@mr_growl

Good to know! It is a Mac for whatever that's worth. At the time, I wanted to try something different, and now, I'm missing Linux every time. Hahaha

@mr_growl

That's a huge time difference! I likewise feel like something is missing. Perhaps looking back at the original Pixel 3a/3aXL Ubuntu Touch 20.04 port could shed some light too. I'm assuming that these should have relatively the same file "structures." A vendor blob should be in there somewhere I'd imagine.

@mr_growl

I did find this in the forum as a Port QA Checklist. Still looking into the vendor blobs.

https://gitlab.com/ubports/community-ports/general/-/blob/master/DeviceChecklist.md

Is this on 20.04 or 24.04?

@OtaDr

Thanks for the specific post and the confirmation! I'm hoping a resolution can be found soon!

@mr_growl

Hahaha It definitely feels like the 90s! I better get some techno or grunge playing while I'm working on this. Hahaha

Yes, when comparing different alternative OS builds, I noticed the same thing. I got stuck on where exactly these should go as I didn't notice anything similar in the Ubuntu Touch documentation. That led me back to trying to trace the original port and other ports to see what happens where and where these vendor blobs should go. Also, I don't know the last time the documentation has been reviewed and updated. For example, I still see the Nexus being referenced and that is from 16.04. I'm not sure how much has changed since then on the porting side. Also, there may be some things that could be left out either by accident or "like, of course, you should know you have to do XYZ, why do I need to write that?" which may confuse the new or average user. This is not a problem limited to just Ubuntu Touch. Other systems have similar omissions in their documentation sometimes. Overall, the documentation so far is great, but I do notice there are some places where I'm having questions, and it sounds like it is not just me. Maybe reading additional material is confusing me? I'm not sure. Anyway, I'll see what I can find out, and if I notice anything, I'll post it here.

@VoidItsWarranty

Thanks for the information! We will look at that when the VoLTE port is finished. The current 24.04 port and the VoLTE port have different Halium backends. This may make a difference on what issues are present, etc.

@zakafx

From the QA call, he said we would need to finish the port to get VoLTE running and that he would not be involved in this as his phone could not be used. I'm not sure if he is still working on and supporting the non-VoLTE ports or not. However, I can confrim that for the VoLTE "branch", he is not involved. I'm not sure what any of his future plans are for the Pixel 3a. However, I can say the work he has done is very valuable, and we are very appreciative of his work.

@OtaDr

Thanks for this info! I haven't been able to test that, so thanks for sharing!

@mr_growl

Looks like I got something running in a virtual machine, but it is very, very slow probably due to the instruction translations to the ARM processor among other factors. Needless to say, it can run, but it will take forever under these specs if it doesn't crash. I've been eyeing a desktop PC for a while. I might have to take the plunge when the means become available. If I can't get this to work on my hardware, I will let you know.

@lduboeuf

It's probably been said before, but again, thanks for all your hard work! It shows, and I know everyone is appreciative of it! If you need anyone on the forums to help/test/etc., just let us know!

@zakafx

Hello and welcome to Ubuntu Touch for the Googlr Pixel 3a/3a XL! Thanks for your interest in this project! Also, no worries for not having much programming experience. I am somewhat in the same boat. My programming seems a bit more old school and is in a completely different area. I haven't had that much experience with Android either. I mainly try to help out where I can, and as I'm stated on the forums before, I don't want to slow anyone down. I'm currently trying to document all the ins and outs as simply as possible, do some research, and do some coding where I can. There are always ways to help, so just jump in wherever you feel comfortable. We also have a need for testers, marketers, etc. A community OS requires a community, and a community requires a face. So...yes, don't worry too much about your technical skill set. Not everyone is an engineer at a company.

Also, thanks for sharing the issues! On the forum, our main focus is trying to get VoLTE up and running. This requires a new Android/Halium backend. I know they have a number of people on the official UB Ports Telegram channels doing some hard work as well. Once we get VoLTE up, our forum members and others can focus more on these issues if people aren't already working on them now. A good number of people are doing this free of charge on personal time. This generally means that progress might be slower than a company. However, with no profit involved, we can focus solely on the people, right? That's not to say you can't donate to UB Ports. I'm sure they need all the assistance they can get. If you like and appreciate the work, please donate there by all means. This allows those at UB Ports to continue to help support this community.

