One thing that bothers me in ubuntu touch is the fact that headphone buttons (like play/stop/answer/finish call, volume up, volume down) never worked, is this a feature that could be considered in the future?

It is pretty much convenient and quite standard in other cellphones OS.

Another thing: Since we moved to ubports, there is a nice feature that was the music app automatically downloading album covers/artist pictures for our media library. Any chance we could have it back?

Heh, it seems I have a string of bad luck regarding this phone (in between the hassle it was getting it from China, then flashing canonical ubuntu, then breaking the screen, trying to get a replacement one, the ubports).

I tried anther chip and it works, so for some reason my SIM is malfunctioning, will get a replacement one...

I've been slowly reinstalling stuff, I noticed that the GPS has trouble working, although it seems to be recognised, but I remember it was already difficult when indoors during the days of canonical. Accelerometer works, but the compass app doesn't seem to be working. Minor hurdles...

Anyway, by request I uploaded my ubuntuimage folder from /root/.cache the link is below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0464g6vpm6kzgsb/ubuntuimages.tar.gz?dl=0

This is a well known problem: The Meizu Pro5 which shipped originally with the Flyme Android has a cache partition of 490MB whereas those who shipped with ubuntu have a cache of 700MB.

As such, flashing of ubports fails because of incorrect cache partition.

I've checked all over here and the internet but there are no useful sugestions, since people mention something along the lines of "There are now many ways to do partitioning", however I'm not comfortable enough doing it (mostly for fear of bricking the device) and I think a tutorial on how to resize the cache and other partitions of the phone would come in handy since there are surely other cases like mine (bought an original android Meizu 5, switched to canonical ubuntu touch and now cannot switch to ubports). Any method really, either TWRP, fastboot, etc...

Any help appreciated, thanks!

Thanks for the SP Flash Tool link, I will check it out. I'm confused about your first link though, you linked me to a website related to BQ products although I'm trying to get a fix for my Meizu phone?

EDIT: Apparently the SP Flash Tool does not support the Meizu Pro 5 (only the MX4 appears on the list) so we're back to square one

EDIT2: Sorry I wasn't using the correct version, I'm checking SP Flash Tool and it seems to be the way to go. However, I do need the "scatter file" for the Meizu Pro 5 ubuntu edition, which will be used to change the phone partitions. A 15min check over the internet yielded no results so far... If someone can help with this, it would be very much appreciated.

EDIT3: Can't get a scatter.txt file. I think its time to go back to android. This phone is unusable right now with the canonical ubuntu version, nothing is working (sim not registering, most of the apps crash, etc...). Maybe I will check again some months from now if someone found a way to install ubports on those Meizu Pro 5 that were originally shipped with the android 495MB cache partition.

Here is the dump from when I try to flash ubports:

503.0 # ubuntu-device-flash --server=http://system-image.ubports.com touch --device=turbo --channel=15.04/stable --bootstrap --recovery-image=recovery-turbo.img
2017/08/19 16:12:19 Device is |turbo|
2017/08/19 16:12:19 Flashing version 1 from 15.04/stable channel and server http://system-image.ubports.com to device turbo
646.98 KB / 321.93 MB [___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________] 0.20 % 646.49 KB/s 8m28s2017/08/19 16:12:20 Cache formatting was not successful, flashing may fail, check your partitions on device
1.35 MB / 321.93 MB [______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________] 0.42 % 768.35 KB/s 7m6s
Can't boot recovery image

Each time I have wiped the cache folder using TWRP, so for me it is a mystery why other people like you can successfully flash an android meizu pro 5 but not me.

My problem was that I flashed canonical image on a stock chinese android meizu Pro 5, after changing the firmware to international, etc... Then at some point I broke my screen and it took me a few months for getting a new one. When I came back, canonical had discontinued ubuntu touch and ubports was just starting. When I couldn't flash my phone two months ago I figured I would wait for the community to have improved tools, but it seems I'm not yet there, so I think I migth have something strange going on over my partition structure although I never did touch them (so this should be the same stock android partition system.

