We're going to release Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 earlier than schedule to fix a number of security issues affecting Pulseaudio, our audio server. One of the issue affects privacy of Ubuntu Touch users, and thus we've decided to release an out-of-schedule update.

The issues are as follow:

• Confined applications can remove the Trust Store permission system module from Pulseaudio, allowing such applications to access the phone's microphone without user knowing, amongst a number of privileged actions.
• Confined applications are able to crash Pulseaudio by performing a volume control on a specific virtual device when a Bluetooth headset is connected.

Both of the issues are specific to the way Ubuntu Touch patches and uses Pulseaudio. However, the second issue has a potential to affect some Ubuntu 16.04 installations running non-default configuration (newer versions are not affected). As such, we've coordinated with Canonical on the timing before making this announcement.

Due to the way our release pipeline works, Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 will also contain a number of fixes which are not related to the aforementioned issues. Thus, we'll release an RC for 20.04 OTA-7 in upcoming days and we'll announce a call-for-testing. We plan to release Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 on Friday 29 November 2024.

Updated: Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 RC is out, which should have version 2024-W47. Please take some time to switch your spare/development phone to the 20.04 RC channel and test this OTA.

Update: Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 is released. Thank you everyone involved in testing.

I just realize that there has been a lack of a long-form communication from the Ubuntu base upgrade side, which causes some frictions and confusions when trying to contribute to Ubuntu Touch during this transition period. This post aims to provide status updates and information that I think everyone has to know.

Name changes for Noble-based images

Due to some confusion in the word devel which has been used differently before, I've decided to rename the word devel that is used in various places to just next or utnext. In practice, this means:

• The image name from the rootfs job will be in the format of e.g. ubuntu-touch-android9plus-rootfs-next-arm64.tar.gz
• The system-image channel for testing out Noble-based is now called utnext/arm64/android9plus/daily. Note that we've set up redirection in place, so if you're already on the old channel, you'll automatically be redirected to this new name.
• The Clickable images (which we're still working on) will be available under the version next.

The name next is chosen to represent that this will become the "next" major release of Ubuntu Touch. When we enters the phase where we stabilize the release, we'll produce another set of channels, rootfs and Clickable images with the release number (which is yet to be finalized).

Status of Noble-based Ubuntu Touch

Since the last time I made a forum post, the following features has become usable:

• Web Browser
• Media Playback
• Sensor

This may seem not much, but more features are already in the code review phase. It could even be possible that we'll have the image in the state ready for wider testing before the Chrismas. We'll see...

Please be careful when submitting changes to core applications

Mike Gabriel and his team is currently working to package up a number of UT/Lomiri core applications for Debian, making them available on a more up-to-date OS with newer Qt compared to Ubuntu 20.04 our current images are based on. Meanwhile, our Noble-based Ubuntu Touch image is start to be more usable. Both of these expose our applications to new warnings which has not appeared before on Ubuntu Touch 20.04 with Qt 5.12.

However, in many cases, the only way to solve those warnings is to migrate the code to the new syntax. Syntax which is not compatible with Qt 5.12. In particular, those syntax changes include:

• Using function onFoo () { } form for Connection { } component.
• Setting restoreMode property of Binding { } component.

Since we've not make a separated branch for 20.04 just yet (and we can't do so because Clickable support for Noble-based Ubuntu Touch is not available yet), please don't introduce those changes into our core application repositories (more specifically, repositories under "ubports/development/apps" GitLab group). We've yet to decided if we need a separated branch for Ubuntu Touch 20.04 compatibility, but personally I would prefer that we don't need one.

Also, please be reminded that these applications are first and foremost core applications for Ubuntu Touch. When submitting changes for them, please be mindful of this fact. When reviewing changes, please think of a possible breakage on phone (and wrt. Click packaging). Preferably test them on a phone first if the change seems big.

Side note: we're planing to ship an environment variable drop-in file to silence deprecation warnings for the 2 syntax changes above. This should ease your eyes when reading through the log on the device.

