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    Recent Best Controversial
    • RE: We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely

      @grenudi said in We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely:

      500+ device ports versus Ubuntu Touch's approximately 50

      uh? I am currently evaluating my options on getting a so called 'smart' phone again without Google and of course Apple, and from what I see PostmarketOS has ONE (1) device that can (more or less) qualify as 'daily driver': the Pinephone. Not sure if it's even compatible with the carriers in MY country.
      My understanding is that UT has about 10.
      From this point of view, UT has more coverage but if you have lot of credible stories of people using Volla or Google or Fairphone or Samsung devices under PostmarketOS as their daily drivers, I am all ears.
      By the way your expletives about the forum are making you seem like a troll. Sorry but that's very much what it looks. This forum is working really well and I'm favourably impressed by NodeBB.

      posted in OS
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Why is Wayland compositor and Lomiri so far in terms of functionality compared to Compiz and Unity7 released some 20 years ago?

      @shano said in Why is Wayland compositor and Lomiri so far in terms of functionality compared to Compiz and Unity7 released some 20 years ago?:

      Compiz was released in 2006 and is still maintained. Unity7 was released in 2010 and is still maintained. My question is why Wayland and Lomiri are so far away in terms of functionality, plugins etc. compared to tech made 20 years ago.

      Are we building on top or reinventing the wheel?

      From what I see, Lomiri is not reinventing Unity 8, it is Unity 8.
      I downloaded the Lomiri source code and counted roughly 18000 commits between 2013 and 2017 (end of Ubuntu involvement) and 1400 commits between 2018 and 2025. The main reason is probably that Unity was a business project with serious resources behind it, while Lomiri (the new name for Unity 8 since 2020) is an open source project with a few part time volunteers. Also, it may be that there was so much work in Unity that there is not a lot of new development necessary, the bulk of new work being in other parts of the full (and huge) smart phone stack. I did not count but I think that a large part of these 1400 commits are just translations.

      I don't know Compiz but I tracked the project in its last hideout on Gitlab and counted about 30 commits in last 5 years, 20 of them in 2020. It's maintained in the most limited sense, there is almost no development.

      posted in Lomiri (was Unity8)
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: GPS don't seem to work on FP5 UT 24.04 stable

      Duh ! I will close this stoopid post, I had not used seriously a smartphone since several years and did not realize anymore how sensitive to location Gps services are. I tried only in 2 places in my home and both where unsuitable. When I got out in the air, Gps started to work. So it is working, really. I did a stroll this morning and it updated its position. I have still to get my hands to another brand of smartphone on Android to compare with the Fairphone 5 under UT to see how well it is working.

      posted in Fairphone 5
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • [TIP] MMS behind Wifi

      Hello

      this is a little hack I have done to be able to send/receive MMS on my FP5 running 24.04.1.1 stable. Skills needed: some terminal experience, use of editor, sudo, basic networking knowledge, be able to read the system journal. If you are a total newbie in Linux, it may be better to abstain to attempt the following.

      Note that if your phone supports 2 cellular links, mine does not and so I have no idea if it will work in your case.

      Preliminary: find if your system behaves like mine by running the (very slow) command:

      journalctl | grep lomiri-download-manager | grep TimeoutError
      

      if you find lines looking like this:

      janv. 05 18:49:27 ubuntu-phablet lomiri-download-manager[21916]: E20260105 18:49:27.165113 21916 file_download.cpp:527]  Download ID{ 03d5e06553d8471085141080bcff97a1 }  http://213.228.3.45/mms.php?uZmaWepeEfC3hAAmufq69A ERROR::Network error TimeoutError: the connection to the remote server timed out
      

      then the problem is that the provider is blocking access to its network (here 213.228.3.0/24) when not accessing it from the cellular link (their own network). In this case, the following hack could apply to you.

      First step: add to the system the capability to change the network manager configuration.

      cat /etc/systemd/system/etc-NetworkManager-dispatcher.d.mount 
      [Unit]
      Description=Mount unit for etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d
      DefaultDependencies=no
      Requires=system.slice dev-sda17.device -.mount
      Conflicts=umount.target
      Before=umount.target local-fs.target
      Before=network-pre.service
      Wants=network-pre.service
      
      [Mount]
      Where=/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d
      What=/userdata/system-data/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d
      Options=rw,relatime,upperdir=/userdata/system-data/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d,lowerdir=/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d,workdir=/userdata/system-data/tmp
      Type=overlay
      
      [Install]
      WantedBy=network.target
      

      create this file with sudo.

