@RJDan Have you tried the waydroid helper app? I think it has workarounds for some problems.

@Eric-H There hasn't been any commit since then, if you want to re-build with a newer rootfs, without doing it on your computer, fork the repository and trigger the pipeline. I don't think it will work, if it did then the developer wouldn't say he gave up on it.
(I don't have the device myself, just explaining the procedure for anyone wanting to test the images.)

@Eric-H You don't have to build them, they are already built: https://gitlab.com/ubports/porting/community-ports/android12/google-pixel-3a/google-sargo/-/pipelines.

@RJDan You can encrypt them through terminal, the utilities are already installed. There are also apps on the OpenStore that can achieve this: tedit can encrypt text files, and enigma encrypts files with PGP, but it hasn't been updated for 20.04.

Was /data mounted correctly when you pushed the rootfs? Did you format userdata? Also, you seem to have overlaystore enabled but overlayfs in kernel is not enabled (unless I missed something).

Anyway, it is better for you to ask in t.me/ubports_porting, there are more knowledgeable than me people there that can help you, and real-time communication is preferred because porting can take a long time to succeed.

@arjune Yes, and make sure that /data is formatted to ext4 (with fastboot format:ext4 userdata) and mounted when you pushed it.

Be aware that the device will probably fail to boot on first try.

@arjune Yes, just flashing the 2 partitions is enough. Also, boot.img can be flashed in either bootloader or fastbootd mode, while system.img only on fastbootd (it is a sparse image).

TWRP says that boot.img is larger than target device

It should be flashed with fastboot flash boot boot.img, make sure deviceinfo_bootimg_partition_size is set correctly. TWRP is the recovery, I don't get how it is involved.

@captainfunk said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 168 call for questions:

Are you thinking or planning to implement the screen rotation to 180 degrees ?

It depends on if the porter enabled it. The configuration file is located on /etc/deviceinfo/devices/<codename>.yaml. Taking the Volla X23 configuration file as a random example:

  SupportedOrientations:
    - Portrait
    - Landscape
    - InvertedLandscape

As you can see, there is no "InvertedPortrait" mode enabled. I don't know adding it below will work.

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Edit: (sorry, just noticed the Q&A was 3 days ago...)

@arjune Don't use the halium-install script. Use only the commands at the end of the standalone kernel method.
Build:

./build.sh -b workdir
./build/prepare-fake-ota.sh out/device_genia_usrmerge.tar.xz ota
./build/system-image-from-ota.sh ota/ubuntu_command images

Install:
Flash boot.img to boot partition.
If you have systempart in your cmdline flash system.img to system, otherwise push rootfs.img to data partition as ubuntu.img.

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As stanwood said, the telegram porting group is more active.

@Twigg Many questions indeed, I will try to answer them as accurately as I can, so if anyone knows more, feel free to correct me.

Before answering your questions, I think it is necessary to clear any misconceptions about the Android kernel.
Most Android devices don't support mainline Linux, so the upstream kernel can't work on the device, as it is missing specific drivers and device trees. That is because the SoC manufacturers (Qualcomm/MediaTek) use an older kernel as a base to test their new designs, and that old kernel is subsequently used by the device manufacturers (e.g. Fairphone). Of course, neither of them bother isolating the changes to create a pull request to upstream Linux (due to costs etc.). As a result, Ubuntu Touch developers have to do extra patches to make the downstream patched kernel work for them.

Does you mean that the FF5 did not support mainline Linux?

Yes, Fairphone officially didn't, but the community has (see the PostmarketOS port)

Why the change with FF6?

I don't know. Maybe they hope they can attract more Linux enthusiast (like us).

I wonder about the advantages/disadvantages to using mainline Linux vs the Hallum approach

Mainline Linux enables more flexibility and a desktop-like experience. However, it is more difficult to make everything work there, postmarketOS is a great example, as almost none of their devices currently support the same hardware features as they did on Android. Not even Qualcomm themselves have succeeded in fully working mainline Linux kernel, as the recent Snapdragon X Elite chips which were made to compete with x86 still don't have full Linux support.

Halium on the other hand uses the same downstream kernel as Android does, with some adaptations for Ubuntu. It also runs the Android drivers on an LXC container, which allows easier access to hardware. As you can imagine, this has limitations, as we can't change the Android drivers and pulling patches from upstream Linux can break functionality.

I presume that this amounts to a desktop equivilence to doing a clean install of Ubuntu, vs installing it in Windows?

I don't get your analogy. It would be more accurate to say that to install normal Ubuntu, you have to reverse engineer the Windows drivers. However, in Ubuntu Touch's case we can reuse the Android drivers as the Linux kernel remains mostly the same.

From what I have read above, it looks like there haven't been too many changes from FF5 to FF6, so perhaps that makes it easier for Ubuntu Touch to get released on the FF6?

Each device needs its own port, sometimes even devices with the same chip require very different ports. In this case FP6 seems vastly different hardware-wise than FP5 so I don't think they would be similar software-wise.

@harrisonpatm try lomiri instead of ubuntu. It has been renamed in the 20.04 update to allow packaging for Debian.

@sixwheeledbeast

This isn't a feature in Ubuntu Touch yet either is it?

No, it isn't a feature of UT, at least not on any of my devices.

I don't know of that feature is used in android of FP5 either. I have just seen it on another device and thought it is a better idea than using the flashlight.

Would there be any burn in concerns using the screen?

I don't think that it can cause significant burn-in to the screen as it is on very briefly. Also, while using the device that part of the screen is mostly black.

It will also support mainline Linux (like the pinephone) as the patches have already been submitted: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fairphone-6-Linux.
I suppose the Ubuntu Touch port will be Halium based but it is certainly nice anyway.

@sixwheeledbeast On android the screen is used as a notification led. It works better on amoled screen as only a little circle on the top (where the led used to be) is on, and the rest of the screen is off.

@harrisonpatm UT cannot boot to console right now because a framebuffer isn't implemented. If you really want to you can give it a try, but be aware that this will never be supported as it is impractical.

@harrisonpatm What would be the benefit of that instead of launching the terminal app?

@harrisonpatm Can you try changing the physical keyboard layout (from the drop-down menu)? It is independent from the on-screen keyboard.

@UserID0987654321 If by UI you mean a dedicated Linux app, then yes, there isn't a trivial way to install it on Ubuntu Touch. You should still be able to connect to your VPN via the OpenVPN menu in the system settings app though.

@UserID0987654321 Does single hop work though? They offer a service to customize the configuration (e.g.) single hop. Multi hop is only needed when you don't trust the nodes, like in tor.

@captainfunk You can run in terminal the test_gps command to see if it does progress or is it stuck.

The problem usually is that it has to download data like the almanac from the satellite which has very small bandwidth, but it should complete in 1 hour.