Supporter of literacy and language development for communities around the world using http://www.WastaLinux.org Formerly in Ethiopia, currently in the USA. እንኳን ደሀና መጣችሁ
@ubportsnews there have been different comments here and there on some possible contract work for enabling VoLTE being undertaken by someone outside the core development team. Can you comment on or link to this work so we could have a better understanding of it?
Since it seems a solution may need to be a combination of software + firmware support will it be a case-by-case basis to have devices support VoLTE or will it be able to be enabled for all Halium 9+ devices for example?
Is there any consideration in having a separate build that is not a read-only filesystem, e.g. more of a standard Ubuntu install? If there were something like that, I would think it could stand as the main development branch that would allow faster upgrade to 20.04 / wayland / systemd / etc. Then it could be a testing ground that new releases of the "stable" or "consumer" read-only system would come from.
It would also not frustrate any potential developers who want "standard Linux on a phone" (mobian, manjaro, fedora, etc.).
In summary, I understand a lot of the reasons behind the read-only system for stability, for security, for end users, etc. but I fear it keeps away possible developer interest that would benefit Ubuntu Touch in the long run if it were more "traditional Ubuntu" on a phone?
People could be trying all sorts of things like flatpak / snap / different apps, etc. I know there is Libertine but there is some performance issues and it isn't available everywhere, etc. So take the chains off and see what happens? I suspect a large growth of the community (???)
"Don't worry, your grandfather died doing this work!"
That was a strange way I was greeted one even in Khartoum, Sudan, in 2010 as it was well past sunset and I was still working away on the network infrastructure at the NGO I was volunteering with. The speaker was this elderly Sudanese man who was encouraging me that I couldn't get it all done in one night, so take some rest. His words sounded funny though because my first thought was: "Huh? My grandfather didn't know anything about running CAT5!?!" but as I thought about it what he was saying was "you can't do it all, there will always be more to do than 1 person can do." In some ways that is "fatalistic thinking": will we never make it?? But it is also true.
So this is what I am acknowledging and passing on to you to, good sir:
"Don't worry, your grandfather died trying to get 20.04 out the door." 
So, wishing you a good break and a re-kindling of passion. We will make it with help from the community that ebbs and flows but continues on.... it may not be as you thought it would be when you first took on the reigns as Development Manager, but you have led us a long way, and you deserve some rest and acknowledgement that your effort was so appreciated by so many.
Thanks to recent developments, SMS and MMS fixes for users of various Halium 9 ports such as the Pixel 3a (XL), OnePlus 6, and others make it possible to get reliable SMS and MMS (only with wifi disabled right now) working for North American carriers, which previously had not been consistent.
SMS
MMS
Step 1: Apply MMS patches
Step 2: Install updated ofono and ofono-scripts packages.
Somehow get a terminal running on your device: recommended is enabling developer mode in System Settings > About then using adb shell when connected to a computer via USB-C. Otherwise, you could connect via ssh [if you have that set up](link url).
Run these commands:
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
wget https://ci.ubports.com/job/ubports/job/ofono/job/xenial_-_android9_-_usissue/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/ofono-scripts_1.21+ubports1+0~20210819100145.2~1.gbpb9f999_all.deb
wget https://ci.ubports.com/job/ubports/job/ofono/job/xenial_-_android9_-_usissue/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/ofono_1.21+ubports1+0~20210819100145.2~1.gbpb9f999_arm64.deb
sudo apt install --reinstall ./ofono*.deb
Step 3: Reboot
Again, at this time, MMS send and receive only work with wifi disabled. If you have issues with your APN Settings then try to Reset ALL APN Settigns, reboot, and re-enter them based on your carrier specifications. Note that another bug prevents setting Internet and MMS as the APN type: use MMS only, but do NOT create a duplicate APN for Internet in this case: 2 APN entries with the same APN will cause MMS to not work! So effectively, in this case, just set up the APN for MMS only and Internet should also work.
Join the UBPorts [North America Carrier Issues] if you need interactive support in getting SMS / MMS working.
Thanks again to everyone for the hard work. I am a big supporter of this work, but am a bit lost: the recent work seems to be focused around multi-window, etc. for desktop, which I would think is 2nd level priority over getting apps to work well "full screen" for phones. Is it all needing to be done at the same time, or can enough polish be made for phone users first, then those testers and feedback can inform desktop work as a 2nd stage? Maybe phone use is already polished enough, but I have thought it isn't ready to test yet?
