Hey guys,

I'm not sure I should reply here, since this topic isn't pinned, and nobody replied to it for the past 6 months.

I've registered to the forum 3 weeks ago, but in any case: I've been a Ubuntu desktop user since 2007/2008, I was once a wiki admin and contributor for the Ubuntu-fr.org community, and I've contributed to the FreeCAD community from 2010 until now, among other things being a wiki admin (FreeCAD is an open source parametric CAD program that runs on Linux, Windows and macOS).

I've been wanting to free myself of Google's clutches for a while, and salvaging a discarded Nexus 5 with a cracked screen gave me the opportunity to test UT on it. I was really impressed with the ease of use of the UBports installer! Soon after I purchased a used OnePlus One because the N5 simply doesn't have enough storage space for me (16GB). My goal is to make the OPO my daily driver once I've set up everything I need.

I must say that I find the user documentation for UT sorely lacking, struggling at first to do the most simple tasks. I found useful info in the blogs, which should be found in the documentation, IMHO. Consequently I'm thinking about trying to contribute to it.

That's about it for now...

Cheers,

Normand

@advocatux
Thanks, I had read that topic but not noticed the link to this one in it.

I will write a topic in General about documentation contribution.

@trainailleur
I'm not surprised. Look at how much time it took them to confirm full specs. They were still vague back in June, the announced 2019 shipping date was never realistic. I always thought that PinePhone would be ready for mass production first, and it's looking like I may be right. That being said, Purism had a lot more R&D put into their device than Pine64 (not to mention the OS and software as well). I wish both companies success, we need both their phones.

Hello, new user here. I registered to the forum to thank trainailleur for his post about updating the OnePlus One baseband/firmware. Just got mine this week, I first flashed the firmware then I installed UT right away.

@trainailleur said in OnePlus One baseband/firmware:

(I recently gave up on my OpOs as cellular devices, due to the miserable coverage. Perhaps the later firmware remedies that to a degree, but I've already moved on.)

I'm curious about what issues you had? I must say it gives me concerns. When I got the OPO with original OxygenOS 1.x (Android 5.0.1!), I put my SIM card from my current phone, and the cellular network wasn't recognized, tried rebooting a few times to no avail. I decided to install UT anyway, and I tried again the SIM card the network was recognized at once. I was relieved! I took it out again because it's going to take me some time to fully migrate from my Android phone to UT which I plan to be Google-free.

It basically depends on you. Ubuntu Touch for now is compatible with very few and somewhat old devices (check up the website). It is not as polished as Android, and there are quite fewer apps available. Even for supported devices, there are shortcomings. Are you willing to purchase a used phone to install UT on? That's about the only option for now, but if you're willing to wait, there are two new Linux phones being developed that should run UT; they should be released for mass production in 2020. Look for PinePhone and Librem5 topics on the forum.

I purchased a used OnePlus One myself last month, switched my SIM card from my Android device to it 2 days ago. I really like UT, even with its shortcomings, I want to support the project.

Another choice you have is to install an Android derived OS on your current phone, based on Android Open Source Project like LineageOS, and devoid of Google apps; provided your device is supported. I'll tell you though, UT is much easier to install thanks to its GUI installer. And AOSP is still controlled by Google.

Edit:
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/2403/pinephone/273
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/898/librem-5-phone-progress-reports

@3T_Ed said in PinePhone Latest Update:

I would consider the Pinephone as a replacement for the OPO. It seems to me the relatively small group of devs have gone through great length to get UT working on Pinephone, great job!

That's what I did. I've run Ubuntu Touch on an OPO purchased used for almost a year now, and I can't wait for my Pinephone to be ready to take its place. The OPO has superior specs but it's riddled with issues I am sick to death with. Randomly losing wifi, losing auto-rotate both necessiting a reboot; but battery indicator stuck at 50% after reboot, I need to reboot up to 10 times in a row before it goes back to normal.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, this is supposed to be about the Pinephone... I know it's going to take a while to iron out the issues.

@mooncosmique said in Back Up?:

The .vcf option has already worked out for me as far as getting contact info to my phones, but I can't see a way to create a .vcf in UT. Could you please give me some directions as to how to? That would be an acceptable way for me to store and recover contact info.

Hi,

As far as I could find on the forum, you have two ways to back up your contacts (other than from a terminal) :

• Backup the SQLite database file in /home/phablet/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/system/contacts.db
• Open the Contacts app, and manually select all your contacts - press and hold on one contact entry in the list to reveal checkboxes (this will be tedious if you have many, I haven't found a way to make multiple selections), then click on the Share icon in the top bar. You'll be asked to select an application to share with, choose the Files app. Next navigate to where you want to save and confirm, a ubuntu-contacts.vcf file will be created.

