11. What is convergence? Will all devices support convergence? Are you working on convergence?
There is a common miscommunication when we talk about convergence and what people expect it to be.

Some people expect convergence to be the capability to use desktop software on their mobile devices.

Others expect convergence to be the feature to attach an external display(wireless or wired), mouse and keyboard and get a "Desktop-like" Experience. (On Laptops is connecting a external mouse, keyboard and wired display via a single cable is often called "Docking")

But that is not what convergence is! Convergence is designing software in such a way that it is pleasant to use on a mobile phone, on a tablet and on a desktop computer. This is baked into our human interface guidelines as can be seen here: https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/humanguide/other-design-considerations/convergence.html

By definition Gimp and desktop Firefox are not convergent; they are not pleasant to use on on 5 inch touch screen.

'Convergence' on Ubuntu touch is not a device feature or OS feature, but a way to design applications and system software.

12. I'm having issues with installing Ubuntu Touch, what do I do? Heeelp!!!!!
First of all, calm down. How long have you been at it? Take a break, or even sleep on it. The installer will not break your device, you can recover.
If your device doesn't boot normal, you can try to boot into recovery mode or fastboot mode. If either works, you can always reinstall android or continue installing Ubuntu Touch.
With that out of the way, we have a short troubleshooting guide over at https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/install.html#troubleshooting that you may find helpful.
We also have a dedicated install support group, come and join t.me/welcomeplus for help from community members.
Feel free to send us a screenshot of the state of the installer, of your device. If you can also send the logs that will be appreciated.
The logs are located at the following locations:
Windows: %appdata%/ubports/ubports-installer.log
Linux: ~/.cache/ubports/ubports-installer.log
Mac: $HOME/Library/Caches/ubports/ubports-installer.log
The installer's log contains relevant information we can use to help you. It does not contain personal information.

13. Can I run WhatsApp on Ubuntu Touch?
Facebook does not support Ubuntu Touch. If you want WhatsApp and other Facebook products on Ubuntu Touch, ask Facebook to support Ubuntu Touch, seriously. They don't provide an open API, so either they code an app for Ubuntu Touch or it does not happen.
If you run Whatsapp on another phone, you may use Whatsapp web though.

14. My devices touch screen doesn't work after I unplug it from an external monitor!
You need to restart the device for the touch screen to work again. Note that this may be a port specific bug, feel free to send feedback about this in t.me/welcomeplus.

15. Applications look huge in an external monitor!
First, install UT Tweak Tool from the OpenStore. Then open it, go to System->Services and Restart Lomiri. This should fix most scaling issues.
If you still have scaling issues, you can scale the UI by going to Behaviour->Scaling and adjusting the grid unit. Please note that this will be persistent, and you might have to make it higher when you stop using the external display.
if the only the applications are big and not lomiri itself then this is an known issue, the quick fix is dragging the app to the left edge of the screen and back. more information can be found here:
https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/1343
https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/1345

16. Can't log into an open wifi hotspot because the welcome page is missing?
Don't ask me why 😉 but you need to open a (any) http (! no s!) website in morph to get the welcome page displayed.
So open morph browser and visit a page like http://nonsense.org. That should trigger the loading of the hotspot's welcome page.
With some hotspot providers you need to open their website (not a random one) as http to get the welcome page displayed.

17. So many release channels in system update settings, where is the difference? 🤔
There are four release channels for Ubuntu Touch Focal:
stable, release candidate, devel and edge.

stable... is the most reliable release channel,
it is recommended for users who need stability rather than the newest features,
it does get OTA (over the air) updates every several weeks or so, that is why those stable releases are called OTA 10 for example.

release canditate (RC) ... is fairly stable but may still get some bugs pushed through,
this channel is for doing the last tests befor releasing features to stable channel,
if you want features quicker and you want to help testing but your life does not depend on your phone and you can live with some downtime - rc is for you,
it does only get updates when changes have passed devel, frequency can be weekly or several weeks

devel ... is where new features land for first testing,
although changes have been validated before being released, bugs are to be expected,
don't use devel if you can't live with the fact that new features might break things;
updates come if something has changed - so frequency can be daily

edge ... is where dragons live. Here ideas were melted into code for the fearless to try them out,
don't use this channel for a phone you actually use,
updates come as ideas happen to developers

there are 6 release channels for Ubuntu Touch Noble:
24.04-1.x/daily, 24.04-1.x/rc, 24.04-1.x/stable, 24.04-2.x/daily, 24.04-2.x/rc, 24.04-2.x/stable

Releases series are specified before the slash. So 24.04-1.x is the first release series based on ubuntu 24.04, 24.04-2.x the second series based on ubuntu 24.04. Subversions could be specified as 1.1 or 2.3.

