I started with the little BQ Aquaris E4.5 and have had a MEIZU PRO 5. I am considering getting my hands on one of the latest Fairphones or a PinePhone or maybe the F(x)tec Pro1 X.

I'd like whatever device I opt for to be likely to be supported for a good while. I'm particularly keen on support for WayDroid/Anbox and running standard X11 applications. I would have been quite happy continuing to use the Aquaris E4.5, but development of Anbox for it kinda ended so I migrated to the MEIZU PRO 5.

How might you guess at the current degree of support for a particular device, or how might you gauge the likely support of a particular device into the future? So, for example, how might you answer the question of whether it is the Fairphone 4 or the F(x)tec Pro1 X that'll likely still be supported with the latest UBports-related developments 5 years from now?

Probably not perfect, but maybe a bit better than otherwise. Gets one from Android MEIZU PRO 5 to Ubuntu Touch MEIZU PRO 5 with Anbox. Caveats about bricking phone and all that.

https://github.com/wdbm/TFLOSSH/blob/master/turbo.md

Go n-éirí leat!

Mar sin! I've got my 16.05 PRO5 here and I'd love to start throwing what are essentially PyQt5 Python programs at it. Not looking for perfection, just some basic functionality with a window appearing, buttons, that sort of jazz, lotsa nice Python happenings in the backgrounde. Now, much as I'd like pure Python, in the world of Ubuntu Touch I see the push towards QML and pyotherside, well ok.

So, I've been scurrying about trying to install pyotherside (version 1.4) and finding myself meddling with qmlscene (qmlscene: could not find a Qt installation of '' blargh!). I'm happy to dive into proper QML but at this point would be happy with a simple Python "hello world" printout appearing in a window on an Ubuntu Touch device. Could someone guide me to completion on how to accomplish this?

qtchooser -list-versions gives me the following:

4
5
qt4-arm-linux-gnueabihf
qt4
qt5-arm-linux-gnueabhif
qt5

I have a small program like this:

// hello.qml
import QtQuick 2.0
*import io.thp.pyotherside 1.4

Rectangle {
    width: 640; height: 480
    color: "#E95420"
    Label { id: label; text: "Nothing here yet" }
    MouseArea {
        anchors.fill: parent
        onClicked: {
            py.addImportPath(Qt.resolvedUrl("."));
            py.importModule("hello", function(){
                label.text = call_sync("hello_world");
            });
        }
    }
*   Python { id: py }
}

# hello.py

def hello_world():
    return "Hello from Python!"

When I run qmlscene hello.qml (or similar) I get a bunch of Mir-related gibberish, excerpts of which are:

[QPA QMirClientClientIntegration: connection to Mir server failed.

Mir returned "Failed to connect: not accepted by server"

That sorta shite.

So, what've ya got for me, ma expert and extremely leet boos?

@matteo Magic, thanks for that suggestion. Anbox was installable using the development channel without the need to flash a kernel for it separately, as you guessed. Regarding your Wi-Fi experience, I am not experiencing any Wi-Fi problems for native applications running while Anbox is running or for Anbox applications. For you and any others reading, the following UBports and Anbox versions were those I observed as being compatible:

System	Version
UBports OS build number	2020-01-08
UBports Image part	20200108-27502
Ubuntu build description	Ubuntu 16.04 LTS - armhf (20200108)
Device image part	20170608-43243
Device build description	turbo-user 5.1 LMY47D 15 test-keys
Anbox	pool/xenial/main/a/anbox/anbox-ubuntu-touch_8+0~20180916133012.39~1.gbpe34b59.deb

Hey all. I'm trying to install Anbox on my PRO 5 and am running into a problem with anbox-tool install. I'd welcome any illumination, perhaps information on compatible versions of UBports and Anbox for the PRO 5.

I've got UBports 16.04 (OTA-11, stable) and anbox-boot-turbo-test.img flashed (as described here). When I attempt to install Anbox with anbox-tool install, I am presented with a Python error that concludes with the following:

json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Does anyone happen to have any ideas on what is going wrong and how I might get the latest possible Anbox running on the device?

