This is a place to coordinate developers working on dekko2. (It is not the place to discuss individual bugs)

In the good old days we had dekko and it mostly worked ok. At some point a rewrite as dekko2 was deemed necessary. The rewrite was started but not completely finished. In addition the platform has moved on beneath dekko (xenial). Time has gone by and development rate of dekko has dropped.

As of today, there is no working dekko for xenial UT.

Over the last couple weeks I see here and there on various UT telegram channels messages pop up about various people trying to work on dekko. Some wrestling with the build system. Somewhere a test build showed up. Some critical bugs were mentioned (settings, system load). Workarounds and some fixes too. I think it's time to coordinate efforts. So we don't independently solve the same problems multiple times, but instead move forward faster.

So all you dekko2 hackers, speak up below with whatever you do / did on dekko2. What you need help with.

Let's make it happen!

PS: This is not an attempt to hijack the project from the current maintainer @DanChapman . Personally, I think the best future for email on UT would be a Dan maintained dekko2 with a small community of developers cooperating. Dan seems to be on a hiatus right now. Let's see what the future brings.

PPS: If you are not actively developing on dekko, then help us stay focussed by not going off topic here! Maybe you really want to encourage people to work on dekko. Or maybe you are very frustrated because you really need an email client. Well, yes, we know. We all are. Feel free to up (or down) vote posts. Or maybe you want to report an issue or suggest a feature. Then use the bug tracker. Or you just have a question. Then start a new thread or go here https://forums.ubports.com/topic/1750/dekko-0-1-6-beta2-released/1

It is our pleasure to announce the release of Dekko2 for Xenial

You find it in the open-store on your device and at https://open-store.io/dekko2.dekkan

Yes there are still bugs. We know, but it should definitely be good enough to allow you to read and write your emails from UT.

Try it out and feel free to praise or curse us below. Let us know what you think.

Bugtracker is over here: https://gitlab.com/dekkan/dekko/issues
Source code: https://gitlab.com/dekkan/dekko
Dev thread: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/1477/dekko2-developer-community-thread

PS: Yes, patches are welcome

Pick one (any) convergent user story and make it a perfect experience out of the box.

For example: I receive an email from a coworker asking me to work on some spreadsheet. Dock phone and work desktop style, listening to music on my headphones. Realise I miss some info. Text another person with a question. Receive a phone call interupting me. Take the phone out of the dock and talk while I walk to the coffee shop. End the call and finish the spreadsheet on the phone/tablet interface in the coffee shop. Email the file back.

All those features are kinda there, but there are a bunch of usability features that kill this (and similar) workflows. I would suggest you draft a story like this, then test it and prioritise any bugs you run into. Docking ain't reliable - fix this. Email app closes and interrupts my drafting when switching to browser /spreadsheet - fix that. Out of the box UI scaling for localc doesn't allow me to work efficiently on a tablet display - fix it.

No need to make everything perfect, but pick one story and maybe one device and make that one really shine. If it ain't the "mobile office work" above it could be the visual artist - now you need to make sure that krita works perfectly on the tablet - does taht require better touch input in xmir well then this is your top prio feature. Or maybe its wayland on mir. The user is not gonna care as long as the workflow is awesome.

Pick a story that is achievable, but sets ubports apart from ios/android. Getting krita to run is too hard - what about preparing, adjusting and giving a presentation from the phone including live pdf annotation xournal style.

Make sure to produce a release video that shows off! Focus on the added value for the user instead of the technical feature of how you adjusted the dpi for Xmir or whatever.

I'm trying to get Halium running on the Nexus 7 2013 gsm variant "deb".

I've made a few steps already. Most notably: Plasma Mobile starts!

