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Ubuntu Touch OS for Fxtec Pro1


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Thanks @Raksura, for answering your own question and posting you experience here.

I am also very interested in UbuntuTouch. But as I rely on my Pro1 as my only phone, I cannot afford to experiment too much with it.

I would well be ready to give UT a chance for a few weeks, if I could be sure that basic stuff like telephony and GPS are working at least. Apparently this is not the case yet, so thanks for the warning.

Is there any place where one can follow UT development for the Pro1, specifically (a list of open issues/bugs related to precisely that device)? What is the presently recommended way of installing it anyway? How do you get to the latest patchlevel? Does one still follow the flashing procedure form the OP, followed by in-OS-updating? 

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Last week Liangchen Chen posted a video of a Fxtec Pro1 running Ubuntu Touch on Twitter https://twitter.com/chenliangchen/status/1272903474393604100 containing a link to an installable zip-file.

https://github.com/ubports-on-fxtec-pro1 is correct. Rootfs currently has manual tweaks for configs, as I didn't plan for the image to be released publicly and it more served as demonstration, but if

Yes, great idea, but please LineageOS first 😉

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20 minutes ago, claude0001 said:

Thanks @Raksura, for answering your own question and posting you experience here.

I am also very interested in UbuntuTouch. But as I rely on my Pro1 as my only phone, I cannot afford to experiment too much with it.

I would well be ready to give UT a chance for a few weeks, if I could be sure that basic stuff like telephony and GPS are working at least. Apparently this is not the case yet, so thanks for the warning.

Is there any place where one can follow UT development for the Pro1, specifically (a list of open issues/bugs related to precisely that device)? What is the presently recommended way of installing it anyway? How do you get to the latest patchlevel? Does one still follow the flashing procedure form the OP, followed by in-OS-updating? 

I've updated my report following a full firmware restore + clean install that was intended to let met clearly define how to reproduce the telephony issue but ended up removing it altogether.

Haven't gotten GPS to work yet (and cellular internet doesn't appear to be working either).

I don't know where to get details about UT development specific to the Pro1. There's UBports's repository collection, but it's not Pro1 specific.

Installation is very easy: https://ubuntu-touch.io/get-ubuntu-touch

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38 minutes ago, Raksura said:

[...] Installation is very easy: https://ubuntu-touch.io/get-ubuntu-touch [...]

🤦‍♂️ ... that was too obvious. I did not know the Pro1 had already an image listed there. Looks promising, indeed.

Thanks for the update. Still, I'll probably wait for 2021 (and more positive reviews) before I attempt the jump.

Edited by claude0001
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  • 3 months later...

*edit* this post was previously posted over here ->

 

What does this mean for Ubuntu Touch on the original Pro1? As of now it isn't possible to install it and the Pro1 shows up as not supported. I've seen some  people having managed to install it, I'm guessing those were Ubuntu Touch developers.

 

1680455343_Bildschirmfotovon2021-03-1623-30-23.png.8fcfad52942dfbdff600b5ebc2fb5bc6.png

Edited by SteffenWi
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20 minutes ago, SteffenWi said:

As of now it isn't possible to install it and the Pro1 shows up as not supported.

You mean when you use the official installer for the Pro1:

https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/pro1/

it does not work?

I have never tried UbuntuTouch up to now. But the Pro1 has been listed as a supported device for quite some time now, and other people here have reported installation to work fine.

Edited by claude0001
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@claude0001 let's talk about this here in the appropirate thread.

The screenshot/snippet I posted was from the ubports-installer and it clearly shows that installation is not possible/supported.

The installation method detailed in this thread is sketchy at best. It requires TWRP when TWRP isn't available for the Pro1 as detailed by this thread ->

 

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In the thread you found, there is a post (from December 2020) by @Raksura stating that installation using the UBPorts installer worked flawlessly back then:

If it does not anymore, obviously something must have changed there. Thanks for bringing this up. I hope some active Ubuntu users on Pro1 will be able to comment.

2 minutes ago, SteffenWi said:

I would be very interested in the definition of the word "supported" here as I saw that as well and was very confused about what is meant by that.

For the Pro1, the Ubuntu port was a community effort, not led by FxTec. So it was (hopefully: is) "supported" (to some degree) by the OS, but not in the company sense of the word. With the Pro1-X this may change, as FxTec have recently stated they actively participate in Ubuntu development themselves now. 

