[release notes] 3.1.0 Seitseminen [released]

Sailfish OS 3.1 is our biggest update since the launch of Sailfish 3 last year. It features redesigns of many core apps, including People, Phone, Messages, and Clock, driven by extensive UX studies. It also brings small changes to the look of the documents and gallery apps. This all aims to make Sailfish more intuitive, encouraging a more natural usage of the device. The other big focus for this update is security: we introduce disk encryption support (to be rolled out to devices in phases), VPN changes to ensure that your traffic is secure from the first moment you use your phone, and enhanced isolation of many system APIs and functionalities. With many bugfixes and improvements to its Android™ App Support, plus the addition of fingerprint authentication, this update brings Sailfish X for Xperia XA2 officially out of beta!

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

Table of content

• Update version history
• Size of update
• Release Highlights
  • Xperia XA2
  • Accounts
  • Android™ App Support
  • Bluetooth
  • Browser
  • Calendar
  • Camera
  • Clock
  • Connectivity
  • Device Management (MDM) [Corporate API]
  • Device lock
  • Display
  • Documents
  • Email
  • First time use
  • Gallery
  • Homescreen
  • Media
  • Messages
  • Notes
  • OS updates
  • People
  • Phone
  • SDK
  • SIM
  • Security
  • UI components
• T.J.C: Issues reported by the community and fixed in this update
• Technical changes
  • Changelog
• Updating your device
  • Notification concerning apps from Open Repos
• About SD cards
• Known issues
  • Known issues specific to Xperia X
  • Known issues specific to Xperia XA2
  • Known issues specific to Gemini PDA

Update version history

• 2019-07-18 : 3.1.0.11 was released to Early Access subscribers (Jolla devices and Xperia X & XA2).
• 2019-07-25 : 3.1.0.11 was released to all subscribers as an OTA update (Jolla devices, Xperia X/XA2, Gemini PDA). Installable images for Xperia and Gemini devices are available at https://shop.jolla.com/downloads/ .

Size of update

The download size of the update depends on the device type and on the OS version currently in the device. Some typical values below:
- Jolla 1 from 3.0.3 to 3.1.0: about 360 MB
- Jolla C from 3.0.3 to 3.1.0: about 540 MB
- Xperia X from 3.0.3 to 3.1.0: about 440 MB

Release Highlights

This list contains examples of new features (and some bug fixes) added to Sailfish OS, compared to the previous public release 3.0.3. The release notes of 3.0.3 can be found here.

The instructions for installing Sailfish OS to Sony Xperia X and XA2 devices are here - covering Windows, Linux, and macOS.

IMPORTANT: do not update your XA2 device to Android 9 .
Currently, Sailfish OS requires Android 8.1. If you already have Android 9 in your XA2 device, please downgrade it to Android 8.1 and install Sailfish OS only then. Please follow these instructions.

The supported Sony Xperia XA2 models are (no change here):

• XA2 single SIM H3113 (also H3123, H3133)
• XA2 dual SIM H4113 (also H4133)
• XA2 Ultra single SIM H3213 (also H3223)
• XA2 Ultra dual SIM H4213 (also H4233)
• XA2 Plus single SIM H3413
• XA2 Plus dual SIM H4413 (also H4493)

The supported Sony Xperia X models are X single SIM F5121 and X dual SIM F5122

The supported Gemini PDA models are x25 and x27.

Xperia XA2

• Fingerprint authentication is supported now - see Device lock below

Accounts

• Signing in/on Dropbox fixed

Android™ App Support

• Android 8.1 App Support for Xperia XA2 devices improved:

  • WhatsApp behaves better after closing video/voice call
  • Android apps work now after invoking them from Events View
  • WLAN support improved. Android apps can detect active WLAN connections now
  • Notifications framework improved. This should make Telegram notifications, for instance, wake up the device, and to make a sound, and to turn LED on
  • Improved stability
  • Translations for recently added display texts added
  • Dimmed app covers should not appear now
  • Closing of Android apps fixed
  • Behaviour of media control buttons fixed during Spotify playback and at lock screen
  • Out-of-memory handling improved
  • Setting 'Allow apps to run in the background' fixed
  • Default AOSP apps (Camera, Gallery, Contacts) removed
  • Telegram and other apps can detect touch-on-display correctly now
  • Adding contacts from Android apps (e.g. Whatsapp) to People app now possible.

