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I'm not particularly tech savvy by any means, but I was recently gifted a very nice Nexus 5 running Ubuntu Touch and I'm having a heck of a time figuring it out even with google searches for instructions.

This is the only functioning mobile device I have now (and am likely to have for some time) and just getting a normal android device is not an option for financial reasons.

I've really only got two main things I need my device to do (run ProtonVPN and TOR or Brave Browser) since all my major needs are web apps... but when I try to google solutions to getting these set up I have a hard time with some of the instructions.

apt-get install doesn't seem to do anything but generate error messages about "not using locking for read only" despite a lot of the results telling me it should do the job, I cannot make heads or tails of the libertine feature, and I could really use some help from a professional.

If anyone can help walk me through what I need to do to get everything up and installed on my new device, I would be very appreciative. I know you all must get bombarded by rookie questions so it means a lot to me if anyone takes the time to actually read this. I didn't really grow up with technology so I'm fairly clueless when it comes to things like this.

Thank you so much for your time!

EDIT: The command I entered was "apt-get install tor", and the console responded with "Not using locking for read only lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend" and "Unable to locate package tor". I also tried "sudo apt-get install tor" and "apt-get install torbrowser-launcher" since google searches recommended those, but it gave the exact same response.

EDIT2: "sudo mount -o, remount,rw /" does not solve the issue, unfortunately.

EDIT3: Progress! sudo apt-get update ran correctly, and now sudo apt-get install tor finds the correct package. However, during the final stages of installation it seems to encounter an error: "aa-exec: ERROR: profile 'system_tor' does not exist [FAIL]", "invoke-rc.d: initscript tor, action 'start' failed", "Tor was unable to start due to configuration errors." "Please fix them and manually restart the tor daemon using 'service start tor'.

Eckhart Schlittenbauer
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  • Showing us the exact command you entered, and the complete accurate response would be very helpful. – user535733 Aug 29 '20 at 23:02
  • The command I entered was "apt-get install tor", and the console responded with "Not using locking for read only lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend" and "Unable to locate package tor". I also tried "sudo apt-get install tor" and "apt-get install torbrowser-launcher" since google searches recommended those, but it gave the exact same response. – Eckhart Schlittenbauer Aug 29 '20 at 23:25
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    Does this answer your question? 'sudo apt-get install' is showing "Not using locking for read only file /var/lib/dpkg/lock" warning on Ubuntu Touch – user535733 Aug 29 '20 at 23:50
  • I saw the afforementioned post when I was googling before making this thread; "sudo mount -o, remount,rw /" does not solve the issue, unfortunately. It does not return any error but after reattempting the instructions to install a package there is still no change in response. – Eckhart Schlittenbauer Aug 30 '20 at 00:07
  • There is a good tor answer here from Dr-Bunsen https://askubuntu.com/questions/6522/how-to-install-tor but before that try sudo apt-get update and post the result. – darth_epoxy Aug 30 '20 at 00:12
  • Progress! sudo apt-get update ran correctly, and now sudo apt-get install tor finds the correct package. However, during the final stages of installation it seems to encounter an error: "aa-exec: ERROR: profile 'system_tor' does not exist [FAIL]", "invoke-rc.d: initscript tor, action 'start' failed", "Tor was unable to start due to configuration errors." "Please fix them and manually restart the tor daemon using 'service start tor'. – Eckhart Schlittenbauer Aug 30 '20 at 00:36
  • It should be mentioned that Canonical has discontinued support of Ubuntu Touch. As such it's technically no longer on-topic here on AskUbuntu, so the information you find here about Ubuntu Touch may be out of date. – Nmath Aug 30 '20 at 07:39
  • @Nmath Ubuntu Touch is a community project and thus should still be considered on topic. It is not a dead and long gone thing, but an actively developed distribution of Ubuntu for mobile devices. – dobey Dec 18 '20 at 21:43
  • @dobey Almost everything in the linux universe is a community project! Ubuntu Touch is no longer associated with Canonical and is no longer an official flavor or distribution of Ubuntu: https://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/17252/how-should-we-handle-new-and-future-questions-about-ubuntu-touch – Nmath Dec 19 '20 at 04:51
  • @Nmath It was never an official flavor of Ubuntu, because it is not possible to meet the current requirements, for a distribution that is focused on mobile devices. However, Canonical is allowing the use of the Ubuntu trademark for Ubuntu Touch, which by default makes it an "official derivative," despite being incapable of meeting the release scheduling requirements for official derivatives; just like it has always been. It's also currently built on Ubuntu 16.04 which is still supported for a few more months. – dobey Dec 25 '20 at 20:11

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The Ubuntu Touch package manager is called click. Apt and dpkg are available but for safety/reliability reasons the rootfs is read only.

If you want to install software from the Ubuntu Archive, you should use an Ubuntu Touch feature called Libertine Containers (available from the preferences menu, and on the CLI). Further details can be found on the UBports documentation web site.

Diogo Constantino
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