@oldbutndy and anyone:

• Email, such as Thunderbird, with GPG-encryption, anyone tried that?
• Firefox with addons? Anyone tried it?
• Brave browser?
• Linphone?

Long text in short, size defined buttons is a classic... The buttons need to resize according to the text on a new line if there is little space. Sometimes landscape mode reveals more text in buttons. This is especially notable when using a translations file to set the labels based on locale setting.

I completely understand the huge impact. It is one of those things engineers call "should have thought about that earlier"... The positive note from this is that at least it has been brought up (again aparently), to be searchable in the forum for others who dwell upon investing in a Fairphone (because older USB3 devices are hard to find).

@danfro Thank you for your comment. It is good to know what one can expect when it comes to the graphic user interface. No text adjustment to be expected anytime soon. I am glad to know that this text resizing functionality has been brought up before (not visible in this forum by search). I understand that the Ubuntu Touch design did not permit for text adjustment. Maybe in version 26.04-1.0, 28.04-1.0, 30.04-1.0 it is a good time to consider text adjustment when everything needs to be adjusted anyway.

Thank you! Now we know what to expect in this part. That was really good information.

Tell me where the settings should be placed and what they should be called in the Ubuntu Touch Settings cog wheel. Same for all font settings and font scaling and icon scaling variables. Does this mean there is some kind of recognition or understanding that the visual part has to be addressed? It seems so (wishful thinking). The first thing is to agree on something, that something should be improved. Then agree on how. There is not much discussion about fonts, text sizes, scaling and graphic user interface (GUI). There is no setting place for it, even if it is not working. UT Tweek Tool does not have a setting for it either, even if such settings are not working. The system is read only. So far everyone seems happy with as it is. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it". I have seen one observation about the annoyance of accidentally opening the app drawer when doing something with the mouse on the left side in desktop mode on a wired external monitor. Thats it. There are not many GUI related conversations to give the impression that GUI is important for the public who are supposed to be using Ubuntu Touch. I understand the reluctance of a major design change. If I am the only one who talks about a need, then you are all happy with how it is now. No point of making changes for one newbie. If 60% think something is not good enough, it is probably so. If you want the public to adopt Ubuntu Touch, do a market research what the public needs (not only wants). Segment them into groups to see what most user groups express is a need. Then decide what target groups you want to address with Ubuntu Touch. The other public subgroups that you do not care about when it comes to their deal-breakers with Ubuntu Touch will have to wait some years.

Being able to help is also a matter of finances and actual availability for a device. Fairphone is not cheap. As a comparison, demo units of Google Pixel 9 with USB3 and 12GB RAM were selling out at 70-80% discount compared to.introduction price. A third of the price of a Fairphone. But Pixel 9 was not a ported device. OnePlus has some models with USB3 that are soon to be sold out as demo units. But those devices have no Ubuntu Touch port. So there is a need for some help to get a Fairphone for development, USB spare part, battery spare part at a considerably cheaper price than on the market. Many times you can see a discount being marketed, but there is no product in inventory. Without a device for testing it is much harder.

Has anyone managed to get AOL email to work with Dekko or Dekko2?

I read that GMAIL, ICLOUD, YAHOO works, but not sure if this applies to year 2026. Otherwise, Morph browser has to be used to connect to the web interface.

Email is one of those things that is a priority for many and people seem to prefer an app for email reading. Android has Gmail email reader, there is also Thunderbird email client, Apple has its own email app for icloud. So I guess that newbies on Ubuntu will look for an email app like Gmail or Thunderbird from the android experience. I am sure there are divided opinions on that too.

@pparent When you install Ubuntu Touch on the Fairphone 4, everything is default setting. UT Tweak Tool shows scaling 21. The text size is about 0.8mm for characters like aceimnosruvwxz. It is small. Heading size is about 1.8-2mm, which starts to be easier to read.

Not everyone has super sharp eyes to read the back of a mobile charger print or the ingredient list on the back of a small product. If Ubuntu Touch should be usable by those who use reading glasses, it has to, by force be able to scale all the different text sizes and icon sizes individually. Android phones have this global adjustable font setting with biggest size around 6-7mm. Doro phones even bigger sizes, and big icons for clumsy fingers. Children tend to like bigger buttons as well. Look at the Gameboy Emulator. It has big buttons even on Fairphone 4.

The default scaling 21 allows for 4 app columns in the drawer portrait mode. This should be good for most people, but it is too small. Medium size on Android is bigger.

On Android you usually have 3 steps from medium to the extreme, which is where Ubuntu Touch is default. So, medium size is 3 steps up from where it is now, at 21 scaling, and HUGE is 6 steps up from now.

Scaling 24 allows for 3 app columns in the drawer. But the text is still too small.

Scaling 27-30 allows 2 columns in app drawer portrait mode. But headings in Ubuntu Touch start to fall outside screen to the right for scaling above 25. The PPI of a screen (400) correlates with the scaling I guess and the result is a font height in pt or mm. Most text in LibreOffice documents is 10-14pt big. Firefox text has to almost always be scaled 1.2-1.33 on 1920x1080 monitors 15 inch big. An older laptop with lower screen resolution does not always need to scale the text in Firefox. The text is automatically bigger if the resolution is smaller. Ubuntu GNOME out of the box on a 4K display has small text. Usually everything has to be scaled 2x on 4K monitors.

