Call for Testing: Ubuntu Touch OTA-14
Hello again, everyone!

I'm happy to announce that it is time to ask your help in testing Ubuntu Touch OTA-14! This is slated for release on Wednesday, November 4, 2020. Before then, we need to make sure it's ready to go!

What's new?

In this cycle, we decided to focus on fixing issues affecting Android 9 devices as we gear up for the Volla Phone's shipping date. This has largely been a success: We were able to fix difficulties when swiping apps away to close them; Ratchanan did quite a number on camera support; hardware media codecs now load properly and external display support with HardwareComposer2 is functional. Not bad at all for a month's development.

That's not all, though - outside of the paid team's "new development" commitments, we also merged many changes and translations from our volunteer community. Lionel Db. made a number of changes to the Contacts and Messaging apps to make them easier to use. Luca of postmarketOS fame contributed a number of fixes for compiling Ubuntu Touch software on newer distributions.

We have made the necessary changes to allow the Nexus 6P and Xperia Z4 Tablet to use the UBports Installer.

And most exciting for me, this release *finally* fixes re-routing media to your Bluetooth headset or car kit on  disconnection and re-connection. Bluetooth calls themselves were not remedied and remain broken on most devices. Car kit compatibility was not altered.

How can I test?

We want to ensure that every release we ship is better than the previous, so we're looking to our entire community to help us with the QA (Quality Assurance) of OTA-14.

We've prepared a GitHub Project for OTA-14 QA which lists the issues we'd like your feedback on. The QA column lists issues which do not have complete test results. The Done column lists issues which, thanks to our efforts here, are confirmed as fixed. The In Progress column lists issues which are not fixed, or where the fix introduces a severe negative side effect. The goal at the end of this is to have every issue in the Done column.

We're interested in hearing your feedback on everything in the QA column. We want to know:

* Which device are you using?
* Does the issue appear fixed in your testing?
* Did you notice any side effects of the change as it is listed in the issue or Pull Request?

Testing any issue should be easy. On your device:

1. Update all of your apps using "System Settings -> Updates" or "My Apps" in the OpenStore app
2. Head to System Settings -> Updates -> Update Settings -> Release Channel
3. Select `rc`
4. Go back to the Updates screen to install the downloaded update

After your phone reboots, you'll be on the OTA-14 release candidate! Of course, only step 4 is required if you are already on the `rc` channel, this update will come through as normal.

You will receive an image named `(2020-W43)` or newer. You can find your image version in System Settings -> About -> OS.

Now you can pick any issue in the QA column in the [OTA-14 project, then ensure that you are not able to reproduce it. If you can't reproduce the issue, the fix worked! If you can still reproduce the issue (or you notice something else isn't right), we want to know about that too. Leave a comment with your device and image version, then let us know the results of your test.OTA-14 Call for Testing forum postwhere we can discuss any questions you may have about anything that comes up during your testing.

Changelog


Marius Gripsgard


* Allow loading media_codecs from vendor partition: [ubports/apparmor-easyprof-ubuntu#18]
* Remove indicator-transfer's dependency on mirclient: [ubports/indicator-transfer#2]
* Support external displays on Android9/hwc2 devices: [ubports/mir-android-platform#23]
* Replace QString::null with QString(): [ubports/history-service#31]
* Allow building content-hub without Libertine support: [ubports/content-hub#14]
* Fix history-service building with `-Wall -Werror -Wextra`, fixes [ubports/history-service#29] and more random crashes: [ubports/history-service#30]
* Pay back technical debt inside mediascanner2: [ubports/mediascanner2#4]
* Replace deprecated `QByteArray::append(const QString &str)`: [ubports/u1db-qt#1]
* Use cmake-extras instead of duplicating its logic: [ubports/history-service#33]
* Add enum to handle `mir_window_state_attached`: [ubports/unity-api#26

JBB


* Update extra-cmake-modules from 5.52.0 to 5.70.0: [ubports/extra-cmake-modules-packaging#4]


Alberto Mardegan


* Simplify media-hub build process and improve crossbuilder support: [ubports/media-hub#13]
* Modernize online-accounts QML: [ubports/ubuntu-system-settings-online-accounts#12]
* Fix building qqc2-suru-style in crossbuilder: [ubports/qqc2-suru-style#50]
* Always set up a video surface since we can't know if we need one or not: [ubports/media-hub#5]


Luca Weiss


* Print glib errors to assist in diagnosing test failures: [ubports/unity-api#25]
* Fix ubuntu-ui-toolkit deprecation warnings on Qt 5.15: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#72]
* Make ubuntu-ui-toolkit compatible with Qt 5.15: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#83]
* Don't hardcode path to `python3` in ubuntu-ui-toolkit: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#70]
* Replace qt5_user_modules with target_link_libraries: [ubports/telephony-service#10]
* Fix crash when using newer glib: [ubports/unity-api#24]
* Fix 'missing sentinel in function call' warning: [ubports/ubuntu-app-launch#11]
* Fix non-standard `__environ` usage: [ubports/ubuntu-app-launch#10]
* Link trust-prompt against libintl: [ubports/trust-store#13]
* Fix qmenumodel building. Just in general. [ubports/qmenumodel#3]
* Fix ubuntu-download-manager deprecation warning: [ubports/ubuntu-download-manager#27]
* Handle `mir_window_type_decoration`: [ubports/qtubuntu#9]


