[Release notes] Struven ketju 4.5.0.24

[jovirkku]

Many thanks to you our active contributors for your feedback and proposals.

Table of contents

Table of content

Version history of the OS release

• 2023-02-02: OS version 4.5.0.16 was released to Early Access subscribers as an over-the-air update.
• 2023-02-09: OS version 4.5.0.16 was released to all users as an over-the-air update. Installable images are available in the Jolla Shop
• 2023-02-16: OS version 4.5.0.18 was released to all users as an over-the-air update.
• 2023-03-20: OS version 4.5.0.19 was released to all users as an over-the-air update. Installable images are available in the Jolla Shop
• 2023-07-12: OS version 4.5.0.21 was released to all users as an over-the-air update. Installable images are available in the Jolla Shop .
• 2023-09-12: OS version 4.5.0.24 was released to all users as an over-the-air update. Installable images are available in the Jolla Shop .

Stop release

This release is a stop release .

– Is 4.5.0.24 also a stop release?
– Yes. We have switched the rpm compression from xz to zstd on 4.5.0. In addition, 4.5.0 moves AppSupport to the Android 11 API Level. 4.5.0.24 replaces 4.5.0.21, 4.5.0.19, 4.5.0.18, and 4.5.0.16 as stop releases.

So far, all Sailfish 4 releases have been stop releases. Because of this, if there is a reason to reset an Xperia device, please do not do it with “device reset” but, instead, re-install Sailfish - see the comparison .

Important notice

Please read about the upgrade of Android AppSupport before you start the OS update. This concerns users updating from 4.4.0 (or earlier) releases only.

Jolla Blog

Read the new blog about this 4.5.0 OS release, please. It contains not only technical details but also some background for the strange nickname of this release, “Struven ketju”.

Device models supported by Sailfish X

The supported Sailfish X devices are listed in this table .

The instructions for installing Sailfish OS to Sony Xperia X, Xperia XA2, Xperia 10, Xperia 10 II (mark 2), and Xperia 10 III (mark 3) devices are here - covering Windows, Linux, and macOS computers.

Read this, please, to learn about the Sailfish X licence.

Release highlights

The list below contains bug fixes added to Sailfish OS, compared to the previous public release 4.5.0.21. All Sailfish OS release notes can be found here .

• Weather app: The error message for authentication problems clarified. NOTE: This temporary fix does not eliminate the actual issue with authentication credentials, though.
• Opening the scientific panel of the Calculator was simplified
• Setting different ringtones for the two SIM cards is possible
• Closing of the alphanumeric keypad prevented when entering the security code
• Licenses button added to “Settings > System > About product” to make it easier to find the licences of the installed packages
• Stop tone preview playback at sound settings when entering a subpage.

Sailfish OS Forum: issues reported by the community fixed in this update

• Download Progressbar is cut off on the left side in Transfers

Technical changes

The detailed changelog is here.

Updating your device

Android AppSupport is upgraded to Android 11

OS release 4.5.0 contains a major upgrade of the AppSupport, from Android 10 to Android 11. This upgrade brings in modified and relocated app launchers, different access rights for the data directory of the apps, optimized apps, new app icons, and other changes.

When the phone has rebooted at the end of the OS update, AppSupport will start running a migration script transforming the Android apps for Android 11. While the script is running there are no Android app icons on the app grid. This is not a defect.

If there are plenty of Android apps installed on the phone, the migration process may last for several minutes.

NOTE: If you have updated your phone to 4.5.0.16, 4.5.0.18, 4.5.0.19, or to 4.5.0.21 already then the migration has been done previously.

Please wait patiently.

As soon as the new Android icons appear on the app grid, the migration is complete.

Note that it is important to keep the AppSupport installed and enabled over the OS update. Only then can the migration script do its job correctly.

If you have accidentally turned the phone off during the migration, simply turn the phone on again. The migration process should resume automatically.

OS release 4.5.0 is a stop-release. This release cannot be skipped over when updating a phone from an earlier release to a more recent one.

The usual update process

Your device must be connected to the Internet and signed into your Jolla account.

Start the update from “Settings > Sailfish OS updates”. Avoid running updates on the command line, please.