The only thing I found out about the scatter file is that it is supposed to be the mediatek MT 6795 scatter file, but the only thing I found on the web was this link for flashing android: http://flashromandroid.top/2017/03/4767-simple_step_flash_android-meizu-pro-5.html

Again, I am simply not familiar at all with the concept of scatter files, which is why I thought about asking for help here. Unfortunately it seems I have a very specific issue with my phone though, so it's a bit frustrating on my end :).

@Stefano Allright, thank you for the help I'm going to follow the steps you suggest and I will let you know the outcome

I tried your method, this is what I got.

554.0 # ubuntu-device-flash --server=http://system-image.ubports.com touch --device=turbo --channel=15.04/stable
2017/08/20 02:06:24 Device is |turbo|
2017/08/20 02:06:24 Flashing version 1 from 15.04/stable channel and server http://system-image.ubports.com to device turbo
2017/08/20 02:06:25 Start pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/ubports-touch/15.04/stable/turbo/version-1.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Start pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/pool/device-60f53a5768e9340729d3a5ef9263bd3a9726792e7d0dbf830e5b124938dd419a.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Start pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/pool/keyring-4c4e7ef380ebcfa2c31084efa199138e93bfed8fc58aa3eb06bdf75a78af9b57.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Start pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/gpg/image-master.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Start pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/pool/ubports-d50c18b27590af5734a826c4f7857d8909b0e0f902d21af142a780620c8eb58b.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Start pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/gpg/image-signing.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Done pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/pool/keyring-4c4e7ef380ebcfa2c31084efa199138e93bfed8fc58aa3eb06bdf75a78af9b57.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Done pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/gpg/image-master.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Done pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/ubports-touch/15.04/stable/turbo/version-1.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:06:27 Done pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/gpg/image-signing.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:07:03 Done pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/pool/device-60f53a5768e9340729d3a5ef9263bd3a9726792e7d0dbf830e5b124938dd419a.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:07:44 Done pushing /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/pool/ubports-d50c18b27590af5734a826c4f7857d8909b0e0f902d21af142a780620c8eb58b.tar.xz to device
2017/08/20 02:07:44 Created ubuntu_command: /root/.cache/ubuntuimages/ubuntu_commands016270558
2017/08/20 02:07:44 Rebooting into recovery to flash

Unfortunately phone displays: "Update failed, contact support"

Not yet there...

Edit as a way of a new post since akismet flags my edits as spam???

Now regarding the cache clearing that you guys suggested, I couldn't find any ubuntuimages inside the /system/root/ .cache folder. I used adb shell ls -la /system/root/.cache.

BTW I never posted the link discussing the android vs. ubuntu devices partitions, it may come in handy as a reference for this device: https://forum.xda-developers.com/meizu-pro-5/help/meizu-pro5-32gb-64gb-partition-tables-t3460085

EDIT: flashed again the recovery image then did ubuntu-device-flash after wiping cache and system through TWRP -> Advanced wipe and I still get the Update failed message.

@hans1977se oooooh I see.

It didn't work though. After flashing I got the same error screen, see below the steps I made:

(removed because Akismet still flags this as spam will try to repost separately)

It did re-download the packages from the remote server but apparently this was not enough

@Stefano That worked thank God!! I had an additional difficulty the recovery couldn't flash the data partition for some reason so I reformated it, I suspect the issue might have been lying there. For the sake of it I tried ubuntu-device-flash and it still didn't work, but this time he got stuck on a progress bar.

Anyway I flashed all the partition images you sent me, and soon enough I had ubports booting!

I cannot state how much I am grateful for your help, you have been most kind in helping me, I was going nuts oer this. THANKS!

Now I just have to figure out how to make my SIM work again (I never could get it to work in anything else than the slim slot with the canonical image, and now it doesn't seem to recognize the sim in any of the two slots, but thats probably an hardware fault I have had since the beginning, these meizu 5 phones are known to have random hardware issues).

In any case, I have internet, camera, and hopefully GPS already working, so it's already a nice start. Thanks again Stefano!