OTA-1 Focal also brings a number of other improvements
The project UBports, which took over development of the Ubuntu Touch mobile platform after Canonical pulled out of it, has released a new OTA-1 Focal update. This update sums up almost three years of migration from Ubuntu Touch to Ubuntu 20.04 (previous versions were based on Ubuntu 16.04).
This is the first OTA for Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) with core features, this is an optional update and not required. The upcoming OTA-2 will mainly fix bugs and make it even more stable.
Main news of Ubuntu Touch OTA-1 Focal
In this new version that is presented of Ubuntu Touch Focal, it was moved to Ubuntu 20.04 as the base platform, in addition to the fact that the Lomiri shell provides the ability to switch between phone and desktop modes (can be used to create a complete work environment by connecting a monitor, keyboard and mouse to a smartphone). desktop mode adds initial support for virtual desktops.
Besides that it is also implemented the ability to display a translucent menu indicator, updated visual effects, added a new PIN code request, added support for 4 to 12 digit PIN codes.
It is also noted that user environment builds of Lomiri, a fork of Unity 8, have started for distributions other than Ubuntu.
In the web browser morph, the motor QtWebEngine has been updated to version 5.15.11, Added support for hardware accelerated video decoding and the ability to play videos up to 2K quality and added the ability to start a video chat via Jitsi Meet.
In components to receive calls and messages, new and missed calls and messages suggestions have been added, which are displayed in Lomiri Launcher, while the address book offers the possibility to attach a note and a URL to a contact.
On the other hand, the environment for running Android applications on Linux distributions was changed from Anbox to Waydroid.
While the Mir display server and qtmir have improved integration with Xwayland and improved support for running X11 applications in the Lomiri environment.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- The messaging program offers the possibility to enlarge the text of a discussion by means of the pinch gesture.
- Improved performance of the calendar scheduler.
- The firmware of the Fairphone 4 and Xiaomi Mi A2 smartphones includes an implementation of the Aethercast protocol, which is used to connect to external displays wirelessly.
- Added support for downloading sound files from the Content Hub service in the music player.
- The program for working with the camera has a built-in interface for reading barcodes.
- Added support for devices natively shipped with Android 9 and later.
- The Upstart system manager has been replaced by Systemd.
- Development moved from Github.com to Gitlab.com. The localization work has been moved to the use of the weblate service.
- Ubuntu flags replaced with Ayatana flags.
- It provided the ability to build many components using GCC 12 and Qt 5.15.
- Releases after Ubuntu 22.04 are newer versions of Network Manager (1.36.6) and Bluez Bluetooth stack (5.64).
- The telephony stack has added experimental support for cell broadcast technology for simultaneous delivery of SMS to multiple users.
- Libertine Application Manager uses the bubblewrap package to create sandboxes.
- In Nuntium (analogue to mmsd), problems with receiving MMS messages have been resolved.
- Improved stability of the Sync-monitor service
- Keyboard indicator completely rewritten in C language.
- Added support for USB-C USB-PD.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the details In the following link.
Download and get Ubuntu Touch OTA-1 Focal Release
The Ubuntu Touch OTA-1 Focal update is for Fairphone 4, Google Pixel 3a, Vollaphone 22, Vollaphone X and Vollaphone smartphones.
Experimental builds for many of the older Ubuntu 20.04-based devices are also in development, but are not yet recognized as stable.