@Dave said in UBports firmware for device "Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12)" does not boot when using the "stable" or "rc" channels.:

Installing the 20.04/devel channel does infact result in a booting Phone!!

I now did run 20.04/devel mimameid_h12 firmware (r766, build date 2024/09/07) for over a week. It mostly works, but I did run into occasional problems:

Problems Encountered

• telephony sometimes gets stuck in a state, where phone-calls do not have any audio into neither direction. this could not be fixed by toggeling flight-mode on/off, only a full reboot helped. I haven't yet found out what triggers this. For me this happens on average after a few phone calls.
• I had an SMS problem once, where after sending an SMS, it spun endlessly, then after a few minutes the transmitted SMS was marked as "failed" (I'm running the Japanese locale, it said 失敗 in red below the SMS).
• keeping cellular data connected all the time. however, when not having used internet in a while, starting the morph-browser it errs out with "err_disconnected" or similar. toggling cellular data on/off fixes the issue.
• recording video via the photo app does not work at all. the photo app just gets stuck, when trying to record a video. taking photos works, though.

What did work

• GPS did work when I tested it once (using uNav)
• wifi connects without problems here (5 GHz network)
• web browsing appears stable via cellular data and wifi
• no crashes encountered so far
• battery usage appears to be good to me

Not tested yet

• bluetooth

Also note that nowadays ext4 filesystem natively supports per-directory encryption which may allow a more efficient and better integrated way to encrypt /home.

replying to myself: this is called filesystem-based encryption. Here is the relevant documentation for the part living inside the Linux kernel.

Appears that Android nowadays also uses this for providing user-data encryption (albeit with a different user-space tooling).

As this allows very fine-grained encryption of specific directories only, it may be easier to integrate with LightDM, i.e. maybe not requiring a full restart of LightDM after unlocking just some of the more privacy-relevant directories.

Both recent LUKS versions and fscrypt userspace can process the disk encryption password via Argon 2. If you choose sufficiently CPU-intensive parameters for Argon 2 (e.g. multi-second execution time, 4 CPU threads, 512 MB of RAM), then even a password with 40 bits of entropy will be very costly to break using a GPU based brute-force atttack.

If one believes the (pretty outdated) claims on the argon2-gpu gitlab page, then the Argon2 settings that I use with LUKS on my Volla22:

	PBKDF:      argon2id
	Time cost:  12
	Memory:     500000
	Threads:    4

only allow for roughly 8 password attempts per seconds when brute-forcing on a NVIDIA Tesla K20X. That's only 2^28 password attempts per year and GPU!?

Note that Argon2 support in LUKS is not available on the older 16.04 version of UBports, you need 20.04 (focal).

@RandomUser said in Which useragent uses Ubuntu Touch?:

Most will think you're running Android because they're either lazy, incompetent, or ignorant.

That's actually quite a problem for me. I'm using a web-based audiobook store, and while it works on my PC with Firefox, it refuses to work on my Volla phone. On the Volla phone, the website refuses to let me use the web-based player and tells me to get the Android App.

There is this some "desktop mode" setting in the Morph browser, but I think that didn't even help.

Googeling for the issue, I find various morph-browser github issues relating to the user agent setting. But that was never rolled out?

https://github.com/ubports/morph-browser/issues/324
https://github.com/ubports/morph-browser/pull/368

Does any of the alternate browsers in the Open Store help here?

@oya-g said in Japanese!!:

Channel Update → 20.04Development has Japanese. My device is Pixel3a, so it is 4G compatible.

The "development" channel is maybe not meant for day-to-day use, as it may be buggy and/or unstable. So really looking forward to japanese support arriving in stable.

Note that even with a 4G compatible phone, you will not be able to do any phone calls inside japan, as the 4G protocol stack does not by itself support telephony. It only supports data.

For telephony, you need VoLTE support, which is quite a messy affair, as it requires various firmware and software components to cooperate properly for calls to be routed over the 4G data layer (i.e. as VoIP call). UBports does not support that currently.

Installing the 20.04/devel channel does infact result in a booting Phone!!

