@wally Yes, I was adjusting the edges in UI tweaks. However as I stated in other thread I never liked swype OS navigation.

Expanding the subject, I also don't like touch OS navigation. Touch screens register the touch "without my consent", i.e. when I just grab the phone. That's wrong, but it's been like that since the beginning of all mobile OSes. I'd love to see an option to enable touch-and-confirm input where you touch and have to swype a bit immediately to make the original touch point registered as touch, otherwise it's meaningless

@kugiigi said in Things which made me postpone buying another phone to try linux:

About the keyboard, not sure why your experience is like that. Lomiri, the system UI, supports keyboard navigation. It literally exists on desktop distros now and quite usable. Bluetooth can be wonky though so it's probably that.

That's interesting, how do you switch apps with keyboard for example? I've tried Alt+Tab, Super+Tab, Ctrl+Tab, with keyboard in Win/Mac/Android mode. Navigation was only possible with mouse, steering to the right edge of the screen the touch task switcher was triggered.

PS. I remember your reply about the experimental gestures from my earlier thread. In the end I didn't test it. Actually this remands me of a "gesture app" from a custom Android rom (perhaps it was in last Cyanogenmod) where it was possible to define your own gestures, for example swyping a Z, S, L, / , , O, 8 shape and attach it to an action or an app shortcut. IIRC it had to be one stroke shape, which was smoothed out to something simpler so you didn't have to swype it perfectly each time. That one was really handy.

===
PS2 to other replies

This feedback was about things rarely or never brought up. Usually people ask around for banking app support or app availability in general, OS stability, battery life. Things like these are either assumed as given and then comes disappointment, or it falls into 'not my use case' category.

I hope I helped people for whom it matters with OS choice decision, likewise gave an opportunity to consider improvements in these areas. As a software developer and Linux user I planned to address those things in some spare time. At this moment, no more having the phone, I'm not sure. I'll probably buy another FP if, and only if, I'll have the spare time ahead I'd want to spend on tinkering with the code.

I've seen the other thread 'Edge Cases'. That's a great initiative. IMO there are only 2 two things which make people move back to Android:

1. Bugs, i.e. OS stability
2. Limitations
   a - daily app availability (most likely more than half of the users would have to carry around a second Android/IOS phone)
   b - OS functionality limitations, like the things I listed in my first post
   c - hardware limitation, For me FP 5 hardware is more than I need, not lacking anything except the camera, where it lacks terribly. The Android OS camera app post process the pictures heavily so it gets them a bit better, but overall it's all very basic/mediocre to the point that I'd love to shed another $200 for a good class camera replacement, but Fairphone doesn't offer anything.

Hi there, please note this post is very subjective and it's not meant to criticize all the work around UBports.

It all started with the desire to have a pocket device for everything - a true meaning of a smartphone. The hardware in an average phone nowadays fits the purpose perfectly, but not the OS, so a few months ago I've bought Fairphone 4 just to unlock it and flash some Linux, but eventually I upgraded to Fairphone 5 only to use it for a short time before I lost it.

so things which I was really missing every day:

1. Convenient UI navigation

The swype gesture navigation is really bad. I bet that someone who designed it never actually used it (kind of reminds me Windows 8 start menu design flop). It's just impossible to do swypes from left and right of the screen holding the phone with one hand - and that's a mobile phone UI!

I have no idea why this hasn't been fixed so far, but all in all I'd be happy with using some accessibility "magic ball" to configure whatever tap-shortcut actions I need instead of any swype guestures. That's my idea to work on

2. External keyboard

I though that USB keyboards are not supported so I even bought a BT keyboard, only to discover that the UI doesn't support them, only the apps. It's impossible to navigate the system with external keyboard, triggering the start menu, switching between apps, etc, etc. It's only possible to input text into apps, for example notepad or terminal

3. External display

It's not possible to select only external display, the phone screen will always be active as a virtual touch pad.

It' snot possible to select DPI for external display. Every time the UI Tweak app restarts Lomiri, it comes back with default scaling.

Likewise it's not possible to select resolution for external display. Fairphone 4 detected 4k screen but served only half-width desktop image (I guess the chip can't really drive full 4k resolution) so everything was horribly stretched on the screen.