The worse eyes need a bigger text, sometimes a medium font thickness (600). Bookerly font versus Times illustrates this need. Thin font with small size is difficult for worse eyes. We want our grandmas to use Ubuntu Touch, so... we have to re-program Ubuntu Touch to allow global font settings => qt font settings. I am afraid it is absolutely necessary to adress the font size adjustment need.

I managed to click on a cog wheel and on the right side, there is a box zoom: 100%. It does not work and it is difficult to even see the settings. Pulling out a PS2 keyboard and connecting it via USB, Ctrl ++ twice usually make the text a bit bigger. One should not have to connect a keyboard to zoom. So the scaling is already there, its just difficult to do it via the cog wheel in Signal (Settings).

I purposely use everything default on Ubuntu Touch to see how things scale. Terminal allows to have a big font for instance. But many apps just stick to default set by the system, which is too small. I use Fairphone 4 because it has USB3 for external wired monitor. It has a great screen PPI of 400. I cannot change that. But I wish to be able to read the text in Ubuntu Touch and be able to scale it up when needed.

TEXStudio is working in Libertine! The generation of sample documents went well. Tested on channel 24.04/daily on Fairphone 4. RAM usage topped at 2.7GB (free -h).

Other working things that are often used together with TEXStudio in the same libertine container:

• inkscape (vector graphics)
• atril (pdf viewer)
• thunar (file manager)

Other;

• mousepad (text editor)
• parole (music)

Not working as well out of the box:

• emacs
• gedit
• leafpad (usable, complaining about wayland)

Observations

• xfce software tends to work with libertine.
• Some windows get a window title bar that I didn't figure out how to get rid of.
• Some apps in libertine are in bright mode. Maybe there is a way to add dark mode theme to a libertine container.
• A libertine container can say you need to run dpkg --configure -a as root to fix an installation gone wrong. How to become root in a libertine container is not straight forward. su - not working. su phablet not working. libertine-container-manager exec -i noble -c "/bin/bash" and then fakeroot seems to work.

@pparent
It seems to me that your screenshot shows that the text is bigger on your screenshot. Compared with the clock size font, your screenshot show font size approximate to the size of the clock font or even slightly bigger for the menu text. In my screenshot, the clock font is much bigger than the text font. Typing messages is almost impossible to see if not enlarged. The text is already small as it is, and it becomes tough to see when the font is half the size of the already small font.

Looking forward to working menus as well.

By the way, I tried to attach a photo from the camera, but the app crashed after creating the photo. Voice message works well.

@pparent

phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ getprop ro.sf.lcd_density
400
phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ echo $GRID_UNIT_PX
21

Screenshot to illustrate how small the text is on the Fairphone 4 screen. The image may give the impression that it is bigger when in reality it is very small. Maybe something to do with the PPI of the screen.

I would apreciate something to get rid of the cookie questions. Something like addon "I still don't care about cookies". Maybe someone knows how to achieve it.

Did anyone figure out how to get the menus visible? I see menus flicker three times kind of and dies away. Is there a way to increase the text sizes, keyboard shortcuts? It is ridiculously small. tinytinytiny. Have I missed something here on how to increase the text size? Any hidden trick? A config file?

EDIT: Connected a keyboard via USB and pressed Ctrl ++. Text in some parts got bigger. Menutext still small.

A small text size and a lack for a Setting to adjust all the different text sizes individually, as well as a general scaling factor for all text types is really a headache.

Text adjustment is needed to improve usability. If this means rewriting code, it still needs to be addressed. There is no way around it. Text size(s) needs to be easily adjustable in Settings without falling outside of screen limits.

Scaling makes everything bigger, even icons. Icons should be able to scale separately. Like in a modern desktop linux, which is a newbie's reference.

It is also difficult to understand for newbie the scaling in desktop mode, since it is set to 8 instead of for instance 24 on the device. Changing desktop mode scaling affects the scaling on the device after disconnect from external monitor. Two different scalings are needed; a separate one for desktop mode to not mess with the device scaling.

Wonderful! Got it working on Fairphone 4 channel 24.04/daily. On some computers it was neccesary to wait up to five seconds before mounting the ISO with ISODrive. Then quickly press some key combination like Fn + F12 to enter boot menu. On others it went almost immediately.

The delay between pressing the power-ON-button on the computer and mounting the ISO seems to be sensitive and has to be timed correctly. This should be written on Openstore I guess together with works on Fairphone 4 so that newbies get a chance to know.

Maybe the app could be modified with if usbPowerDetected; then remountISOWithDelay2seconds; fi. In that way the app would work anyway. Would it be feasible?

I guess I found the number one reason to give Ubuntu Touch a go. Thank you for the information on how to get it to work!

Maybe the public can be divided into subgroups with different needs. Ubuntu Touch has to fulfill those needs.

