Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 Arrives on March 24th as the Last One Based on Ubuntu 16.04

A Release Candidate version is now available for public testing ahead of the final release later this week.
Ubuntu Touch OTA-25

The UBports Foundation announced today a call for testing for the next software update of their Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system for Linux phones and tables, OTA-25, which will also be the last one based on the Xenial series.

The wait is almost over as Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 appears to be the last update based on the Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) operating system series. UBports worked very hard in the past year to rebase Ubuntu Touch on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa), which will be released to the general public in the coming months starting with the OTA-26 update.

Meanwhile, Ubuntu Touch users will have another software update on their hands that brings emblem counters for the Dialer and Messaging apps, persistent notifications when the urgency status is set to critical and other improvements to notifications, as well as on-screen keyboard vibration optimization on Volla Phone devices.

Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 also fixes various issues from previous OTA releases, such as a race condition in the XdgWatcher component, an indefinitely discoverable bluebinder issue, a bug with favorites in the Dialer app, and an issue with Pickers not visible when using the Suru Dark theme.

Under the hood, there will be various updated components, including QtWebEngine 5.15.12. Some code cleanup was done as well by moving qtbase’s Jenkinsfile and ubports.source_location file to the debian/ directory.

Other than that, Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 appears to improve system-update to show series in the channel selector. A few other bugs and common issues have been fixed as well in the upcoming software update, which is slated for a public release this Friday on March 24th, 2023.

If you want to get an early taste of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 update, you can test drive the Release Candidate development version right now by following the instructions provided by UBports on the call for testing announcement.

Update 26/03/23: Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 has been delayed for a few days due to a regression.

Last updated 12 months ago

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