4. No desktop, or advanced user install mode

So the OS is very limited in terms of apps, but on the same time is very restricted. The only way to use desktop apps is via Libertine (containers). I would very much prefer to have a normal desktop Linux experience when connected to external monitor, keyboard and mouse. Mobile UI and app restriction is only fine for "mobile mode"

===
bottom line, these are a deal-breakers for me, therefore I'm not rushing to buy a new phone, but I'll keep watching Linux phone space, and maybe even find some time to contribute to have thing I want

@fredldotme Nice, though I just logged in to say that I can't test it anytime around. I've lost the phone. It's been a few days so I have no hope getting it back by a chance.

I've been thinking in the meantime and decided I'll rather not buy another one anytime soon. I'm still interested in using Ubuntu touch but there are points to address before I'd be happy with it, so I might try to help solving them in VM (or just wait if eventually these got solved...). For now I've set price alerts in my favorite shops, hoping to catch next nice discount

@gpatel-fr I meant Android 15 image in Waydroid

@kugiigi Fairphone 5, waydroid 15 (android 15)

I've tried a native radio app from open store, it doesn't have the issue, but I guess it's a web based app as you've said.

I'm trying to use GPS tracking app in waydroid, but the recording is very coarse, like half of the resolution when the app is run on a native Android. Eventually I noticed that the recording is good if I keep the HUD (the app) always on.

I suspected that it's something with throttling waydroid when the screen is off. I found a perfect way to prove that, by playing internet radio in waydroid. When I turn off the screen, the music keeps playing fine for a short while, then start chopping a little bit, then starts much longer pauses, like 1-2 seconds long.

I can see that the battery is drained fast when using the app in waydroind with screen on, but if I'm ok with the battery drain, are there some advanced settings to stop the throttling when the screen is off?

There is an app "waydroid freezer", but it let me do only the opposite

but sharing about overall experience, I'm really happy with FP5. It works flawlessly with my 4k monitor and docking station. I can just plug it and use from mouse/keyboard/monitor. That's just awesome. FP4 was probably working similarly with FHD but I don't have any low resolution screen anymore, so I never tested it (I just can confirm that it couldn't drive 4k resolution).

I just hope FP7 will have fully fictional USB-C again (as FP6 allows only charging, no docking capabilities!!!)

I've been playing with Ubuntu on the new FP5, guess what, It's better in any corner. Surprisingly now I don't have so much negative feeling about the gestures, it just works. Of course there's still the same dubious question what to do to reach the other hand of the screen with one hand... but if you're using it right-handed and already have all the apps running it's sufficient as it let you switch between them. On FP4 the gesture was somewhat hyper sensitive, was just misbehaving, for example whenever I took out the phone with one hand, then wanted to scroll through the content the task switcher was taking over instead of moving the content up or down, and that was even when I set gesture margin to absolute minimum. On FP5 I don't experience this issue, but my first feeling was "there screen is recessed in the body of the phone", there's an edge layer higher than the screen in FP5, FP4 body was perfectly aligned with the glass surface.

PS. the monitor confirms 4k 60Hz, even in YT 4k video there's no dropped fame (in stats for nerds popup)

FP5 arrived. I didn't flash Ubuntu on it yet, but just first touch of the hardware somewhat confirms the above statement about gestures. In android it's kind of gesture-unresponsive when woken up, for some time, then it seems to kick in full power and becomes blazing fast. Weird, but it really seems like some kind of power management

Awesome, I'll try the Ambot, these new gestures might make it usable with one hand, fingers crossed.

I'll most likely try to implement the floating ball anyway. It's much quicker and safer to use than swipe gestures, especially on the go with one hand. Which actions will be available to hook to the ball that's another matter. However it won't happen anytime soon, but long winter evenings are coming

Hello, I've been searching for without success for existing threads or work in this area, nor I feel like I want to start any development before I make sure this is an accepted effort.

I would really like to have a portable computer which acts as a phone and a computer when docked. I expect that in this path I'll have to port most of the utilities I'd like to have on my daily digital life. The Fairphone 4 seems like a good choice, I waited quite a long time to get all the basic features working, including 5G, but once it all got solved with ubuntu 24.x I'm at the first steps of adoption having issues with usability.

The touch gestures are very hard to use with one hand. Maybe there's something wrong with FP4 responsiveness, but anyway I can't use the phone with one hand like any other smart phone. Here comes the turning point, I'm also not content with iPhone without it's floating accessibility ball. The same (similar) ball I'm also using on Onyx boox devices. I'd like to see the navigation overhaul on ubuntu touch to provide normal one handed operation, but at a minimum I'd like to have the accessibility floating ball to assign to it any action or gesture I need to do by a simple tap.