Heads up for porters: please drop touch.pa overlay if possible

We expect ports that are available on Ubuntu Touch 20.04 to require only minimal changes in order to run on Noble-based Ubuntu Touch (unlike the 16.04 -> 20.04 transition). We've yet to finalize all changes that will be required. However, one change is certain: touch.pa will have to be updated, or be dropped if possible.

This is due to how a newer Pulseaudio changes how it handles Bluetooth audio, requiring us to update the configuration for the Bluetooth module. However, if touch.pa file is overlaid from ports, the old configuration would be used, preventing voice call over Bluetooth headset to work properly.

If your port requires overlaying touch.pa to hard-code the API level of pulseaudio-module-droid to 30, then you'll be glad to know that it will no longer required when MR at [1] is merged, as it will now happen automatically when required. If, however, your port requires overlaying touch.pa to specify quirks to pulseaudio-module-droid, we'll soon provide a way to specify this quirk without overlaying touch.pa. And if you need to overlay touch.pa for other reasons, please tell us so that we can understand your need better.

[1]: https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/hybris-support/pulseaudio-module-droid-discover/-/merge_requests/6

Another thing that might require special consideration is that, if your port overlays binary files (which we would not recommend, for security update reason and other reasons), please make sure that your overlaid binary can be executed on Noble-based images, as not every library retains its interface and/or soname.

Heads-up for app developers: you'll need to re-build your app

Due to changes in Ubuntu 24.04, we cannot guarantee that every application built against Ubuntu Touch 20.04 will run on Noble-based Ubuntu Touch. As such, we'll enforce it through Click's framework system that every native applications must be re-built against the next Ubuntu Touch version.

However, we've not finalized how the Clickable support for the new release scheme will look like. So you can't quite do that just yet. Sorry for the delay.

Meanwhile, if your application is QML-only, and the Click package declare this fact through Click framework (i.e. by using ubuntu-sdk-20.04-qml framework), your application should work as-is without any change. However, due to a shortcoming in Clickable, you might not be able to do that just yet. Please follow issue at [2] to see if this has been solved.

[2]: https://gitlab.com/clickable/clickable/-/issues/444

---

Phew! That's a lot of stuffs. I didn't expect it to be this long when I first decided to sit down and start writing this up. But here we are.

If you still have any question, feel free to reply to this post or to ping me on Telegram in the "UBports Development" channel. I'll try to answer as much as I can.

For those that are interested in development of Noble-based Ubuntu Touch, we've now published a new system-image channel devel/arm64/android9plus/daily, available on most devices which has 20.04 devel image [1]. You can switch to it using the following command:

sudo system-image-cli -v --progress=dots --switch=devel/arm64/android9plus/daily

The channel has actually been existed for some time. However, up until today images are available only on a handful of devices due to system-image server configuration limitation. Note that I haven't tested the images on devices other than a handful of devices I have, so please make sure you have a way to recover your phone before trying this.

Note that at the time of posting, the Noble-based images are still missing quite a number of functionalities. At the moment, the following features are either known to be not working, or is not tested but is likely not to be working:

• Web browser
• Media playback
• Camera
• Libertine
• Sensor
• Push notification
• Dialer, Messaging UI
• Hotspot

If you're interested in helping bringing up these features to Noble-based images, please ping me either here or on Telegram.

Do not install this image on your daily driving phone. Things will be broken. You have been warned.

[1]: more specifically, devices with 64-bit ARM architecture and Halium 9 or newer.

This is the followup from my previous call-for-testing. This time, in addition to updated PulseAudio from 16.04, this also includes:

• a fix to Bluez which should improve the experience for users that use a Bluetooth headset for calling.
• an update to the modern pulseaudio-module-droid to make sure they work with the updated version.

All devices are welcome to participate in the test.

