Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

UBports' Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 Is Being Prepared With On-Screen Keyboard Themes

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • UBports' Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 Is Being Prepared With On-Screen Keyboard Themes

    Phoronix: UBports' Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 Is Being Prepared With On-Screen Keyboard Themes

    The UBports folks that continue to maintain and advance Ubuntu Touch are preparing their OTA-7 update for release with a few new features...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Since my phone was destroyed recently it sure would be nice if I could buy a decent Linux phone.

    Now I have to make a decision on dropping 800 or 1600 on new devices that I don't even want or wait for Librem 5. Or I could get a gimpy cheapo phone and wait it out hoping its worth it and that my workflow won't be obstructed in the meantime.

    If anyone has any buying recommendations I'm all ears, I thought I read something recently about Google Pixel being able to run Linux Mainline, maybe that is the way to go.

    It's important to me that I be able to SSH into my phone and Rsync. MTP is a joke on Samsung devices and I think I am done with Samsung like I am already done with Apple and Microsoft.

    (Or maybe they turned a new leaf with Samsung S9 but no AUX jack really annoys me as I use that feature regularly and have 0 time to charge, recharge, and have blue-tooth earbuds fly out of my ears during active sports. I am sick of these anti-consumer realities. No I don't want to pay 99.99 for Bluetooth Earbuds with crap batteries when I could just have a 9.99 cable that I NEVER need to recharge or think about.)

    I would honestly consider buying a device if I could flash it to ubports and it was 2017+, assuming that such a device would be powerful enough to do all the basics without hiccups.
    Last edited by ElectricPrism; 02 January 2019, 10:10 PM.

    Comment


    • #3
      If they want people to test this, perhaps they should port it to a few more devices.
      It would also help if they were not ancient.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by ElectricPrism View Post
        Since my phone was destroyed recently it sure would be nice if I could buy a decent Linux phone.

        Now I have to make a decision on dropping 800 or 1600 on new devices that I don't even want or wait for Librem 5. Or I could get a gimpy cheapo phone and wait it out hoping its worth it and that my workflow won't be obstructed in the meantime.

        If anyone has any buying recommendations I'm all ears, I thought I read something recently about Google Pixel being able to run Linux Mainline, maybe that is the way to go.

        It's important to me that I be able to SSH into my phone and Rsync. MTP is a joke on Samsung devices and I think I am done with Samsung like I am already done with Apple and Microsoft.

        (Or maybe they turned a new leaf with Samsung S9 but no AUX jack really annoys me as I use that feature regularly and have 0 time to charge, recharge, and have blue-tooth earbuds fly out of my ears during active sports. I am sick of these anti-consumer realities. No I don't want to pay 99.99 for Bluetooth Earbuds with crap batteries when I could just have a 9.99 cable that I NEVER need to recharge or think about.)

        I would honestly consider buying a device if I could flash it to ubports and it was 2017+, assuming that such a device would be powerful enough to do all the basics without hiccups.
        The Google Pixel 3 runs the mainline Linux graphics drivers. However, it does not run the mainline kernel, it is still a patched kernel.
        Pixel 3 is also very expensive, pretty weak hardware (only 4 GB RAM), and pretty ugly. I've also heard that it has some memory problems (which is software related). One the plus side it has a squeezable frame to launch the Google Assistant.

        If you had a Samsung you might be interested in a Huawei, they like Samsung are expensive and have good cameras. The Huawei Mate series is bigger, so its a bit like the Samsung Galaxy Note series.

        Personally I have a OnePlus 6T which is a great phone.

        If you are looking for something cheaper there is the Pocophone F1 which is a cheap Snapdragon 845-based phone. It has ads though.

        Other cheaper alternatives include phones carrying the Nokia brand from HMD Global. As well as phones from Xiaomi. Motorola have some mid-range phones too such as Motorola Moto G6.

        You can also look at Android One phones which are cheaper phones with a clean version of Android.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by NateHubbard View Post
          If they want people to test this, perhaps they should port it to a few more devices.
          It would also help if they were not ancient.
          We are working hard on this, this release does in fact includes support for newer (android 7.1) devices. but it has not as easy since there have been major changes to android and hybris parts. and we are doing this at the same time as upgrading pretty much every part of the system as it was left really outdated from canonical. but expect more devices to come after this release is out. we already got over 10+ devices in the work by the porting communery. they all depend on this release because of the upgrade of libhybris and added caf platform. the upgraded libhybris is a pretty major big update.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by mariogrip View Post
            We are working hard on this, this release does in fact includes support for newer (android 7.1) devices. but it has not as easy since there have been major changes to android and hybris parts. and we are doing this at the same time as upgrading pretty much every part of the system as it was left really outdated from canonical. but expect more devices to come after this release is out. we already got over 10+ devices in the work by the porting communery. they all depend on this release because of the upgrade of libhybris and added caf platform. the upgraded libhybris is a pretty major big update.
            Did you guys order a Librem 5 dev kit from Purism - to fiddle around with it?