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6 minutes ago, SteffenWi said:

@claude0001 let's talk about this here in the appropirate thread.

I replied simultaneously in the old thread. Maybe @EskeRahn can move the stuff over here.

As I said I have never tried Ubuntu up to now, although I am quite interested in it and always wanted to test it a some point. So thanks for pointing out that the official installer no longer works.

Hopefully, some active Ubuntu-on-Pro1 user can comment on this.

Edited by claude0001
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5 hours ago, claude0001 said:

For the Pro1, the Ubuntu port was a community effort, not led by FxTec. So it was (hopefully: is) "supported" (to some degree) by the OS, but not in the company sense of the word. With the Pro1-X this may change

How though? FxTec's effort is focused on the Pro1-X. Not the Pro1.

Also this guy says that the port was done by FxTec, not by the Ubuntu Touch community.

Edited by SteffenWi
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I noticed something on the screenshot I took - from which I posted the small snippet above - which is the small selection box at the bottom of the installer screen.

In there it lists all available images, including the FxTec Pro / Pro-X image (as feared they seem to have consolidated the two, which could mean that going forward only the Pro-X will be supported).

After selecting the entry from that list I was able to install Ubuntu Touch on the Pro1.

 

*edit*

It doesn't boot. I can still get into the recovery mode and the boot manager but I can't start Ubuntu Touch.

Edited by SteffenWi
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4 hours ago, SteffenWi said:

Also this guy says that the port was done by FxTec, not by the Ubuntu Touch community

To be honest, it never became clear to me what development model they had in mind for the Pro1 -- for any OS, actually. That comment is from February, so it likely already refers to the Pro1-X project anyway (which initially was compatible to the Pro1).

Sadly, among the three "big" community OS's for the Pro1, Ubuntu seems to have fallen behind by quite some amount over the course of last year. According to the experience reported by @Raksura in this thread, it was still very far from a "daily-driver" level of usability in December. One has to compare that with the progress made by LineageOS (fully production-grade) and Sailfish (at least perfectly useable, with some quite cool features) in that same year.

In developing Ubuntu further, F(x)tec will obviously need to focus on the (new) Pro1-X now, as Ubuntu (with desktop-mode) seems to have been a killer feature for many backers. And once Pro1-X's start to hit the market in significant numbers, also community support will likely shift to the newer device, which has many advantages from a developer point of view (long remaining EOL, newer Linux Kernel, in the long term: larger installed base ...).

So, I fear that, if Ubuntu for the original Pro1 does not learn to fly in 2021, it probably never will ... 😞 

Edited by claude0001
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57 minutes ago, claude0001 said:

I fear that, if Ubuntu for the original Pro1 does not learn to fly in 2021, it probably never will ... 😞 

Looking at this news article about the latest UBPorts OTA update it says they fixed the flashlight on 835 devices.  The previous update when the Pro1/X was added was also released after Raksura's list of problems so I would hope it has improved - would they really add a device without working mobile internet?

I'm very interested in SteffenWi's findings when they get it working (hoping the power of positive thinking helps!)

Edited by suicidal_orange
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54 minutes ago, suicidal_orange said:

I'm very interested in SteffenWi's findings when they get it working (hoping the power of positive thinking helps!)

I tried flashing stable at first and now edge, both with the same result of the phone not booting. If anyone has any experience with Ubuntu Touch and is able and willing to help, this is what I can see in the /cache/ubuntu_updater.log file after waiting for 10 minutes for the device to start and then rebooting it into recovery mode:
 

A/B slot system detected! Slot suffix is _b

Formating: system

system partition: /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system-b

umount /system_root: Invalid argument

mke2fs 1.43.3 /04-Sep-2016)

Discarding device blocks:   4096/786432??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????done

[...]bunch of stuff about creating filesystem and superblocks[...]

umount /dev/block/sda7: Invalid argument

umount /cache/system: Invalid argument

umount/system_root: Invalid argument

e2fsck 1.43.3 (04-Sep-2016)

Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks and sizes

Pass 2: Checking directory structure

Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity

Pass 4: Checking reference counts

Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system_b 11/196608 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 29884/786432 blocks

Formating: data

Applying update ubports-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Applying update device-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Applying update boot-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Flashing boot at /Dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_b

Applying update: keyring-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Applying update: version 286.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Seems to me like the supplied image is bugged.