Source: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/1661/how-to-copy-contacts-from-tablet-to-phone-without-surrendering-them-to-google
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/603/restore-ut-ota-15-data-backup-meizu-mx4-to-ubports-ota-2-nexus-5

@rinigus
Sorry for not creating the issue.

@FishFingers44 said in Syncthing:

Hi

When is syncthing going to be updated for the new UBTouch?

When somebody volunteers to update it.

The problem is well known on the Nexus 5 (it's one of the reasons that made me procure an OPO). I wasn't aware the same issue existed on the FP2. It's not listed on the open issues.

https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A"device%3A+FP2"+label%3Abug

Hello,

This issue was mentioned in this topic, but there was no reply - and since this topic discussed many different issues, I figure it be best to create a dedicated one.

On map websites using OpenStreetMap data, I cannot find a way to pan or zoom the map.

• Pinching with two fingers on the screen zooms the whole page rather than the map window.
• Swiping one or two fingers produces no effect for panning.

The result is that the following sites are basically unusable:

• https://www.openstreetmap.org
• https://maps.openrouteservice.org
• https://gpxstudio.github.io/
• GpxPod app in Nextcloud (you can check out this gpx trace on my personal Nextcloud server)

This issue can be reproduced on the following two devices:

• OnePlus One running the RC channel (currently 2020-W33 / 20200809-26523 UBports image)
• Pinephone running the Development channel (2020-08-13/2 / 20200809-31327 UBports image)

Of course Activity Tracker and Pure Maps can import gpx traces, but they can't edit them. Also, neither uNav nor Pure Maps support multiple destinations in trips.

I doubt there is a workaround available, but I'd be willing to hear it if there's one.

Should I create an issue on the tracker? (I have no idea where to)

Thanks!

@danqo6 said in Web browser alternative:

In OTA-13 there will be upgraded chromium core from around v62 to version 77, it is improvement in performance and compatibility. It will bring better text selection too.

Hello,

Do you know if this updated version is in RC yet, or is it still on the Dev channel?

Thanks.

@3T_Ed said in PinePhone Latest Update:

I would consider the Pinephone as a replacement for the OPO. It seems to me the relatively small group of devs have gone through great length to get UT working on Pinephone, great job!

That's what I did. I've run Ubuntu Touch on an OPO purchased used for almost a year now, and I can't wait for my Pinephone to be ready to take its place. The OPO has superior specs but it's riddled with issues I am sick to death with. Randomly losing wifi, losing auto-rotate both necessiting a reboot; but battery indicator stuck at 50% after reboot, I need to reboot up to 10 times in a row before it goes back to normal.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, this is supposed to be about the Pinephone... I know it's going to take a while to iron out the issues.

@dobey
It cannot be the "best way" when you cannot actually open the OSK. It is for example impossible to select and copy text off a web page (as is the OP's issue) to paste in another app. Recently I had no choice but to retype a block of text manually, it is quite tedious.

@poVoq said in I can't connect to mastodon any longer (uMastonauts):

By the way, if anyone wants to work on an offline and multi account client for Mastodon, Pinaforce would be a really good base: https://pinafore.social/

Thanks for the suggestion! I just tried it with my account, it seems quite fast, and the scrollbar on the right side is wide enough to actually be able to use it! (so far I'd found nearly no usable scrollbars on UT because they were all so thin they're impossible to grab)

I might make a webapp of it for myself with Webber.

In my opinion this is a UT limitation. Any content where you're trying to select text (web page in Morph browser, or any web app) will behave that way. It's only within the on-screen keyboard that you can select whatever string of text you want. It's been like this for me since I started using UT 4 months ago.

No issue either. I'm on the RC channel (if that matters), and in uMastonauts I use the fosstodon.org instance.

@PINE64 said in PinePhone:

Answering the question regarding pace of PinePhone BH sales. There are two ways to look at it - a positive way and a less positive way.

The BH edition took a little more time to sell than I initially thought, but hey, it did get sold out, right? So I think this is really good news, and encouraging for the next phase. The more so if you guys manage to have the
attachable keyboard ready by then. I'm sure it's going to be a huge inticement!

Fact is, I had the PinePhone product page opened up in a tab of my phone's browser for a few days, when I finally decided to take the plunge it was too late (I wouldn't have hesitated if the keyboard had been available as well!)

What has me most concerned is not the hardware, but the software. As far as I understand it, UT is the FOSS OS the most ready, and already in use (it's been my daily driver for the past 3-4 months). But it's riddled with annoyances and missing important stuff that means one must really, really be dedicated to use it. Not unlike the state of desktop Linux 12 years ago. I fear it may deter a lot of potential buyers once the final PinePhone is released.

@dreamwebspace
Odd, I use Keepit without issue, it opens kdbx files.
My only wish is that it would allow creating new entries. I have to create them on my desktop, then upload the updated file to my phone.

I tried Keepweb but couldn't make it work.

@Marathon2422
I have no idea what straighttalk is.