@Moem I think you are missing the point. I don't want to rely on Waydroid, but this is the offering we (the users) get in order to retain some sort of "compatibility" with what we know and with what works (and proves my original point that you seem to be deflecting on, that UT isn't ready for the average user, if we have to rely on workarounds just to use UT).

@Moem yes, the average user doesn't have that in mind and wants something that just works out of the box. UT doesn't "just work" for this category of users without lowering expectations. i think i was pretty clear on this on my previous reply.

for myself: I went in full knowing that this is a work in progress operating system. for the time that I did spend with it, I did get used to the quirks and bugs, but then I started noticing that it takes me longer to perform certain tasks in UT compared to Android. this became tiresome and eventually switched to Lineage to test out. if waydroid integration was improved (waydroid notifications to UT notification window, always running, seamless app launching without having to wait for waydroid to boot), it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal in that aspect.

@atarilinux said in VoLTE Implementation For Google Pixel 3a/3a XL:

@zakafx

To be honest and perhaps more specific, a Linux phone can be a daily driver that can make and receive calls. I actually do have one that is a daily driver at the moment. However, the Google Pixel 3a with Ubuntu Touch can't be my daily driver as the phone system is too unreliable. As a Pocket PC/Media Player it is great! It is just not a great "phone."

Ubuntu Touch as a system is A LOT more user friendly than other systems I've tried so far. I can see where they are going with it, and I really like the direction for the entry-level Linux user. Similarly, it is good enough for a developer too...though some choices can be controversial to some. If I would recommend a normal user a Linux phone, Ubuntu Touch would probably be the first one I would go with.

The main focus right now would be to get the phone part reliable, not in the short term, but in the long term. If 4G goes down and 5G isn't working, we are back to where we were a couple of years ago with a Pocket PC and not a true smartphone alternative. I'd hate to see that happen again.

I think that is the main reason why I wrote what I did. I'd hate to see all the time, effort, and development go to waste simply because someone else decided to pull the plug. A Pocket PC is a fine thing on its own, and I love the idea with convergence, etc. However, I think most are going to judge it as a smartphone instead of a Pocket PC. They will look at it and say "It's a phone. Why can't I call, etc.?" A number of people will complain abut having 2 devices, etc. They will rate the operating system as a whole unfairly.

I'm definitely going to use the Google Pixel 3a. I'm going to test things out and see what what I can do with it. I'm still going to support Ubuntu Touch. However, development towards making it a daily driver seems like it would be a lot of cost for only a very short term gain. That is the most unfortunate part of this. If 4G was left running for a while or if the phone's hardware could be updated in some manner, we wouldn't have this issue.

the definition of "phone" has broadened over the last decade. when your average user thinks of a "phone", they aren't just thinking of basic phone capabilities like making and receiving calls. our expectations of what a "phone" is capable of doing is so much more.

for the average user who is looking for another operating system to use rather than android or iOS, I would definitely NOT recommend UT in its current form exactly for the reason above.

when that user looks at what other "phones" are capable of our of the box, said user is gonna be like "why do i have to jump through these hoops just to do what so-and-so can do with their device?". for you and I, it might not be so much of an issue, as for other tinkerers, hobbyists, because we know how to deal with it.

UT lacks polish and the devs are aware of this (the "smooth edges" project, in fact, appears to be designed so that these rough edges and workarounds would be corrected so potential users don't get scared away). i am watching this initiative because that's what it needs to happen.

i would feel terrible recommending a new user to UT in its current state, even on a newer device.

@atarilinux I agree with a lot of your points. I tried to daily drive it for a couple of weeks but there are a lot of things that are unpolished and require workarounds, workarounds that I don't feel like doing as a user TBH. I am not a dev.

I keep my eye on the project every couple of days to see what is new, as well as the live q&A videos every second Saturday.

With the announcement of the "smooth edges" initiative, I'm hoping that it does get some polish in the 20 week time frame that is being proposed. Until then, I am back to my S24.

@Vlad-Nirky why so secret?

