Game in the Brain

GEMINI GENERATED SUMMARY

Episode Overview

Host Alfred was joined by special guest Mike Gabriel, who is heavily involved in porting the Lomiri desktop environment to Debian and contributes to Ubuntu Touch code review. The discussion covered the latest development news, a deep dive into Mike’s work bringing Lomiri to Debian, a look at new and updated apps, and answers to community questions.

Key News & Development Updates

• Call for Testing: A call is out for testing Ubuntu Touch 24.04 1.1 and 20.04 OTA 11, especially for Volla 22 users, to address and confirm fixes for audio issues during calls.
• Lomiri UI Toolkit (Qt 6) Merged: The most significant development update is the merging of the Qt 6-based Lomiri UI Toolkit into the main branch. This is a massive milestone, representing months of work, and is the foundation for porting the rest of the shell and apps to Qt 6.
• Morph Browser on Qt 6: Related to the toolkit merge, a working Morph browser based on Qt 6 now exists. While the merge request is not yet final, it is described as “around the corner.” This port will eventually bring a much newer Chromium engine (v130) to Ubuntu Touch, a massive leap from the current v87.
• Other Fixes (24.04 2.x):
  • A Polkit agent is now shipped, improving the user experience for administrative tasks and installing snaps.
  • A fix for the Fairphone 5 camera has landed, resolving an issue where it would randomly stop working.
  • Support for F2FS file systems during device encryption has been added.
• Snapd: Snapd has been updated to version 2.72, incorporating custom patches required for Ubuntu Touch.¹
• Mir 2 vs. Qt 6: Mike clarified that the team’s priority is the Qt 6 migration. The migration from Mir 1 to Mir 2 will be a separate, major effort that will happen after the Qt 6 transition is complete.

Main Topic: Mike’s Lomiri Adventures in Debian

Mike detailed his project, which started in 2020, to package Lomiri for Debian.

• Debian 13 (Trixie): Lomiri is successfully included in Debian 13.² This version is a “test staging” ground and is, in some ways, more advanced than Ubuntu Touch, as it already uses Mir 2 (providing better Wayland support but more graphical glitches) and the buteo syncing framework.
• New 2-Year Project (for Debian 14): A new, funded project is beginning, hiring developers to focus on:
  1. Qt 6 Migration: Assisting with the full Qt 6 migration upstream.
  2. Mir 2 Migration: Tackling the Mir 1 to Mir 2 transition.
  3. Native Apps: Packaging more native Lomiri apps (like Chatter and KeePassRX) for Debian.
• Long-Term Vision: The goal is to provide a stable, polished Lomiri software stack for mainline Linux tablets (like the Lenovo Yoga or Microsoft Surface). The ultimate aim is to create a viable open-source alternative to iPads in schools and a unified Lomiri environment for enterprise use across phones, tablets, and desktops.
• Bounty Program: A bounty program is active for fixing bugs related to Lomiri on Mir 2.³

App Ecosystem

• New Apps: New apps in the OpenStore include BlueDo (a Blue Sky client), Soot (a speech-to-text server), and InTouch (a UBports forum browser).
• Updated Apps: A massive list of 68 apps were updated, with special thanks given to Won Howard for porting a large number of Focal (20.04) apps to Noble (24.04).

Community Q&A Highlights

• On Noble Notifications: A user noted notifications aren’t working on Noble for some apps. The team confirmed seeing similar issues (e.g., with Teleports and Delta Chat) and suspects it may be an issue affecting devices that were upgraded from Focal, as fresh installs seem to work.
• On Qt 6 Morph Browser Release: A user asked when the Qt 6 Morph browser will be available. Mike stated the main blocker is not the code, but the lack of space in the root file system on many phones to install both Qt 5 and Qt 6. A solution using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) is being worked on to address this.
• On Developer Awards: A user suggested an end-of-year “Developer Awards” event. The team loved the idea but noted the end of the year is very busy and encouraged the user (RJDan) to take the lead in organizing it, perhaps timed with an event like FOSDEM.
• On How Snaps Work in UT: Alfred explained that custom patches to snapd map the Android container (/android) into the snap’s environment. A separate libhybris snap provides the necessary OpenGL ES drivers for graphical applications to function.
• On Halium 16: A user asked about Halium 16. Alfred clarified that no one is currently working on it, as these ports are usually driven by a specific business need or strong personal interest, neither of which has yet occurred for Android 16.
• Foundation Members: A reminder was shared that the UBports Foundation is seeking new members. Anyone who has contributed in the last three months is encouraged to apply, as new members are needed for the board elections next year.

Future Teaser

Alfred and Mike teased a future project for 2026: integrating XDG Desktop Portal support with Mir.