We warmly recommend making some 3-4 GB of free space for the internal storage of your device ( /home ) before starting the update. Processing an OS update of almost 1 GB requires a good amount of work area. Move your pictures and videos to the SD card (or to your PC or cloud service).

This is the usual drill before attempting to update your devices:

Take a backup of your data before attempting to update your device and save the backup to an SD card or to some other off-device location (PC, your cloud service). Note that videos and images are not included in cloud-based backups. Do not reboot the device while the update is in progress. Do keep the phone connected to a battery charger during the whole process. The device screen may blank out during the update process; you may wake the display with a short press of the power key to monitor the progress.

For detailed instructions on updating software, read our help article in Sailfish OS Documentation.

NOTE 1:

Sailfish OS does not support downgrading. Never try to downgrade the OS as this would break your device.

NOTE 2:

After downloading an update and selecting “Install” in the pulley menu, the device runs a restart first. You will need to type the security code before the actual installation can start. A horizontal progress bar appears on a black background, under the Sailfish OS logo. As soon as the other end of the bar has been reached the phone will restart automatically. If it doesn’t, please wait for 15 minutes. If it is still stuck at the 100% point of the progress bar it is time to perform forced power off . Next, turn the phone on with the power key and check the OS version at “Settings > About product”.

NOTE 3:

The Jolla Shop has the images of the latest OS release only. Keep the previously downloaded images stored on your computer if you might want to reflash one of them for some reason later on.

Notification concerning apps from Open Repos

The apps below have been reported to cause problems when installing the previous OS updates. We recommend that you uninstall them before proceeding to the OS update. At least, read the recent comments on those apps.

• GetiPlay has caused problems for some users - see this post .
• If you’ve previously installed the RIME input engine from Open Repos, please remove both that and its version of libyaml-cpp before upgrading, as the latter will cause the upgrade to fail
• If you use Privoxy, be sure to disable it before downloading the update, especially if you have configured the HTTPS inspection. The latest update is from September. There is no information about compatibility with Sailfish OS. See author’s instructions .
• If you use Aliendalvik Control , see the author’s instructions . There is the disclaimer “Application has no support for SFOS 4 and later”
• If you use Phonehook be careful. The latest update (32-bit) is from October 2020. The 64-bit version (Xperia 10 II) was published in May 2021.
• If you use OKBoard (a.k.a. Magic Keyboard), update it first to version 0.6.34 which has the fix for the “Installation not complete” error. Also, read the author’s advice , please.

Known issues

We have relocated the known issues to a table in Sailfish OS documents .

How did the upgrade go?

• I had no issues during the upgrade process
• I had small issues but was able to handle them
• I got into serious trouble when upgrading my device (please help!)

Help articles

The Sailfish OS help articles, previously kept in Zendesk, have been moved to Sailfish OS Documents repository.

[Systematics]

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
Thank you a lot Jolla, great work. Update went well, without any issues on my Sony Xperia 10 III.

[thigg]

I am happy that some recent very small findings made it into the release (like the download progress bar). That short turnaround time is really encouraging

[leon]

@jovirkku

Weather app: The error message for authentication problems clarified. NOTE: This temporary fix does not eliminate the actual issue with authentication credentials, though.

… why was this opportunity not used to address this? Its was widely discussed here, and is thus known.

[Seven.of.nine]

Thank you very much @Jolla for this update!!

1st Xperia 10 went very fine but rebooted 3 or 4 times, after this, works like a charm!

2nd Xperia 10 (my ‘Gateway’ phone) didn’t want to update as long as VPN was on. Had to switch it off, then everything went fine.

3rd Xperia 10 (my wife’s one) update also went fine.

All 3 phones: UI interaction is much faster, looks very good! All apps running fine.

Thanks very much again Jolla!

edit: on testing more detailled, my wife’s phone (#3) says:

andrea@andrea-Voom-Laptop-Max:~$ ssh mary
ssh: connect to host 192.168.0.2 port 22: Connection refused
andrea@andrea-Voom-Laptop-Max:~$ 

while ssh access on the other phones work flowless after the update.
This phone #3 was 4.4.0.72 before update, the other ones were 4.5.0.21 before the update.