1. I'd like to see a choice of 3/4 buttons navigation vs gestures navigation, also speaking about the gestures ubuntu lacks "back" guesture

2. I'd like to have the floating ball, where I could assign to it whatever functions I need: expand app menu drawer, minimize all, back button, show keyboard, task switch, favorite app 1,2,3... I guess some of these might not event be available in the UI mechanics, we will see, but in general it should support adding a simple tap action to whatever can be done in the UI by gesture or otherwise

I don't commit to any immediate development effort nor timelines, just seeking feedback if there's any prior work in progress and if any such effort makes sense to start spending time on

PS. I've even just bought FP5 for better external monitor resolution support, hopefully it'll also work better with the gestures (I have the feeling it's something wrong with the IPS screen responsiveness).

Nice, I wasn't sure if this thread is even watched. The lack of 5G data on FP 4 really makes it unusable for me. I'm a developer though each project takes a lot of time to get familiar with so I didn't even bother. Though if you kindgly can point me to the relevant github PR which fixed that for FP5 to port into FP4 Halium tree I could try to look at it

Yeah, hotspot doesn't work, but for me the most important thing is to have 5G data finally working, without it I can't make it my daily phone

Fairphone 4

Update went smooth, following the instructions.

Under Cellular settings 5G is still missing. Nonetheless, it seems there's no internet data at all despite status showing good signal. The browser keeps saying no internet connection. I've tested LTE coverage with other phone, just to exclude the possibility that my operator turned off LTE completely.

I've created WiFi Hotspot but connection to it fails from any device I've tried.

Thanks a ton for both tips!

I'm just curious, how did you disable OSK? Maybe mine doesn't give me the option because it doesn't detect the external keyboard

Thanks, I dug out a usb-c to display port cable from my stash. This connection makes it choose 2560x1440x60Hz, not bad.

Somewhat I expected the update to Noble in June, either it got delayed or I misinterpreted something.

For me the desktop works good enough so far. Indeed some native UT apps don't accept mouse scroll, but it's ok to just click and drag the scrollbar.

I haven't experienced any launcher issues. When disconnecting the monitor it takes about 1-2 min to make the phone react. Sometimes it asks if I'd prefer to reconnect or potentially loose unsaved data from apps listed on the popup. The only launcher issue I have is with waydroid apps showing up in the drawer. I would prefer this to show only one icon to start android, the android apps should be managed only by android launcher.

So overall it looks very promising. If only I could find a dock which would let me connect everything via one cable.

I've been trying to use FP4 in both phone and "desktop" mode, but I see weird issues to start with. I have a DELL 4k monitor with usb-c connector which normally provides to the connected device: display, charging, and mouse/keyboard hooked via the integrated usb hub. Unfortunately this phone connects only as display out. I have to use Bluetooth mouse/keyboard. Further, it chooses a weird resolution 1920x2160x60Hz. I can't find if it's software issue or hardware limitation. Maybe it cannot drive 4k. I would prefer it to choose Full-HD resolution so the monitor would use the whole screen estate (now I have wide black bars on both sides) but I don't even know where to start looking to configure that. I've redirected dmesg logging into a file, but I don't see any logs related to display connection, nor resolution negotiation.

On the other hand, be it, I can just buy a native Full-HD display. Preferably with a keyboard. Can anyone recommend one of these displays (laptop-like docking stations) for Samsung DeX which works well with FP4? Ideally everything should work with just one cable connection, without additional pairing via BT.

Also, a minor thing, It would be nice to be able to turn off the internal display completely as it makes the device quite hot for no reason. Alternatively dimming it to the minimum brightness also works.

Final thought, if this is the usb port limitation, does FP5 have better one? I know that FP6 has only basic port for charging so it's definitely ruled out.

@kugiigi said in I hate swipes, buttons plesase:

If you know QML

thanks for the pointer

@Moem I always wanted Linux OS on the phone. Fairphone 4 satisfied all my wishes in terms of hardware features and quality, so I'm really happy being able to put a Linux on it.

I can't find other Linux firmware with complete support for FP4, so I guess UTouch is my starting point. I'm not sure what I will achieve, hopefully it's not that hard to switch the UI layer(?). However, honestly, just the two swype actions are used in this OS, so running them via simple bottom buttons would be a minimal but suitable change.

Maybe the left swipe and right swipe could be mapped to volume up and down physical buttons?