Hacking Ubuntu Touch | Hacker News Reader

Hacking Ubuntu Touch

sturmflut.github.io

64 pointsreddotX14 comments

It should be noted that this is hacking in the 'working out how it works' sense and not in the 'lets do something nefarious to this device' sense. Ubuntu Touch offers a lot of features that you won't find in handsets elsewhere, not least of which its hackability, in the 'getting under the covers' sense, is quite an outlier. I'm personally waiting until the '..next..' generation of Ubuntu Touch devices is out there to get involved, but I'm sure eager to jump ship and have a really cool Unix workstation in my pocket to do all the communicate deeds. It will be a watershed moment for me when I can move all communication into a device I truly own.

I've been running the Aquaris E5 for the past few weeks and while it has a few bugs, I am amazed at how much smartphone functionality Canonical has put into this clean and easy new interface. Everything I expect on the "device infrastructure" is there (although obviously, apps are sorely missing). Still I'm finding it does 90% of what I need via the web apps (have owned multiple iphones and high-end androids) and it refreshingly clutter free. I can't stress the last point enough. Android feels to me like an oversatured mess of a kids playground with all its silly colours (even worse on OLED screens) while the iphone, though cleaner, is also suffering from feature creep. My E5 feels like a crisp blank sheet, like that refreshing feeling when you have a clean install of your operating system. By the way, SSH terminal into my work computer, no problem, including ANSI support. Tmux, Vim, all perfect. It's no less powerful than the full blown terminal in desktop Ubuntu (though obviously the screen is smaller).

Canonical, all is forgiven for the past few versions of Ubuntu which haven't moved forward. It's clear that you've been putting huge resource into Unity and I hope it has a huge future.

Is it still a 'normal Ubuntu' machine underneath? I'm getting a sense that you won't be easily porting X11-based apps to it - is this nonsense?

My personal desire is to have a multi-core, multi-gigabyte, 8-10+ hour battery life software development workstation, in my pocket, which can also receive phone calls. If this is the future, with Ubuntu, then color me converted.

I've been using it purely as a phone for now (other than the occasional ssh into the office), but it is exactly the vision you state above that puts me into the early adopter camp. I don't know about X apps. MiR is supposted to have an X-compatibility layer on it as far as I understand, just like Wayland, but the details or pitfalls are not known to me. I am going to assume that Canonical will try to steer people towards MiR, hence the controversy about the rift with the rest of the Linux community. I'm assuming that this is being watched very closely by the other distros and I don't see why we shouldn't see other full blow linux stacks on phone-like devices in the future. This is clearly the way forward and I'm going with Ubuntu now because they're the furthest ahead.

"My personal desire is to have a multi-core, multi-gigabyte, 8-10+ hour battery life software development workstation, in my pocket, which can also receive phone calls. If this is the future, with Ubuntu, then color me converted."

That is exactly the plan and is being worked on at the moment.

X11 apps will work through XMir - they won't be touch optimised but will still work, will however be much more useable when connecting the phone to a larger display and a bluetooth mouse/keyboard.

Additionally we are working on a Qt/QML toolkit which will allow developers to write apps that work well on both mobile and desktop

I'm on a self imposed holdout until the supposed "convergence" version (basically what they showed in their first videos, phone+docking station=desktop) which is rumored for October. Once that will be release I'll be VERY happy. It's pretty hard to not buy an MX4 though. Pretty solid specs for the price.

Only browsed the article but that's exactly what I am hoping for. I want to own my phone. My pipedream is that I'll eventually own a 100% free phone+laptop combination.

the "first videos" you're talking about were showing Ubuntu for Android, unless I'm very mistaken.

There are recent videos of convergence with Ubuntu Touch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3PUYoa1c9M

I want to own and work on an Ubuntu Touch phone, but they are making it very hard for me. I don't live in China or in Europe. I can purchase an MX4 within a walking distance of my home, but it is an Android version, potentially bootlocked (vendor says some of their shipments are, some aren't, and they are not willing to accept a return in case mine is bootlocked) -- and even if it isn't, there's no sanctioned tool out there to install it.

My sense is this is kind of a beta programme and that they want to get it right before putting it into US, where a much fiercer press in general would kill it at the starting gates if it's not 100% ready. Moreover the size of the US market means they need to line up distribution partners and a credible inventory of device stock, both things requiring resources and cred, which they can get by "booting" the business model in Europe/China.

Seems to me the major reason is that the hardware manufacturers are from Spain (BQ) and China (Meizu). There might also be license/compliance issues or software patent problems that hold up a US release.

And my guess would be that the Chinese smart phone market is actually bigger than the US one, especially for the price point of these phones (and Europe is probably not that far behind the US).

I flashed Ubuntu Touch on top of an LG Nexus 4 I got for around ~$95. That's their main development target, and it works well.

In section "MediaTek details: Partitions and Preloader" - "CPU Init", he is talking about setting the mode to SVC:

/* set the cpu to SVC32 mode */ MRS r0,cpsr BIC r0,r0,#0x1f ORR r0,r0,#0xd3 MSR cpsr,r0

Does anybody know in which mode the system actually starts. Is it HYP or even Monitor?

I want to try one of these and I'm a chronic early-adopter, but some support for a smartwatch (I feel naked without my MS Band nowadays), and 4G LTE compatibility in the USA are part of an MVP for me to try out a phone nowadays. It's my understanding that Ubuntu Touch and the devices it is currently running on do not offer that. Anybody know of a roadmap/timeline for when Ubuntu Touch will be adding these features?

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