Monday, 31 August 2015

System upgrade 1.1.7.28 Björnträsket available for all

Jolla smartphone system update:
Sailfish OS 1.1.7.28 Björnträsket

 Finally released to public on August 31st, 2015, this is the same as the 4th Early Access release from few days back. Should you install it or not?

Sailfish OS 1.1.7.28 Björnträsket



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There are few reasons why some users might want to hold on before installing this update, for example several new bug reports not yet listed on the release notes, possibly very short time until the next update is released, and (not confirmed) possibility for an Android app to install another Android app without notifying the user about it. Last, but not least, the bug causing update process to sometimes freeze is not yet fixed (feedback wished).

While the above might give a reason not to update, there are a lot more of reasons to do it anyway - read on below, but first check this great video review by Fendi Tsim:

Do you allow your WhatsApp
to run on background all the time? 

Top 12 features and fixes - picks from the changelog

  • Settings: Android support access to contacts can now be decided by user at Settings > System
  • Settings: Android apps have separate settings for allowing app run on background and clearing app data at Settings > Apps (see image of WhatsApp as an example)
  • Connectivity: Bugs with WLAN connection while using Android apps should be fixed
  • Accounts: New CardDAV account now has setting for address book path for easier account creation
  • Email: Emails including calendar invitation are now shown with calendar icon
  • Touch screen: Response to gestures improved.
  • Bluetooth: Audio updated to Pulseudio 6.0 bringing smoother streaming from Jolla to audio receivers using Bluetooth connection. Also Hands Free Profile has been improved.
  • Bluetooth: External bluetooth keyboards now have settings for different language layouts at Settings > System > Text input > Active layout
  • Certificates: Not a visual improvement, but done in the middleware, all crypto libraries now share a same certificate store. 
  • Development: Sailfish OS now supports C++11 code libraries via new toolchain based on gcc 4.8
  • Security fixes: 24 CVE-listed bug fixes
  • Update process: (1) You can now use store and install other apps also while downloading the update. (2) System healing is done automatic if needed before intalling the update. (3) 50% of battery charge, or connected charger (recommended) is required. 

Jer101jer, CC BY-SA 3.0
Facebook implementation remains having only the following features: 
  • calendar sync
  • feeds and notifications
  • Facebook photo album sync to gallery
  • Sharing image from gallery app to Facebook
Unofficially, Facebook contacts and IM (chat) is tested to work using this workaround. After updating, if you face issues with the workaround, you might need to delete, reboot and add again the account.

Björnträsket is already tested by Early Adopters 

  • 1.1.7.24 (2015-07-15): Initial early access release
  • 1.1.7.25 (2015-07-27): Fix an issue in package management middleware
  • 1.1.7.27 (2015-08-13): Fix a reboot issue when using hotspot with GPS and an icon scaling issue for favourite settings
  • 1.1.7.27 (2015-08-20): Same as earlier, but group of testers was added by some regular users additional to Early Access customers
  • 1.1.7.28 (2015-08-27): Fixes issues youtube video playback in native browser, adds a feature to enable persistent logging during the upgrade process and fixes MER #1208.
  • 1.1.7.28 (2015-08-31): Same as earlier, but now Roll-out to all users

Jolla announced Early Adopter Program on January 2015, enabling delivering the release candidates to volunteers among the customers earlier than the update is released for public. They are reporting their findings on TJC, and those are supposed to be either fixed or edited into the release notes. Find more at:

The next Sailfish OS update?


Sailfish OS 1.1.9.26 Eineheminlampi, introducing the main elements of new user interface (Sailfish OS 2.0) is already under testing. 1.1.9 is supposed to be introduced to public already on early September (in two weeks from now) for Jolla Tablets, and during September also as a Jolla Phone system update:

Before installing

  • According to TJC, you should have 1.5GB of free storage space before updating. In most cases this might do, but recommended max used storage is 10 GB (3.7 GB free) according to Jolla Zendesk. You can check your storage space in Settings > System > About product.
    Note: To play it safe, it's probably the best to follow the largest official information and arrange 3.7 GB of free space. We've informed Jolla that the required amount differs between TJC and Zendesk announcements.
  • If you use phonehook from OpenRepos, uninstall it before upgrading
  • If you use patchmanager, revert all applied patches before upgrading
  • If your device is running software version lower than 1.0.4.20 and have WareHouse app installed (i.e you are using OpenRepos), disable all openrepo repositories before attempting to upgrade your device
  • Take a backup of your data before attempting to upgrade your device. A successful backup operation is indicated by a green dot in the UI