This is the installer output for the 20.04/devel install:

info: UBports Installer restarting...
info: device selected: mimameid_h12
info: Installing Ubuntu Touch on your Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12)
info: configuring...
info: settings: {"bootstrap":true,"channel":"20.04/arm64/android9plus/devel"}
info: Downloading 10 files
info: Downloaded file 1 of 10
info: Downloaded file 2 of 10
info: Downloaded file 3 of 10
info: Downloaded file 4 of 10
info: Downloaded file 5 of 10
info: Downloaded file 6 of 10
info: Downloaded file 7 of 10
info: Downloaded file 8 of 10
info: Downloaded file 9 of 10
info: Downloaded file 10 of 10
info: All done! Your device will now reboot and complete the installation. Enjoy exploring Ubuntu Touch!

So is it a good idea to run 20.04/devel on Volla 22 phone for daily productive use?

Now I wonder about the expected timeframe for those magic changes in "devel" to trickle down into a "stable" release to use on my Volla phone...

cheers,

Dave

The above installation used the "20.04/stable" channel.

Doing the install with the "20.04/rc" channel, results in the same stuck boot problem. For reference, this is the terminal log output when installing the 20.04/rc channel:

info: Welcome to the UBports Installer version 0.10.0!
[4470:0907/222034.679356:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(622)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.StartServiceByName: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
info: device detected: k69v1_64_k419
warn: The device k69v1_64_k419 is not supported!
info: device selected: mimameid_h12
info: Installing Ubuntu Touch on your Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12)
info: configuring...
info: settings: {"bootstrap":true,"channel":"20.04/arm64/android9plus/rc"}
info: Downloading 7 files
info: Downloaded file 1 of 7
info: Downloaded file 2 of 7
info: Downloaded file 3 of 7
info: Downloaded file 4 of 7
info: Downloaded file 5 of 7
info: Downloaded file 6 of 7
info: Downloaded file 7 of 7
info: All done! Your device will now reboot and complete the installation. Enjoy exploring Ubuntu Touch!

@Dave said in Japanese!!:

Unfortunately with 20.04 the japanese input keyboard is broken (see this post) and the japanese translation not available any more.

I just installed the "devel" channel firmware of UBports 20.04 on a Volla Phone 22, and it now does offer japanese language localization ("日本語") in the initial configuration wizard (that shows at first boot, as I had the phone fully wiped during installation). What a pleasant surprise!

The firmware version is shown as 20.04 r766. (build date appears to be yesterday).

edit: but the japanese keyboard is still broken. Note that it is only broken "visually". If you still remember how the keyboard worked in UBports 16.04, you can just use it typing "blindly".

Hi,

I had the display on my Volla Phone 22 replaced at a phone repair shop. The new display is not compatible with the stock Volla 22 UBports image, as was pointed out here in the forum. I.e. Android 12 (resp. Halium 12) is required for the new screen to function. Also the phone repair shop warned me about that issue.

The UBports installer offers a corresponding device image called Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12) which appears to exist solely for these repaired Volla 22 phones to function again.

I flashed my phone with that image multiple times, even before the display was replaced, and the phone always refused to boot with that firmware image.

The boot just gets stuck at the initial greeter showing volla~~~ in white letters on black screen. Short press of the power button than switches off the phone.

The installation otherwise ran through just as normal. And the phone can be rebooted into the fastboot mode just as usual.

The ubports installer terminal log output shows this:

info: Welcome to the UBports Installer version 0.10.0!
info: device selected: mimameid_h12
info: Installing Ubuntu Touch on your Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12)
info: configuring...
info: settings: {"bootstrap":true,"channel":"20.04/arm64/android9plus/stable"}
info: Downloading 7 files
info: Downloaded file 1 of 7
info: Downloaded file 2 of 7
info: Downloaded file 3 of 7
info: Downloaded file 4 of 7
info: Downloaded file 5 of 7
info: Downloaded file 6 of 7
info: Downloaded file 7 of 7
info: All done! Your device will now reboot and complete the installation. Enjoy exploring Ubuntu Touch!

After that final log line, the phone reboots into the installer showing the UBports logo and the "installing system update" text. I.e. so far everything works as usual. That installer screen is then shown for a few more minutes, then the phone reboots again just to be stuck in the volla~~ startup greeter.

