NOTE: These release notes are out-dated. They were published for 13.10 (that's a long time ago in Ubuntu land). Some things have changed since then. Do not use this guide for retail production bq phones.

Ubuntu Touch Release Notes for Saucy Salamander (A.K.A Phone 1.0)

13.10 represents a major step forward for the Ubuntu project, because it features the first image to support phones. Subsequent releases including 14.04 and 14.10 also have phone images. The current releases are based around 14.10 but will move to vivid (15.04) soon. Furthermore, the Ubuntu phone images feature a set of new technologies that solve many of the longstanding difficulties with Ubuntu distros. Specifically:

• Image based updates
• A complete SDK
• Application Isolation
• Click packages and click installer with app store
• Mir Display Server and Window Manager
• Unity 8

For 14.10, Ubuntu primarily supports the Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets, though there are images available for other phones and tablets.

Known Issues for 13.10

Please check https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/ReleaseNotes#Ubuntu_for_phones for more details about the known issues for the 13.10 release for Touch.

Disclaimer

Overview

Follow for the installation instructions to install Touch, which include a list of supported devices.

This release uses Ubuntu 13.10 as its basis. It introduces a revised version of Unity oriented toward touch devices and new concepts in user experience. It also introduces a set of applications written using the previously announced Ubuntu SDK Preview.

Accessing the system for development

User Accounts

The images have a pre-configured user account called phablet, with the account password also set to whatever you configure in System Settings -> Security & privacy -> Lock Phone.

Accessing the device over SSH

The following Askubuntu answer covers this.

http://askubuntu.com/a/599041

Applications

The Developer Preview comes with the following functional applications:

• Gallery
• Dialer, SMS, Address Book
• Camera
• Browser
• Media Player
• Notepad
• Music app
• Calculator
• Weather app
• Clock
• Reminders

Installing new apps

See the SDK documentation for information on how to install apps on the device with Qt Creator.

Adding Content

Contacts

Contacts can be added in the address book of the Phone application. Launch the Phone application and swipe to the “Contacts” tab. You can manually enter your contacts from there. Contacts can also be synced from Google via System Settings -> Accounts.

Photos

Photos can be added to the device and viewed in the Gallery application. They can be copied into /home/phablet/Pictures folder and they will be displayed in the Gallery. Also, pictures can be taken with the Camera application and they will automatically appear in the Gallery.

Videos

Videos can be copied onto the device into the /home/phablet/Videos folder and viewed with the Media Player application. They are surfaced in the video scope and Gallery app.

Porting to other devices

If you are interested in getting the Touch Preview working on a new device, please see our porting guide.

Known Issues

Networking

The Developer Preview has support for Wi-Fi networking via the new network indicator, which supports basic Wi-Fi connections (Open, WEP and WPA Personal). It is possible to configure more advanced settings, however at this time this requires working directly with Network Manager system connection files.

The following network features are not yet included in the Developer Preview:

• Advanced Settings (e.g. Hidden SSIDs, Manual IP, VPN…)
• Hot Spot/Tethering

Telephony

The Developer Preview currently only supports voice and SMS over GSM and WCDMA.

The following Radio technologies are not yet included in the Developer Preview:

• CDMA

These Call features are not yet supported:

• No SIM filesystem support

These SMS features are not yet implemented:

• Send error handling
• Delivery Reports

Device Specific Issues

Nexus 4

• In rare circumstances, the Nexus4 may get into a state where it may not boot at all after the battery is drained (even into recovery). If this happens, the only way to restore it is to disassemble the back of the phone and unplug/plug the battery connector. See Power Consumption to learn how to avoid discharging the phone completely.

• Radio firmware above radio-mako-m9615a-cefwmazm-2.0.1700.84 not supported.

Nexus 10

• Taking pictures with the camera application causes an issue with audio. The volume indicator and volume keys will not work to control the sound until reboot.

Nexus 7

• Runs in portrait mode by default (no side stage)

Ubuntu SDK Alpha

You can now install and execute applications on your device from a computer running Qt Creator, the following page covers this topic in detail:-

https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/apps/sdk/tutorials/running-apps-from-the-sdk/