I'm keeping (and updating while I progress) the summary below, so that:

• I don't forget what steps I took
• Others can help to improve this
• Others can use this as inspiration for their ports

Setup sources

• Follow the Porting Guide for halium-7.1 here https://docs.halium.org
• lineageos kernel sources: https://github.com/LineageOS/android_kernel_google_msm
• my local_manifest: https://gist.github.com/doniks/7ee302c7792450761332d8f8712f29f6
• binaries : https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/drivers MOB30X
• my repo with all kernel changes: https://github.com/doniks/android_kernel_google_msm

Kernel image

config

source build/envsetup.sh 
add_lunch_combo lineage_deb-userdebug
lunch lineage_deb-userdebug

• kernel config: kernel/google/msm/arch/arm/configs/lineageos_flo_defconfig
• Primary source to check for wrong configs: https://github.com/lbt/mer-kernel-check
• my kernel config: https://gist.github.com/doniks/7406a87e5f15e1eab5a64aa90ad8f633
• other config checkers for reference:
  • CONFIG=out/target/product/deb/obj/KERNEL_OBJ/.config lxc-checkconfig
  • https://github.com/janimo/phablet-porting-scripts/blob/master/kernel/check-config

patches

• https://gist.github.com/doniks/75d16dda43d241feb79b721bab6c4940

• https://gist.github.com/doniks/44faf86a23f7467b80744f033fb08100

• add cgroup_disable=memory to the HYBRIS_BOOTIMG_COMMANDLINE in halium/hybris-boot/Android.mk (this fixes some problem with systemd/cgroups, can't remember what exactly )

common porting errors

• Halium Porting Error Knowledge Base
  https://gist.github.com/doniks/2ac14a1bb6750165bf782f62139c8aab#file-gistfile1-txt-L61
• Reference of older kernel versions http://elixir.free-electrons.com/linux/v2.6.39.4/source
• [https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/r.0aae797a3bd13b4cd923b82fe29a2f47](Sailfish HADK FAQ)

test and debug

• Follow steps here http://docs.halium.org/en/latest/porting/debug-build/
• if you want to force init into telnet, add kernel parameter bootmode=debug:

fastboot -c "$(abootimg -i hybris-boot.img | sed -ne '/cmdline/s/. cmdline . //p' ) bootmode=debug" boot hybris-boot.img

Android image

cd halium
mka systemimage
ls -l out/target/product/deb/system.img

Rootfs

Halium rootfs

get it

• https://docs.halium.org/en/latest/porting/install-build/reference-rootfs.html

install it

• to install the rootfs you need working adb. I use this twrp recovery: https://eu.dl.twrp.me/deb/twrp-3.0.2-0-deb.img.html (had some problems with 3.1.1-0)
• boot into twrp recovery

git clone https://github.com/Halium/halium-scripts
./halium-scripts/halium-install halium-rootfs-20170630-151006.tar.gz halium/out/target/product/deb/system.img 

• The device should reboot and get to the point where it announces usb networking:

lsusb -vd 0fce: | grep -i serial
  iSerial                 3 GNU/Linux Device on usb0 10.15.19.82

• reboot into twrp recovery to set the root password

adb shell
cd /data
mkdir mnt
mount rootfs.img mnt/
chroot mnt /bin/bash 
export PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:$PATH
passwd

connect to it

• reboot the device and wait for usb networking to come up as above
• configure usb network on your desktop in a similar way as above for telnet, but now for ssh

sudo ip address add 10.15.19.1 dev enp0s20f0u7 
sudo ip route add 10.15.19.82 dev enp0s20f0u7

• login via ssh

ssh root@10.15.19.82 

• fix path variable

echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin
export PATH=/usr/sbin:/sbin:$PATH
echo 'export PATH=/usr/sbin:/sbin:$PATH' >> /root/.bashrc

what works

• test_lights makes the led breathe
• EGL_PLATFORM=hwcomposer test_hwcomposer shows rotating spiral! I need echo 200 > /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness to turn up the display brightness, so I can actually see the spiral
• wifi: http://docs.halium.org/en/latest/porting/debug-build/wifi.html

nmcli d # no wlan0
echo 1 > /dev/wcnss_wlan 
echo sta > /sys/module/wlan/parameters/fwpath 
nmcli d # shows wlan0
nmcli dev wifi # list wifis 
nmcli dev wifi connect <SOMEOPENWIFI>
# or
# sudo nmcli device wifi connect <SOMEENCRYPTEDWIFI> password <PASSWORD>
ping -c 2 8.8.8.8
ping -c 2 debian.org
# install some missing packages
apt update
apt install openssh-client bash-completion command-not-found binutils nano