How to test:

Make sure your device runs the latest devel image. Run the following command in the ADB shell or SSH session:

# Mount a tmpfs so apt can breathe
sudo mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/cache/apt/archives 
# Prevent Bluez from restarting & get stuck.
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
sudo tee /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d >/dev/null <<EOF
#!/bin/sh
exit 101
EOF
sudo chmod +x /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
# Actually install the packages.
sudo ubports-qa install xenial_-_pulseaudio-updates-to-0ubuntu3.10
# Reboot the phone.
sudo reboot; exit

What to test:

See if there's any regression in both built-in speaker, wired headset, and Bluetooth headset. If possible, use a Bluetooth headset that can be in both music mode (hi-fidelity audio) and call mode (low-latency 2-way audio).

Two possible regressions that can happen are

• issue #528 ([xenial] Sound does not go to bluetooth headset)
• a call via Bluetooth does work but cuts off after a few seconds

I believe they're fixed, but please report if you encountered these issues.

Also, if you have a Bluetooth headset with an accept/hangup button, try pressing the button while in call and see if the call hangs up. Accepting the call or last number redial might not work, and is a known issue.

You may want to also follow this test plan from Canonical if you want to be extra sure there's no issue. However, even in the current version of PulseAudio, not all tests in this test plan pass. Thus, you may want to double-check if it's a regression or not.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Process/Merges/TestPlan/pulseaudio

If you found any issue/regression:

Luckily, someone has written a script that automates enabling, disabling, and collecting debug logs [1]. It's located at https://github.com/bergotorino/bt-debugging-tools

To enable debugging, run ./bt-device-enable.sh -e -p <lockscreen password>. The device will reboot automatically. Then, after reproducing the issue, run ./bt-collect-logs.sh <password>. A tarball will be produced. Please send that to me via PM or Telegram (@peat_psuwit) as it can contain sensitive information. Please also mention the brands of all devices you used to test in the PM; they'll be used to match up with what's in the log.

To disable debugging, run ./bt-device-enable.sh -d -p <password>

[1] For devices with ADB anyway. If you use a Halium 7.1 devices without ADB, you may take a look at the script, or you can ask me.

Known issues:

• The issue that the playing streams won't switch to the headset after a re-connect/connecting another device is issue #1045. The fix requires that this update works first. To workaround, please close and reopen the app playing the sound.
• Even though using the button on the headset to hangup work, using it to accept a call or redial might not work.
• It's been reported that Bluetooth on OnePlus One is unstable in general. Thus, you may want to skip testing Bluetooth on this particular device.

We've just released the RC image for the Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-5, which should have version 2024-W30 or newer. Please take some time to switch your spare/development phone to the 20.04 RC channel and test this OTA.

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-5 is a maintenance release with only a minimal number of changes. That said, we still have a number of changes in this OTA. Please have a look if:

• The battery life, compared to the previous OTA, doesn't not get worse.
• There's no settings being overwritten (you don't have to be exhaustive. Just report if you remembered a setting being different before receiving this update).
• Morph Browser works as well as it was in the previous OTA (please don't report known website incompatibilities).

Please note that only critical and security fixes will be able to enter Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-5 as this point. Normal bug fixes and new features will need to wait for our next release. Please do not discuss normal bug fixes and new features here.

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-5 is expected to be released on 29 July 2024. We appreciate all testing we will receive.

Hello jEzEk,

There are both technical and societal reasons as to why we have decided to not accept new features into the Xenial line of update anymore, even the ones which is developed against Xenial and is near ready.

First, the technical reason: due to a large number of changes involve in making all Ubuntu Touch components works with the new version of Ubuntu, compound with desire to realize the rename in this release, we've decided early on to have a separated branch of code for almost every component we have. Unfortunately, this resulted in a largely separated development between Xenial and Focal, and while one is busy making a component runs on Focal, another proceeds to add new features onto the existing codebase on Xenial. And because we didn't realize this problem early enough, this means now we have quite a backlog to visit. Also, since the code diverged a lot since we start the branches for Focal, sometimes it's not straight forward to port changes to Focal. So, limiting the amount of changes that enters Xenial directly reduces the amount of work needed to make Ubuntu Touch based on Focal a reality.