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2 hours ago, SteffenWi said:

I tried flashing stable at first and now edge, both with the same result of the phone not booting. If anyone has any experience with Ubuntu Touch and is able and willing to help, this is what I can see in the /cache/ubuntu_updater.log file after waiting for 10 minutes for the device to start and then rebooting it into recovery mode:
 


A/B slot system detected! Slot suffix is _b

Formating: system

system partition: /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system-b

umount /system_root: Invalid argument

mke2fs 1.43.3 /04-Sep-2016)

Discarding device blocks:   4096/786432??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????done

[...]bunch of stuff about creating filesystem and superblocks[...]

umount /dev/block/sda7: Invalid argument

umount /cache/system: Invalid argument

umount/system_root: Invalid argument

e2fsck 1.43.3 (04-Sep-2016)

Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks and sizes

Pass 2: Checking directory structure

Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity

Pass 4: Checking reference counts

Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system_b 11/196608 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 29884/786432 blocks

Formating: data

Applying update ubports-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Applying update device-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Applying update boot-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Flashing boot at /Dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_b

Applying update: keyring-<alphanumeric number>.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Applying update: version 286.tar.xz

mv: bad 'data/*': No such file or directory

Seems to me like the supplied image is bugged.

Try and re-install the offical android image then installed ubtouch. I also found the the latest installer didn’t work correctly, I had success with the installer version 0.54 on windows.

Edited by mibry
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On 3/18/2021 at 12:17 AM, mibry said:

Try and re-install the offical android image then installed ubtouch. I also found the the latest installer didn’t work correctly, I had success with the installer version 0.54 on windows.

Surprisingly, this worked. Thank you!

I first flashed the original image as described here ->


And then I installed uboot-installer 0.54-beta by cloning the repository and checking out this branch here and then running

npm install

npm start 

The first attempt failed as the Pro1 wouldn't boot into recovery mode, but after restarting the phone, exiting the installer, going back to the boot menu and restarting the installer it worked. It just took a long time before I got into the start menu.

@Raksura pinging you here as you had a detailed list of what worked and what didn't.

  • GPS now works.
  • Flashlight works in the camera app and the application "uTorch" which I installed from the OpenStore. It does not work when using the flashlight switch in the pull-down menu.
  • Keyboard backlight still doesn't work
  • No indication wether the device is charging or not. Also no access to the phone's filesystem from my computer.
    lsusb
    reports
    0fce:7169 Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB Unknown

     

I did not test anything related to GSM/UMTS/HSDPA/LTE.

My next step will be to see if I can get the german keyboard to properly work and not be shifted.

Edited by SteffenWi
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3 hours ago, SteffenWi said:

Surprisingly, this worked. Thank you!

I first flashed the original image as described here ->


And then I installed uboot-installer 0.54-beta by cloning the repository and checking out this branch here and then running


npm install

npm start 

The first attempt failed as the Pro1 wouldn't boot into recovery mode, but after restarting the phone, exiting the installer, going back to the boot menu and restarting the installer it worked. It just took a long time before I got into the start menu.

@Raksura pinging you here as you had a detailed list of what worked and what didn't.

  • GPS now works.
  • Flashlight works in the camera app and the application "uTorch" which I installed from the OpenStore
  • Keyboard backlight still doesn't work

I did not test anything related to GSM/UMTS/HSDPA/LTE.

My next step will be to see if I can get the german keyboard to properly work and not be shifted.

Would you mind checking if libertine installs? When I tried to install it it failed with a roots error. I am running sailfish so really don’t want to install ubports and find libertine doesn’t work.

Regards

mibry

 

 

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@mibry I can install a Ubuntu Xenial Xerus container, however I can't install any packages. During the installation the log spits out a bunch of

mknod: fb0-: Permission denied
makedev fb0 c29 0 root video 0660: failed

messages and then ends with

rm: cannot remove /dev/sde16: Permission denied

and a general error that the installation process failed.

Also see my previous post as I found two more issues.