            Comment


            • #7
              @ElectricPrism My mobile requirements are fairly simple and so I run Ubuntu Touch on an old Nexus 5 and aside from some rough edges, it hits the spot. Given that you're a Linux user and on this forum there's no technical barrier for you to try it at this point in time. To answer your concerns, what if the second-hand phone you buy for this isn't strong enough for your needs? Sell it on after you're done - a small loss should be worth the experience. Who knows, it might might make the Librem more attractive further down the road because as I understand it that should run Ubuntu Touch as an option.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by ElectricPrism View Post
                If anyone has any buying recommendations I'm all ears, I thought I read something recently about Google Pixel being able to run Linux Mainline, maybe that is the way to go.

                It's important to me that I be able to SSH into my phone and Rsync. MTP is a joke on Samsung devices and I think I am done with Samsung like I am already done with Apple and Microsoft.

                I would honestly consider buying a device if I could flash it to ubports and it was 2017+, assuming that such a device would be powerful enough to do all the basics without hiccups.
                Originally posted by uid313 View Post

                The Google Pixel 3 runs the mainline Linux graphics drivers. However, it does not run the mainline kernel, it is still a patched kernel.
                Pixel 3 is also very expensive, pretty weak hardware (only 4 GB RAM), and pretty ugly. I've also heard that it has some memory problems (which is software related). One the plus side it has a squeezable frame to launch the Google Assistant.

                If you had a Samsung you might be interested in a Huawei, they like Samsung are expensive and have good cameras. The Huawei Mate series is bigger, so its a bit like the Samsung Galaxy Note series.

                Personally I have a OnePlus 6T which is a great phone.

                If you are looking for something cheaper there is the Pocophone F1 which is a cheap Snapdragon 845-based phone. It has ads though.

                Other cheaper alternatives include phones carrying the Nokia brand from HMD Global. As well as phones from Xiaomi. Motorola have some mid-range phones too such as Motorola Moto G6.

                You can also look at Android One phones which are cheaper phones with a clean version of Android.

                I don't understand why there aren't any recommendations for 3rd party software.
                If there is willingness to flash UBPorts, or get the phone to run the mainline kernel, why should custom ROMs be off the table?

                Huawei and Nokia lock their bootloaders without giving a way to unlock them, though there are unofficial ways to do so independently.
                And if you flash a custom ROM, you could simply use Google's camera app for better camera quality (if that interests you).

                Case in point, if you buy the Pocophone F1(I won't, but that is because I dislike the ~2:1 aspect ratio), and flash a ROM such as LineageOS, you will have the "pure" Android experience (I am still using the Nexus 4, on CRDroid, which is based upon LineageOS, hoping to get an LG G3 or a OnePlus One in the future, or something equivalent or better), while having better performance that on the stock ROM, both on itself and the Xiaomi Mi 8 (Xiaomi put a few software limitations on the Pocophone F1 to prevent it from competing with the Mi 8, otherwise they are almost the same).

                And in the ultra-budget part, there is work being done on completely deblobbing the bootloaders of MT6735 (that includes lower-tier variants such as the MT6735M and P) devices, though that is not ready as of now.

                Speaking of which, I would be glad to run my Nexus 4 on PostMarketOS, and get my Doogee X5 Pro (which I still need to solder on a new connector for the cellular cable, to replace the one I had broken) on a "libre" bootloader (CoreBoot would be great, they just need to sort out a few things, such as properly saving settings, as well as a proper GUI which also supports touch inputs (that would be also be great for a few Intel-based tablets I had received for "liberation").

                Update: It turns out that Nokia does offer an official bootloader unlock method for the Nokia 8.1 (and perhaps others as well, but as of yet, I still have not found any concrete evidence).
                Last edited by moriel5; 03 January 2019, 04:54 PM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by moriel5 View Post
                  And if you flash a custom ROM, you could simply use Google's camera app for better camera quality (if that interests you).
                  You don't need a custom ROM to run Google Camera.
                  Google Camera on APKMirror.
                  Google Camera on XDA-Developers.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by uid313 View Post
                    Pixel 3 is also very expensive, pretty weak hardware (only 4 GB RAM), and pretty ugly. I've also heard that it has some memory problems (which is software related). One the plus side it has a squeezable frame to launch the Google Assistant.
                    The RAM limitation is super over-blown, at least on my Pixel 2. It has never been an issue for me. These are phones! Plus, I would desperately hope that Ubuntu Touch wouldn't have a problem with it . And the squeezable frame is neat but super awkward... does anyone use it? The best part of the phone is obviously the camera quality with the built-in hardware-accelerated Visual Core chip, but I don't see that being supported outside of Android any time soon.

                    Regardless, Motorolas seem to be the best to target since they are super featureful, unopinionated, and not expensive. Especially the E and G series, which I always recommend to my family.

                    Would like to see more UBports testing in the USA though.

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X