• buttons: evtest /dev/input/event5
• touchscreen: evtest /dev/input/event0
• adb:
  • TWRP
  • chroot into rootfs
  • systemctl enable adb
• test_egl_config : https://gist.github.com/doniks/4e9ea8a8f5aaf1968c2e42846b5a9158

what doesn't work

• test_audio nothing to hear

ACDB init open file failed
[ACDB Init]->File is not found on the system
[ACDB Init]->ACDB init success!

• test_camera

library "libcamera_compat_layer.so" not found
Segmentation fault

• test_egl segfaults
• test_glesv2 segfault
• test_gps, honestly I don't know whether that output below constitutes success of failure ... since I can't recognise any coordinates, I think it failed. I've waited 5 minutes or so. There are more *** tracking lines but no coordinates

*** setup signal handler
*** get gps interface
*** device info
 id = gps
 name = loc_api GPS Module
 author = Qualcomm USA, Inc.
*** init gps interface
*** set capabilities
capability is 00000007
 ** Creating thread: 'Loc_hal_worker' (start=0xb69f23b5, arg=0x1d02080)
 ** After thread_create: 'Loc_hal_worker', error=0 (start=0xb69f23b5, arg=0x1d02080)
 **** Thread wrapper start (start=0xb69f23b5, arg=0x1d02080) ****
*** setting positioning mode
*** start gps track
*** gps tracking started
*** tracking.... 

• test_input

library "libis_compat_layer.so" not found
Segmentation fault

• test_media, get a video from http://bbb3d.renderfarming.net/download.html

wget http://download.blender.org/peach/bigbuckbunny_movies/big_buck_bunny_480p_surround-fix.avi
wget http://distribution.bbb3d.renderfarming.net/video/mp4/bbb_sunflower_1080p_60fps_normal.mp4
scp bbb_sunflower_1080p_60fps_normal.mp4 root@10.15.19.82:
ssh root@10.15.19.82
test_media bbb_sunflower_1080p_60fps_normal.mp4
library "libmedia_compat_layer.so" not found
Segmentation fault

• test_nfc

Starting test_nfc.
Finding NFC hardware module.
test_nfc: test_nfc.c:156: testNfc: Assertion `hwModule != NULL' failed.
Aborted

• test_recorder

Test application for video recording using the camera
Recording start with volume up button. And stops with volume down.
The result is stored to /root/test_video.avi

library "libcamera_compat_layer.so" not found
Segmentation fault

• test_sensors

library "/system/lib/hw/sensors.oem.so" not found
libsensor_add_waiting_client adding cb 0
Hardware module ID: sensors
Hardware module Name: Qualcomm Sensors Module
Hardware module Author: Qualcomm Inc.
Hardware module API version: 0x1
Hardware HAL API version: 0x100
Poll device version: 0x1000001
API VERSION 0.1 (legacy): 0x1
API VERSION 0.1: 0x65537
API VERSION 1.0: 0x16777217
API VERSION 1.1: 0x16842753
API VERSION 1.2: 0x16908289
API VERSION 1.3: 0x16973825
API VERSION 1.4: 0x17039361
libsensor_add_waiting_client adding cb 1
Got 0 sensors

• test_wifi 1 says :

Cannot load driver (err -1)

not supported

• test_vibrator , segfaults, but anyway the N7 doesn't have a haptic motor to vibrate

Segmentation fault

UBports rootfs

Tried the rootfs from here: http://cdimage.ubports.com/rootfs/ but it doesn't do too much for me:

• screen stays on the Google logo
• no usb iSerial messages
• no usb network interface seems to come up
• last_kmsg shows that systemd does take over http://paste.ubuntu.com/25419054/ however,
• it complains that "systemd[1]: Failed to start LXC Android Config and Container Initialization."
• no adb interface comes up, even though in TWRP/chroot I see that android-tools-adbd.service is enabled

Plasma mobile rootfs

git clone https://github.com/bhush9/rootfs-builder bhush9-rootfs-builder
cd bhush9-rootfs-builder
# follow the instructions in README to patch lb_chroot_live-packages
sudo ./build.sh
# waaaaait
# install it

The reboot takes about a minute. Then you'll hear an audible greeting and afterwards you are greeted by the plasma mobile login screen. You can login and play around a bit. Not much to do though. No network connection and it's not possible to ssh in.

Reboot back into TWRP and chroot.

1. To be able to use the ssh server, you need to generate ssh server keys: dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server
2. Preferably enable password less login :

adb shell mkdir /home/phablet/.ssh
adb push ~/.ssh/id.pub /home/phablet/.ssh/authorized_keys
// todo : some chmod/chown needed?

1. reboot, setup usbnet and then reboot and login as ssh phablet@10.15.19.82
2. Alternatively, you can set the passwords, but I don't do this because it seems to actually break the graphical login:

passwd 
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
passwd: password unchanged
# fix passwd
apt remove libnss-extrausers
pam-auth-update 
# select everything but extrausers
passwd # set root password 
passwd phablet # set user password

Debian

Haven't tried yet.
https://archive.org/download/halium-debian-rootfs/
https://github.com/JBBgameich/rootfs-builder/tree/debian

Arch

https://github.com/Halium/rootfs-builder/tree/archlinux
https://github.com/mickybart/rootfs-builder/tree/archlinux
Haven't tried yet. I'm not very familiar with arch.

What's next?

• Get ubports to run
• Get PM to run on halium-boot
• Check out LuneOS
• Check out SailfishOS
• Build a .zip file, only makes sense if some OS is remotely usable, PM is close but still not there
• get lxc-attach to work
• patch out the noise dmesg logging of the battery

Any tips or feedback appreciated!

Oh and of course, the elephant in the room: How's 16.04 coming along?

@3arn0wl said in PinePhone:

is it right to assume that the PinePhone, being a Linux phone, won't need Libertine to run Xorg apps?

No. It is "more" of a Linux phone than others that run some (old, forked) version of the Linux kernel in the sense that it runs a recent upstream version of the Linux kernel.

Everything that happens on top of the kernel is up to the distro you run. In the case of Ubuntu Touch, it will be Mir and Libertine. If you run Plasma, Lune, Postmarket, something else it will be whatever that distro provides

How big is your head- and heartache after seeing the responses to your thread: Want To Develop UT And Need A Device?

Any news on UT/Unity8 on x86 laptops?

Enjoy your real lives guys. Well deserved. And thanks for the continuous updates!

maybe upstart would be better than cron. at least it doesn't require rw partition. this https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Baustelle/Ubuntu_Touch/Snippets/#Skalierung-der-Anzeige uses an upstart job to change the scaling. in a similar way, I'm sure you can write any other job

@mawil1013
Jup. adb or ssh : http://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/advanceduse/index.html

@Giiba said in App blocker:

There are a number of us parents that would like to see the same thing. There is a sort of way to do this, but not really supported; ask on the ubports parents matrix group.

However with changes incoming in the next OTA will break that. However however, the new Unity might provide a stable platform to implement this sort of feature.

Do you mind sharing a brief summary here for the benefit of those without matrix?

@UniSuperBox said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 69 This Saturday 8th Of February At 19:00 UTC:

We will additionally have some people from KDE available for chatting, if anyone has questions about the sprint, Plasma Mobile, or our combined efforts!

Nice! Looking forward to hearing from the sprint! How awesome did you guys make everything already?

UT Q&A for Nerds?

