The UBports project, which has taken over the development of the mobile platform Ubuntu Touch after the company Canonical stepped away, has released firmware update OTA-21 (over-the-air). The project is also developing an experimental port of the Unity 8 desktop, now renamed Lomiri.
The Ubuntu Touch OTA-21 update has been formulated for smartphones BQ E4.5/E5/M10/U Plus, Cosmo Communicator, F(x)tec Pro1, Fairphone 2/3, Google Pixel 2XL/3a, Huawei Nexus 6P, LG Nexus 4/5, Meizu MX4/Pro 5, Nexus 7 2013, OnePlus 2/3/5/6/One, Samsung Galaxy Note 4/S3 Neo+, Sony Xperia X/XZ/Z4, Vollaphone, Xiaomi Mi A2/A3, Xiaomi Poco F1, Xiaomi Redmi 3s/3x/3sp/4X/7, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7/7 Pro. Updates for the Pine64 PinePhone and PineTab devices will be prepared separately, without the label "OTA-21."
Ubuntu Touch OTA-21 is still based on Ubuntu 16.04, but recently developers have focused their efforts on preparing for the transition to Ubuntu 20.04. Notable changes in OTA-21 include a redesigned storage info screen, expanded categories, and improved accuracy of free space information in system partitions. The interface displayed before unlocking the screen has been modified, featuring several different styles selectable based on whether unlocking is done with a PIN or password.
Preparation has been made for use on devices with the Halium 10 layer, providing a low-level layer to simplify hardware support. For devices supported in Halium 9, plugins have been included to enable the use of magnetometer and compass sensors. The Media-Hub service, responsible for audio and video playback in applications, has been rewritten, along with the associated client library, which has been transitioned to use Qt classes to reduce dependencies and simplify maintenance of the codebase. This redesign has also allowed for a reduction in the disk space occupied by the qtubuntu-media plugin (which provides the QtMultimedia API), eliminating unnecessary layers and lowering memory consumption.
Source: opennet.ru
