Dear all...

After skirting round the forums and doing my best to help (I am not a coder/hacker/programmer), I thought I would give some advice for people coming to Ubuntu Touch (UT) from Android based ROM's. Most of you are looking to install UT on a spare device or looking for an alternative to Android to use as your main device (daily driver), so you kind of want your device to function like and Android device which I get.

UT is open source and maintained by people in their spare time, hobbyists, enthusiasts - people from all walks in life who have interests elsewhere. This means that a device may be well maintained, may not be, may full of bugs and so on, so before jumping in to install on your device, please:

1. Make sure it is on the devices list

2. Check the maintenance state of the device

3. Read through all the issues. If you want fully functioning telephony and there is no sound in calls for your device, then don't put UT on and/or look at a better supported device.

4. Plan ahead - backup anything you want to keep, make sure you read up on the device, read @Lakotaubp Frequently asked questions, read the forum pages for the device you wish to install UT too for tips and tricks to install, that are not always clear.

5. Plan ahead - plan and think what to do if UT fails to install with the installer. Have you installed the correct version of Android? Is the bootloader unlocked? and so on...

6. Plan ahead - download and keep the version of stock Android that is required for UT and look at how to install it, in case UT is not for you and you wish to go back to Android. This should put any partitions that have been resized back to the original size.

7. To run UT, the bootloader on the device has to be unlocked. Google search (or whatever your search engine may be) for that particular devices way to unlock the bootloader. UT will NOT install or work with a locked bootloader.

8. If for whatever reason you return to Android my advice is and the consensus of opinion from other forums is DO NOT RELOCK the bootloader. This can brick the device, i.e., render it useless, unless you get a new motherboard or split it for parts.

9. If i didn't mention before plan ahead and read up on what UT is all about.

10. There are reasons why you have to install a particular version of Android in order to install UT. This is usually down to Vendor BLOBs (ie think of it as drivers for the hardware and on devices a lot of these are closed source (proprietary)).

11. Follow the installers instructions.

12. Keep it simple. Use the installer, that's what it is there for. Even if you are good with the command line, the installer can make it easier. It can also make it easier to back track if any issues arise.

I have too many PC's and devices (as my other half continually reminds me). I mainly use windows 10/11 to install UT (I need M$ stuff - being polite - for work) which works the majority of the time so I install Android Studio and update it -

13. Have the latest version of Fastboot and ADB drivers installed on your PC. This resolves a multitude of issues. I install Android Studio to get the latest versions. You don't need to, but my advice is that it does help.

My go to Linux is Ubuntu as it works for me, so I have a low powered Ubuntu machine to install to certain devices if Windows fails, but that is me.

14. Your PC (inc laptop) which you use to install UT to your device, make sure the operating system is up to date, nothing worse than in the middle of pushing UT to a device the PC reboots after an update (thanks windows).

@UBportsNews Please don't apologise for this issue. it happens. This is done by volunteers in their own time and is way above what myself and others can do, for which myself personally am very grateful for. Please keep up the good work it's greatly appreciated.

Just found Tweak Tool for Focal and the parts I use are working, yeah.... :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Many Thanks to Imran Iqbal for this most useful of apps!

I have held off on this thread, but I thought I would put my bit in now!

Bought 2 x BQ Aquaris e4.5 when Canonical and BQ put them on the market that day. One was mine and the other was mine too, but I handed it out for people to play with.

As a phone, text, MMS, camera and web browsing, most used and thought it was adequate. For social media, it was no and a resounding no at that.

Ok so come to 2022/2023. Canonical has devolved Ubuntu Touch to the community when the phones and tablets did not take off as planned - you have to try these things! So now Ubuntu Touch is run as a charitable foundation (UBports) by volunteers. There is some commercial working from what I can see, but most is run by enthusiasts and volunteers. This means your data is not going to be scraped and sold to the online bidders so you can get spammed with ads (thanks Amazon, Google, Apple, Xiaomi......). It also means that some things work, some things don't and it is not for everyone as they want a device that just well works for what they they want.
Some things won't work as UT is open source, i.e. Internet banking apps (encryption), Social Media, such as SnapChat and Whatsapp and so on. (BTW this is my opinion from what I have observed and read).

The Browser issues has been strongly covered with reasons why Morph is used and not Chromium or Firefox, but I find Morph overall very usable and suitable for me.

The Apps issues has also been extensively covered and again a lot are coded by volunteers and enthusiasts who spend their own free time and money running and maintaining them (kudos given for that). If you want an app that is not in the store, create it yourself, or use the browser, or heaven forbid, use your Android or Apple phone. It is that simple. What I cannot use on UT, I will use on my computers, or Android phone (my Iphone is out of Action, but was needed for one app).

I don't use Waydroid as I don't see the point personally (using UT is to avoid some Android apps), as I said if I need to use an app that is not in the store, I will use it on another device. But for some Waydroid is convergence with Android apps and I see why people are enthusiastic about it and again Kudos to the people setting it up and running with it.

Options, options and options, there are so many to do what you want. There is always a way and work around.

Thank you all for your hard work on UT and also the criticism as criticism makes things better in most cases.

Kind regards to all,
Mr T10001:zany_face: (I pity the fool).