• Android 4.4 App Support for Xperia X and Jolla C

  • TLS v1.2 enabled by default

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth engine, Bluez, updated to v. 5.50 (on newer devices than Jolla phone and Jolla Tablet). This improves stability, fixes some errors and enables new features

Browser

• Debugging Browser has been documented now here
• Support for WebGL (an API used to create 3D graphics in a Web browser) enabled

Calendar

• You can create ActiveSync (and Google?) meeting invitations in Calendar
• Delete option disabled for read-only events
• Calendar event remind me option fixed to remember the last selection by the user again (community contribution)
• Calendar all day events showing incorrectly fixed
• Missed calendar event notifications renamed to talk about past calendar events (you may have missed calendar alarm, but not necessarily the event)

Camera

• Just tap to zoom out of zoomed photo in camera roll (previously was double tap)

Clock

• Timers, alarms and stopwatch organised as tabs

Connectivity

• Enabling VPN without (prior to getting) network connection is now possible. This is to ensure that all your traffic is secure from the beginning. The text "Waiting for network..." is shown in Settings in this situation. The Top menu toggle can be enabled regardless of network state.
• DNS server list is now cleaned up at service disconnect. This makes DNS work faster when changing networks with VPN set to autoconnect
• VPN credentials dialog customisable by external VPN providers
• Managing VPN connections is more robust now
• Password-protected OpenVPN configurations are now supported
• WPA-EAP extended with ability to include CA certificates and select PEAP method
• Security code authentication required before user can see WLAN hotspot, mobile access point, tethering and VPN passwords in settings

Device Management (MDM) [Corporate API]

• VPN policy API introduced
• MDM Email API regression fixed
• Fixed an issue where App couldn't be added to autostart

Device lock

• XA2: Fingerprint authentication can be used instead of typing the security code when unlocking the screen of XA2 devices now. NOTE: Because of this, the implementation of the device lock is different, meaning that the whole feature is re-installed when taking the 3.1.0 update. Consequently, you will need to enable the device lock again after the OS update. Therefore, do not forget to visit Settings > Device lock.
• Cancel and accept text buttons changed to icon buttons

Display

• API to prevent screen blanking implemented. Multiple items can prevent blanking - it happens as long as at least one of those wants to have it that way

Documents

• Redesigned document viewers for PDF, text documents, spreadsheets and presentations (split view UX pattern dropped)
• Documents app now shows errors with proper Sailfish-style layout
• Supports opening plain text files, when opening txt file the user is now prompted whether they want to open the file in Documents or import to Notes
• RTF file text encoding and inline picture handling issues fixed

Email

• Out of office reminders now supported for Active Sync emails. Exchange account settings has a new section "Automatic replies" with button Modify for this feature.
• Setting up an Exchange account is more robust now. Busy states with spinners should not remain active too long [https://bz.jollamobile.com/show_bug.cgi?id=44739]
• Option for signing email messages (using pgp) implemented initially, not enabled by default. This feature is currently only for developers, and advanced users. Email signing only works for generic email accounts.Thanks to Damien Caliste who developed this.

First time use

• You can now disable hints and tips often shown when you use an app or feature the first time in "Settings > Gestures > Show hints and tips"
• You can now reset hints and tips when long-pressing the "Show hints and tips" setting and selecting "Reset hints" action
• Return to home hint shown when user opens app the first time, teaching how to return to home with edge swipe
• Change keyboard gesture hint shown when user opens the keyboard the first time
• Close keyboard gesture hint shown few days later
• Close all apps hint shown when user enters the home (active covers) housekeeping mode the first time
• Empty Screenshot album instructs user to press left and right Volume keys down to take screenshots
• Incoming call now always displays answer and reject call hints, tapping answer and reject icons still plays pulley hint animation

Gallery

• Just tap to zoom out of zoomed photo (previously was double tap)
• Don't try to crop with none option
• Fix timing issue sometimes causing image editing to fail

Homescreen

• Unresponsive dialog regression fixed

Media

• Empty search field now shows close icon button
• Scrolling down to see more search results automatically closes keyboard

Messages

• Redesigned conversation view
• Header area introduced that shows the contact of the conversation
• Message bubbles are better organised visually and in relative date groups
• Tap message bubble to see full timestamp, used SIM cards and numbers, delivery and read status
  • Info only shown where it makes sense, if the device supports Dual SIM, recipient contact has multiple numbers, read receipts have been enabled, and so on
• Reply field disabled for service messages from senders with no phone numbers
• You can now save and edit contacts without leaving the Messages app

Notes

• Empty search field now shows close icon button
• Scrolling down to see more search results automatically closes keyboard