      then:

      sudo mkdir -P /userdata/system-data/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d
      sudo mkdir /userdata/system-data/tmp
      

      then add in our dispatcher.d directory the file that will call our script:

      cat /userdata/system-data/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/99routechange 
      #!/bin/sh -e
      
      interface=$1
      status=$2
      
      #logger "99routechange: ($interface): $status"
      
      /usr/bin/python3 /home/phablet/bat/networkchange.py $interface $status
      
      

      (you will have to create the preceding file using sudo of course)

      create our work directory

      mkdir ~/bat
      

      create the script that will ask to the system the network configuration when a change is detected and run the commands adding the necessary routes to the provider:

      cat ~/bat/networkchange.py 
      
      import os
      import subprocess
      import sys
      
      DEFAULT_ROUTE = 'default via'
      
      if __name__ == '__main__':
          interface = sys.argv[1]
          status = sys.argv[2]
          with open('/home/phablet/bat/status_network.txt', 'w') as f:
              f.write(f'network {interface} : {status}')
          with subprocess.Popen(['ip', 'route'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE,  universal_newlines=True) as ipr:
              lines = ipr.communicate()[0].splitlines()
              lig1 = lines[0]
              lig2 = lines[1]
              lig3 = lines[2]
              if lig1.startswith(DEFAULT_ROUTE) and lig2.startswith(DEFAULT_ROUTE) and not lig3.startswith(DEFAULT_ROUTE):
                  if lig1.find('wlan') != -1:
                      idx = lig2.find(' dev ') + 5
                      cellular_interface = lig2[idx:][0:lig2[idx+1:].find(' ')+1]
                      with open('/home/phablet/bat/cmd_to_run', 'r') as f:
                          lines = f.readlines()
                          with open('/home/phablet/bat/status_network.txt', 'w+') as flog:
                              for l in lines:
                                  new_line = l.replace('{cellular_interface}', cellular_interface)
                                  flog.write(new_line)
                                  os.system(new_line)
      
      

      then add the specific to your configuration route commands, example for my case follows:

       cat /home/phablet/bat/cmd_to_run 
      # cellular_interface is replaced by the caller
      ip route add 213.228.2.0/24 dev {cellular_interface} proto static metric 100
      ip route add 213.228.3.0/24 dev {cellular_interface} proto static metric 100
      # this is the address for mms.free.fr
      ip route add 212.27.40.0/24 dev {cellular_interface} proto static metric 100
      

      Please note that these IP addresses will not be correct unless you happen to use Freemobile (my provider). Otherwise, you will have to replace the IP addresses in the first lines by the specific addresses for your provider that you will find by using

      journalctl | grep lomiri-download-manager | grep TimeoutError
      
      

      Note that you may have to add more lines if your provider has many networks used.
      Also, do NOT add addresses server by server, use network ranges (here /24 means 256 consecutive IP addresses) else you will spend your life trying to cover all the servers used by your provider. In the case of Freemobile, at the moment Free seems to use 2 /24 ranges. Maybe there are some that have escaped me.

      and for mms sending, for my provider the dns name for the server is found in the cellular config, you will find the IP address by using dig:

      dig mms.free.fr
      

      (replace 'mms.free.fr' by the name of your provider mms server)

      It's possible that the configuration may be different for your provider.

      Note: you MUST use IP addresses, the symbolic names will NOT work; for my use here I replace mms.free.fr by 212.27.40.0/24.
      It's quite possible that your provider uses also symbolic names (not raw IP addresses like Freemobie) for downloading MMS, in this case you should also find an appropriate IP range using dig like I did for uploading.

      Finally, enable the whole systemd configuration.

      sudo systemctl daemon-reload
      sudo systemctl enable etc-NetworkManager-dispatcher.d.mount 
      sudo systemctl start etc-NetworkManager-dispatcher.d.mount 
      

      and you should be able to send/receive mms when wifi is activated.

      I hope I did not forget anything.

      Note that testing has been minimal 🙂 but the main risk is that it will not work.

      The configuration resists reboots.

      When this merge-request will land and be added to the stable release you use, then you will be able to disable this hack, that you will do by running

      sudo systemctl stop etc-NetworkManager-dispatcher.d.mount 
      sudo systemctl disable etc-NetworkManager-dispatcher.d.mount 
      sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/etc-NetworkManager-dispatcher.d.mount
      sudo systemctl daemon-reload
      

      Until then, happy MMS with wifi enabled !

      posted in Off topic
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: GPS don't seem to work on FP5 UT 24.04 stable

      @GooglyBear said in GPS don't seem to work on FP5 UT 24.04 stable:

      a GitLab issue to follow progress for Fairphone 5

      AGPS is not really linked to a specific port (even if it can work on some devices it seems, but it's mostly unintended). It's tracked here

      posted in Fairphone 5
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Status of the Location Service (GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo) ?