24.04-1.x/daily .. is like the above mentioned devel channel but for the 24.04-1.x series. Only bug fixes will be merged here no feature updates

24.04-2.x/daily is just like the above mentioned one, but for the next feature release, all new features will be merged untill the team decides it's time to branch off and refine at which point 24.04-3.x/daily will be created and this one will be become like 24.04-1.x/daily

24.04-2.x/rc, 24.04-2.x/stable, 24.04-1.x/rc, 24.04-1.x/stable these are like the previous rc and stable channels but for the 24.04-1.x/24.04-2.x series these will not be available at all times, instead they will become available as the team cuts releases after each testing phase

When the time comes to upgrade the base again, we'll have 26.04-1.x and so on

TLDR;
- if you want updates after they have been tested by devel and RC users, choose stable
- if you want to get frequent updates (up to weekly) that have been partially tested, choose RC
- if you want to get daily updates, choose devel
- don't choose edge unless you know what you are doing 😉

18. Is there a changelog for updates?
For OTA updates of the stable channel a blog post is issued. That contains the main features and fixes that update brings to the user.
For all other channels there are no changelogs. The effort to watch 400+ repos for changes is too much work.
You can of course regularly check the list of merged MR's, our epics and our project boards to see what has changed.

19. OTA xyz is out but I can't install it yet. What's wrong?
OTA (Over the air) updates are rolled out over one week to all devices.
Rolling it out to only some devices to start with, allows to stop rollout in case of unexpected problems.
Also in most cases you will get a notification when the OTA is available for your device. So relax, you will get it soon. 😉

You want to know the technical details?
Every device creates a random number 1 to 100. Every couple of hours 1% is added to the server percentage.
If the random device number is lower than server percentage the update is made available.

20. Why do we need Android in a specific version on our devices before installing? And what is halium?

Every port (https://t.me/UTFAQ/5) of a device is based on a certain version of Android (or another stock rom). Simplified this part of the system , which is called Halium, is providing drivers and firmware to allow interaction with the devices hardware.

That is why, before running the Ubuntu Touch installer, the installed version of Android needs to match the version the port is based on. Otherwise the code base of the port will not be able to „talk“ properly to the devices hardware.
As a rough guideline the version of halium specified for a device generally matches the version of Android the device should have installed. Best check the devices page or if in doubt ask the porter.

For a more detailled (and mostly correct) visual overview please see this image.

21. Openstore web shows an app but I can't install it with OpenStore app on my device. Why?
There might be two possible reasons:
1.
Apps are always build using a certain framework e.g. 16.04 or 20.04. Numbers follow general Ubuntu release scheme. The framework provides a certain state of the libraries used with the OS.
The OS will see changes that might break backwards compatibility with older frameworks. So if apps are not updated occasionally, the old framework they are build with may not be supported anymore. OpenStore web lists all apps, also some with very old frameworks. OpenStore app checks your device for compatibility and lists only apps supported by your device's OS version.
2.
Phones can have different chipset architectures. armhf (32bit) and arm64 (64bit) are the most common. Depending on the code, apps may need to be build and released for every architecture individually.
Some apps are released only for one architecture. If an app is released for armhf architecture only, you can see it in Openstore web (shows all arch's), but if your device is arm64 architecture you will not see it in OpenStore app on your device because you can not install it.
What to do?
Go and make contact with the app developer. Ask if the app can be provided for either another architecture or be build with a newer framework.

22. Can you add a bot in the group to fight spam and to answer questions?
We'd like to keep human interaction when helping people. A bot would give cold stale answers, perhaps repeated answers if multiple people says something with the same keyword. People are dynamic, are able to ask follow up questions and of course can choose to answer multiple people at once when needed.

Admins are around most of the time. We discreetly use Rose bot to assist admins in some groups, but we restrain from extensive usage, to avoid the bot's messages bothering users more than spam. Generally spam never stays long. If something really lurks around for too long, feel free to ping us directly and we'll take care of it. just keep the admin's timezone in mind. But the banhammer should cover the most common timezones. 🔨

23. What is the difference between UBports and Ubuntu Touch?

Ubuntu Touch by UBports

Ubuntu Touch, or short UT, is the operation system (OS) that is running on your device [=code].
UBports is the name of our community. [= humans]
It is also the name of our foundation, that supports the development of UT and the porting of devices. The foundation is legally based in Berlin, Germany and allows to gather donations, manage finances, employ developers and much more.

24. Is dual boot supported with Ubuntu Touch?

No. There is no official support for dual boot by UBports for Ubuntu Touch (UT).
For dual boot to work, it needs a bootloader that handles that, UT bootloader doesn't.

Vollaphones do have dual boot support by Volla. With VollaOS as primary system, one can install UT on an sd card using the Volla bootmanager. Pinephone allow to boot into multiple OS from sd card. Some Redmi devices have limited/experimental dual boot support hacked together, but not officially supported by Ubuntu Touch.