I attempted to install anbox-ubuntu-touch on UBports 16.04 (20200107, devel) but it did not appear to be available.

Hey there. Until a recent build of UBports 16.04 LTS, the camera was working beautifully on this MEIZU PRO 5 here, taking and saving pictures. In recent builds, including this current UBports OS Image Part 2018-12-08-31252, the camera application opens and displays live images as normal, but on taking a picture it displays the following error message:

Capture failed
Restarting your device might fix the problem.

This is the case for all of taking front-facing or back-facing photographs or videos. I've tried the obvious of restarting without success. Can anyone guess at what might be wrong or how this might be fixed? I'd appreciate any guesses or tips.

In case it is somehow related, I have been running Antox with success and this has also broken recently (wherein it just crashes on launch).

Otherwise things seem to be working well and I commend the hard efforts of the developers.

I'd like to try using my little Aquaris E4.5 as a locator beacon for my bicycle, whereby it pings me if it detects that it is being moved. So, I would like to try getting its GPS location in a Python script running on the phone. Is there some way to do this? I saw on Android there is something like this that could be consulted:

adb shell dumpsys location

@tomoqv Ah, magic! That worked perfectly, thanks. Basically all applications I've tried have worked so far which is awesome. Would you happen to know the status for keyboard interactions? Are you aware of a way to get the onscreen Ubuntu keyboard to send keystrokes to the running Anbox application?

By the way, the code formatting is done using standard Markdown syntax. So, if I wanna display some Python code, like this:

a = 1

then I just write some Markdown code like this:

```Python
a = 1
```

Hey there

I'm new to Anbox but am thinking about this as well. As far as I can figure, some APKs are at the directory ~/anbox-data/rootfs/system/app. So, for example, the path of the Android Calendar application is as follows:

/home/phablet/anbox-data/rootfs/system/app/Calendar/Calendar.apk

I had figured on changing to that directory, creating a directory for a new application and then adding its APK to that new directory. I'm not sure how to kill Anbox properly, but the following steps seem to work somewhat:

sudo apt install psmisc
killall anbox

Having "killed" Anbox I want to create a new directory for an application and add the application, in a way like the following:

mkdir /home/phablet/anbox-data/rootfs/system/app/Funkytunes
cd /home/phablet/anbox-data/rootfs/system/app/Funkytunes
wget https://github.com/funkyg/funkytunes/releases/downlad/0.2.1/funkytunes-0.2.1.apk
chmod 755 funkytunes-0.2.1.apk

However, when I attempt to do this, I am told that the filesystem of Anbox is read-only:

phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~/anbox-data/rootfs/system/app$ touch Funkytunes
touch: cannot touch 'Funkytunes': Read-only file system

I'm not sure how to go past this. Any ideas?

My goodness, thanks again! Genuinely thanks for your guidance on this. It is hugely appreciated.

I actually went and manually downloaded the partition images for 16.04 and (carefully) extracted them on the phone and that worked also. I'm now happily running UBports 16.04 development with Anbox. I can't believe what I'm seeing. What the UBports team has achieved is amazing!

Dude thank you so much for your guidance! Your instructions worked perfectly (a minor note for others reading is that the sda43 partition should be named "cache"). I've now got a nifty partition table all set up for 16.04.

I'm currently fighting with the UBports Installer and ubuntu-device-flash to try to get actual flashing of UBports system images to the device working (still the only working system has arisen from your TWRP backup). I've no idea what's wrong, but am wondering if there's an ADB authorization problem preventing the installers/flashers from working. I may try getting a UBports 16.04 image and manually transferring files from it to partitions on the device using the TWRP terminal...

@Stefano Oh excellent! I followed your directions from here and now there's a working UBports 15.04 on my Meizu PRO 5. Thanks so much!

I hope you don't mind, but I'd love to get a little more guidance from you, if you are willing. I want to get this machine up to 16.04/devel.

After using TWRP to restore your image, I flashed the Ubuntu recovery image and then, just to test it out, tried to see if the Ubuntu update facility in the settings would be able to update the system. Unfortunately something isn't quite working here and I'm getting the "Update failed, contact support." message from the Ubuntu recovery. Perhaps this is partition-related.

