I know this is an old thread, but it seemed the most relevant place to report:
Today I received a cell broadcast! Emergency alert test in Ontario, Canada. Running 20.04 OTA-6 on a Oneplus 5T.
Phone was on silent, so I just heard the vibrations and saw the message.
Way to go team! Many thanks to Lionel and others who've worked on this!
Clarification for future readers of this post that might be considering Ubuntu Touch in Canada: All 3 major Canadian networks have stated that they're maintaining 3G until December 2025. Different story in the USA, where at different points in 2022, the major networks discontinued 3G.
In Canada, Ubuntu Touch is very much usable as a phone. Telephone calls, SMS, MMS photos, audio, and video all work as expected for me. (Group texts do not, and MMS has caused me plenty of headaches in general, though I think I've got a stable setup now.)
Hopefully VOLTE can work soon. I'm much too inept to be of use in that quest other than to keep donating to UBports and crossing my fingers. My enduring gratitude to those working to make UT better. It's already improved considerably since I started using it in late 2020.
Hi @Capsia ,
Thanks to you and any others for the excellent work on the websites!
I hope this is an ok topic to post this in. I didn't find much else pertaining to website discussion.
(TL;DR - I'm suggesting a Donate button next to porter/maintainer names on each Devices page of the website.)
Recently I tried to donate to my device's porter, and found it hard to find how to do so. I tracked down his Paypal eventually, but it took some searching, and it might not be possible to find some porters.
I thought if there were a Donate button on the website, similar to how there's an option on the OpenStore to donate to the app's developer, it might both remind people to donate, and make it easier to do so.
I asked about this idea on Q&A #157 and Alfred and AppLee were both favourable toward it.
But of course this requires work, and I have no skills with websites. I imagine it would require reworking the Contributors section on the Devices pages, and enabling an optional donate button next to the names of any contributors who'd like donations and who provide a link to their patreon/libera/whatever.
It would get more complicated when there are many developers and maintainers. Who will the user donate to? Each of them? And is it weird if some of them request donations and others don't?
But to me, it's still better to have the option, even if there are complications.
Anyway, sorry to be making a suggestion with no way to help bring it about. But I wanted to float the idea out there, to keep our porters supported!
I'm curious how the foundation works. How many employees are there? Does money for the foundation mostly go to paid workers, or to things like hosting costs?
Would more money coming in mean more coders be hired? And is this desired, or is the general preference to keep it mostly community/volunteer based?
Thank you!
Hey @shodan,
Welcome to the community!
I wouldn't give up on the phones you got just yet. After a quick bit of searching, I can't find any such phone as a Oneplus N10 Metro. I don't know much about these things, but could the device be locked to a cell carrier called Metro, and maybe that's coming up in the installer? In searching for a Oneplus N10 Metro, I noticed there's a cell company in the USA called Metro that seems to supply Oneplus N10. Sometimes a device is locked to a carrier, but often it is possible to unlock it. May be worth searching online for how to unlock the phone from Metro? But again, I'm really not sure this is the case.
Also, I see that you have Android 11 installed. In the device page for the OP N10, if you scroll down a ways, it states that you'll need to be using a specific version, Oxygen 10.5.7 or something. The system image or whatever you call it is conveniently linked from the device page. You'll need to download that file and install that version of android before installing Ubuntu Touch.
The other main thing you'll need to do , probably before downgrading, is unlock the bootloader. Search online for how. Takes a bit of doing, but it's all doable.
General installation instructions for Ubuntu Touch are found on the installer page.
Hope it turns out that your devices are what you thought they were, and useable for UT!
Cool! Thanks for the demos, nice to see your progress! This is going to be very useful.
Thanks so much for all your work!
Hi pals, two questions:
Has anyone heard from a company called SageTea, who "makes" something called the Xfone? Do they contribute to Ubports in any way, or just sell phones that they load with Ubuntu Touch?
Are you all aware that there are wild standing ovations going on all over the place when, for example, Marius talks of progress on VoLTE and 5G, Alfred talks of WebKit and Snaps progress, AppLee bravely starts hosting a Q&A show solo, Lionel revamps Contacts, etc? Often you announce very major things and I hope you know how enthusiastically they are received. Thanks a lot for what you do!
Thanks @AppLee, for the reply and for all your work!
Hi all,
At some point I read that some of the money that the UBports Foundation gets may go to providing phones to developers if needed.
Many of us have an old UT-capable device or two around, and many of us non-devs would like to contribute more to the project. To my mind, if there are any aspiring devs out there who might not be able to afford or find a viable phone for UT where they are, getting them a phone is important!
