I have an odd problem with Waydroid. For some reason the clipboard is completely not working. I have been using Waydroid for months without issue, but then I decided to re-install with GApps. Once I did that, the option to paste completely disappeared within Waydroid, leaving only the autofill option. It seems to Copy, but the Paste option is completely absent. Even in apps with a paste button, nothing from the clipboard is pasted, it seems to be just a space.

I uninstalled Waydroid and re-installed several times (without GApps), this didn't help. Each install had the same problem. I removed /var/lib/waydroid/* after uninstalling and also removed the Waydroid folder from /.local/share/ and then tried to reinstall again but the problem persisted. Still no option to paste.

Is there any way of removing Waydroid completely and and then reinstalling from scratch? I've also tried switching channels from Stable to Release Candidate and back again. And uninstalling and reinstalling and Waydroid each time, to no effect. Always the problem persists, there is no option to paste.

Obviously this makes Waydroid pretty useless, as not only is it impossible to do something as simple as paste links into the browser, or copy messages or links into Telegram, but I can't even copy my passwords from my password manager in Waydroid anymore.

Copying and Pasting works fine in Ubuntu Touch.

@thousandtopics The best guide I found for uninstalling was this one: https://github.com/waydroid/docs/blob/master/usage/install-on-desktops.md#ubuntudebian-based-install-instructions

But even following the instructions the broken clipboard remained, so clearly something is being left behind, somewhere. I didn't have this problem before uninstalling and reinstalling with GApps. And since having it, I cannot completely remove Waydroid to solve it, as with each installation, the problem remains.

@domubpkm I see what you're saying, but search engines, and particularly the one used on this website, are not really that great at finding answers. They don't understand context, and the technical details behind the problem, and indeed, nor may the searcher. As someone who has spent two full days searching both here, and in Google, for information on fixing the clipboard in Waydroid and uninstalling Waydroid completely; relevant and up to date information is hard to come by, and if it exists, it is often buried in a mass of unrelated posts. It doesn't help that most people only know certain symptoms of their problem, and not what the actual cause is.

@picrard I uninstalled and reinstalled many times without success, I think that the problem lies with the Waydroid image itself, so reinstalling just re-added the problem each time. I have no idea if it has been fixed in the meantime.

What I did to fix it, and I have since used this to fix other Waydroid problems. Is simply download an older Waydroid image from here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/waydroid/files/images/

You have to download both a system and a vendor image, I assume from the same date. I used one from May 2022. Make sure you have Waydroid installed, and then simply delete the existing images from the folder:

/var/lib/waydroid/images/

There should be a system.img and a vendor.img in there. Delete those and copy over the system.img and vendor.img you downloaded into that folder. You can use the command line or the File Manager to do that. Then just start Waydroid. All your setings and files in Waydroid should still be there.

@picrard I uninstalled and reinstalled many times without success, I think that the problem lies with the Waydroid image itself, so reinstalling just re-added the problem each time. I have no idea if it has been fixed in the meantime.

What I did to fix it, and I have since used this to fix other Waydroid problems. Is simply download an older Waydroid image from here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/waydroid/files/images/

You have to download both a system and a vendor image, I assume from the same date. I used one from May 2022. Make sure you have Waydroid installed, and then simply delete the existing images from the folder:

/var/lib/waydroid/images/

There should be a system.img and a vendor.img in there. Delete those and copy over the system.img and vendor.img you downloaded into that folder. You can use the command line or the File Manager to do that. Then just start Waydroid. All your setings and files in Waydroid should still be there.

I managed to resolve my issue of the clipboard not working in Waydroid by simply installing an older image of Waydroid, I believe it was from May 2022. The clipboard worked again and I was able to install GApps again without any problems.

@domubpkm I see what you're saying, but search engines, and particularly the one used on this website, are not really that great at finding answers. They don't understand context, and the technical details behind the problem, and indeed, nor may the searcher. As someone who has spent two full days searching both here, and in Google, for information on fixing the clipboard in Waydroid and uninstalling Waydroid completely; relevant and up to date information is hard to come by, and if it exists, it is often buried in a mass of unrelated posts. It doesn't help that most people only know certain symptoms of their problem, and not what the actual cause is.