Any ideas how to proceed with getting UBports installed onto my repaired phone? Is there any way I can collect more detailed information about that problem? If required I would even borrow my phone to any developers here that know how to debug this kind of issue. In the current state the phone is just a (pretty expensive) "brick" anyways.

cheers,

Dave

The Phone Service Berlin shop today replaced the display of my Volla22 phone. The display appears to work, as far as can be judged by looking at the fastboot screen or recovery image screen, or the installation screen ("installing system image").

However, the installed Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12) firmware does not boot. After installation, and whenever I switch on the phone, the phone is stuck in the bootup greeting screen showing volla~~~ in white letters on black screen.

In that stuck state, a short press on the power button just switches off the phone. Is this the Volla phone's boot loader?

Note that this problem cannot be explained by phone damage. Before the screen was replaced, the phone did boot and work "normally" with the standard Volla firmware image. And the same "stuck at boot" problem already happened when installing the "Volla Phone 22 with new display" firmware on the not yet repaired phone. Just at that time I attributed the failing boot to the firmware not being compatible with the old display (see post above).

edit: the phone now booted, after installing the "devel" channel of the Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12) firmware.

I also created a dedicated topic for the problems concerning the Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12) firmware image:

https://forums.ubports.com/topic/10395/ubports-firmware-for-device-volla-phone-22-with-new-display-mimameid_h12-does-not-boot

@chris_bavaria said in One method to encrypt /home/phablet:

Has anyone experienced similar issues with OT-5 or knows of a more reliable way to restart LightDM without the screen staying black? Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I've always been using an encrypted home setup similar to what you are trying with my Volla 22 on OTA-4. I'm using the below restart sequence after remounting /home.

RUN THE BELOW CODE AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND ONLY IF YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND IT AND KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. YOU MAY e.g. BRICK YOUR PHONE OR LOOSE DATA. ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

for i in \
    dconf-service \
    media-hub-server \
    history-daemon \
    address-book-service \
    evolution-addressbook-factory \
    evolution-calendar-factory \
    evolution-source-registry \
    gnome-keyring-daemon \
    mpris-proxy \
    mission-control ; do
    su phablet -c "killall $i" || true
done

pid="$(cat /var/run/lightdm.pid)"
sudo kill $pid

edit sept. 17: I think the above script snippet needs to be modified to include media-hub-server in the list of services to restart. Otherwise passing data between applications fails after remounting /home/phablet (and restart of lightdm). E.g. configuring a background image by selecting a photo in the gallery.

It used to be much simpler on 16.04.

That said, I'd really like for ubports to have a better integrated support for encryption.

Also note that nowadays ext4 filesystem natively supports per-directory encryption which may allow a more efficient and better integrated way to encrypt /home. This github project has more details. I'm using Ubuntu's fscrypt package on a Ubuntu laptop to add another layer of encryption between different users.

@oya-g said in Japanese!!:

Please support Japanese!

Yes, I'm also missing the japanese support: AFAIR the 16.04 version of ubports does still have mostly complete japanese support. Including a very nice japanese input method.

Unfortunately with 20.04 the japanese input keyboard is broken (see this post) and the japanese translation not available any more.

Also, if you ever plan to use your Ubports phone in japan: note that sometime around March 2024 Japanese mobile providers completely shut down any 3G support. So while you may still be able to get online using a UBports phone with 4G/LTE, you will not be able to make any phone-calls as that requires 4G VoLTE support, which AFAIK is not yet supported on UBports.

@arubislander said in Volla Phone 22 replacing a broken display:

@Dave your experience is the expected result. If the new option worked with the old screen there would be no need to keep the old option around.

Thanks for that clarification.

Then I'll keep that non-working firmware on the phone and give it to Phone Service Berlin for a repair attempt. Will update this thread with the result, hopefully before next monday.

Now I flashed the Volla Phone 22 with new display (mimameid_h12) firmware version (I guess the one based on Halium-12) on my Volla22, before replacing the screen.

now that firmware does not appear to boot, or at least with the old screen it does not show anything (as far as I can tell on the cracked screen).

Everything is back to normal when flashing the Volla Phone 22 (mimameid) version.

Is this an expected outcome? I.e. does the "mimaid_h12" firmware not support the legacy Volla22 screen? I would really like to bring my Volla phone to a firmware version that is known to work on the new screens, so that the phone repair shop can verify whether the new screen does actually work.