Now, the societal reason: as mentioned by many people above, we're a small group of people and unfortunately can't do everything at once. In addition to adding the amount of changes we need to carry to Focal, time spent reviewing changes for Xenial is time not spent developing or reviewing changes for Focal. Given that Xenial has been out of support for over a year at this point, it has become our priority to provide our users with the up-to-date base for the security of our users, and that means we need to reduce as much work as possible.

In addition, many people might consider Focal complete when it reaches feature parity to Xenial. However, if more changes keeps being added to Xenial, it becomes harder to realize that objective. Having to chase a moving target is not fun, and personally I already have that feeling when I realized that the contact backend changes will land in OTA-24. Fortunately that didn't happen in the end, but even for smaller features it can easily be unexpectedly hard to bring to Focal.

So, please accept my apology that we cannot accept more changes into Xenial line of update anymore. We want to have an up-to-date and secure operating system, and we cannot have that with an out-of-date base.

---

On the side of device support, the primary limiting factor at the moment is due to the inevitable change of the init system from Upstart to Systemd. Systemd uses a number of modern features of Linux kernel, and as such requires a (moderately) modern Linux kernel. The version of systemd requires Linux >= 3.13, however the recent version raised that a bit.

It's possible to backport certain changes into an older kernel to make systemd runs, but it's a tedious manual task that has to be done per kernel tree [1]. A rule of thumb is that if the device launches with Android 9 it should be fine, but for older devices one must check the Linux kernel version.

[1] For example, I've done such job on FP2, which allows me to run an old image of Plasma Mobile which uses systemd.

Starting from Monday 18 December 2023, I'll start to brutally archive GitHub projects in ubports group that should have been archived for some time. This includes (but isn't limited to) unity8 and indicator-*, amongst others (probably).

By brutally, I mean I'll archive them without further modifications to the repository. No updating README, no issues & PRs closing, no per-issue notification, and no further migration. The only change I'll make with archiving is modifying the description so that it points to the relevant, migrated repo (our GitLab for most, but AyatanaIndicators when applicable).

We once planned to actually use GitLab's migration tool to migrate those repos over, and then notify each of the issue and PR of the new location of it. However, as we (accidentally?) create a new, corresponding repo on GitLab, migrating the repo from GitHub suddenly becomes more complicated. As such, I've decided that it's no longer worth an effort to do the migration, as code-wise, we're pretty much self-hosted on GitLab now.

Some repository will still live on GitHub and won't yet be archived in this round. This includes installer-config, build-tools, and various Android trees. Efforts are being made to migrate the rest of repositories to GitHub, to avoid confusions in the future.

If you happen to have some issue filed on GitHub that will be archived, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. If it still occurs on Focal, today, please file a new issue on GitLab. We now have a meta-repo for issues, so please go to https://gitlab.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch for new issues.

As announced on the blog, we will start creating ubports/focal on our git repositories. I intend to start creating these branches on 14 February 2024, 18:00 UTC.

This post serves as an FAQ for both the announcement and for the upcoming branching, as well as the place to ask additional questions.

What is the scope of this branch creation?

For this round, it will include most Git repositories under ubports/development/core GitLab group. Since I expect that most applications, including core apps, should not require much changes for 24.04 base upgrade, I've decided that I won't create branches for core apps for now. Should the need arise, we can decide later.

Also excluded in this round is repositories under ubports/development/core/packaging, which contains ubports/focal branch but not ubports/latest. Since this usually means the packaging is not applicable if the base changes, we will probably want to start a new ubports/latest from scratch instead of forking from current ubports/focal.

What will happen with the CI after branching?