Does it seem feasible and worthwhile for me to try to set up a way for aspiring devs to request a phone and for existing UT users to donate one?
Thanks a zillion for all your work, and for hosting these cheery Q&As!
Hi @RuaNYC,
Welcome to the forum!
First, in case the NYC in your name means you're from New York City, please note that at present VoLTE doesn't work on this device using UT. Maybe this will change? But at present, if 3G has been sunset in your area, you can't make calls on this device.
Your writeup was good, I'm not sure why it got flagged as spam.
I've only been through that MSM process once, and it just worked for me, so I may not be of a lot of help.
This said, a good place to start is always to make sure you're using a decent quality / newish USB cable.
@MrT10001 mentions also cleaning the USB ports you're using. And make sure you're actually in EDL mode.
He also said that sometimes he's found that either the global or the EU firmware would work where the other didn't.
The gitlab page for this device lists the 10.5.8 T-Mobile as "Unsupported Device/versions/firmware", but the porter has said that you can install and it will work. What's unclear to me is whether you should use the 10.5.8 firmware or install 10.5.7 firmware on your phone even though it would've normally had 10.5.8.
Maybe someone else is more clear on this.
Good luck!
Old post, I know, but if @thedeafenguy or anybody else has bought from that seller, a report might be useful to many of us outside the EU. I've come across that seller before and wondered.
@qnx_guy I have no specific experience with the F(x)etc, but I've had a surprisingly good experience with the Microsoft Miracast V2. It seems to only be available used though, and is expensive.
Mine has latency that seems to be less than 0.5s, which I find quite useable. And yes, the device becomes a touch pad mouse when connected, though you can also connect a BT keyboard and mouse.
But it does seem like most people have a less successful experience than me.
@carl I will note that android updates for Pixel 3a stopped about 3 years ago. That phone might work for you on UT until end of 2026 if you switched networks. But you should do whatever works for you.
@lduboeuf Shoot, my mistake. I tried today, and Contacts hadn't actually imported. I guess it said "Importing Contacts" when I first connected the new device, but then failed. I very seldom connect to my car, so hadn't noticed.
I'd stayed on Xenial for a long time, and this must have been when they worked successfully. Sorry for the false report.
Yes, well summarized @MrT10001. Though I'll note that not all of North America has lost 3G support. Here in Canada (at least while we remain a sovereign nation) 3G is alive on all carriers for now. Sunset dates range between July 2025 and Dec 2026. My impression is that a bunch of nations in the south of NA still have 2G and/or 3G as well.
If it were me though, I'd either go with one of the pricier but clearly supported devices you listed, or try to hold out a bit longer before buying something, to make sure it works well in 24.04 (and that VoLTE starts working, if you'll need it soon).
My guess is that the coming weeks/months might make it all a bit more clear which devices will have a good future with Noble and VoLTE.
EDIT: Turns out I hadn't tested this in a long time, and my whole report below was incorrect. : - /
Worked in Xenial, not in Focal.
~~My car (Subaru) asked if I wanted to import contacts after initial BT connection, and it all just worked. I was kinda shocked by how simply and successfully it went, both with Oneplus 5T and later a Oneplus Nord N10. I've never had android or iOS, this was definitely all through UT.
All functions listed by @PhAndersson also work, as well as voice commands such as "Call Yumi" or whatever. Clearly the voice recognition is a feature of the car's OS.
It also offers to (import/sync, I can't recal) SMS, which I haven't yet tried, but would test if that were useful to anyone.
I have no experience with either of the BT File Transfer apps, but based on timing, they probably were never updated to 20.04 (probably because they weren't working?)
Maybe worth a try going through any menus on your car just in case there's a way to import the way that mine did? But maybe I just got lucky with a car that happens to play well with UT.~~
@carl Although if you're indeed in Canada, 3G is still supported for now. Rogers has said end of 3G is July 31 2025, Telus Dec 31 2025. Bell seemingly will keep it for longer, some say til Dec 31 2026, except in Manitoba.
The Q&A was very, very encouraging on VoLTE overall, but as stated, it's unknown which devices will get it, and it didn't sound like good news for Pixel 3a.
I don't know if Alfred has moved on to other things, but he was really looking for help from people in the USA to test the Pixel 3a, and wasn't getting it. Maybe since it's supported for VoLTE on those networks, you could see about helping him?
@ywilien Thanks for the helpful info. Who knows, maybe a thread like this spurs somebody to create something like that. It does sound like a pain in the neck the way that @readyblue has to do it. Hopefully something easier materializes.