[calinutzzz]

On 10II the UX is more responsive or at least this is my feeling

[avhakola]

@leon

why was this opportunity not used to address this? Its was widely discussed here, and is thus known.

Adding text on error to the app is basically free, while paying to Foreca for API access costs money and Jolla might be tight on cash right now.

[Seven.of.nine]

@avhakola , does Foreca cost money from Jolla for implementing it into SFOS? If yes, it would IMHO the first candidate for a senseful economization measure.

[Steve_Everett]

There doesn’t seem to be much point in spending time tweaking an error message on an app that may never work again.

[pmelas]

if I am not wrong, there are other weather forecast providers that allow to access forecasts for free, I think openweather.org does that. I guess Jolla has to change the weather app and allow 3rd party plugins to fetch data from such providers?

[avhakola]

@Seven.of.nine

does Foreca cost money from Jolla for implementing it into SFOS?

Implementation is free, but I would assume access to the real time data through API is something you have to buy a license or come to some other kind of agreement. It isn’t probably that much in the big picture, but hard to give even that if you don’t have much yourself.

@Steve_Everett

There doesn’t seem to be much point in spending time tweaking an error message on an app that may never work again.

App itself works just as well as it always did. It just doesn’t have access to the needed data at the moment, unless you change the Jolla’s API credentials to your own in the config-files or wait and see if the Jolla’s access is renewed one way or another. The newly added error message is there to let people know that the app itself isn’t broken, just the access to the weather data is blocked.

[remote]

does default weather work on notification screen now? or meecast is a must for now?

[robang74]

@jovirkku

Release highlights

The list below contains bug fixes added to Sailfish OS, compared to the previous public release 4.5.0.21 . All Sailfish OS release notes can be found here .

• Weather app: The error message for authentication problems clarified. NOTE: This temporary fix does not eliminate the actual issue with authentication credentials, though.
• Opening the scientific panel of the Calculator was simplified
• Setting different ringtones for the two SIM cards is possible
• Closing of the alphanumeric keypad prevented when entering the security code
• Licenses button added to “Settings > System > About product” to make it easier to find the licences of the installed packages
• Stop tone preview playback at sound settings when entering a subpage.

Sailfish OS Forum: issues reported by the community fixed in this update

• Download Progressbar is cut off on the left side in Transfers

Technical changes

The detailed changelog is here .

Read in this way it seems that Jolla delivered another 712Mb blob (for each smartphone model and version supported) for updating / fixing some apps, and modify 13 RPM packages.

I may accept to have not understand the value of delivering full OTAs compared to developing or adopting a management tool for installing progressive updates.

[lolek]

Setting different ringtones for the two SIM cards is possible

This is awsome!!!1!1!1!1!1!1!1oneoneone

Step in good direction, now there need to be work done to improve dual sim handling, there are plenty of reports on this.

Thank you!

[poetaster]

I’m not sure if this ever worked, but android NFC seems handicapped on the 10iii . Explicitly, testing the German Gov’t’s AusweisApp, it reports that nfc is not available. I tested with NFC Logger from @slava and nfc was certainly able to talk to the card …but I’ll post that info with some questions elsewhere. EDIT: seems to be a longstanding thing Nfc and android still not working

[Keeper-of-the-Keys]

Unless I am very much mistaken (from the way it looks on my devices) it downloads only the RPMs that are changed, so the further away you are from the current release the larger the download, but for me coming from 4.5.0.21 it was a very minor update and small download.

[poetaster]

Yeah, it looked like a 50mb download which installed and rebooted in under a minute.

[Steve_Everett]

My update was also only 50 Mb on Xperia 10 iii.

[PeegeeTips]

worked fine, thank you.

[Seven.of.nine]

In my family there are three Xperia 10’s.
Two X10’s had 4.5.0.21 installed before the update and downloaded 70 MB to update, after this they worked like a charm and everything was OK after 3 reboots.
The third one had 4.4.0.72 installed before the update, then downloaded something like 700 MB, then jumped back and started new to download a lot (don’t remember how much), then rebooted and then network (WLAN, browser i’net access + SSH access to phone) was damaged. Had to reflash, and it works now fine, too.