News and Update
Applee, Alfred and Marius presented.
Noble in Alpha released
The alpha test version of Noble has been released and is available for almost all devices which currently run Focal. We have to remind you that it is just a test version and that at the moment there is no support from OpenStore.
Using the terminal you can install apps by signing the path, using root and authorising each install.
We can say at this stage that all of the hardware features are working.
Apart from the fact that there is no direct way to install apps it already functions really quite well.
It has been possible to reduce the size of the image by a small amount and that means that SnapD is built-in by default. Evolution Webserver is built without the webkit GTK dependency. That saves us around 100 MB and we will be able to use that space to include more features as standard.
Ratchanan has done a great job patching ofono, making it more stable. We expect those changes to be merged into Focal as well.
Pulseaudio has seen some changes and QTzebracrossing has been added to the SDK library. It serves as part of the QR code function.
Marius commented that development on Noble has really speeded up recently. That is partly because we can now use the Deben repository directly but also because we have more people working on the project.
Once the major issue of the OpenStore is resolved we will be able to release Noble.
Marius will have more to say in future weeks about his work to get Mir2 working on the phone. It is partway there but there are still some crashes.
OpenStore apps news
AppLee congratulated those developers who keep their apps regularly updated. That is so much better than launching an app and then forgetting about it.
Upower Indicator is a fork rather than a new app, but it serves a very useful function, providing a load of battery information in the indicator bar. Just a small warning. — it requires full system access. Big thanks to Pavlo for that.
Dicenomicon is a simple dice roller from Joan Cibersheep.
Cinnyweb is a web app for connecting to Cinny, which is a Matrix client. Many thanks to Carlos for that.
Diaporama is a slideshow app which has full access to your photos. Vlad has provided a nice range of transitions.
TuxRacer was in UT in the beginning and after a great deal of work, we now have a functioning version for Focal. It is a great game and big thanks go to abmyii for bringing it across.
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.
Sanpz0r
Jan-ops79 asked whether the official inclusion of Snap means that SnapzOr is no longer needed? Also Will the Mail app stop crashing when Snap is used to open an attachment? It’s really all depends what happens with OpenStore. We don’t really want two separate systems for installing apps and if OpenStore can be modified to install snaps directly, then we will have just one system. It is of course possible to install via the terminal.The issue with Mail app crashing is not related to snaps but there is a bug now in some apps which means that they are not able to access ContentHub.
Focal update
Domubpkm asked whether we have seen the last Focal update? There is still a small queue of items waiting so we would expect perhaps one small update before Noble takes over. there is one particular issue which is VoLTE and we would expect that to be incorporated into Focal.Milestones
Kristatos mentioned that the milestones used to give a very good indication of what was coming up in OTA’s, but they have fallen a long way behind. Could we start to update them again? Well, yes, that’s a good idea. An issue is the milestones are a collective effort not an individual one so we would need better coordination if we’re going to achieve that. Certainly it is something we should look at. As a project we are not able to set hard and fast delivery dates in the milestones because we rely on volunteers.Own hardware
Kristoffer suggested that it is time to make a Crowdfunder page to fund the building of tablet and phone hardware to support UT.Making any kind of hardware is a really difficult task and one which we are really not equipped to do. It is much better to leave that to experts who work in partnership with us. Remember that it didn’t work for Canonical!
VoLTE and Qualcomm
On the VoLTE questions, Qualcomm support still needs a lot of work. We do understand how important it is, especially as a lot more countries plan to pull 4G this year. It isn’t just a matter of having enough money available to solve this problem. It is just very difficult. Some providers operate a whitelist system so some devices will not be accepted by them whatever we do. Phones with an Exynos processor don’t even do it in hardware so we would need to develop some sort of software get-around.In response to some frustration expressed we are trying to figure out how hidden proprietary systems work there are not just one system but hundreds of them, all different. There is a lot of guesswork and exploring involved so there are no shortcuts. What we need is a team of 20 or 40 people working full-time and we don’t have anything like that. Nobody has ever managed to solve this problem before. Apple and Google made it very complicated in order to kill off any possibility of competition.
UBports merch
Finally, a reminder that our merch can trigger conversations about UBports so it helps us in two ways.
See you next time :-)