With some delay, if we take into account that Ubuntu 16.04 stopped having support in 2021, UBports released in March 2023 the first OTA of the Ubuntu Touch already based on Focal Fossa (20.04). Now, after four months of work, already we have here the OTA-2 Focal, and probably stop including the name of the animal in the next one. What this suggests are the phrases "This release of Ubuntu Touch is based on Ubuntu 20.04. We will stop pointing this out in the next OTA release. We assume that you all know by then«. Another possibility is that they stop saying it and leave the name of the animal.
Among the novelties there are new devices supported, new features and bugs fixed. The devices that can already use Ubuntu Touch based on Focal Fossa are the Fairphone 3, Vollaphone X23 and F(x)tec Pro1 X. What you have below are the lists of new features and bug fixes.
What's new in Ubuntu Touch Focal OTA-2
Many improvements in the settings app:
- The layout of some pages (eg Sound) has been adjusted to be more consistent. They promise more changes in the future.
- Added custom background images can now be deleted, in case you no longer want that background image.
- Edge gesture sensitivity can now be adjusted in Lomiri. If you put a case or bumper on your device, you can now increase the width of the border area to make it easier. Or maybe we find it too sensitive, now we can also reduce it. The new settings are found in System settings > Gestures. At the moment it is only visible on a device that supports double tap to wake up.
- The physical button on the camera can now be used to take the photo.
- When requesting a file from the File Manager app through Content Hub, the app opens more smoothly.
Fixed bugs
- Fixed being able to reset APN settings to default (in database).
- Hotspot activation reliability has been improved. Specifically, it is now possible to enable and disable hotspot on Volla Phone devices. In addition, it is now possible to activate the password-protected hotspot on Volla Phone devices.
- Bluetooth should be more reliably available after a reboot.
- It is now possible to reinstall pre-installed apps after removing them.
- If a SIM with a PIN is inserted at boot, the SIM unlock screen should appear more reliably without requiring it explicitly.
- A fictional XWayland splash screen should no longer appear when launching an X application.
- QtWebEngine has been updated to 5.15.14. The problem when searching for a video has also been fixed.
- Loader mode on certain devices (particularly Volla Phones) no longer bootloops.
- Click apps can now replay self-sent media.
- Fixed the ability to choose a custom alarm sound.
- Fixed video playback on some Mediatek based devices.
- In Morph (the default web browser), certificate errors are now always displayed within the session.
- Possibility to have “Mixed APNs” reset. This fixes MMS sending on certain operators with manual APN input. However, the APN database is still out of date, which means that MMS is still not working on many operators.
- Fixed the spurious error of not showing the permission prompt when using the camera on some devices.
How to download Ubuntu Touch OTA-2
Users who already have the Focal-based version of Ubuntu Touch installed and are on the stable channel (default) will receive the update from the updates section of the settings. If it still doesn't show up, be patient; UBports makes progressive releases to avoid collapsing its servers. For new users, Ubuntu Touch can be installed by following the instructions in this link, slightly different depending on the device.