FAQ

Ubuntu Touch is the touch-friendly mobile version of the popular Ubuntu operating system. Originally designed and developed by Canonical Ltd, the project now resides with the UBports Foundation.

The Ubuntu operating system, upon which Ubuntu Touch is based, is one of the most popular GNU/Linux distributions in the world. UBports is the new home for Ubuntu Touch and will continue with Canonical's original mission of convergence — the bold idea of bringing mobile computing to the desktop and desktop computing to mobile which will now be developed by the UBports Foundation.

The goal of convergence will be to seamlessly blend mobile and desktop environments into a single unified experience. The UBports Foundation is excited to continue development of Ubuntu Touch and to bring convergence to life.

An amazing team of coders, developers, testers, designers, marketeers and users from around the world are working together to successfully advance the Ubuntu Touch project. Officially, the UBports Foundation is the legal entity encompassing the project, but it is the community of volunteers that make Ubuntu Touch what it is today. If it were not for this community of dedicated individuals who spent many hours working on the project, we would not have the dream of convergence and the Ubuntu Touch experience that everyone knows and loves.

Ubuntu Touch has something no other mobile device has. Convergence — One platform for phone, tablet and desktop. Users will experience the freedom of choosing any device they desire by having a unified operating system. Application developers create programs once, and they are automatically adjusted for optimal use depending on the user and the device. Desktop apps can run on the phone, and phone apps can run on the desktop... with only one app! The possibilities are endless and the future of computing is convergence!

Canonical started with Ubuntu Touch. Convergence was a dream and now it's a reality!

What is convergence?
Convergence is a single user experience that spans to all form factors and adapts to the different contexts of use. It means exactly the same operating system and applications run on phones, tablets and desktops. This is done by using responsive layouts that adapt to the different screen or window sizes.

Convergence supports all input types equally and simultaneously to allow users to interact using a pointer, touch or keyboard. Whenever and however they choose.

Why did we put priority on convergence?
Over the last twenty years computing has become exponentially faster, cheaper and more power efficient. As a result, phones and tablets today have the processing power to undertake tasks that only a few years ago required PC hardware. The boundaries between form factors are becoming blurred. There is very little difference in terms of hardware between an Ultrabook with a touchscreen and a 12inch tablet with a keyboard attached.

By using convergence we break down the last barrier between form factors with a single operating system and app ecosystem for all different types of hardware. This enables new forms of interaction. For example, drafting an email on your phone during your journey to work, and then when you arrive at your desk you can plug the phone into a monitor and continue composing the same email in a desktop environment.

How does it work?
Its simple. By attaching your Ubuntu Touch mobile device to a screen and pairing a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse, you will enter the world of convergence and begin to understand what has us so excited. With convergence, the future is mobile!

The UBports project  is the project structure to manage the Ubuntu Touch software. This project was founded by Marius Gripsgard in 2015 and the programming source code for the project was, thanks to the hard work of many volunteers, picked up and moved into the free software community where the project could be maintained and expanded.

The UBports Foundation is the legal entity behind the UBports project. Its mission is to support the collaborative development of Ubuntu Touch through the UBports project and to promote the widespread use of the Ubuntu Touch software.  To learn more, check out the rest of this website.

We need you! UBports is a welcoming community of like minded individuals interested in promoting Ubuntu Touch. If you are interested in Ubuntu Touch we would love to have you. Please visit our Join-us and Welcome pages to find out more about Ubuntu Touch.

Ubuntu Touch works everywhere: Underwater, In space, and even on the moon. Your connectivity will depend on the device hardware and networks available in those locations though. Please see the list off supported devices and the list off all devices for more information about compatibility.

Have a look at the list of officially supported devices.

We rely on the Android Linux kernel and drivers to make the phone work. This is the reality in the world of Android hardware.

Ubuntu operates under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and all of the application software installed by default is free software. In addition, Ubuntu installs some hardware drivers that are available only in binary format, but such packages are clearly marked in the restricted component.

There are many applications in the OpenStore  that run on Ubuntu Touch. Some popular applications include: Telegram messenger, uMatriks, Podbird (audio shows), Dekko2 (email), Instagraph (instagram) and uNav. However, many of the apps that you know on Android/iOS might not exist yet. 

It should just work. If for some reason it doesn't, verify that your mobile broadband provider is mentioned in the /usr/share/mobile-broadband-provider-info/serviceproviders.xml file.

The internal memory of your Ubuntu Touch device can be expanded using a microSD card as long as your device has the hardware to support it. To begin using an SD card, simple insert it into your device until you hear a click which indicates its been inserted correctly. To remove the card, safely unmount the card using the External Drives app, then press on the card until you hear a click, to eject it.

Please start by contacting us in our Telegram SuperGroup

To report any bugs and issues with Ubuntu Touch, go here and search you device code name. To report any bugs and issues with Ubuntu Touch, check out Ubuntu Touch Issues and search for your device code name. For proper documenting procedures and further details on bug reporting, please follow our Issue Tracking Guidelines.

Ubuntu Touch is the operating system that runs on the bare metal, so to speak, of the phone and is developed and maintained by UBports. Our software is designed to completely wipe off android, except for the bits to control camera, modem, gps, etc, and install a totally new and advanced OS.

Halium is the collaborative project to unify the Hardware Abstraction Layer for projects which run GNU/Linux on mobile devices with pre-installed Android. What this means is quicker development and launches of Ubuntu Touch on HALium-based android devices.

We invite you to join our Telegram Newcomers Channel  where all members of the friendly UBports Welcoming Team are ready to help. This is a special area for help with installation questions. Here you can also introduce yourself and get to know some other community members outside of the main Supergroup. We understand that with 1000 members strong, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the size of our community, so we created an area specificaly for introductions. If you would like to join the Ubuntu Touch community then this is a great place to start.

If you have one of the supported devices, please see our Get Ubuntu Touch page.

Due to limited time and resources, we have to limit the devices we port to and support.
The supported devices page provides of list of our supported phones and tablets.
If you want to create a port yourself, our documentation provides lots of further information.

The UBports Ubuntu Touch Installer is easy to use.

Launch the downloaded installer and follow the instructions. Its that easy. Please contact us and let us know how it went!

ADB stands for Android DeBugger and is a way for your desktop computer and device to communitcate with each other through a USB cable. It is a tool that comes with the android-tools-adb and android-tools-fastboot packages which are used by the Ubuntu Touch installer on a supported device. If you are on a Ubuntu desktop computer you can type the following commands in a terminal window: 

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot phablet-tools