@zakafx

I remember doing something similar, and it worked too. Thanks for sharing!

@rocket2nfinity

I completely agree that the original Google Pixel 3a port was amazing! I hope that we can make an equally great port with VoLTE enabled. I know I'm new to this, and as such, my skills are not of the same level as other members.I wouldn't really call it my port, but more of a community port. I'm just trying to get the ins and outs documented at the moment so we know where to begin. I've been interacting with a number of people on the forum to see what we can coordinate and set up regarding this community port. I also recently found out I may need a stronger computer to adequately build the port. I am currently seeing what I can do on this piece at the moment.

Unfortunately, I'm not on Telegram for certain reasons. There may be a way to use Matrix to interact with Telegram, but I haven't dug into it that much yet. I was informed of this option earlier. I'm sure great work is being done there! The Ubuntu Touch community's work has been nothing short of amazing.

@mr_growl

Yeah, max RAM I have is 16GB, but on an ARM based computer. With this one, I would have to virtualize x64 which would have a knock on performance. The main x64 Linux computer has 8GB. Not ideal. Let's just say I have been on the market for a better computer for a while. Hahaha

Let me see what I can work out. Thanks for the steps and the build!

@mr_growl

Thanks so much for the info and for building the port! My main Linux computer doesn't have enough power to run those specs natively unfortunately, but I can check what solutions I have. The virtual machine option would probably be the most promising thing for me rather than trying to run it on my local machine. I'll keep you posted as I work through it. Thanks again!

@mr_growl

I haven't gotten a build going. I was still trying to get the process flow, etc. in order. It's all new to me, so any build would take me a long time as I want to know what happens on each step and why.
Initially, I was trying to reverse engineer the original port and figure out what made it incomplete. Once I got to that point, I would complete the port. Doing that on my own is a bit difficult, but I'm detailing things as I come across them. My technical expertise is in a different area than this one, so there is a lot to learn.

If you want to give me the steps and builds, I'd be happy to test further!

@OtaDr

Thanks for the information! We are currently working on a new port. I am not sure if we will have the same issues or not, but we'd like to document any issues so we can hopefully address them when the port is finished. Also, we are curious about people's general experience using Ubuntu Touch on the Google Pixel 3a/3aXL. Again, thanks for sharing!

@mr_growl

That sounds like exactly what was mentioned on the QA call. This was our Step 3 to figure out. I'm assuming we got Step 1 and Step 2 finished. Step 1 was to verify VoLTE was possible. Step 2 was to finish the build (or make a new port). Step 3 was to figure out how to get it on the phone. On Step 3, we were thinking the articles I gave you in the last post would help. Also, keep in mine that Lineage OS, etc. does have some form of install method for Pixel 3a with Android 12. We may be able to pull some information from that project.

Here are my notes from the QA call:

On Android 12 port for the Google Pixel 3a on GitHub:
*Source Material - Not Image (VERIFIED, LOOKING AT NEW PORT)
*Information on image build process, but not how to install it (FIRST IMAGE BUILD COMPLETE)
*Built on top of latest Android 12.1 version for the Google Pixel 3a, but build not completed (FIRST IMAGE BUILD COMPLETE - @mr_growl)

Issues with building/installing: (WHERE WE ARE NOW)
*Issue with getting image on phone
*Has retrofitted system super-partition, this means two partitions act as they are one
*Has not been installed in this type of environment, we would need to figure it out

As far as my phone, I have bonito as well. Unfortunately, I can't test sargo.

@mr_growl

I might be off here, but did you use fastbootd? The Google Pixel 3a has retrofitted dynamic partitons in Android 12.1.

https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/bootloader/fastbootd

Info on Retrofitted Dynamic Partitions:
https://lucaweiss.eu/post/2023-03-30-retrofit-dynamic-partition/