@lsitongia OK that is some progress, with the PRODATA for Internet APN entry. There are some MMS patches getting made as we speak, they are being targeted for OTA-21.
Again, the ofono 28 linked above for a "combined APN" (for "Internet + MMS") isn't quite ready but will further improve things when it gets in: I am currently using it and it works well (I can get MMS on 3G now, couldn't before with separate APN for MMS and Internet), but it will reset APN entries often (so I needed to edit the "defaults" so when they are deleted and reset they are still correct) so there are some bugs / blockers. Defaults come from /usr/share/mobile-broadband-provider-info/serviceproviders.xml
@lsitongia By having 2 APN entries with the same APN value it will not work: UT will get (and stay) confused that way. You need different values for both of them. What we with T-Mobile / US Mobile (reseller) are doing is using the T-Mobile "Internet" APN (epc.tmobile.com) and the US Mobile / mvno APN entry for MMS: pwg.
Since yours are both ERESELLER it will confuse things. So for you to get it working you need to put a different value in your APN for internet (get the "stock" ATT one for example and see if cellular data still works).
Hopefully in the near future the patch to allow combined contexts (so you can have 1 APN entry for "Internet + MMS") will work, here is the conversation on that one: https://github.com/ubports/ofono/pull/28
I don't know what to say about how it IS working for you with wifi on, that is a positive surprise!
Lastly, about Group MMS being received as indivdual messages, I only recently learned myself how to "properly" create a Group MMS in UT: you don't do it by adding separate numbers in the "to" field in the new message screen. Instead you click the "group people icon" to the far right, then add people there. It will display "New MMS Group". So please do test doing that, then test again sending group MMS to those people. Hopefully they are willing to put up with you while you send and have them reply to test messages
@joshndroid thanks for starting the thread.
All developers and contributors, thank you for everything you have done to bring us to where we are today with Ubuntu Touch.
Erfan posted this reply to my above question on telegram:
"Hey i was just going to reply your post in forums that noticed you are already in group so if u don't mind i'll answer here
first of all thank you very much for your support, really appriciated 
but recently focus was in finalizing application managment in display instead of a full android screen
for weekly report i just said said multi-windowing but in reality the work behind of it was more for detecting/selecting open apps in screen
now i'm working on a sever-like tool to glow this pieces together and have something usable for users with proper app managment"
Looking through https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/ and comparing phone availability / price / features on swappa has me thinking the Google Pixel 3a (XL) should or could be considered the next device to carry the Nexus 5 / OPO torch as the next generation preferred / promoted device? Am I wrong?
@beli3ver thanks again to the community for helping keep this going, and thanks for your contributions.
As a casual user, is there a simple guide / "recommended" set of blocklists to use? Or maybe a brief summary of the different providers, such as:
Energized vs. StevenBlack since they both provide multiple?
From another angle, is there any performance negative to just "enabling all" and then if it is blocking too much to dig a bit further?
Thanks for any guidance
@stanwood said in Reset the bluetooth?:
@totalrando You can remove unworking bluetooth devices pairings.
Open the terminal, type bluetoothctl, than type remove (mac address).
Than you can make a fresh new pairing of your devices in the usual way.
Thank you, I was looking for something like this. I had a few devices that had the "forget this device" greyed out, and they would auto-connect (without actually connecting) so I couldn't remove them to try and correctly add them, this way I got them cleared out. Thanks again!
@d0od said in I have ended my contract with the UBports Foundation:
I appreciate I'm not popular in the Ubports community
@d0od don't sell yourself short, I (and I am sure many others) have great appreciation for your work and all you do for the Ubuntu community (and, as an extension, the Ubuntu Touch community): we all benefit from your contributions. 
@billboy5690 said in Mic distorted in speakerphone mode:
@billboy5690 Thanks all I found it, there is a reset all in setting
You can also change the scaling (and other things) by using "UT Tweak Tool" if it is too small / too large / etc.
@billboy5690 said in Mic distorted in speakerphone mode:
@rik Can you please clue me in as to how to sign up or access it.I assume its called the development channel.Thank you for reply
In System Settings > Updates > "Gear" you will see "Channels". Click that and choose "Development". Then go back to Updates and you should see the Download option, and then Install.
