@Giiba said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:
Anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand this there are two things the OS does to 'phone home':
1 - a connectivity check which would include a browser user-agent string

I don't think that is happening (it doesn't seem to be what @Flohack refers to above), but, if so, that's also bad.

Separate telemetry to check "connectivity?" Why would that be necessary?

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@Giiba said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:
2 - phone model and os version/channel - because it needs this info get the right files to do OTA updates

Yes, but that is not the issue -- there is separate telemetry that regularly phones home.

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@Giiba said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:
I guess one isn't opt in, but is kinda necessary for a connected device OS,

Why is it necessary for the Ubports folks to regularly do a "connectivity" check?

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@Giiba said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:
and two is opt-in. It sounds like Ubports keeps a simple record of the above info.

The fact that they keep that information and how they use it is yet another issue.

Of course, there would be no issue if they didn't record nor keep the information in the first place.

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@Giiba said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:
The website should not be confused with the phoning home. That's a separate issue.

Nobody is confusing the website with the phoning home, but the website form is part of the larger issue involving an apparent disregard for privacy/security. Why must contributors give their full name and date of birth?

@AppLee said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

When you ask for an OTA, you need to identify your phone. So these two data: channel and type of phone are known

Well, that fact begs the question: Why is there separate statistical telemetry regarding channel and type of phone?

And the question that still remains: Why do the Ubports folks need to know if my phone is active?

@AppLee said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

Your IP is not logged or correlated with other data, you cannot be identified. Your phone is not a beacon sending Mr X 25yo is running OTA13 on their OPO to UBports. You make the request (opt in).

One has to take your/their word for that.

I definitely did not opt-in for separate telemetry nor for separate telemetry that tells when my phone is active.

@AppLee said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

The foundation is transparent on how they use data and respect privacy in every way.

Again, one has to take you/their word on that.

Furthermore, I don't want them to possess nor "use" my data.

@AppLee said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

If you don't want your phone to send information about its mark and model, then turn off the modem because your ISP knows what hardware you use.

ISP issues are a different topic.

This thread involves an open source project that upholds the ideals of freedom of choice, privacy and security.

@Lakotaubp said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

@tupp I have asked for info on the age question.

Thanks.

Although asking someone's age is troubling, please note that "age" and "birth date" are two very different types of information.

@Flohack said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

We count the number of active devices by device type and release channel they are on, thats all.

That's all?... That's too much!

My device is sending you telemetry whether I like it or not.

I don't want you to know my release channel nor my device type, and I especially don't want you to know if my device is active -- regardless of a claim that the data is anonymous.

At the top of the Ubports contributor recruitment page, there is a thoughtful and commendable video regarding the value of privacy, security and development openness and freedom. The very first two lines in the video are:
"We live in a world that is rapidly taking away one of our core values -- freedom of choice. Freedom does not exist without real choice."

Please be true to your own admirable ideals of freedom, and at least give users a choice whether or not to participate in your statistics gathering -- allow them to "opt-in" (not "opt-out") to the telemetry.

@poVoq said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

@Flohack said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

We count the number of active devices by device type and release channel they are on, thats all.

Is that information actually available somewhere?

A third party is already inquiring about the availability of the telemetry data -- the start of the "slippery slope."

@dobey said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

@tupp said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

It looks like it's for volunteers. If so, why would you need to know someone's real name to accept their contributed code? Why would you need to know a contributor's date of birth?

That form has nothing to do with code contributions, or any other such contributions, to the software itself. It is for becoming a Foundation Member, which requires 3 months of contributions prior to becoming a member anyway.

To me, that page appears to be primarily addressed to coders and to other "hands-on" contributors.

The first section is titled "Join Us." It includes two general paragraphs that mention the Ubports Foundation, but nothing is said in regards to becoming a Ubports Foundation member.

The second section is titled "Find Your Topic." The "topics" clickable directly below are:

• Core Development;
• App Development;
• UX Design;
• Translations;
• Testing;
• Writng;
• Community Connections;
• Outreach;
• Documentation;
• Support;
• Triage;
• Monetary.

Except for "Community Connections," "Outreach" and "Monetary," the topics seem to be "hands-on" (although I am not sure what is meant by "Triage").

Directly below these topics, the form asks for "Name," "Surname" and "Date Of Birth."

@Lakotaubp said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

@tupp The form on this page https://ubports.com/join-us if you think of as more akin to applying for a job or volunteering to help in any organization and so certain basic info is needed. As for the age I will try and find out. As a guess and only a guess it might be something to do with the Foundation legal requirements and the age of people who can be involved.

It looks like it's for volunteers. If so, why would you need to know someone's real name to accept their contributed code? Why would you need to know a contributor's date of birth?

A lot of folks contribute anonymously to open source projects (as @kugiigi suggests above).

As for the statistical telemetry, it would be nice to know what is going on.

@kugiigi said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

I think that was for this forum and not the OS if I remember correctly.

It was tracking that involved the OS.

@kugiigi said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

Also, contributors aren't required to give those information. That one is for those who wants to be officially join the foundation is I am not mistaken. I've contributed in years and never let them know that I'm 21........many years ago LOL

That is an interesting anecdote, but why would they ask for ANYONE's date of birth?