Volla Tablet is launching tomorrow - 17/4/2024 on Kickstarter.

Link

Got hold of a Oneplus 6. Running Android 11, so downgraded using OB25 build from here.
Unlock the device (open developer options by tapping build in about device until it states "you are now a developer", back to System, Developer options, enable OEM unlock and USB debugging). In a command prompt use ADB to reboot to bootloader and then use the fastboot command "fastboot oem unlock", then when done reboot the device and set Android up again. Set up developer options and USB debugging, set it file transfer and copy the OB25 file to the root of the device (i.e. not in a folder). Go to system update and check local update and tap the zip file. Allow it to do its thing and tap reboot when done. The set android up again and hey you are on Android 9!
Then just follow the UT installer.
Installed so easily, I thought it was a Nexus 4 (apart from the Halium splash). Less than an hour and it is up and running. Good device so far!

@daemonicvs It is more than that, it is about Lineage support and getting hold of Vendor Blobs ( a lot of vendor blobs are proprietary so they have to be reverse engineered - think of a blob as a driver in PC terms). It is the ability to unlock the boot loader so vendors like Huawei are out. It is also the ability to get the right Android on the device, some devices the Android version needs rolling back and it cannot be done without bricking the device.

And one of the main restrictions is having an enthusiastic person who has the ability and time to a) create the UT port and b) to maintain it.

@SpecterFortress This is a fantastic guide to installing on the Rabbit R1. I followed it, had to deviate some bits as even though I had rabbit.tech enable developer options, it didn't sync so I had to unlock it manually and booted to fastboot using chrome.

Not a question, but please give a shout out to Brian for his work on the App store:

Link here to new store

It is looking good. It requires testing still.

@snailc it is always best to use the ROM the porter specified, some may work, but most won't.

@paul-henri At what point did it fail?

@Keneda The site won't allow me to create an account to log in, wether that's by design or a bug, I don't know. The forums are the main part for me.

@paul-henri WiFi and other things not working is usually down to the incorrect version of Android on the device before the install of UT. A specific version of android is required for technical reasons, mainly partitions and Vendor BLOB's (drivers).

You need to go back to the correct version of Android, set it up and then install UT.

The zip file for the correct Android ROM contains various scripts to flash Android to the device.

If you are on Windows (10 or 11) use the flash_all.bat

If you are on Linux use the flash_all.sh

I guess you are using Windows as you mentioned the C : prompt and tried to run the Linux command in that - it won't work as you can see.

(Make sure you have Android Platform Tools installed as they contain the fastboot and ADB drivers)

What you have to do is totally extract the Android ROM file.
In the folder where the Android ROM file is extracted, open a command prompt - right click on an empty space and choose in the drop down box Open in Terminal.

Put the device in fastboot mode and connect it to the PC.
In the terminal run the command ./flash_all.bat and note the ./ in front of the command.

As it starts doing it's thing, leave it alone and be patient, it can take up to 10 minutes to flash the ROM onto the device and ma seem to hang, but it will be doing stuff. Once it completes, it will reboot, then go through the Android setup and make sure everything works, camera, GPS, wifi etc. Then do the UT install.

@Moem That post spurred me to get off my lazy "£$ and sort it out, I have put it back far too long and will be looking to buy some merch at some point!

Hi, as you are all well aware, I am a forum user here. I can login/Logout of the forums without an issue.

However I cannot log in to the UBports side of the site to lets say use the Shop. It keeps giving me a wrong password error.

So, I think I will therefore create another login for the UBports site (different email/password/username etc..). It won't allow me to do that.

I assume that because I logged into the forums before logging into the UBports site, it prevents me from doing so as they are separate parts (have a similar thing on our Linux global system at work, you have to change the password in the allotted time through a web portal and not on a local machine or you get logged out and cannot log in to another local machine or the web portal and have to contact the help desk for a password reset).

Can someone with admin rights help me here?

@paul-henri Download here. Use the fastboot version and run the flash_all.bat script (Windows) or flash_all.sh (Linux) from a terminal with the device in fastboot mode. DO NOT relock the bootloader as it can brick the device and be patient, the ROM takes about 10 minutes to install and may seem to hang at one stage, but it is doing things.

@paul-henri What you are seeing is quite correct. As @developerbayman pointed out, ensure you have installed the Android ROM stipulated by the porter (see the devices page) . If you have done that, ensure you tick all the boxes on the installer "wipe data" and the others. If you did that and are running it through the installer again that is not so important.

@barry00 You can, but the problem with the T-Mobile or Verizon variant from North America is unlocking the bootloader. For some stupid reason on our part, you need to get a token from OnePlus to unlock the bootloader, which you don't have to at the moment in the rest of the world.

@Ernst-Jan15 To get to fastboot mode power off the device, wait a minute, hold Volume Up and Power button. When the logo appears release the power button, but keep holding the volume up button. Then on the side menu use the volume buttons to scroll up and down, choose fastboot mode.

@hacknorris As UT is community driven, there are people stepping up and creating new browsers, but they do it in their own time without pay. If I had the skills to step up I would, but I don't, so cannot. There are things in the pipeline, but take time and testing to work across a range of devices, but hopefully will come. On another note apt is not used on UT as the file system is read only so can break the system. It can be used, but it is the realms of "testing and breaking".