Call for Testing: Ubuntu Touch OTA-8
We would like your help to test OTA-8!

Hello once again, everyone!

Seven weeks after the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-7, I'm happy to announce that we would like your help to test OTA-8! OTA-8 is slated to release on Wednesday, March 6. Until then, we need to make sure it's ready to go!

How can I test?

We want to ensure that every release we ship is better than the previous, so we're looking to our entire community to help us with QA (Quality Assurance) of OTA-8.

We've prepared a GitHub Project for OTA-8 QA which lists the issues we'd like your feedback on. The QA column lists issues which do not have complete test results. The Done column lists issues which, thanks to our efforts here, are confirmed to be fixed. The In Progress column lists issues which are not fixed, or the fix introduces a severe negative side effect. The goal at the end of this is to have every issue in the Done column. :)

We're interested in hearing your feedback on everything in the QA column. We want to know:

  • Which device are you using?
  • Is the issue fixed in your testing?
  • Are there any side effects to the change as it is listed in the issue or Pull Request?

Testing any issue should be easy. On your device:

  1. Head to System Settings -> Updates -> Update Settings -> Release Channel
  2. Select rc
  3. Go back to the Updates screen to install the downloaded update

After your phone reboots, you'll be on the OTA-8 release candidate! Of course, only step 3 is required if you are already on the rc channel, this update will come through as normal.

You will receive an image named (2019-W09) or newer. You can find your image version in System Settings -> About -> OS.

Now you can pick any issue in the QA column in the OTA-8 project, then ensure that you are unable to reproduce the issue, as reported in the list. If you can't reproduce the issue, the fix worked! If you can still reproduce the issue (or you notice something else isn't right), we want to know about that too. Leave a comment with your device and image version, then let us know the results of your test.

We also have a OTA-8 Call for Testing forum post where we can discuss any questions you may have about anything that comes up during your testing.

What's new?

A full changelog for this release follows. This does not include fixes and improvements gained from upstream Ubuntu, just the changes made by Ubuntu Touch contributors during this cycle:

[Chris Clime]

Display a themed error page when page loading fails, fixes ubports/morph-browser#133: ubports/morph-browser#121

Display an error page when loading fails and fix failure to load initial page of some webapps, fixes ubports/morph-browser#118: ubports/morph-browser#121

Close all tabs in a window before closing the window, stopping any media in the window, fixes ubports/morph-browser#143: ubports/morph-browser#144

Add custom user scripts for webapps, fixes ubports/morph-browser#124: ubports/morph-browser#140

Bring back favicons: ubports/morph-browser#141

When determining the height of the keyboard rectangle, take Screen.devicePixelRatio into account, fixes ubports/morph-browser#52 and others: ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#25

Fix system theme support for tab headers, fixes ubports/morph-browser#142: ubports/morph-browser#146

[Florian Leeber]

Update QtLocale with CLDR-34 metadata from Q3/2018, partial fix of ubports/ubuntu-touch#655: ubports/qtbase-opensource-src-packaging#4

[Rodney Dawes]

Fix tests on the Ubuntu UI Toolkit, unblocking other changes to the UITK, fixes ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#28: ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#31

[Dalton Durst]

Update Android container pre-start script for halium-boot: ubports/lxc-android-config#21

[Kugi Eusebio]

Remove unnecessary list item highlights from Settings and "Add Recipient" in the Messaging app: ubports/messaging-app#57

Fix contacts search sometimes returning no results, fixes ubports/address-book-app#56: ubports/address-book-app#74

[Marius Gripsgard]

Fix Unity8 tests and remove Oxide to enable ARM64 builds: ubports/unity8#91

[Joan Cibersheep]

Change button colors in dialogs in the Contacts app to match our design guidelines: ubports/address-book-app#64

[Brian Douglass]

Make global "Pull to refresh..." text translatable, fixes ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#32: ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#33

[Alberto Mardegan]

Fix failing tests on address-book-app, allowing more changes to be merged, fixes ubports/address-book-app#73: ubports/address-book-app#77

[NotKit]

Set a network mask and create leases file for porters using USB tethering: ubports/hybris-usb-packaging#3

[Miguel Gutiérrez]

Autofocus the first text field on every page of the Welcome Wizard: ubports/unity8#80

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