enough donations and sponsors, the UBports foundation could employ all these developers fulltime and there would definitely be a boost in productivity. (Whether this would impact community involvent, if you wish to discuss this, slide into my dm's or let's start a new thread.)

As it is now, @Keneda already mentioned that coders are very welcome. Experience is a pre, but stick-to-itivness and eagerness to learn can make up for the lack of experience.
There is even a job posting for a developer by the company that makes the Volla phones (these are phones that come with the option of pre-installed UT).

Since some years now the UBports Foundation has been the steward of all the projects that together constitute Ubuntu Touch.

A quick summary of the different bodies that comprise the Foundation can be found here. But the body I wanted to focus on is the Board of Trustees (BoT).

The formal role of the BoT is described in the Statutes of the Foundation. Since this is a formal document, it is written in Legalese, but what it comes down to, very roughly, is that the BoT consists of contributing members of the community who have applied to become a member, and whose application has been approved by another Body of the Foundation, the Membership Committee (MC). Members get to vote at elections for the Board of Directors (BoD, not to be confused with the BSOD :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes:) and the MC. But crucially, BoT members can nominate themselves to stand up for being elected to any of these two bodies. BoT members also get to vote on issues set before them by the BoD.

The requirement for admittance to the BoT are summerized in this old blogpost:

Anyone, anywhere in the world is eligible to join the Board of Trustees provided they meet some minimum requirements. First, they must legally be able to be a member of such a body. Second, they must be able to show that they have verifiably, not trivially, and not immaterially contributed time and intellectual work towards the Foundation’s objectives over a period of at least three months; and that at the time of their application they have the intention to continue to do so for at least another six months.

Verifiable, non-trivial, non-immaterial contributions of time and intellectual work would include without being limited to:

• time spent on this very forum or in the Telegram channels, helping out user with their issues,
• contributions to documentation
• contributions to code
• app contribution or maintenance
• giving talks on Ubuntu Touch or the UBports community and manning stands at conferences and other venues.
• ...

I am sure many more of the people frequenting these forums are eligible for membership than have applied so far. So my question to you is: Is there anything stopping you from applying? If so, what is it? I am eager to hear your views.

When some users face intermittent issues with some of the preinstalled apps, a strategy that is often employed when trying to resolve these is to uninstall the app with the aim of reinstalling it, to see if that fixes the issue.

This is inadvisable for several reasons:

• You might face issues trying to reinstall the app.
  While some preinstalled apps are also available in the Open Store, they are treated differently. They are not really uninstalled, but hidden. And often reinstalling the app from the Open Store does not un-hide it. There are posts on the forum on how to get these back, but it is a hassle and requires some command line fiddling.
• It will probably not solve the issue you are experiencing anyhow.
  Almost certainly the issues are caused by (meta)data around the application, rather than the application itself. Uninstalling an application in Ubuntu Touch does not remove the application (meta) data. If this is the goal, then using the Ubuntu Touch Tweak Tool, downloadable from the Open Store, is the best way to go.

The TL;DR; of it is: DO NOT UNINSTALL PREINSTALLED APPS UNLESS YOU NO LONGER INTEND TO USE THEM.

While I agree that we might need to make our public communications less technical to reach the non-technical user, I feel it is important not to sacrifice accuracy in the process.

@BigB said in Shop, deiffrent enviroments, slogans, famous people etc.:

What is the best custom rom? - Ubuntu Touch
...
New interesting featured custom rom - Ubuntu touch

Ubuntu Touch is not a custom ROM. While the non-technical user we are targeting might not know, or care, about the distinction, we want to avoid any semblance of deception, as that will surely backfire down the line.

What is the most secure mobile OS - Ubuntu Touch

This is a claim I am uncomfortable with. While Ubuntu Touch does not spy on the user, there are aspects of the OS that render it arguably less secure than the major players, such as the inability to lock the bootloader, or encrypt the data partition. Such a bold claim that Ubuntu Touch is the most secure of the mobile OS's is untenable.

What is the most advanced mobile OS - Ubuntu Touch

What metric would this claim be based on? I doubt, at the current stage of development, it would be any metric that is meaningful to the non-technical user who would be the target of these communications.

I am a huge fan of Ubuntu Touch, and I realise that sometimes grandiose claims are made in marketing to grab attention. But I believe we as a community should advertise the true merits of the project, without exaggeration or embellishements.

Is this really being contemplated? Under what program can this endeavor be justified to management? The UTtouch market is vanishingly small in comparison to the Duopoly.

Not to rain on anyone's parade here, but I also do not see how this proposition could be made to work from a technical perspective.

One of the ways Google Fi helps the customer save money as I understand it, is by the seemless handover between mobile data and wifi. The reliability of this handover varies from device to device on UTouch.

Also, I doubt there are currently API's in place to allow third party applications to control the network connection in this way while simultaneously respecting Ubuntu Touch's application lifetime cycle scheme.

Not to speak of how problematic it might be in the perceptions of many patrons of Ubuntu Touch to grant access on such a low level to a component from a known data gathering entity.

There is no need at all to go to war over anything, especially since there are options. If a pin, or the behaviour of the pin entry screen, is deemed insecure, then there is the option to specify a password for unlocking. This can be anything and will present a keyboard for entry and must also be confirmed with an ENTER. Seems like the exact behaviour you were looking for.

@bamboy360 said in Elevate Push Notifications from WayDroid to UT?:

Someone there mentioned using KDEConnect as a workaround. I might look into that next.

I suspect this was aimed primarily at desktop Linux, although any mobile Linux where KDE/GConnect shows notifications would work as well. Unfortunately, at the moment UT is not one of those where it would work out of the box.

But feel free to experiment, maybe you can make it work.

@TheVancedGamer said in Improvements and feedback for the FP5:

you can install it by running sudo ubports-qa install devel-noble_-_PR_repowerd_90

Do you have to be on the devel channel to apply this MR cleanly?

@adorsaz said in What's the best way to store a user password?:

Although, IIRC Ubuntu Touch lets user use phone without password/pin code. Maybe this is the reason such service is not provided to app developpers ?

Ubuntu desktop also allows passwordless login. So that in itself is not the reason there is no implementation of libsecret on UT. The real reason is probably simply that none was implemented as yet.

@AppLee Originally Online accounts could potentially be used for this. But I have never been able to figure out how to add a custom plugin for an app

@journeyman09 Pegasus seems to target Android and iOS. So not a threat for Ubuntu Touch. But even if it were, you would have needed to install it yourself, or have run / installed a click package from outside the Open Store.

@AmauryDBZ Unfortunately that can differ per device as it depends on what codecs the device's hardware supports.

@AmauryDBZ and what codec?

@jojumaxx I am assuming the list is up to date. If you have reason to believe otherwise then it might be best to wait for someone else with this device to chime in.

@jojumaxx According to the devices page Waydroid does not work to some extent on this device.

@Abba Actually Miracast works quite well on the Pixel 3a now. But it is hit or miss if it will work with any particular Smart TV or dongle. If you are looking to buy a dongle, then as mentioned before the Microsoft one is the best bet.

Otherwise Sony and Samsung smart TV's also seem to consistently work.