BUT: (I know you saw some videos in the 🕸 doing just that... 😉)
Some users tried to implement dual boot by modifying the recovery of their ports.

If you find a video that suggests it might be possible for your device,
1. Check the date. the video is likely outdated.
2. Be warned that though some porters do provide some form of support, this is not officially supported by the ubports community. As such any issues on such dual boot devices should be directed at the porter in question first.
3. Be warned that Ubuntu Touch uses a specialized recovery to download and install updates. Any modifications made to the recovery to facilitate dual booting may break the update process. The ubports community as a whole cannot provide support for such edge cases, solely the porter that made those modifications can provide any sort of support. In their absence you're out of luck.

25. Can you give me a flashable zip I can download to install Ubuntu Touch with twrp or such?

We do not support installing Ubuntu Touch with flashable zips.
Please read on to find out why:

Everyone helping in t.me/welcomeplus are volunteers helping people with install issues in their free time. As we already have to be able to provide support for over 80 devices we strive to make the installation procedure as simple and as straightforward as possible. With this goal in mind the ubports installer was created.

Ideally the process should be:
- enable usb debugging
- enable allow oem unlock [optionally depends on device]
- plug in
- run the installer
- ???
- profit

At worse volunteers in the welcome group can go through the installer logs or try an combination of simple toggles in the installer to see why with new users to see where it fails so that the process and be improved.

This makes it possible for anyone who has installed ubuntu touch on devices to assist any new user with the installation process.

Adding more ways to install, such a flashable zip or manual methods would add to the complexity to the troubleshooting process and create more work for volunteers.

More importantly those alternative methods do not guarantee a working recovery partition, which is crucial to keep the system up to date, this can lead to the wrong impression of the OS

For above reasons we can only provide support for installing Ubuntu Touch with the Ubports Installer.

26. Can I lock the bootloader once i have Ubuntu Touch installed?

No, you should not lock the bootloader after installing Ubuntu Touch. This will brick your phone. In some case you will need to contact the manufacturer to repair such a device.

For some detailed explanation on why the bootloader must stay unlocked please read this article.

27. What is offline charging?
Offline charging refers to the ability of devices to stay turned off for charging. On some devices this is broken. That means the device will turn on when you start charging it.

28. What do the version numbers of the release channels mean?

The version numbers seen in the update section are device specific, the device independent "update number" can be found in the about section of system settings.
At the moment of writing you'll see ubuntu 16.04 followed by a "update number". This "update number" follows a different naming scheme depending on the update channel:

For stable channel the update number is named with a pattern like OTA-24 (OTA = over the air) with the number incrementing with each stable update.

For release channel the updates are named after the year and week number of their release like 2022-W47 (week 47 of the year 2022). Year and week are incrementing.

For the devel channel the updates are named after the date they are released so you'll see something like ubuntu 16.04 (2022-11-24).

29. How do I report a bug 🪲?

Reporting bugs is a great way to contribute. Only if developers know about an issue can they try to fix it.

You are not sure where that issue should be reported? You think it might be a system issue? A general approach is described in our docs. Please follow those instructions (check if already reported, reproduce and document which steps exactly do cause the issue, report or comment).

Prefered is a report at a specific app or component. Decide/guess if it might be caused by a certain system component or an individual app. In most cases issues (🪲) are tracked in the corresponding gitlab or github repository of the component or app.
a) For apps check their page in OpenStore app or on the OpenStore website. There is almost always a link for the bug tracker. Report your issue there.
b) For system components you need to guess a bit. They are hosted either on gitlab or on github. Try to find the repo that you consider might be causing the issue and report your bug there. If that is not the correct place, someone will likely tell you and the report can be moved.

What to include in a good bug report:
- name of device, release channel and version of UT
- steps to reproduce
- logs if possible
- screenshots
- a description of what happened and what you would expect to see
- if known, info if other users can confirm that issue

30. Is there a way to move the launcher to the right side of the device instead of the left side?

Technically, of course everything can be done. But in UT the edges do have certain actions assigned to them like triggering the app drawer, switching between apps, opening the indicators or bottom edge. In order to move the launcher to the right, the whole interaction system for all those actions would need to be rewritten and swapped left/right. The code base would likely be bigger, that means harder to maintain.
So for reasons of workload, stability and maintainability the answer is: no, this is not going to happen.

31. Is Ubuntu Touch fully open source?

Ubuntu Touch is fully open source, however the drivers that are needed for utilizing the hardware might be proprietary. Then they can not be distributed with Ubuntu Touch. This is the reason why installing the correct Android version, before installing Ubuntu Touch, is crucial.
For more details about that interaction, please see https://t.me/UTFAQ/42.