OS updates

• Some stability issues fixed

People

• Redesigned People app: contact picker, contact card and contact editor
• Contacts reorganised as alphabetically grouped list, armed with new scrollbar component
• Contact card shows more efficient layout
• Contact editor orgranized to prioritise common fields
• Contacts now support adding note fields
• Show contact card after creating a contact
• Selecting and deselecting all contacts is now possible
• Contacts multi-selection now allows reviewing already selected contacts
• Search field now always shown on Phone contacts view and People app, but search pulley action still provided for easy one-handed activation
• Fixed an issue where importing contact with special characters from vcard file lead to crash of People app

Phone

• Phone refactored into three tabs: Dialer, History and People
• Redesigned dialer for easier one-handed use
• Redesigned call history view, supporting basic and detailed modes. Detailed call history allows you to see additional information like call duration and Dual SIM info
• Incoming call dialog now allows replying to the caller easily with predefined quick messages (ability to customise quick messages is coming in the next release)
• You can now save and edit contacts without leaving the Phone app
• Dialer and contacts phone number fields support "." and "," DTMF pause characters common in other OSes in addition to the previous "p"

SDK

• MDM API added to SDK

SIM

• SIM indicator shown on Phone call loghistory entries to know which SIM (on dual SIM phones) was used to make the call

Security

• [XA2] Fingerprint authentication added. .
• User data encryption (a.k.a. encryption of Home partition) is now supported by the OS. However, this feature is in 3.1.0 only supported for freshly flashed corporate devices and will be deployed in upcoming Sailfish updates to consumer devices.
• Security code authentication required before a user can see WLAN hotspot, mobile access point, tethering and VPN passwords in settings
• Malicious use of Phone and Messages interfaces restricted
• Vulnerabilities fixed:
  • glibc 2.27: CVE-2017-15670,CVE-2017-15671,CVE-2017-15804,CVE-2017-17426,CVE-2017-1000408,CVE-2017-1000409,CVE-2017-16997,CVE-2018-1000001,CVE-2018-6485
  • glibc 2.28: CVE-2016-6261, CVE-2016-6263, CVE-2017-14062, CVE-2017-18269, CVE-2018-11236, CVE-2018-11237
  • openconnect 8.02: CVE-2018-20319
  • libxslt 1.1.33: CVE-2019-11068
  • gdb 8.2.1: CVE-2017-9778
  • binutils 2.32: CVE-2014-9939, CVE-2017-12448 to CVE-2017-12459
  • wpa-supplicant 2.8: CVE-2017-13082, CVE-2017-13077, CVE-2017-13078, CVE-2017-13079, CVE-2017-13080, CVE-2017-13081, CVE-2017-13082, CVE-2017-13086, CVE-2017-13087, CVE-2017-13088, CVE-2018-14526

UI components

• Palette API introduced for custom coloring Silica UI components
• UI components implicitly handle press effects, no need to explicitly bind to highlighted property to implement press effects
• Text editor cursor now blinks to better visualize what field has the focus
• The issue with context menus opened at the bottom of the page getting clipped fixed

T.J.C: Issues reported by the community and fixed in this update

All of the links below may not open up for everyone, sorry.

• https://together.jolla.com/question/182644/xperia-x-missing-nfs-support/?sort=votes&page=1
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/205417/bug-google-search-website-broken/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/204839/how-to-view-browser-console-errors/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/199105/code-issue-button-icon-source-is-not-a-member-of-m18-i-is-declared-more-than-once-m107/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/137678/bug-media-player-lock-screen-controls-remain-when-starting-fm-radio/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/7509/missing-notes-field-in-contact-details/?sort=votes&page=1
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/204409/bug-bug-3038-ea-german-translation-missing/?sort=votes&page=1
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/204853/no-translation-in-settings-android-support-after-hossa-update/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/199105/code-issue-button-icon-source-is-not-a-member-of-m18-i-is-declared-more-than-once-m107/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/93323/harbour-api-request-keep-screen-onprevent-screen-blanking/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/207210/native-vpn-client-forgets-password-after-reboot-vpnc/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/191262/opacity-of-remorse-notification-on-light-ambience-is-too-low/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/204034/screen-turns-off-after-few-seconds-while-in-app-list-opened-from-lock-screen/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/204589/screen-is-turning-off-randomly-3038-bug/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/201911/bug3028-setting-data-counters-always-calculating/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/207686/3101-no-information-that-the-number-has-been-linked-to-the-contact/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/208223/regression-calendar-cannot-have-same-start-and-end-times-for-events/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/207685/3101-removing-contact-from-favourites-removes-contact-from-recent/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/205788/cannot-setup-dropbox-account/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/204282/alien-dalvikxa2bug-android-side-misbehaviour-on-screen-actionsfunctions/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/206607/30310-wifi-not-connected-in-android/
  • https://together.jolla.com/question/205122/does-sailfishos-suspend-a-running-app-after-some-time/

Technical changes

Changelog

Detailed changelog is kept here - Extra file systems for Xperia X kernels (e.g. NFS) enabled

Updating your device

Your device must be connected to the Internet and signed into your Jolla account. If your Jolla account is registered for Early Access releases you should receive an OS update notification when an update is available. If you have decided not to take the Early Access registration then you will get the OS update typically one week later.