      @Moem said in Status of the Location Service (GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo) ?:

      I don't know what any of that means

      it's a service provided by Qualcomm

      https://calyxos.org/docs/guide/security/network-activity/

      http://izatcloud.net/

      See an analysis here:

      https://ti.qianxin.com/blog/articles/Analysis-of-the-Hidden-Backdoor-Event-in-Qualcomm-GPS-Service-EN/

      TLDR: backdoor is too strong a word, but there are privacies issues. If the software is rewritten as open source, this could be less problematic.

      posted in Fairphone 4
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Enabling MAC randomization

      @uxes said in Enabling MAC randomization:

      shipped on our system by default

      I am not sure that any phone is doing that by default.
      It has also a downside for anyone using this phone with ssh, that is, the IP address affected by the Dhcp server (the wifi access point) will change often.
      It's not a big deal but it can be annoying.

      posted in Support
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: New ConverseJS (XMPP) app with broken source links?

      @poVoq

      hello, not the dev here - but the links are not broken for me. The app is supposed to be based on

      https://github.com/luigi311/ConverseJS-ubports

      the links are a bit strange though (why not a software forge ? if the author don't like Github, there are other such as codeberg...). It's not stated in the original repo that the author has given up. Personally I'd not use this software without more information.

      posted in App Development
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Backup and restore (TWRP-style)

      @Charly

      I have seen one post seeming to say that it was restored in the most bleeding edge version, I can't vouch for it as I use stable, however if you install crackle you can use nix immediately and you can get the nix version of rsync (more up-to-date than the Ubuntu 24.04 version).

      https://gitlab.com/tuxecure/crackle-apt/crackle
      https://gitlab.com/EricHeintzmann/ubuntu-touch/xiaomi-surya/-/wikis/Install-with-crackle

      Once you have crackle running, run 'crackle install rsync' and you are there 🙂

      posted in Support
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad

      @kristatos said in Smooth Edges (name pending) - Let's Fix the Bugs That Drive You Mad:

      if the input is to slow?

      FIY I have noticed that disabling haptic feedback was leading to me typing faster. I don't know if it's psychological or if the buzz is really slowing the keyboard. Give it a test if you don't have disabled it yet.

      posted in OS
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Bluetooth file transfer with terminal

      @ftmazzone said in Bluetooth file transfer with terminal:

      I've tried with ObexFTP but it seems that it is not installed per default.

      Hello

      sorry but what you say is not entirely clear... If the problem is that it's not installed, how did you manage to try it ?
      If the problem IS that you could not install it, try to setup crackle, a tool that will allow you to use the nix library from which your tool is available:

      phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ crackle install obexftp
      Installing obexftp... done!
      Activating... done!
      phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ obexftp
      Nothing to do. Use --help for help.
      

      As the bluez daemon seems to be installed already, maybe it will work for you. I don't think I have the necessary hardware (another bluetooth device capable of storage) to test it myself.
      If yes, don't forget to report back !

      posted in Volla Tablet
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: changing camera - not recognized

      @DJac

      Sorry but getting back to my 4 points, the only one were this is not working because of a hardware problem is 2): the new hardware is not compatible with the driver.

      Android is (probably) not like Windows where when you pull a device from your computer and plug another in its place the system downloads another driver from the Internet: phones are not devices where you can plug and use new hardware.

      So if the 2) point is correct, the driver installed with Android matches exactly the old camera, and not the new one. Since UT uses the Android drivers, I don't see a way forward with this camera.

      posted in Sony Xperia X (F5121 & F5122)
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: VP22 Upgrade from 24.04-1.0 to 24.04-1.1 failed

      @pparent

      wow great job !
      I'd think that the upgrade could have removed the cache all by itself though, so filing an issue at gitlab would be interesting nonetheless.

      posted in Volla Phone 22
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: calls and internet

      @Linuxlite76 said in calls and internet:

      my mobile date will not work at all

      I assume that you wanted to write 'my mobile data', so your meaning is that you can't for example surf on the net with Morph right ? if yes, is cellular data disabled in the settings ? and if you open a shell, can you ping for example 1.1.1.1 and if not is there any change in the output of 'ip a' and 'route -n' before and after the problem ?

      posted in Support
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely

      @t12392n said in We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely:

      atm I cannot use it as a daily...

      hmm, is it about Volte or your bank don't like Waydroid ? if the latter, it's not quite entirely the OS fault's.

      posted in OS
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Stuck in fastboot mode after a so-called successful installation

      @Merlu

      maybe you could give a try to what I advised you in your first thread:

      https://forums.ubports.com/post/91928

      that is, retry the installation with another USB cable.

      posted in Fairphone 3
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Potentially turning a negative of Google's tightening restrictions into a positave

      @t12392n

      thanks for the explanation.
      I wonder how disabled people (the ones that may have trouble using a terminal as small as a phone) fares in this scheme.