Lionel Duboeuf


* Fix duplicating attachments after adding a message recipient, fixes [ubports/messaging-app#229]: [ubports/messaging-app#236]
* Show the end of the message list when opening messaging-app to a conversation from another app, fixes [ubports/messaging-app#240]: [ubports/messaging-app#241]
* Add swipe actions back to multimedia messages, fixes [ubports/messaging-app#238], [ubports/messaging-app#230], [ubports/messaging-app#221]: [ubports/messaging-app#239]
* Fix escaping of output file name for contacts exports, fixes [ubports/address-book-app#155], [ubports/address-book-app#157]: [ubports/address-book-app#166]
* Handle SMS/MMS messages being received without an explicit "sent date": [ubports/telepathy-ofono#14]
* Use message send date for timestamps, not receive date: [ubports/telephony-service#9]
* Hide the FastScroll list when using a contact's TrailingActions, fixes [ubports/address-book-app#162]: [ubports/address-book-app#165]
* Fix display of Birthday field in a contact view, fixes [ubports/address-book-app#152]: [ubports/address-book-app#153]
* Force dialer-app to display in portrait, fixes [ubports/dialer-app#6]: [ubports/dialer-app#131]
* Clean up QML warnings: [ubports/messaging-app#237]
* Do not show "Online Account" information in dialer, it is not implemented: [ubports/dialer-app#132]
* Do not overwrite written text with a saved draft, fixes [ubports/messaging-app#232], [ubports/messaging-app#235]: [ubports/messaging-app#234]

Ratchanan Srirattanamet


* Correctly reroute audio to a Bluetooth headset on reconnect, fixes [ubports/ubuntu-touch#1045]: [ubports/pulseaudio-packaging#5]
* Fix crashing when user touches an app too early in its initialization: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#90]
* Import systemd `229-4ubuntu21.28`: [ubports/systemd-packaging#1]
* Fix crash if `/etc/writable/localtime` is not a symlink, fixes [ubports/ubuntu-touch#1585]: [ubports/systemd-packaging#2]

Joan "Cibersheep"


* Add splash image to External Drives app: [ubports/ciborium#37]
* Fix contrast of overlayTexts, fixes [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#67]: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#89]
* Remove 'strokeColor' from buttons. It didn't do anything anyway. [ubports/system-settings#250]
* Make button text take on the strokeColor if it is defined, fixes [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#85]: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#88]

Rodney "dobey"


* Make it build: [ubports/ubuntu-system-settings-online-accounts#13]
* Make qt4 dependency optional: [ubports/autopilot-qt#1]
* Fix translations loading on indicator-network, fixes [ubports/indicator-network#12]: [ubports/indicator-network#44]

Florian Leeber


* Add Nexus 6P to UBports Installer
* Change "Ubports" to "UBports" in Halium-7.1 recovery: [ubports/android_bootable_recovery#10]

"Guf"


* Add Xperia Z4 Tablet to UBports Installer

"filman230"


* Fix build on cmake 3.1 and newer: [ubports/biometryd#2]

Dalton Durst


* Allow access to qt5 translations and libraries in /usr/lib or /lib: [ubports/apparmor-easyprof-ubuntu#17]
* Skip test_drag_indicator_item_down_shows_menu to work around [ubports/unity8#334]: [ubports/unity8#335]

Willem-Jan de Hoog


* Send a default album art to indicator-sound when none is found, fixes [ubports/media-hub#6]: [ubports/media-hub#7]

Jonatan Hatakeyama Zeidler


* Add information on using utqemu Ubuntu Touch virtual machine, fixes [ubports/utqemu#5]: [ubports/utqemu#6]

Mateo Salta


* Fix morph-browser fullscreen mode on Wayland devices: [ubports/morph-browser#378]

Alfred "fredldotme"


* Allow reading media-hub codecs from /vendor: [ubports/media-hub#17]

Michele "mymike00"


* Remove unreachable code: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#96]
* Make Dialogs follow the system theme and dim the background differently, fixes [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#91]: [ubports/ubuntu-ui-toolkit#97]

"NotKit"


* Only switch to the speaker and wired headphone port for a ringtone if it's available: [ubports/telephony-service#12]
* Fix physical screen size calculation on Android 9 devices: [ubports/mir-android-platform@732621fe]

Kevin Keijzer


* Add "Screenshot" button to Power menu: [ubports/unity8#329]

Jami Kettunen


* Add support for Volla Phone flashlight: [ubports/indicator-power#34]


Ubuntu Touch Q&A 86
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