Newbies that are not so into terminal coding generally say Ubuntu Touch is buggy. That the text is so small overall. That the text cannot be easily adjusted. They cannot see the text! Major road block for some.

The cookie nagging in Morph browser can drive somebody nuts, especially if they can't figure out how to block those cookie questions. Adblock exists in Openstore, but there may be difficulty to find a cookie question block solution. Or youtube ad blocking.

Some newbies want a laptop Ubuntu Touch like a Xubuntu desktop. Few understand that literally means to work inside a Libertine container with a terminal, inside Ubuntu Touch, but still isolated from Ubuntu Touch. That they need a device with USB3, external monitor and desktop mode to get things done. Or with snaps. It is not easy to grasp how Ubuntu Touch really works inside as a newbie. Major road block.

Offline GPS navigation with route planning is definitely on many newbies wishlist. If this part is too buggy it cools down emotions. Music player is there thankfully.

Signal is probably one such app that has to exist on Ubuntu Touch natively and work well. There is no way around it. Communication is high priority for some and a show stopper for many if not available.

Comparison: zoom does not exist for linux aarch64. Games do not focus on snapdragon chips. Result: people regret buying an arm computer because their wanted apps are not there. Same with linux distros lacking those apps people want.

Others want EPUB3 in night mode with proper fonts and good rendering. Try to find any android app that can render epub3 with inline svg graphics as well as those two most used apps in Openstore. Here is the uniqueness in Ubuntu Touch. Still, the epub3 viewers have some noticeable bugs which cools emotions. Night mode flickering between pagination is one.

What is downloaded most usually is most wanted by many. Many times it is games. The core apps are expected to be there but maybe do not get as much attention. Gameboy emulator is really good! No bugs there.

Lets look at the app ISODrive. It really solves a big support issue. But it does not work in 24.04/daily. Creating a bootable USB-stick when your laptop needs reinstalling is a nightmare when you are travelling, right? Here you have a unique thing, but it is not working. Why not fix it? Such things make effect because they are needed and solve a real problem that arises quite frequently.

Tried ISODrive on channel 24.04/daily on a Fairphone 4. The app didn't work.

This would be one of those apps that would be truly awesome to get to work on 24.04 (noble).

A Lenovo computer didn't recognize Ubuntu 24.04 ISO, not Ubuntu 25.10 ISO, as an USB image. Nothing showed up in the boot menu. USB-stick with ISO worked though.

It would be great if Openstore flagged it as maybe not working on some devices running 20.04 and 24.04.

Any idea how accessing a samba share on another computer could be achieved in 24.04 (noble)? Does one have to install package smbclient in libertine default container noble, or the mentioned cifs-utils package? It seems that the file explorer does not offer connecting to a samba share (+ sign is greyed out).

Using 24.04/daily channel on a Fairphone 4.

Not sure if the article is still valid for 24.04 noble. Tried it, didn't notice any difference. Then I discovered app UT Tweak Tool which seems more handy than typing config files.

In 24.04 noble, is there any way, even programmatically, to increase or decrease the different text sizes individually, as well as increase and decrease the icon sizes separately from scaling the text(s)? The scaling in app UT Tweak Tool scales everything, causing some text in some apps not being visible if the scaling is big. The default text size is quite small. In desktop mode, it seems that the scaling is different, but if adjusted it adjusts the scaling even in non-desktop-mode. Somehow, it would be desirable to have two different text(s) and icon scalings, one for the device itself standalone, and one scaling when connected in desktop mode.

Usually, there is one text size for WindowTitles, one for Documents, one for Interface, one for Monospace and then there is usually a TextScaling factor that adjusts all text sizes (fonts) without having to tinker with each one individually. Hinting and AntiAliasing is usually also part of what you can adjust.

I tried to enter command in the terminal: sudo snap install libreoffice. It installed. This version of LibreOffice seems to work better than the libertine version I described above. Some dialogs end up partially outside the monitor in desktop mode, but it is indeed usable.

EDIT: Although launching anything libreoffice-related from the Ubuntu Touch menu seems not to work, I managed to at least start LibreOffice Writer from command line in terminal.

This was the way, maybe it helps someone else who is not a pro at libertine containers:

1. Install Libertine Tweak Tool
2. Set all options ON, especially the lirsh option.
3. Install package libreoffice-writer in the default libertine container (called noble by default) by typing this in a re-launched terminal (to get the lirsh command):
   libertine-container-manager install-package -p libreoffice-writer
4. Type in terminal: lirsh
5. You will see something starting with (noble)... $
6. Launch LibreOffice by typing in terminal libreoffice or soffice.

Note that no java (default-jre) was needed, neither libreoffice-java-common. I guess lirsh does some wonders here and sets the paths inside the libertine container. If one knows what lirsh does, it could be used to fix the LibreOffice launcher(s) in the main Ubuntu Touch menu.

At time of testing, clicking on menus File, Edit etc does not produce any visible menu. But it is possible to type some text create a PDF and save it in /tmp folder, which actually is located in the real /tmp folder outside the libertine container. LibreOffice makes Ubuntu Touch unstable and the device restarts Lomiri causing a closure of every app in desktop mode.