I have the feeling that often in the Q&A you guys find yourself between the two chairs of

• making a "user" ready statement, e.g., how is the next ota going to have a more responsive ui for use case x, y and z, but caveat somethingoranother and also people need to contain their expectations because corner case thisorthat and then hold a phone into the camera and swipe around with your finger, and
• make a "developer" ready statement, e.g., how it would be really helpful if pinephone testers could create opengl api traces for mesa bugs because that could make lima developers much more efficient when working on mali driver improvements, and then screen share a terminal window, typing away awkward commands and giving a 1 minute crash course for developers

Both kinds of statements are really valuable, but they don't mesh well. You are doing a good job surfing between them, but maybe some tweak to the format could help.

For example, every other Q&A is more nerd heavy, while the other is strictly user oriented. I think a clearer split could allow more focus for both kinds of messages and thus be clearer and more enjoyable for non-developers and deeper into the weeds and more enabling for developers.

Or maybe, every other Q&A has a nerdy second half.

Food for thought.

@dannyzadok said in Pinephone tutorial:

@UniSuperBox
Hello. Thanks for the instructions.
I did as said. The phone comes up, and the screen is not responding at all.
What am I doing wrong?
Danny

maybe just a bad build. I tried with the last successful build as of yesterday and it did boot

I'm listening to the recording just now. Approx 30 min into it @UniSuperBox says there is a waylandify project to track Wayland bugs .... I can't find it though. Can someone point me to it?

@rocket2nfinity I can't think of anything that is wrong wrt drivers.

Wrt software, the touch support of gnome shell and firefox and other pieces of software isn't awesome in ubuntu 19.04 (the latest I tried). It's workable but not perfect. For actual tablet use it's plainly not good enough, I never use it that way. I do use the touch screen as an input device for tapping/scrolling/selecting.

Wrt hardware - the keyboard flexes a bit. The rubber feet at the bottom and those to protect the screen against the keyboard all came off long ago. But still no dammage to the screen. The hinge for the screen has a wiggle of a few degrees, but the magnetic attachment is flawless. Very rarely (weeks) touchpad or keyboard input fail, then I pull the screen off of the keyboard, just enough to disconnect and reconnect, then it works again. The speakers aren't great. They are too silent, so I push the max volume override very far up, which can result in crackling sound, I probably go louder than the speakers like, but so far (years) they survive. I would like to be able to reduce screen brightness down to completely off, but that's not possible, just very dim. The power connector has quite a bit of wiggle by now from mechanical wear. I fear this will be the piece that will ultimately lead to the demise of this otherwise nice little laptop. But so far charging works exactly as it should. Battery life isn't too impressive, but I don't use it a lot on the road so I don't care too much nor can I quantify it very precisely.

I think that's about it. I'm happy I bought it

@ComLarsic said in Install click pakage on amd64 without terminal app?:

i installed the amd64 rootfs

how?

@doniks said in Suggestions/recommendations for Touchscreen laptop/2-in-1/tablet?:

@rocket2nfinity said in Suggestions/recommendations for Touchscreen laptop/2-in-1/tablet?:

@doniks Would you mind checking -cameras, speaker, microphone , touchscreen, bluetooth, and trackpad? Maybe there's been a recent fix I'm not aware of.

I was interested in the Pavilion, and especially the Envy x2 since it has LTE, but they both have the same issues.

Certainly! Speaker, touchscreen, bluetooth and trackpad are definitely ok. Mic and camera I can test in a couple of days. Ping me if I forget!

jup. mic and camera work

@rocket2nfinity said in Suggestions/recommendations for Touchscreen laptop/2-in-1/tablet?:

@doniks Would you mind checking -cameras, speaker, microphone , touchscreen, bluetooth, and trackpad? Maybe there's been a recent fix I'm not aware of.

I was interested in the Pavilion, and especially the Envy x2 since it has LTE, but they both have the same issues.

Certainly! Speaker, touchscreen, bluetooth and trackpad are definitely ok. Mic and camera I can test in a couple of days. Ping me if I forget!