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! What do you all think about the idea of a button to donate to porters/maintainers on the Devices webpage, similar to how it works in OpenStore?
Also, a note. You folks are very patient with some of the live Q&A questions. If you ever think it needs a moderator or something, let us know. It could be nice to sift out some of the more entitled, ungrateful people demanding that miracles be worked faster by largely unpaid developers.
We appreciate you immensely!
Thanks a million to whoever fixed this so quickly! And for updating the core system apps in general. We appreciate you!
I wonder if could be related to a faulty charging port or cable? I was having connectivity issues with my OP5t, and it seemed like sometimes it was sometimes charging at a lower rate, despite using the Dash charger adapter or whatever. But then it became hard to charge at all, and eventually I had to replace the port (which thankfully wasn't too hard).
Anyway, just a thought. Maybe try another cable for starters?
Great question, great responses.
For me, lack of time, lack of technical skill, and fear of loss of functionality / creating a new time-sink project that I can't afford right now kept me using what was working.
But just last weekend I got around to trying out Focal on my backup OP5 (with a half-melted screen) and it's largely going quite smoothly. I flashed without wiping data, and that process was pretty pain free. A little bit of messing around with settings, but all my messages and apps persisted, some apps just needed to be deleted and reinstalled (the appstore option to Install Stable Version didn't work, but delete then install is fine).
I really miss the Scaling of UT Tweak tool. The default 21 is way too big for me. It'd be amazing if/when that app comes along, for scaling and app suspension. Meanwhile, great to see some of those features entering System Settings!
Jitsi video calls are the other big thing that went from working to not working. On my Oneplus 5T 16.04, they work in both Morph and Jitsi Web App. On my broken Oneplus 5, 20.04 it crashes in both. Very similar phones. I presume it's a Focal thing, but can't say for sure. It does manage to get a hint of video out to the other caller before crashing. It's not essential for me, but a pretty nice option to have. Causes me hesitation in switching my working phone over just yet.
@Moem On my Oneplus 5, flashing through the installer without clicking the Wipe Data button didn't result in any lost files. But a GUI backup option would sure be great in any case. Hope your install goes smoothly
@MrT10001 Fantastic list of devices, and very useful comments about functionality. Thanks!
All those developers making apps work in Focal, thank you so, so much. I never stop appreciating how much this community does. Bravo!
@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?
Wow! Very cool! Good video demo - your app looks very functional already. Copying folders will be a nice addition. Looking forward to using!
Merci bien!
@drikk Didn't realize that option worked so well. Thanks for the tip!
Perhaps this could be worth a web app / bookmark in the Open Store, just so people see a working Matrix option if they go looking?
I continue to think Matrix is a great candidate as a solution to the problem of supported messengers on UT, especially with the success of "bridges" to many other messengers. Could allow communication with several messenger ecosystems at once.
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.
@tonton_ Ah, I see. A customizeable file size limit is great!
For real, Nreal, the folks who do the work on UT are heroic. It makes me want to learn to code.
I'd never owned a cellphone before 2020, and I was just astounded that there was a non spyware OS that worked so well. I'm still astounded that buying an appropriate used phone and switching to UT isn't MUCH more common.
Also, that's great news re: cross-app communication. On behalf of the world, thanks to the EU for continuing to enact legislation that many non-EU members wind up benefitting from (death to proprietary chargers). Hopefully the future is Matrix.