Ubuntu Touch OTA-23 Release

Ubuntu Touch is the privacy and freedom-respecting mobile operating system by UBports. Today we are happy to announce the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-23, the very latest update to the system! OTA-23 will become available for the following supported Ubuntu Touch devices over the next week:

Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1  
BQ E4.5 Ubuntu Edition
BQ E5 HD Ubuntu Edition
BQ M10 (F)HD Ubuntu Edition
BQ U Plus
Cosmo Communicator
F(x)tec Pro1
Fairphone 2
Fairphone 3
Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL
Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL
Huawei Nexus 6P
LG Nexus 4
LG Nexus 5
Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition
Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition
Nexus 7 2013 (Wi-Fi and LTE models)
OnePlus One
OnePlus 2
OnePlus 3 and 3T
Oneplus 5 and 5T
OnePlus 6 and 6T
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (910F, 910P, 910T)
Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo+ (GT-I9301I)
Sony Xperia X
Sony Xperia X Compact
Sony Xperia X Performance
Sony Xperia XZ
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet (LTE or Wi-fi only)
Vollaphone and Vollaphone X
Xiaomi Mi A2
Xiaomi Mi A3
Xiaomi Mi MIX 3
Xiaomi Poco F1
Xiaomi Poco M2 Pro
Xiaomi Redmi 3s/3x/3sp (land)
Xiaomi Redmi 4X
Xiaomi Redmi 7
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 and 7 Pro
Xiaomi Redmi 9 and 9 Prime
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro Max and 9S

The Pine64 PinePhone 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-23".

What's new?

This release of Ubuntu Touch is still based on Ubuntu 16.04.


Initial support for FM radios (@mardytardi): If you own any of those devices: BQ E4.5, BQ E5, Xiaomi Note 7 Pro - you are lucky: Connect your headphones, download the FM Radio App  and enjoy the show. Several improvements are planned, and consider it more like a proof of concept. Also it will not work on other devices since the kernel needs a few options set. More devices to come…

Messaging App (@lduboeuf): Some smaller improvements for MMS handling for bigger attachments. Also text messages with special characters from the HTML specification (&, <, >) are no longer truncated.

Jingpad A1 (@fredldotme): Support hardware video decoding in the Media Player App.

Wireless display support (@fredldotme): Finally some efforts were successful to fix Aethercast protocol to allow setting up an external display for your device and work like on a desktop. Note that also here, not all devices can support this, so it needs to be enabled by the porter for each device separatly. We are still working on a final list. Also this needs a compatible Miracast adapter, and behold, not all of them are really “compatible”! It might need a few tries to find the right one.

Snappy backlight dimming (@Flohack): Now all devices brighten and darken the screen in the same amount of time, regardless of ambient lighting. This makes the device quickly accessible, and also prevents “pocket dialling” when the screen is too slow to turn off, but the user has already stowed it away.

Known Issues 


None so far :)

Bugs and issues fixed

  • External display improvements (@fredldotme): Indicator scaling is now correct on external screens, the launcher and app drawer do not disappear anymore when operated with the mouse.
  • Sound playback during entering and exiting sleep was choppy for some devices (@fredldotme)
  • WiFi nags user for already known passwords and creates new connections randomly (@Pekkari)


How to get OTA-23


Existing Ubuntu Touch users 

Existing users of Ubuntu Touch on Stable channel (which is selected by default in the UBports Installer) will receive the OTA-23 upgrade by using the Updates screen of System Settings. 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.

Note also that starting with OTA-23 we try to bring back the broadcast facility, which will send each device a trigger message. If the device can find its update, it will be downloaded for you and when everything is ready, a notification will pop up and you can install right away. This only works if you have set up that updates can be downloaded automatically.

If however you would like to receive the update immediately, turn on ADB access and issue the following command over `adb shell`:

sudo system-image-cli -v -p 0 --progress dots
Your device should then download the update and install it. This process may take a while, depending on your download speed.


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 ubports/ubuntu-touch on Github. 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 Q&A 118
First 100% coverage device, OTA-23 and 20.04 development