@thousandtopics The best guide I found for uninstalling was this one: https://github.com/waydroid/docs/blob/master/usage/install-on-desktops.md#ubuntudebian-based-install-instructions

But even following the instructions the broken clipboard remained, so clearly something is being left behind, somewhere. I didn't have this problem before uninstalling and reinstalling with GApps. And since having it, I cannot completely remove Waydroid to solve it, as with each installation, the problem remains.

I have an odd problem with Waydroid. For some reason the clipboard is completely not working. I have been using Waydroid for months without issue, but then I decided to re-install with GApps. Once I did that, the option to paste completely disappeared within Waydroid, leaving only the autofill option. It seems to Copy, but the Paste option is completely absent. Even in apps with a paste button, nothing from the clipboard is pasted, it seems to be just a space.

I uninstalled Waydroid and re-installed several times (without GApps), this didn't help. Each install had the same problem. I removed /var/lib/waydroid/* after uninstalling and also removed the Waydroid folder from /.local/share/ and then tried to reinstall again but the problem persisted. Still no option to paste.

Is there any way of removing Waydroid completely and and then reinstalling from scratch? I've also tried switching channels from Stable to Release Candidate and back again. And uninstalling and reinstalling and Waydroid each time, to no effect. Always the problem persists, there is no option to paste.

Obviously this makes Waydroid pretty useless, as not only is it impossible to do something as simple as paste links into the browser, or copy messages or links into Telegram, but I can't even copy my passwords from my password manager in Waydroid anymore.

Copying and Pasting works fine in Ubuntu Touch.

@connor OK, so to answer my own question, yes it is possible and actually pretty simple. This is what I did when you have neither SSH access nor a spare SD card.

• Connected the Pinephone to my Ubuntu PC via the USB charging cable.

• Turned the device on holding the Volume Up button and the Power button and reached the Awaiting Command screen.

• This allowed the internal memory of the Pinephone to be accessed. Using Gnome disks I backed up the partition 'userdata'.

• I then downloaded an Ubuntu Touch image for the Pinephone from here: https://ci.ubports.com/job/rootfs/job/rootfs-pinephone-systemimage/

• I then used Gnome Disks to restore this image to the entire internal memory on the Pinephone.

• I booted, made sure it was all working OK. Then I turned off the phone and connected it to my Ubuntu PC and then turned it on again using the Volume Up key and the Power button to reach the Awaiting Command screen again.

• I then restored the 'userdata' partition only, using Gnome Disks and the backup image I had made earlier.

• Then I rebooted the phone again and so far everything appears to be exactly as it was before the mishap, with no problems.

The whole thing took less than an hour, was a little inconvenient but all in all I probably spent more time trying to unsuccessfully SSH into the phone. It is good to know that you can still backup the user partition even if you cannot boot the phone.

After recent update I have been left unable to boot into Ubuntu Touch, receiving the following error.

Previously on other phones, I would just use the UBports installer, plug in my phone, select the Dev image or something and select not to wipe data and fix it that way. The Pinephone doesn't work with the Ubports installer. Apparently that leaves two options of wiping the phone using JumpDrive or SSH. I don't have a spare SD card for JumpDrive, so that basically leaves me with SSH.

Despite previously having SSH working, all I get when I try and SSH into the phone is "Connection Refused". I have found SSH on the Pinephone very hit and miss, it seems to work for a while and then randomly stops working again. I can access the filesystem by holding down the Volume Up and Power buttons at the same time, is there a way of copying over keys to get SSH working enough to access the phone and switch channels?

I'm guessing this kind of thing is going to happen often, and after more than a year I am assuming that the Pinephone is never going to work with the UBports installer, so I am looking for a fast, efficient way of restoring the system rather than having to wipe it each time problems are encountered.

Is it possible to backup the userdata partition and then re-flash and wipe and then copy the userdata partition back into place? Or will that cause other problems?

As this is a developer phone and very much in testing, I am surprised that there isn't a thread on how to recover from potential disasters, suggested backup routines or anything of the like.