At the moment of branching, hopefully nothing. I will config Jenkins so that it ignore new branches, so new builds should not be triggered because of this. I will actively monitor Jenkins to ensure this, and will cancel any excess jobs that happen because of branch creation.

After that, new commits added to ubports/focal will be built & published to the Focal APT archive on repo.ubports.com as expected. However, new commits added to main will fail to build with No distro is included in multidist. Maybe "main" shouldn't exist?. This is expected, since our CI code isn't yet updated to support new branching scheme. Updating CI code is the next on my agenda.

What about focal_-_<extension> branches? What do you mean by "explicit dependency declaration"?

Since the "branch extension" concept doesn't translate well into the new branching model, it was decided to drop this out of the specification. While the old ubports/focal_-_<extension> will continue to work (grandfathered), do not expect this to be the case for future releases.

As for "explicit dependency declaration", the plan is to let you specify the dependent MRs in the MR description, and the CI will read that description and pull in that MR's APT archive. I will work on this as part of CI code work. Long term, I would prefer that we also get GitLab's MR dependencies, but GitLab is still figuring out how to expose that via API.

How will you create all the branches across all repositories?

The creation of the branches is automated using this Python script. It talks to GitLab API to fetch the current status of all repositories, then decides what branch to create (and from what branch). It then asks for confirmation, and when confirmed, create all the branches. The script is designed to be idempotent, and take into account that some repositories have ubports/focal branch but not main.

What will happen with the devel system-image channel?

At the moment, nothing. Since our devel channels are already prefixed, the 20.04/*/*/devel channels will continue to receive Focal-based images, which subsequently will continue to be built from focal APT archive.

I have not decided the new system-image channel to publish the noble-based images yet.

The new CI code is now fully functional, and will build packages against both Ubuntu Noble and Debian testing. So we can now accept MRs again!

Note that since I start the new APT archive here, a few dependencies are still missing and your MR may still fail. I'm working to bootstrap the most important dependencies. Also, I've configured the CI so that the failure against Debian testing is not fatal (but will show up as "unstable"). However, due to GitLab's limitation it may show up in GitLab as failure. Please take Jenkin's comment in the MR as it gives more detailed status.

The rule that everything must land in main branch first still apply. After an MR is merged, we can have the MR backported to the ubports/focal branch if wanted. I'm working on wiring up the backport automation, but in the mean time I can also run the backport automation manually.

I'll work to document everything up by this week. In the mean time, if you have any questions or the CI is not working as expected, please ping me on Telegram. Also, if you have a fix that you want to land into Focal image quickly, please also ping me so that I prioritize fixing that component's dependencies.

This is a Halium 7.1 based port for Fairphone 2. The current port is based on Android 5.1 and has quite a few band-aids and workarounds. This port is completely new and isn't based on the current port.

Sources:
Kernel: https://github.com/Halium/android_kernel_fairphone_msm8974/tree/halium-7.1
Device: https://github.com/Halium/android_device_fairphone_FP2/tree/halium-7.1_ubuntu
Manifest: https://github.com/Halium/halium-devices/blob/halium-7.1/manifests/fairphone_FP2.xml (This manifest doesn't point to the Ubuntu Touch additions. Add revision="refs/heads/halium-7.1_ubuntu" to the device tree tag to retrieve them.)

Status:

• Working:
  • Display, Wi-Fi, Audio, Battery indicator, Bluetooth, Video playback, Vibration, GPS, Accelerometer
  • Camera (Needs gst-droid, see the instruction in another post.)
  • Audio (Headphone detection now works correctly.)
  • Cellular (Both SIM slots work. Voice call, SMS, MMS, mobile data works.)
  • Front LED (fixed in the rootfs)
• Not working:
  • Flashlight
  • Abysmal battery life with the Wi-Fi on.

Install:
No prebuilt image has been made yet. Thus, you're required to build the image from source.

