librem5 configuration

2022-03-11

I got a librem5 about a year ago now. It was quite useless until recently when I realized that to get newer software I had to flash it myself once, THEN I would get updates. I've been playing with it since, and it's somewhat usable. I wouldn't say it's ready for primetime, but while the stability is so-so, I can actually do useful things with it now. Given that I wanted to document what I've done to set it up.

first, I reflashed with byzantium. Then during setup I connected it to my Nextcloud instance I'm already running... easy enough. As a tip I hate running sudo over and over, "sudo su" doesn't work on pureOS but "sudo /bin/bash" does.

Now for software

Lastly I removed all the apps I don't actually use (e.g. text editor). Unfortunately I didn't record the names of all of the apps, but you can always use "apt list --installed" and grep to work it out.

Finding software: I believe the librem5 is basically mobian/phosh. If you take a dpkg for mobian/phosh and try and install it it won't just work (I tried it), because the library versions aren't identical, but if you're searching for software that will work well on the librem5, software that works on mobian/phosh probably will, and is most likely already available in the pureOS repos if you use the commandline apt. The PureOS store is incredebly limited and I found it largely useless, I'm sure it'll become more useful in the future. A surprising amount of software is available by flatpak as well, while I'm not a fan of it

Overall I think PureOS is getting there in terms of functionality and I'm excited to really use my device now. Battery life is just about long enough to last a work day. What it needs most now is stability. For example, the bluetooth functionality is pretty sketchy. I'm unsurprised by this as the gnome/bluetooth stuff is no *more* functional on laptops last time I tried it. I gave up and use a commandline tool for bluetooth on my Microsoft Surface Go linux tablet (my other, and my primary, machine). Unfortunately this has been common for Gnome. Many of my friends still call "NetworkManager" "NetworkMangler" due it's long history of stability problems. I love the idea of linux phones, but the gnome development philosophy has, sadly, historically failed to deliver reliable and functional tooling. It's quite possible that librem and pinephone and others will actually help to fix those longstanding problems. I'm crossing my fingers

The best thing about the Librem though is that if they fail that's not the end of the story. Folks over in the pinephone world are playing with several other even more linuxy/gnu'ish phone GUIs. Running that stuff on the 100% open and free software librem is comparitively easy. I'm hoping purism can really deliver themselves, but it's nice to have a backup plan :). This is a HUGE difference from the days of Nokia and maemo. Although it was open then, the ecosystem wasn't there, but it's finally here.

One last note... my device has a problem with the SD card at least, and likely a problem with the SIM slot as well. I identified this problem the day the device arrived, but Purism dropped the ball on customer support and never replied after their first response. I've emailed them back now and hoping they'll get me a fully functioning device. I gather online that this isn't a terribly unusual story. They are trying hard but seem to be perpetually overloaded. In a way it's a good thing, as it means people want what they are selling, but it means the customer service experience might not be the best.

UPDATE

I got my phone back from purism with a working microSD slot... WOOT! I have a 1TB card arriving tomorrow so I can sync everything from nextcloud and have more than enough spare space for storing maps of the U.S. and Canada for puremaps, a copy of wikipedia, and whatever else I feel like.

I need to fix up some issues with my nextcloud server (I just moved from Hughesnet to Starlink and it's way better, but I lost my whacky ipv6 hacks), but once that's properly online again most of my use-cases are met by this suite of apps. Some could use some cleanup but purism is getting there.

UPDATE

Although I like my device. I wouldn't encourage others to get it. The price-tag is just too high for a device with poor battery life with still unreliable software. I *really* like the idea of running Linux on a phone, but I think the PinePhone project is a more economical way to get there. Sure the performance is a bit lower, but the devices are cheaper and the ecosystem is far better. In that end that's going to make for a more usable device. Ecosystems matter, that's why Linux won and BSD is now a barely used OS.