@kugiigi the word suggestions are great when available, but for some simple words like "with", "liek", just simple misspelled words, the corrected versions (or any word) are not offered for selection. I will wait a while and check back to see if anything has improved, for now I am on Lineage.

@gpatel-fr I am on Lineage now and the keyboard is fine, so I think it's purely a UT/software problem that hopefully gets looked into in the future.

@lduboeuf yes, I have those settings enabled.

It seems that the input response time needs to be shorter between keypresses, otherwise I need to slow down my typing and gets annoying, hence this "lag" I am describing. I use the pixel 3a xl on 24.04daily myself.

While typing on the keyboard, let's say texting with a friend, the keyboard cannot keep up with my typing. My regular phone has no problem keeping up. I find that there is some kind of lag while typing, otherwise if I text at my regular pace, certain letters and characters are missed and I have to backspace and re-enter each word.

Does the keyboard receive active development? Predictive text is meh as well, simple mistakes such as "woth" do not get suggested the correct word.

Typing on Ubuntu touch is kind of a pain in the ass. I really want to daily drive this but this has been a small setback.

will there be a do not disturb setting coming?

on the last call it was mentioned that the kernel supports wireguard, can this be implemented in the settings/VPN page?

@gpatel-fr I just arrived back from a work trip so perhaps this weekend ill play around and report back. ill add a route manually and see what happens!

I am glad that I found this thread. I also wanted to have remote access to my network while on the go so I enabled open VPN on my network. I actually use wireguard, but since there is no wireguard support in settings, I decided to use openvpn just for Ubuntu touch.

I followed the guide that's on the Ubuntu touch website, extracting all of the keys and information required to set this up. However, while I am able to establish a connection, I cannot ping anything at all, my route out to the internet as well as to internal network devices is dead.

I thought perhaps my configuration was wrong, so to verify everything was fine, I downloaded the OpenVPN app on my regular phone (android) and imported the profile that was created from my router (I used this exact profile to extract keys from above). Once it connected, everything just worked.

I'll follow this thread in case there are additional instructions I need to implement.

@saveurlinux it has got better but it is still very inconsistent. Initially after taking one picture I would get the black screen, couldn't flip to the front camera, had to reboot the phone. After a couple of daileys, I was able to flip back between both the rear and the front camera and take pictures, but from time to time the same error would occur. I tested last night and it's the same thing. It's definitely improving though.

@VoidItsWarranty my gps works but suffers from the "unable to load right away" issue (takes about 40-50 seconds for GPS to lock onto my location).

(referencing from the pixel 3a xl page, also not device specific: Devices may take longer than usual to get the first GPS fix because of missing Assisted GPS support. - is what I am referring to).

Within the included file explorer app, there is the option to access network devices. However, I am unsure how to mount an SMB share. When I first installed Ubuntu Touch, I assumed I could use apt to install cifs-utils, and then edit fstab to include the network mounts. Since the file system is read only, I cannot install cifs-utils. I know you can make the system read/write (I read it isn't recommended to do this), but before I do that if this is the only way, is there any other way I can install this so I can mount my network devices?

I missed an update yesterday, but I just updated to daily update 301. Tested the camera and surprisingly it worked every single time I used it, even flipping back from the rear camera back to the front camera. Played with some settings, changed some resolutions etc, took many photos, and the app still worked the entire time even after closing and reopening. Bravo to devs!

Now, if only there was a solid native email application that worked, I would daily drive my pixel 3a XL. So close!

Scrolling improved on daily update 299, I noticed it's not nearly as janky as it was. It's certainly much better, but not quite there yet. Patience!

So far I am pretty impressed with Ubuntu touch, especially on this device. It's very smooth. Thank you to everybody who works on this project.

on daily channel, with version 299 update, camera is now working mostly as expected in the sense that it doesn't freeze after taking the dirt picture anymore/show a black screen.

edit: hit or miss, though I was able to take 6 pictures in a row with no issue compared to before.

i have noticed that when you open the camera, it does not autofocus properly, i think this is a bug. camera refocuses after tapping on screen to focus on selected area otherwise.

is fredldotme still the pixel 3a port maintainer?