I just realize that there has been a lack of a long-form communication from the Ubuntu base upgrade side, which causes some frictions and confusions when trying to contribute to Ubuntu Touch during this transition period. This post aims to provide status updates and information that I think everyone has to know.

Name changes for Noble-based images

Due to some confusion in the word devel which has been used differently before, I've decided to rename the word devel that is used in various places to just next or utnext. In practice, this means:

• The image name from the rootfs job will be in the format of e.g. ubuntu-touch-android9plus-rootfs-next-arm64.tar.gz
• The system-image channel for testing out Noble-based is now called utnext/arm64/android9plus/daily. Note that we've set up redirection in place, so if you're already on the old channel, you'll automatically be redirected to this new name.
• The Clickable images (which we're still working on) will be available under the version next.

The name next is chosen to represent that this will become the "next" major release of Ubuntu Touch. When we enters the phase where we stabilize the release, we'll produce another set of channels, rootfs and Clickable images with the release number (which is yet to be finalized).

Status of Noble-based Ubuntu Touch

Since the last time I made a forum post, the following features has become usable:

• Web Browser
• Media Playback
• Sensor

This may seem not much, but more features are already in the code review phase. It could even be possible that we'll have the image in the state ready for wider testing before the Chrismas. We'll see...

Please be careful when submitting changes to core applications

Mike Gabriel and his team is currently working to package up a number of UT/Lomiri core applications for Debian, making them available on a more up-to-date OS with newer Qt compared to Ubuntu 20.04 our current images are based on. Meanwhile, our Noble-based Ubuntu Touch image is start to be more usable. Both of these expose our applications to new warnings which has not appeared before on Ubuntu Touch 20.04 with Qt 5.12.

However, in many cases, the only way to solve those warnings is to migrate the code to the new syntax. Syntax which is not compatible with Qt 5.12. In particular, those syntax changes include:

• Using function onFoo () { } form for Connection { } component.
• Setting restoreMode property of Binding { } component.

Since we've not make a separated branch for 20.04 just yet (and we can't do so because Clickable support for Noble-based Ubuntu Touch is not available yet), please don't introduce those changes into our core application repositories (more specifically, repositories under "ubports/development/apps" GitLab group). We've yet to decided if we need a separated branch for Ubuntu Touch 20.04 compatibility, but personally I would prefer that we don't need one.

Also, please be reminded that these applications are first and foremost core applications for Ubuntu Touch. When submitting changes for them, please be mindful of this fact. When reviewing changes, please think of a possible breakage on phone (and wrt. Click packaging). Preferably test them on a phone first if the change seems big.

Side note: we're planing to ship an environment variable drop-in file to silence deprecation warnings for the 2 syntax changes above. This should ease your eyes when reading through the log on the device.

Heads up for porters: please drop touch.pa overlay if possible

We expect ports that are available on Ubuntu Touch 20.04 to require only minimal changes in order to run on Noble-based Ubuntu Touch (unlike the 16.04 -> 20.04 transition). We've yet to finalize all changes that will be required. However, one change is certain: touch.pa will have to be updated, or be dropped if possible.

This is due to how a newer Pulseaudio changes how it handles Bluetooth audio, requiring us to update the configuration for the Bluetooth module. However, if touch.pa file is overlaid from ports, the old configuration would be used, preventing voice call over Bluetooth headset to work properly.

If your port requires overlaying touch.pa to hard-code the API level of pulseaudio-module-droid to 30, then you'll be glad to know that it will no longer required when MR at [1] is merged, as it will now happen automatically when required. If, however, your port requires overlaying touch.pa to specify quirks to pulseaudio-module-droid, we'll soon provide a way to specify this quirk without overlaying touch.pa. And if you need to overlay touch.pa for other reasons, please tell us so that we can understand your need better.

[1]: https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/hybris-support/pulseaudio-module-droid-discover/-/merge_requests/6

Another thing that might require special consideration is that, if your port overlays binary files (which we would not recommend, for security update reason and other reasons), please make sure that your overlaid binary can be executed on Noble-based images, as not every library retains its interface and/or soname.