@poVoq said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

I think you are confused.

As I recall, it was @Flohack who posted the ubports telemetry announcement back in late 2017 or in the first half of 2018.

Additionally, Ubports currently requires contributors to give their first name, last name and date of birth.

@poVoq said in Is Ubports still phoning home?:

But for what it is worth, the mandatory UbuntuOne account requirement from the old days has been removed.
However due to technical system requirements like push notifications AFAIK the Ubports servers are contacted by your phone.

The announcement that I remember involved "statistical" tracking. Of course, the claim was that nobody would know anything about the individual phone.

Also, I noticed that the site requires people's full name and birth date in some areas.

That is seriously bad, evil stuff, as is ANY telemetry generated by the Ubports ROM.

Having trouble getting content to appear in the open store app. Just seeing blank page.

It works mostly when I am on wifi, but rarely when using mobile data.

I have no trouble reaching the open store through the UT web browser.

@lgj

I never edited the /var/lib/ofono/<your_imsi_number>/gprs directly, but I got the APN settings to work by manually entering them into the "System Settings > Cellular > Carrier & APN > APN" section of the UT menu.

I played around with the entries until it worked. Right now, I have one APN heading/settings for "Internet and MMS" and another heading/settings for "LTE." Not sure if LTE is actually working, as I have never seen "LTE" appear on the top task bar.

I did get "4G" to finally appear on the top task bar. One reason why this icon did not initially appear is evidently because my cellular provider is slow or I have bad reception.

One more thing -- try using your computer's USB 2 ports -- not USB 3.

@karelq
Don't know what the "non-shutdown" problem could be.

However, if you tried all the options suggested, both as a normal user and as root (or with sudo), the only other thing that I can think of is to check to your Ubuntu machine and make sure that "/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules" exists.

If that file does not exist, got to the "trouble shooting" section (scroll down) of this page and create "/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules" with the rules listed. Then try everything in the Linux terminal again, both as a normal user and as root (or with sudo).

Here is a post from a relevant thread that gives other commands that might be helpful.

If nothing works, perhaps this OPO unbricking thread can help.

If you do get the phone recognized by your computer, you might want to try ubports-installer, instead of CPT.

@Stefano
Oh, it never occurred to me that @karelq might be trying all of these procedures with the device turned off. @karelq mentioned that the OPO logo would show, so I just assumed that the device was always on during the attempts.

@karelq
Did you have your device turned on (with the OPO logo showing) when trying all of the above procedures?

@karelq
The command is "lsusb" (in all caps that would be "LSUSB"). I am pointing this out, because you typed "isusb" ("ISUSB"), which is incorrect.

Also, the idea is to enter "lsusb" at the Linux terminal prompt, without fastboot running.

If "lsusb" doesn't see your device, then you could try it on another machine, or, perhaps, boot a live Linux distro and then try lsusb.

@karelq
Before you go to the trouble of getting Windows XP, try the terminal fastboot commands after unplugging and re-plugging the USB cable several times. This cable plugging is even suggested in the XDA tutorial that you linked, and it's purpose is to get your system to see the device.

You also might want to try "lsusb" in a terminal with the OPO connected, to find out whether or not your computer is seeing the OPO. If "lsusb" doesn't see your OPO, try another USB cable.

Oh, another thing to try is to press the phone buttons while fastboot says "waiting for device."

@karelq
Did you try my suggestion?

The idea is that you induce fastboot on your device by executing fastboot commands in a terminal on your computer -- you probably don't need to press any buttons on your OPO.

I had a similar problem with my Nexus 5 I just got the factory logo and no buttons on the device would get me into fastboot, but by connecting my device and running a fastboot command on my computer's terminal, the fastboot screen appeared on my device.

I am not familiar with the cpt installer, but if you have fastboot on your computer, connect your OPO with a USB cable. Then, type some fastboot command into your computer's terminal, such as "fastboot oem unlock". Hopefully, the fastboot screen on your OPO will appear.

If nothing happens, try the same commands as root (or sudo) in your computer's terminal.

@halucigenia
If you get ffmpeg up and running on your device, you might want to try merely playing the original video with ffmpeg's player -- "ffplay".

Also, you might want to try mplayer/mencoder. It's command line, like ffmpeg, but it likewise has various GUI front-ends.

In my terminal, "sudo reboot" works. Does "reboot" or "sudo reboot" work in your cron job?

When you are in "messaging," touch and hold your finger on the message that you want to copy, and slide your finger to the left, and a copy button will appear.

By the way, if you slide your finger to the right, a trash-can/delete button appears.

Sliding things seems to be a common way to reveal more functionality in Ubuntu Touch.

@andirs26

I don't think that one can "re-lock" their phone to a particular carrier. Furthermore, there probably is no need to do so, as carriers generally use a phone's IMEI or ESN number to accept or reject a phone. From what I can tell, carriers don't to discern whether a phone is locked or unlocked.

Enjoy your Ubuntu Touch phone!