With the next update, the developers at UBports are teaching the free mobile operating system Ubuntu Touch how to use NFC for near field communication on the Pixel 3a (test) released in 2019 and the Volla Phone Linux smartphone. With the OTA-17, further improvements find their way into the open source project.
In addition to Near Field Communication (NFC) using RFID technology for the first time, the battery life on the Pixel 3a in particular has been improved and support for the camera systems of the OnePlus One and Sony Xperia X (test) expanded. In addition, the display server protocol Mir makes a big leap from the previously used version 1.2.0 to the current version 1.8.1. Step by step, the operating system is now being converted from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (“Xenial Xerus”) to the by far more up-to-date Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (“Focal Fossa”) from last year.
The OTA-17 for Ubuntu Touch can already be tried out, as the developers explain in the UBports blog. The over-the-air update will officially be released on May 12th for the following smartphones and tablets and in an adapted form for the Pixel 3a, Volla Phone, OnePlus One, Fairphone 2, Nexus 5 and the BQ Aquaris.
Ubuntu Touch on the Nexus 5
“aki” is a community member and forum moderator Ubuntu Touch installed on his Nexus 5 (test), which previously ran an older version of LineageOS.
I had first tried the installation under Windows, but nothing happened there when the data was actually supposed to be transferred. I didn't see any reference to a special USB driver, but this might be necessary.
Experience has shown that such gimmicks work fine on the MacBook and that's how it was.
OTA 16 was installed. A few updates were offered, after which I switched to the RC channel as described in the blog. The installed version is now 2021-W18.
aki, community member and moderator
In its posting, “aki” also kindly provides several screenshots of the operating system .
< p class = "p text-width"> The editorial team thanks the community member and moderator “aki” for this addition to the article.