Heads-up for app developers: you'll need to re-build your app

Due to changes in Ubuntu 24.04, we cannot guarantee that every application built against Ubuntu Touch 20.04 will run on Noble-based Ubuntu Touch. As such, we'll enforce it through Click's framework system that every native applications must be re-built against the next Ubuntu Touch version.

However, we've not finalized how the Clickable support for the new release scheme will look like. So you can't quite do that just yet. Sorry for the delay.

Meanwhile, if your application is QML-only, and the Click package declare this fact through Click framework (i.e. by using ubuntu-sdk-20.04-qml framework), your application should work as-is without any change. However, due to a shortcoming in Clickable, you might not be able to do that just yet. Please follow issue at [2] to see if this has been solved.

[2]: https://gitlab.com/clickable/clickable/-/issues/444

---

Phew! That's a lot of stuffs. I didn't expect it to be this long when I first decided to sit down and start writing this up. But here we are.

If you still have any question, feel free to reply to this post or to ping me on Telegram in the "UBports Development" channel. I'll try to answer as much as I can.

@domubpkm I'm sorry I didn't notice this before start rolling out. However, since this should be able to be remedied later via Open-Store, I've decided to not holding back the system update.

I personally am unable to reproduce the crash, but maybe I don't understand the reproduction steps well. Could you please elaborate more on this at Music app's issue tracker?

https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/apps/lomiri-music-app/-/issues

As for the Music app being unable to re-install, please help us gathering the log and then follow the workaround at:

https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/click/-/issues/27

(Music app's click package id is music.ubports)

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 is released. Thank you everyone involved in testing.

https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-7-focal-release-3943

@Kinuk We've not encountered any application trying to exploit this yet. That said, because Pulseaudio (the audio server) doesn't log a successful attempt at loading/unloading modules, should any application try to exploit this, there would be no evidence that we can see. This is one of the reason we've decided to roll out this update as soon as possible.

We're going to release Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 earlier than schedule to fix a number of security issues affecting Pulseaudio, our audio server. One of the issue affects privacy of Ubuntu Touch users, and thus we've decided to release an out-of-schedule update.

The issues are as follow:

• Confined applications can remove the Trust Store permission system module from Pulseaudio, allowing such applications to access the phone's microphone without user knowing, amongst a number of privileged actions.
• Confined applications are able to crash Pulseaudio by performing a volume control on a specific virtual device when a Bluetooth headset is connected.

Both of the issues are specific to the way Ubuntu Touch patches and uses Pulseaudio. However, the second issue has a potential to affect some Ubuntu 16.04 installations running non-default configuration (newer versions are not affected). As such, we've coordinated with Canonical on the timing before making this announcement.

Due to the way our release pipeline works, Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 will also contain a number of fixes which are not related to the aforementioned issues. Thus, we'll release an RC for 20.04 OTA-7 in upcoming days and we'll announce a call-for-testing. We plan to release Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 on Friday 29 November 2024.

Updated: Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 RC is out, which should have version 2024-W47. Please take some time to switch your spare/development phone to the 20.04 RC channel and test this OTA.

Update: Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-7 is released. Thank you everyone involved in testing.

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-6 is released. Thank you everyone involved in testing.

https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-6-focal-release-3942

@Charly Thank you for testing.

@wally Thank you for testing. Whether or not MMS works on Ubuntu Touch with Wi-Fi on depends on how the carrier configure their MMS service. This issue contains all relevant information.

@Charly Hmm Ok. Could you please get the updater's log, available at /var/log/system-image/client.log? The file is restricted to root only, so use sudo to gain access to it.

sudo cat /var/log/system-image/client.log >client.log

@Charly the Updates page has been known to have some flakiness that we can't quite figure out yet. Could you please try clearing the updater's cache by pressing the bin icon on the top right (next to the cog wheel)?