@sven for me the latest ubports-installer_0.10.0_linux_amd64.deb when selecting "Select device manually" at startup, has an entry "Volla Phone 22 with new display" in the "Device" drop-down list.

@magnargj See also this topic that I just created:

https://forums.ubports.com/topic/10388/volla-phone-22-replacing-a-broken-display

I contacted Volla directly via their website's contact form and they offered to sell me a screen. Though I'm now waiting for roughly a week for them to reply to my last email, following up on my request to actually place the order.

Also I asked in one of the shops that are listed as Gigaset service partners here:

https://phone-service.de/gigaset/

and they appear to be able to repair the Volla 22 phone, as that is the same (?) hardware as the Gigaset GS5. Though there is still the question whether the latest ubports firmware is recent enough to support the newer screens which appear to require newer driver support compared to the stock screens (see the new thread that I linked above).

I managed to break the display on my Volla Phone 22. Now there are replacement screens, but the repair shop advised me that I need at least Android 12 for the new screen to be supported.

Here in the ubports forums, there was this related discussion, about new replacement screens requiring Halium 12:

https://forums.ubports.com/topic/9149/screen-replacement-on-volla-phone-22

At that time (July 2023) the latest ubports firmware was still based on Halium 11 so the replacement screens would not work.

Has this changed in the mean time? I.e. is the latest ubports firmware (20.04 OTA-4) already based on Halium 12?

thanks for any info,

cheers,

Dave

I just realized that a Volla phone used by family members is stuck on OTA-18 and does not upgrade at all. Always claims that there are no updates.

Though the channel selection drop-down is empty, indicating that something is off.

Running

sudo system-image-cli -v -p 0 --progress dots

shows SSL errors:

[..]
[systemimage] Oct 16 23:07:32 2023 (6497) Reactor error: https://system-image.ubports.com/channels.json:SSL ERROR
[systemimage] Oct 16 23:07:32 2023 (6497) uncaught exception in state machine
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/systemimage/state.py", line 133, in __next__
    step()

Manual download from an ssh session on that phone shows a certificate error:

$ wget -O- https://system-image.ubports.com/channels.json
--2023-10-16 23:08:00--  https://system-image.ubports.com/channels.json
Resolving system-image.ubports.com (system-image.ubports.com)... 172.67.150.210, 104.21.0.97, 2606:4700:3033::ac43:96d2, ...
Connecting to system-image.ubports.com (system-image.ubports.com)|172.67.150.210|:443... connected.
ERROR: cannot verify system-image.ubports.com's certificate, issued by ‘CN=E1,O=Let's Encrypt,C=US’:
  Issued certificate has expired.

I guess the quickest possible fix is to try to reinstall that phone using the ubports installer?

cheers,

Dave

Hi,

given the lack of VoLTE support on Volla phones, if I now buy a new phone for Ubuntu Touch, which one would have the highest chance to (eventually?) work with VoLTE?

Feels like it becomes increasingly more difficult to stay connected on a non-VoLTE phone nowadays.

Alternatively, has anybody tested how well Linphone works on Ubuntu Touch? Having a well-integrated SIP telephony solution may make the current situation more bearable: providers like sipgate.de even appear to allow one to receive calls for a mobile number just via their SIP network.

cheers,

Dave

@kugiigi no it's not urgent, but I would be glad if ubports did not lose support for japanese in the long run. I also know some people who will not be able to upgrade to focal, unless japanese input is restored, but they may not mind to wait a little longer.

Hi,

I just updated a Volla 22 phone from whatever firmware it shipped with to 20.04 via the ubports installer (and wiping it in the process).

I had set it to "japanese" before (with the original firmware provided by Volla), but now the new welcome screen does not list japanese any more.

It still does support configuring a japanese keyboard, however the japanese keyboard is also broken now. When selecting e.g. hiragana letter あ it used to pop up the 4 neighbouring hiragana い、う、え、お to the top/left/right/bottom sides of the pressed key. Now those are not displayed any more (but can still be pressed if you remember where they used to pop up).

This is quite bad for me, as I type japanese messages and internet search queries from time to time. What would be the right (gitlab?) project to report this bug to?

cheers,

Dave