News and Updates
Alfred presented, with special guest Mike Gabriel.
Mike has been particularly involved in embedding the Lomiri code into the Debian repositories.
There is a call for testing for 24.04 1.1. Also 20.04 OTA 11. Please contribute to those so that we can deal with any bugs before release.
These updates are mainly for Volla phone users who had noticed some interruptions of audio.
Upcoming Event
Diogo has told us about an event in Portugal. It will show users how to make apps for UT. Rubén will be giving a basic introduction to porting.
Improvements
We are making some changes in Gitlab. These will start to show in 1.2. We are fixing some issues to get Qt6 to render properly and to start apps. A change in Qt6 has helped us with proper implementation of OpenGLS. It will aid data syncing.
Indicators now render correctly on the greeter screen while encryption is enabled.
LomiriUItoolkit is now based on Qt6. That is a big deal.Guido and Bushan have done a lot of work on this. They managed to come up with a working Morph browser based on Qt6.
Rachanan has made some changes to allow applications to use the mirclient protocol. We are not going to go Wayland only because that would mean a lot of functionality lost.
Qt5 has been holding developers back and discouraging them.
Snap has been updated to 2.7.2 using libhybris. We also fixed connections between snap and QML. An easy mechanism to handle passwords is part of better snap handling. These changes will be in 2.x not 1.x.
Fairphone 5 camera is fixed. Preventing the crash needed a kernel patch.
Macjek has been working on curved corners avoidance for phones which have a notch. Look out for screenshots of refinements of the layout.
Ayatana proposed a new indicator which allows users to stop the screen from locking or dimming. On other systems, the control is much more sophisticated way for example relocated dark mode shift.
OpenStore apps
There are a few new applications in the OpenStore. Thanks to AppLee for providing an overview at each Q&A session.
Bluedog is an unofficial Bluesky client by Koji.
InTouch app works as an interface with the UBports forum. Thank you to Sander.
Leon has produced SOTY speech-to-text server. If you grant access to the microphone for this app, it will interface with other apps, without requiring microphone permission for each of those apps.
There are 68 apps showing as updated, but at the moment there’s no way of telling which of those are for Focal and which are for Noble. Probably a lot of these are old apps now updated for Noble.
MapsExporter is worth a mention. It allows you to search for a place on Google Maps but then follow up using an open source app such as Unav.
Mike recommended the 8192 game which was developed by Johannah.
IRC is still used a lot by developers. At some point the native Chatter app will be ported to Debian.
Projectmoon has done a lot of work recently with the KeePassrx app which is able to use the kdbx format. That is another one which will be borrowed into Debian.
SignalUT has seen an update. Remember that you have to have either an android or iOS version as your main installation and use the UT version as a sync.
Lomiri
Mike joined UT at Fosdem in 2020. Namespace cleaning for Lomiri for Debian was a large task.
The sync mechanism in Debian is currently ahead of Lomiri. Between Mir and Wayland, Debian and UT have complementary strengths and weaknesses.
New developers are being employed by Mike to work simultaneously on the Debian and Lomiri upstreams. That involves Qt6 and the Mir1 to Mir2 upgrade.
Morph and future wishes
For Morph, looking ahead to UT 26.04 we will probably have Qt 6.9. We need to enlarge the rootfs but that is a difficult project, which will take time.
An aim is to develop really good software for schools using tablets. Unfortunately, lots of the obvious possibilities are held together by glue and practically unrepairable.
They are on the hunt for mainline Linux tablets which can be repaired.
Not over the next three years, but over the long-term we are looking at the possibility of an enterprise software which grows out of Debian and Lomiri and which runs on phone tablet and laptop.
If you take the Pinephone modem and put it in the X1 Yoga you can make phone calls with it.
At Defcon they launched a bounty programme to resolve issues in development. New applicants are always welcome.
Sponsors were thanked.
Questions
The News section of our Forum is the best place to post questions for the Q&A. YouTube live chat, Telegram and Matrix are other places to post a question.
If you didn't know, the Forum questions get priority.
NotificationsEquareo wanted to know why notifications are not working with Cindy running on Noble but worked perfectly on Focal. The raw similar issues with teleports so this is a problem with notifications generally. The difference is that with teleports it works on a new install but not an upgraded install. With Cinny it doesn’t work at all. This needs looking at.
Qt6 integration
Domubpkm asked for an estimate of when Qt6 will be integrated into Morph browser so that Webber can be tested. Hard to say that we could probably get it out with 2.x if we can work out how to extend the disk space.
The outline idea is to use LVM - logical volume manager - to eat away into the available space. It isn’t just an issue with the browser there are lots of different parts of Qt6 which we somehow have to fit into the image.
We want to avoid installing Morph as a Click and keep it in the system. Otherwise we create a lot more problems.
Guido has done some experiments with Fairphone 4 which enable him to remove Qt5 Morph and replace it with Qt6 Morph.
RJ Dan proposed an end of year award for developers. The basic idea is a very attractive one, but everyone is extremely busy towards the end of the year and there doesn’t seem any reason why it has to be then. Something culminating with a meet-up at Fosdem might be nice?
The other issue always is who will organise it. It won’t be ‘they’. Everyone is busy. As well as the idea there have to be volunteers.
AppArmor and Snaps
Vlad Nicky asked about AppArmor and snaps. How do snaps work in the UT environment? Snaps work in a very similar way on UT to normal apps. They had to be some patches though. That is still really an experiment so is a bit early to do documentation.
Graphical applications need to be able to run OpenGL. Also the Android Halium layer needs to be matched with the snap environment.AppArmor also has to be adjusted. There is also an intermediate Hybris snap. That is done transparently. The user has to download that snap and link it with the target snap.
It is a manual process, but once it is more advanced, we will be able to automate it more.
For full implementation the agreement of Canonical will be needed. It also implies agreement between Canonical and the OpenStore, which is separate from UBports.
There will be parallel issues with desktop Lomiri. It needs to appeal to users who don’t use the command line.
UBports foundation reminder
A reminder was given that the UBports foundation is looking for members. If you have made a significant practical contribution (not a purely financial one) over the past six months and you plan to continue for the next six months you may be eligible.
We are a democratic organisation and the members elect the board of trustees.
Halium 16
GabrielPE asked when Halium 16 will be released? Nobody is working on that at the moment it is usually done on a bounty basis so it is down to an individual or a business having a particular need and funding it. If that happens, it could be fairly quick.
To be honest Halium 14 is quite recent and works well so there isn’t really a problem.
One more upcoming event
Finally, we will be at Fosdem 26 but we won’t have an official slot.
See you next time :-)