Anyway, now I'm thinking about changing the partitions to prepare the machine for 16.04/devel. I can see that you had some success on this here. Would you be able to tell me the commands you used?

@advocatux Thanks for that. As I mentioned in the first section, I've unlocked the bootloader, so I don't think this is the issue.

@Stefano Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I've tried 15.04/stable and 16.04/devel with the UBports installer and with ubuntu-device-flash without success. As I mentioned in the title, I think I have an international edition, so I don't think I need to go through the procedures for the Chinese models (nor do I think I would have got this far if I had a Chinese model). What I have not done is altered the cache partition and this is because I've not found a guide on how to do this. My guess at this point is that such a modification might involve connecting to the shell offered by TWRP and then using GNU Parted, but I don't know. I have read ideas about flashing a Canonical image of Ubuntu Touch to resize partitions but, again, I just don't know how to do this.

@Lakota Ah thanks. I'll give that a try.

Hey there

I've just got my hands on a Meizu PRO 5 having had an Aquaris E4.5 running UBports. It's an Android international edition and I'm having difficulties getting UBports Ubuntu Touch installed on it and I would really welcome some guidance.

What I've done so far is as follows.

unlock bootloader

I downloaded a Flyme update update.zip and installed it using the Flyme recovery image. In the updated Flyme I engaged developer options and enabled USB debugging. Next I booted the phone into fastboot and ran the following command to unlock the bootloader:

sudo fastboot oem unlock

flash TWRP recovery image and wipe Flyme

I downloaded TWRP_3.0_m86.img, rebooted the phone into fastboot and ran the following command to flash the TWRP recovery image (over the Flyme recovery image):

sudo fastboot flash recovery TWRP_3.0_m86.img

I used TWRP to wipe Flyme from the phone.

flash Ubuntu Touch recovery image

I downloaded recovery-turbo.img, rebooted the phone into fastboot and ran the following command to flash the Ubuntu Touch recovery (over the TWRP recovery image):

sudo fastboot flash recovery recovery-turbo.img

flash UBports

I booted the phone into the Ubuntu Touch recovery (such that the Ubuntu logo is displayed), then I installed UBports Installer and launched it:

snap install ubports-installer
ubports-installer

The UBports installer detected the Meizu PRO 5 and I set it to install using the 16.04/devel channel and to wipe the existing system (again). The installer rebooted the phone but not to fastboot (which it appears is intended) and then it simply hung. With the installer still running, I rebooted the phone into fastboot. The installer picked up from there but then hung apparently after flashing the Ubuntu Touch recovery image. The last terminal output from it before it hangs indefinitely is as follows:

debug: reboot to bootloader
debug: 
debug: reboot to bootloader [DONE] err:null
debug: checking password
debug: correct password
debug: fastboot: wait for device
info: Download startCheck
info: checked: recovery-turbo.img
info: /home/user/snap/ubports-installer/122/.cache/ubportsimages/turbo/recovery-turbo.img already exists with the expected checksum, so download will be skipped
info: Download complete
info: done downloading(once listener)
debug: fastboot: flash; [{"type":"recovery","url":"http://cdimage.ubports.com/devices/recovery-turbo.img","checksum":"632dae343d026d755867c43ba8634c42edcc5d2b81856e790ebc8d71eaf18c03","path":"/home/user/snap/ubports-installer/122/.cache/ubportsimages/turbo"}]

I have tried using different install channels without success. I've also tried installing UBports using ubuntu-device-flash with the phone in fastboot. When I do this, it looks like things have gone to 100 %, but then ubuntu-device-flash hangs with terminal output like the following:

2018/05/19 19:43:46 Device is |turbo|
2018/05/19 19:43:52 Flashing version 81 from ubports-touch/16.04/devel channel and server http://system-image.ubports.com to device turbo
349.33 MB / 349.33 MB [==================================] 100.00 % 297.48 KB/s 

I've no idea what to try next and would welcome some guidance. I can't wait to get up and running!