Note that being on "Development" can mean than some unstable things will come through, but for the fixes you mention it is the way to get them "early". In a few weeks "stable OTA-22" will come out and that will have the fixes. So at that time you could change back to "stable" and in then install OTA-22 to be in the safest place.
There are other good things in "Devel" right now such as better battery life, GPU acceleration, etc, that again will all get to OTA-22 if you can wait a few weeks.
@billboy5690 said in Mic distorted in speakerphone mode:
Ubuntu touch is fantastic but I need this feature to work
I think if you are on the "Devel" channel the fix will be automatically applied.
"Don't worry, your grandfather died doing this work!"
That was a strange way I was greeted one even in Khartoum, Sudan, in 2010 as it was well past sunset and I was still working away on the network infrastructure at the NGO I was volunteering with. The speaker was this elderly Sudanese man who was encouraging me that I couldn't get it all done in one night, so take some rest. His words sounded funny though because my first thought was: "Huh? My grandfather didn't know anything about running CAT5!?!" but as I thought about it what he was saying was "you can't do it all, there will always be more to do than 1 person can do." In some ways that is "fatalistic thinking": will we never make it?? But it is also true.
So this is what I am acknowledging and passing on to you to, good sir:
"Don't worry, your grandfather died trying to get 20.04 out the door."
So, wishing you a good break and a re-kindling of passion. We will make it with help from the community that ebbs and flows but continues on.... it may not be as you thought it would be when you first took on the reigns as Development Manager, but you have led us a long way, and you deserve some rest and acknowledgement that your effort was so appreciated by so many.
@fizz said in MMS success and failure:
@rik
So downloading it to a .txt file allows me to see it. However, it is a huge file (2380 lines), and most of it filled with a pile of non-standard characters: diamonds, arabic (i think), cyrillic, diamonds, greek, etc etc. Basically, it looks encoded, and the majority of it is unreadable. It looks the same both in Seabass and through cat. I'm not sure it would even be postable in this forum. I can try if you think it's ok, but just giving fair warning.Also to clarify, (because i misread your post about using wget), I have never successfully downloaded an mms message on this device. I can send fine, but have never successfully received an mms.
The best guess I have is that the carrier is encrypting the messages, sorry I don't know how this works but it must be. The first few lines should list readable phone numbers, you can view just those first lines with head filename.txt
@fizz said in MMS success and failure:
OK i was able to download the first one (with the "-1"). When i open it up in Seabass, there is nothing... it appears like a blank file. Though the file browser says it's 280 kb in size, and seems to think it's a movie (based on the icon). So not sure how to look at this.
I wonder if something in the address is an invalid character or something? Could you try this:
wget -O mms-download.txt <html address> (I just edited: I think you need -O BEFORE the url)
Then you should find mms-download.txt in your home directory. If seabass still shows it empty, can you try in the terminal to view it?
cat mms-download.txt
??
@fizz said in MMS success and failure:
I'm happy to try this, but i don't understand what url i should use. In the numtium log i posted above, the only url i see if http://mms.bell.ca/mms/wapenc.
The http address is in your log as part of the "hex dump", but you are experiencing that error where it says Invalid URL: '' so that is this different bug that @StandUpMobile is indicating is tracked here: https://github.com/ubports/nuntium/issues/14
If I attempt to "piece together" the http address from the hex dump part of your message, it seems it is this: http://mmsc2.get.bell.ca/cloudmmsc?l=f95c4f5dbdc28f499f619d44-1
Can you try, with wifi DISCONNECTED, these possibilities from terminal?
wget http://mmsc2.get.bell.ca/cloudmmsc?l=f95c4f5dbdc28f499f619d44-1-1 which may not be part of the address:wget http://mmsc2.get.bell.ca/cloudmmsc?l=f95c4f5dbdc28f499f619d44But since this is several days old it may have been "cleaned out" by your carrier. So if you get "not found" on both of those try again to receive a MMS photo, putting together the new http address from nuntium.log like I did above, and then try it with wget.
Yes, this is quite a technical and fiddly process, but we may learn what character in that http address is causing nuntium to wipe out the address (leaving the Invalid URL: '' response). @StandUpMobile if you are willing you could try as well to see if there is any clue you can uncover that is causing this "Invalid URL" response.