We warmly recommend making some 3-4 GB of free space to the internal storage of your device before starting the update. Move your pictures and videos to the SD card (or to your PC or cloud service). After the upgrade turn on the option to save pictures and videos directly from the camera to the memory card (Settings > Apps > Camera). This is important particularly in the case of "Jolla Phone" devices (product name "Jolla" in Settings > About product).

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. 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, read our help article in Zendesk.

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

Notification concerning apps from Open Repos

• If you use Phonehook or Callrecorder from OpenRepos, uninstall it before upgrading
• If you use oFono from OpenRepos, revert to the official oFono before upgrading
• If you use Patchmanager, revert all applied patches before upgrading.

About SD cards

• Encrypted cards must be unlocked by the user to make them available for Sailfish applications.
• Non-encrypted cards are mounted automatically when the device is turned on.
• Encrypted cards can be formatted only when they are locked. Formatting removes the encryption in this case (the card becomes unencrypted and unmounted). You can then format it again with the option to encrypt, if needed.

Known issues

• Bluetooth pairing and audio connections may still fail in some circumstances
• Some Facebook services (syncing FB events to Calendar; uploading pictures to FB from Gallery) do not work (independent of your OS release) due to some changes at the FB end.
• Disabling a calendar account does not necessarily prevent the appointments from alerting.
• The chacha20-poly1305 cipher is not currently working, which is often chosen for SSH. It has been disabled in the sshd configuration file, but if you have manually modified it then it will not automatically update. You can ssh into your device using 'ssh -c aes128-ctr' and check the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file against its 'rpmnew' version if present.
• Problems in accessing Twitter with Sailfish Browser.
• Gallery and Mediaplayer cannot show any media from an encrypted SD card.

Known issues specific to Xperia X

• Not implemented features: NFC, FM radio, double-tap, step counter
• Issues with mobile data persist on some SIM cards. Turn the Flight mode on and off to reset the network setup. Reverting the device to Android and re-installing Sailfish X has often helped. See our support article.
• Manual network/carrier search lists all networks by the same name (the name of the SIM provider). Use an automatic search. If not possible, you need to try several items in the manual search results, unfortunately. The topmost item is not necessarily the one that can serve you (still valid with most SIM cards)
• [camera] Force autofocus mode for photos, and continuous for video. After this, camera focus is still not ideal - as the camera stays out of focus when it starts until you either tap or try to take a shot - but the pictures seem to be better focused now
• If a device is powered off alarms are not functional
• Bluetooth: problems with some car equipment, some audio devices and computers may appear
• Loudspeaker volume level cannot be adjusted very high
• Not all SD cards are recognized and mounted.

Known issues specific to Xperia XA2

IMPORTANT: do not update your XA2 device to Android 9 .
Currently, Sailfish OS requires Android 8.1. If you already have Android 9 in your XA2 device, please downgrade it to Android 8.1 and install Sailfish OS only then. Please follow these instructions.

• Not implemented features: FM radio, double-tap
• Bluetooth: there are problems in connecting to some peripheral devices
• XA2 does not power up when alarm time has elapsed
• Flashing Sailfish X to XA2 might still fail (so far seen to happen on Ubuntu 18.04 when using USB3 port). Please read this article.
• With v17B Sony vendor image we observed a decrease in the perceived signal strength of the 5GHz WLAN access points (investigations ongoing). Version v16 may work better in this respect. Therefore we would not recommend flashing v17B for the time being if you use WLAN networks in the 5GHz band. You can reflash the vendor image of your choice by following the instructions in here.
• Voice calls with Whatsapp are not usable as the voice volume level is minimal (if can be heard at all).
• Video playback in Whatsapp requires special actions: 1) Tap on video 2) Tap the share button (top right) 3) Tap back arrow 4) Tap Play on the video. Now it starts playing...

Known issues specific to Gemini PDA

• Gemini Screenshot Button Fn + X does not work
• Not possible to answer calls when Gemini is closed with side button
• Some 3rd party apps have issues in Landscape mode.