Ubuntu Touch OTA-1 Focal Release

Ubuntu Touch is the privacy and freedom-respecting mobile operating system by UBports. Today we are extremely happy to announce the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-1 Focal, the very latest update to the system! OTA-1 will be available on the following supported Ubuntu Touch devices

Fairphone 4
Google Pixel 3a 
Vollaphone 22
Vollaphone X
Vollaphone

Other UT devices that currently run Focal might not have all features working yet with OTA-1 depending on the exact status of their port., but you are free to try if you wish. Your comments are welcome here 


The Pine64 PinePhone, PinePhone Pro and PineTab are updated independently of the rest of these devices. The stable channel for the PinePhone and PineTab will not receive an update labeled "OTA-1". 

                What's new?

                NOTE: This is the first OTA for Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) with major features, this is an Opt-In and not mandatory update. The next OTA-2 will be mainly ironing out bugs and making it even more stable. When our reference devices prove stable enought we will start to roll out the OTA's for community devices.

                Major Changes:


                • Use Ubuntu 20.04 (focal fossa) as base OS.

                • Support Android 9+-based devices.

                • Fork Unity8 as Lomiri and make it available to distributions other than Ubuntu (many components have been renamed to land properly in the Lomiri namespace).

                • Switch from Upstart to Systemd.

                • Localization platform (i18n) moved to the hosted weblate service.

                • Move our development platform from Github.com to Gitlab.com.

                • Use Ayatana Indicators instead of Ubuntu Indicators.

                • Move from Anbox to Waydroid (pre-installed for Android 9+ and mainline kernel devices).

                • New porting style for device porters (overlay store method).

                • Support building many components against GCC-12 and Qt 5.15. (Make the project future-ready).


                Most important Bug Fixes:


                • Some devices would not mute the phones microphone during phone calls.

                • Context menu fix in Morph Browser (amend context menus from Morph and QtWebengine interfering with one another).


                Technical improvements / changes in Ubuntu Touch Core Components:


                • Network Manager backported from Ubuntu 22.04 (v1.36.6).

                • Bluez backported from Ubuntu 22.04 (v5.64).

                • Telephony stack: Cell broadcasting support (experimental feature, not universally supported yet).

                • Lomiri Shell: Indicator menus can now be half transparent.

                • Libertine: use bubblewrap for chroot creation.

                • Nuntium: resolve various issues when receiving MMS messages.

                • Mir / qtmir: Improve Xwayland integration, improve support for running legacy X11 applications in Lomiri Shell.

                • Aethercast: Now enabled on Fairphone 4 and Xiaomi Mi A2.

                • Sync-monitor: Make the service much more robust.

                • Lomiri Shell (and settings): Add a circular (clock-like) PIN code prompt.

                • Lomiri Shell (and settings): Support PIN codes between 4 and 12 digits (was: limited to 4 digits).

                • Lomiri Shell: Visual refresh of various effects.

                • Lomiri Shell: Make switching between phone mode and desktop mode (via phone-attached docking station) more robust.

                • Lomiri Shell: Preliminary workspace support in desktop mode.

                • Keyboard Indicator: Complete rewrite in C.

                • All components: Fix many compiler warnings / deprecation notices for all Lomiri components.

                • Lomiri Wallpapers: Additional background artwork.

                • Updated broadband provider data.

                • adb: Improved developer experience (integration with PAM/logind, proper terminal setup).

                • Support for USB-C USB-PD.


                Technical improvements / changes in pre-installed Apps:


                • Morph Browser: Provide a recent qtwebengine version (v5.15.11).

                • Morph Browser: Hardware-accelerated video decoding in QtWebEngine, with support for up to 2K video playback on popular video sites.

                • Morph Browser: Video chat now possible (e.g. via Jitsi Meet).

                • Camera App: Provide Barcode Reader App via lomiri-camera-app, allows app developers to use a centrally provided barcode reader UI.

                • Dialer / Messaging Apps (and Lomiri's launcher): Hint about new/missed messages/calls via icon emblems in Lomiri's launcher.

                • Addressbook App: Allow to add Note for a contact and a URL address.

                • Messaging App: Add zoom in conversation text by pinch'n'spread gesture.  Loading speed improvement.

                • Calendar App: Performance improvements.

                • Music App: Read audio file from Content Hub service.

                  • Waydroid: Sensors support, without memory leak. Apps will rotate when the phone rotates.


                Known issues:


                • Waydroid: Still needs a UI in lomiri-system-settings for initializing the Waydroid container (please use Waydroid Helper app from OpenStore.io for now).

                • Waydroid: We plan to separate Ubuntu Touch native apps from Android apps in Lomiri Shell's launcher.

                • Waydroid: No store app (e.g. F-Droid) pre-installed, needs to be obtained with the Waydroid-internal webbrowser.

                • Waydroid: At the lower part of the screen part a few pixel lines get cut off of Android apps (and the Android home screen).

                • Waydroid: When launching Android Apps directly from Lomiri's launcher, applications will freeze once the navigations buttons in the bottom bar get used.

                • Xwayland: Shows black windows on Pixel 3a & Xiaomi Mi A2.

                • On Fairphone 4: Sometimes shutting down and even during normal operation the phone ends up with a flickering screen (work-around: enforce shutdown by long press on the power button).

                • Networking: In some cases it has been observed that the WiFi hotspot does not get deactivated when switched off.

                • System Settings: The download progress in system updater's UI gets stuck from time to time. Closing the system settings app and reopening brings back the correct download information in the UI.

                • Notes App: New Evernote accounts cannot be added.

                • Contacts App: Google Contacts syncing does not work due to the discontinuation of the API.

                • Clock App: If one specifies a custom alarm sound/tune in alarm clock settings, always the "Alarm clock" tune/sound will be played, even if selected otherwise in alarm settings.

                • Volla Phone: Wi-Fi hotspot usage not possible; affects also Samsung Galaxy S7.

                • Bluetooth devices with hands-free profile (HFP) may appear under network indicator as "SIM cards" and won't go away even after rebooting.




                How to get OTA-1

                Existing users of Ubuntu Touch Focal

                Use System Settings, Updates, Settings, Channels and choose the 20.04 Stable channel to receive OTA-1 Focal. If you are on 16.04 and want to move to 20.04 use the method above or the the installer without the wipe option. Check if your device is ported to 20.04 here. Devices will randomly be allocated the update from today through. This spread is to give us a breathing space to stop the roll out of any bad update (should that ever become necessary), and is not to accommodate any bandwidth restrictions.

                New Ubuntu Touch users


                You will find instructions for installing Ubuntu Touch on your device at devices.ubuntu-touch.io

                "I found an issue!" 


                Have you found a bug? We want to know! Quickly! 

                You can follow our Bug Reporting document to learn how to present the information we'll need to confirm and fix your issue. Every bit helps. The best way to improve Ubuntu Touch is to use it and then tell us about the experience. 

                You should always check to see whether your bug has already been reported on your device Gitlab repository you can find on devices.ubuntu-touch.io Browsing open bugs is worth doing, even if you have nothing to report. This ensures that you can watch for any of the open issues and help fix them by providing more information.

                Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 Call for Testing