      Also, unfortunately for Linux devices such as Ubuntu Touch, betting all on a device that has a gigantic attack surface - the smartphone has typically 3 open connections (radio, wifi, bluetooth) and connects to typically one software store with many apps, with automatic update turned on for everything - pretty well ensures that only systems provided by big Daddy Google or big Daddy Apple will be considered secure enough for general use by a population not especially well versed in security. I am going to get a device that will get UT next week but I'm not keen on doing banking on it. Using old kernel and old binary drivers don't seem to be a good thing with so dangerously exposed devices.

      posted in General
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Problem installing snap

      @nparafe said in Problem installing snap:

      Anyway, it is shown in https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/ so maybe it should be removed?

      Well, it works up to a point, it's not shown with a star, that means it's not as well supported

      @projectmoon said in Problem installing snap:

      the snap does not fully integrate with the system due to scaling

      Note that these kinds of problems can be sometimes mitigated by env variables settings, for exemple some settings like:

      • with Gtk apps
        export GDK_SCALE=2

      • with QT apps
        export QT_FONT_DPI=320

      with snaps, there can be problems with setting env variables though, as these apps are supposed to be isolated from their environment. I don't know if this would work with your app.

      posted in Support
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely

      @t12392n said in We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely:

      1Password

      it seems that the provider of this software already provides a snap for x86, so maybe you could try to ask them if they could build it for ARM64 ? or even try to search the snap store in the unlikely case where they had already done the job but not yet updated their web site ?

      posted in OS
      G
      gpatel-fr
    • RE: Script for updating apps [help needed]

      @CiberSheep said in Script for updating apps [help needed]:

      This assumes pytho3 is installed in the system

      for most linux systems (ie fedora and debian derivatives and quite a few others) this is not a very adventurous assertion, however yaml is not included in standard python. If yaml is not a requirement pip installed automatically by running the script, this will fall back to search and replace and fail silently if the script is too complicated for the simple search and replace.

      Personally I'd do a test to check if python is installed, if yes, test if we have yaml, if yes, run something like you did, if python but no yaml, run a script such as this one:

      #! /usr/bin/env python3
      
      import json
      import os
      import sys
      import traceback
      from collections import OrderedDict
      
      def do_convert(p_item, offset, output_file):
          def outval(v):
              if isinstance(v, str):
                  return "'" + v + "'"
              else:
                  return str(v)
      
          if isinstance(p_item, dict):
              for k, v in p_item.items():
                  if isinstance(v, list):
                      if len(v) == 0:
                          output_file.write(offset + k + ': []\n')
                      else:
                          output_file.write(offset + k + ':\n')
                          do_convert(v, offset.replace('-', ' ') + '- ', output_file)
                  elif isinstance(v, dict):
                      output_file.write(offset + k + ':\n')
                      do_convert(v, offset.replace('-', ' ') + '  ', output_file)
                  else:
                      output_file.write(offset + k + ": " + outval(v) + "\n")
                  offset = offset.replace('-', ' ')
          elif isinstance(p_item, list):
              for k in p_item:
                  if isinstance(k, list):
                      do_convert(k, offset, output_file)
                  elif isinstance(k, dict):
                      do_convert(k, offset, output_file)
                  else:
                      output_file.write(offset + outval(k) + "\n")
      
      if __name__ == '__main__':
          try:
              j_string=open(sys.argv[1]).read()
              p_dict=json.loads(j_string, object_pairs_hook=OrderedDict)
              output_file = open('.'.join([os.path.splitext(sys.argv[1])[0], 'yml']), 'w')
              offset = ''
              do_convert(p_dict, offset, output_file)
              output_file.close()
              sys.exit(0)
          except Exception as e:
              print(e)
              traceback.print_exc()
              sys.exit(1)
      
      

      that seems (not heavily tested...) to do a decent job converting more complex cases that the tinyl clickable.json files that I have seen and if not, print a warning and run the bash search and replace (that will still run fine in most cases)

      posted in App Development
      G
      gpatel-fr