Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 Focal is being developed by the team behind the Ubuntu Touch mobile platform, following Canonical’s departure. This latest release is the eighth version of Ubuntu Touch and is based on the Ubuntu 04.04 package base. The project is also working on an experimental port of the desktop unity 8, which has been renamed to Lomiri.
Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 Focal will soon be available for devices such as the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, F (X) Tec Pro1 X, Fairphone 3/3+/4, Google Pixel 3a/3a XL, JingPad A1, OnePlus 5/5t/6T, OnePlus N10 5G/N100, SONY XPERIA X, Vollaphone X/22/X23 and Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC/X3. New builds have been added for the Xiaomi Poco M2 Pro, Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro/Pro Max/9s, Volla Phone Quintus and Volla Tablet.
During the development of Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 Focal, the focus was on preparing for the transition to a newer Ubuntu LTS version. Some of the changes in this new release include:
- Implementation of volte (Voice Over LTE) technology for voice calls over LTE networks on certain devices.
- The ability to remove a contact’s avatar in the address book.
- Added support for connecting to wireless networks using WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access).
- Ensured hidden visibility of unknown Bluetooth devices in the configurator.
- Updated versions of various components including Libgbinder-Radio, OFONO-BINDER-PLUGIN, Lineageos-Apndb, and Qtwebengine.
- Patches were applied to fix errors and vulnerabilities in the ofono phone software.
- Added the DMSETUP utility for low-level control of logical volumes.