Edited by SteffenWi
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On 3/20/2021 at 12:16 AM, SteffenWi said:

@mibry I can install a Ubuntu Xenial Xerus container, however I can't install any packages. During the installation the log spits out a bunch of


mknod: fb0-: Permission denied
makedev fb0 c29 0 root video 0660: failed

messages and then ends with


rm: cannot remove /dev/sde16: Permission denied

and a general error that the installation process failed.

Also see my previous post as I found two more issues.

There is a fix available, the error is because make dev needs to be removed during install. I tested an install and got libertine installed.

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11 hours ago, mibry said:

There is a fix available, the error is because make dev needs to be removed during install. I tested an install and got libertine installed.

uhm, could you post that fix? Because I couldn't find anything (useful) when I searched for that error.

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@mibry I don't understand how to apply that fix. I can't edit those files from a terminal on the device, I can't ssh into Ubuntu Touch when it is running because no ssh service is running, I can't just copy files via USB because the device isn't recognized correctly and when I boot into recovery and connect via adb shell after mounting the filesystem, I can see all the files in /system_root but I can't execute vim.tiny to change anything.

Oh and I can't set up a SSH server in Ubuntu Touch because I would have to copy my public key over aaand as I said I can't copy any files.

Edited by SteffenWi
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On 4/3/2021 at 10:32 PM, SteffenWi said:

@mibry I don't understand how to apply that fix. I can't edit those files from a terminal on the device, I can't ssh into Ubuntu Touch when it is running because no ssh service is running, I can't just copy files via USB because the device isn't recognized correctly and when I boot into recovery and connect via adb shell after mounting the filesystem, I can see all the files in /system_root but I can't execute vim.tiny to change anything.

Oh and I can't set up a SSH server in Ubuntu Touch because I would have to copy my public key over aaand as I said I can't copy any files.

You need the ubports tweak tool to put the file system into read write mode. Then you have to edit the file /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/libertine/ChrootContainer.py (best done with vi) and add "self.run_in_container('apt remove -y makedev') " to line 86 of the file.

Before you do the following make sure all libertine containers are deletded.

The way to do the edit is like this:

  • download the ut tweak tool
  • open the app and select system
  • change the file system to read/write this time only
  • open terminal
  • sudo -i
  • Then type vi +86 /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/libertine/ChrootContainer.py
  • The line should be blank, then indent the line to the above using space key
  • then push i (make sure you see insert on the lower left of the screen) and type self.run_in_container('apt remove -y makedev')
  • The push esc key. The type :wq! and push enter
  • Then ctrl d
  • Then run the command TMPDIR=/tmp libertine-container-manager create --type chroot -i id <-change (It will look like the libertine install fails during the install. Makedev fails 5 time, once that has happened libertine install should complete)

Let the install finish and it should work.

Please use the above as a guide. I am going by memory as I have sfos on my pro1. I take no responsibility if the above instruction don't work. They should be close enough that it should work.

 

Edited by mibry
I Installed ubtouch on my pro1 and updated instructions
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11 hours ago, SteffenWi said:

Oh and I can't set up a SSH server in Ubuntu Touch because I would have to copy my public key over aaand as I said I can't copy any files.

Setting up the ssh server seems a bit tricky in UBports indeed. The official docs -- which your certainly know already -- list several ways of transferring the key.

I am no UbuntuTouch user, but basically, one encounters the same problems when setting up the SSH server in LineageOS. There, the easiest way (for me) was to grab the required public keys from the PC to the phone using Lineage's built-in SSH client (as opposed to pushing the files to the phone, which requires a working SSH server in the first place). Not sure if Ubuntu includes an SSH client out-of-the box, but if not, I would assume that should be easy to fix.

Don't give up on SSH! Once you get it running, it will be nothing short of a swiss army knife when it comes to accessing your phone's shell or filesystems (and more!) from outside. I actually have two SSH servers running simultaneously on my Pro1: One from my Debian chroot (used for everyday work on the phone), and the native SSH server of LineageOS for accessing its Android root shell. 

Edited by claude0001
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On 4/4/2021 at 12:00 AM, mibry said:
  • download the ut tweak tool
  • open the app and select system
  • change the file system to read/write this time only

aaand that was one of the parts I was missing. Thank you.

 

@claude0001 ah. To be fair I didn't see the adb push thing. But the first way doesn't work [quote]Connect the UBports device and the PC with a USB cable. Then copy the file using your file-manager.[/quote] because the device isn't recognized - I think I described that before.

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