While installing

  • Keep your Jolla connected to charger
  • Do not reboot the device while the update is in progress.
  • The device screen may blank out during the update process, you may waken the display by a short press on the power key to monitor the progress.
For detailed instructions on updating software, visit Zendesk

Known issues on the update process

  • OS update may remain at about 95% for a long time. If you have developer mode enabled, you may enable persistent logging to help us get logs to identify this issue: In /etc/systemd/journald.conf change Storage=volatile to Storage=automatic and create /var/log/journal before downloading the update. Change it back to volatile after the upgrade went through.
  • Currently, checks on available disk space happens very late during the OS upgrade process and will fail in the installation phase if the disk space is low. Normally there should be an error note asking you to free some disk space and try again, but in some marginal cases it might not be shown. Should this happen, free some disk space and try to install the OS update again.
  • OS update may fail due to some other reasons too, for example it may have installed some packages from the new release and still have something left from the old. If the device can boot up, you can try to recover by doing the following. If not, you can attempt to recover the device using the recovery mode.
    • Delete the file /home/nemo/.cache/store-client/os-info
    • Stop the store-client process (for e.g. pkill store-client)
    • Reopen Settings app, check for updates again and attempt to install the OS update again
  • We have also noted that if the OS update is attempted while there is long queue of installation of apps from the Store, the system may end up in mixed state (for e.g. select all the apps from startup wizard, and start the system update already while the apps are being installed). In such cases, the OS update appears to be stalled, however it is just waiting for the installations to complete before attempting to upgrade the OS. Just wait patiently, the worst thing to do here is to reboot the device!

Not fixed yet

  • IPv6 connectivity is not fully supported. Users reported running into battery life issues on Sailfish OS 1.1.4.29, and Jolla found out it's because of IPv6 traffic. To avoid increased power consumption, Jolla has again enabled multicast filtering on Sailfish OS 1.1.6.27. Later Jolla is planning to add a new option to manually enable IPv6.  (Hopefully this shall only be temporary until the full support is reached.)
  • Browser: After zooming, some pages might dislocate links or buttons. Affecting on some web sites only. Recommended to use other browsers (webcat, Android browsers) on these sites until this is fixed.
  • Turn by turn voice navigation: This feature is not coming up according to Jolla's answer at TJC. However, several Android navigation apps are reported to work just fine. I'm recommending NavFree or HERE Drive, both available for example on Aptoide Store
  • Video recording: Audio quality is reduced after few seconds of recording
  • Video codec issue: Videos recorded with Jolla camera requires converting from H.263 format to any HTML5 supported format for playback in browsers (including Jolla's default browser). Converting is done automatically by several video upload sites, and there are also free programs to convert videos yourself. I recommend converting from MP4(.h263) to MP4(.h264) for easy playback.
  • List is missing the latest bug findings reported on TJC

Previous updates

Sailfish OS Björnträsket - the name


We've kept you up to date with the Finnish lakes which Jolla is using in their release naming. This release is also called upgrade 16, or shortly, u16 mostly in internal use. 13 of 16 upgrades have been released as public.

Börnträsket is a Swedish name, and Swedish is the 2nd official language in Finland. Letter B is not much in use in Finnish language, but more common in Swedish. Björnträsket is a 3 acres wide lake located nera Loviisa, southern Finland. Translation:
  • "Björn" is Swedish word for "bear"
  • "Träsk" is Swedish word for "swamp"
  • The whole name "Björnträsket" translates to "Swamp of bear" or simply "Bear swamp"
...and a swamp it seems to have been, at least in development point of view, looking at the amount of  Early Access releases needed.

There are 187 888 lakes in Finland, including the small ones, so we might have more than a few updates coming up.


Please rate Sailfish OS 1.1.6.27 and 1.1.7.28. Version 1.1.7.28 was added early due to possible short time before the next update is released - but please use it for a while before reviewing.



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Sources: TJC(1), TJC(2), Zendesk
Published: 2015-08-31 12:00 UTC
Updated: 2015-09-02 15:22 UTC (video added)
Tunnisteet: , , , , , , , , , ,

4 comments:

  1. thisisme1 September 2015 at 20:40

    About Facebook implementation, I keep reading "feeds and notifications" are supported. But it's really just notifications, right? I can't see my feed anywhere...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Simo Ruoho2 September 2015 at 18:30

      Just a guess, but I think the support means possibility to tap the notification to see that also as a feed?

      Delete
  2. Kedrigern3 September 2015 at 22:45

    I have problem with connecting Jolla with Computer via USB. Menu is show, I select "PC connect" and nothink happend. OS Windows 10 and Fedora 22 (tested both).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Simo Ruoho4 September 2015 at 16:29

      TJC might be the best place for solutions on this, search for "MTP" or "pc connection"

      Delete

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