claude0001

Building on @Hook's answer: I believe the Pro1-X still always comes with official (i.e. googlified) Android, no matter what OS you ordered. You have to flash a Google-free variant yourself. Take a minute to read about the procedures and options, following the various links on that entry point he posted. You will probably want to flash LineageOS 21. Choose between the official version without GApps or substitutes, or the derivative LineageOS-MicroG. I have always only used the former myself. For guidance, follow the very good instructions on the LineageOS wiki. Once booted, install F-Droid

There has been a lot of restructuring of build-targets in the last three weeks: https://review.lineageos.org/q/project:LineageOS/android_device_fxtec_pro1 I guess with the QPR scheme regressions breaking functionality within one major release have become more likely ...

I've uploaded my latest build of LineageOS 16.0 for Pro1 (SD835) at: http://findus.zwergenschaenke.net/~puma/linux.html#lineagepro1 Go for the ROM dated "20240620". Changes since last month: Include backported Android security patches up to the June 2024 ASB. Update bundled version of WebView to Chromium 125.0.6422.165. As usual, the full patchlog with respect to the unmodified, official LOS 16.0 tree is available at the link above. Have fun.

adb is not supported on the bootloader level. Use fastboot. Step-by-step guides on flashing back to stock are found here: Disclaimer: I have not tested those instructions myself.

For the few remaining fans of Pie, I have just uploaded a new build of my unofficial LineageOS 16.0 for Pro1 (SDS835). At http://findus.zwergenschaenke.net/~puma/linux.html#lineagepro1 go for the ROM dated "20240515". After many months of near-inactivity on my side, this build again introduces significant improvements (or so I think). As usual, it gives you security patches backported from the ASB up to May 2024. Beyond that, I finally upgraded the bundled version of WebView -- which had not been updated in 2 years -- to Chromium 124.0.636.82 (the version used by recent LOS 21).

Those mounting brackets and RPi4 CMs might be official spare parts for the Linxdot miner that is/was marketed by F(x)tec. Still strange these items pop up on Ebay.

Someone named fxtec_21 purports to sell 200 brand-new Pro1/X earphones on ebay: Fxtec In-Ear Earphones - Wired with built-in Microphone - 4 replacement Ear tips Strange, as those are (and afaik have always been) listed as out-of-stock on their own shop: https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro1/ Not that I'd like to buy them (the shipping cost to continental Europe is 4x the unit price), but out of curiosity: Is this official?

Can one flash the phone through such adapters? I.e. can one do things like "fastboot flash" or "adb sideload" safely without removing the adapter? I was considering something like this, but since I sometimes flash my Prawns several times per week, it'd likely loose the adavantage of reduced wear of the USB socket if I had to remove and re-plug the adapter each time.

I'm still using Lineage 16.0 productively, where walking through multiple layouts via Cmd-Space actually works. Did not know this was broken in recent LOS. Still, I much preferred the graphical selector, as I cannot remember the location of characters not printed on the keys ... 😄

The lineage keyboard driver is different on the linux level of keycode mapping. I guess that is the reason why it may not work with third party remapping apps. However, this is also not necessary, as the LOS driver (on Pro1, not Pro1-X!) natively provides powerful options for remapping of Fn-combos. But that is not the point: I do not want to remember keys not printed on the keyboard. Therefore the popup selector came in very handy for me. It is (and has always been) true that some apps do not support showing the selector upon long-press. That's the case e.g. for ConnectBot. I g

Thanks for checking in LineageOS 21, which I can't do easily. I type a lot of German and French characters. With my previous Pro1's QWERTZ keyboard, most of those could be entered natively. But both my Pro1-X and my "new" Pro1 are QWERTY, so it is becoming more of a problem now. Apps that have the broken selector: K9-Mail, MaterialFiles, Notally, OSMAnd~, SimpleCalendar Pro, VLC, F-Droid, AuroraStore. (Recently updated) Apps that haven't got the problem (yet?): Firefox, NewPipe, VanillaMusic, QKSMS. I guess it depends on the target SDK specified when building the app, and therefore I

Anyone else noticed that the accented-character selector box, that pops up when long-pressing a key on the hardware keyboard, is garbled in most apps nowadays? One of the last Apps I have that properly supports the feature is QKSMS, where you, e.g., get the following when long-pressing the 'A' key on the hw keyboard: Pretty useful, eh? Sadly, most Apps now display the selector like this: The example is from K9-Mail, but it really happens in most recent Apps that support the ALPHA keyboard features at all. Note that the selector basically works: You can blindly hit

Even though I think we actually all agree, let me illustrate my point. This is NewPipe, actually a very nice FLOSS YouTube client (available on F-Droid) : Beautiful, isn't it? Now, let's flip out the Pro1's hardware keyboard, forcing the app into landscape, and look at this tragedy: Literally one third of the screen is occupied by ... a rectangular red bar?! The amount of information displayed on screen is less than 40% of what you see in portrait mode. When browsing through content, you can't do long, efficient strokes with your finger, but have to perform many smal

Good point guys, that I hadn't thought of. Of course these foldables are still quite uncommon. But if prices drop at some point ... maybe this is the closest to a pocket computer we will have ...

In a sense, they return to their roots by making a keyboard accessory for a phone. In the light of the not-all-that-positive experience they've made as a full phone manufacturer, this must seem like the reasonable move for them to do. One of the things that the Pro1//Pro1X story has shown is that OS development and -- more importantly -- continued maintenance of that OS seems to be nearly impossible for a small-volume company. In that view it makes sense that they now restrict themselves to addon keyboards again. Also, targeting the iPhones makes a lot of sense (even though I am no Apple

It has a heavily-scratched back (not affecting functionality) and had a non-working main camera upon arrival (as advertised). The latter was easily fixed by re-seating the camera connector onto the mainboard. However, also the camera module itself seems to have the focussing issue discussed here years ago, so I replaced it with the one from my original Pro1. On the positive side, the device's keyboard and battery are in much better shape than those of my original Pro1 after 4 years. I paid 474 €. Not directly a bargain, but much better-invested money compared to my Pro1-X purchase from Ex

Later keyboard driver patches in Lineage suppressed unwanted multiple strokes that may originate from the hardware problems you describe. I backported those fixes to my ROM and they work. They do nothing with respect to some keys NOT reacting to a press sometimes, though. All the technical information you provide is certainly interesting. But, from a customer perspective, I would have expected miscalibrated screens to just be sorted out during assembly of the phone. This obviously wasn't done.

Regularly check Ebay et al. for a second hand -- even partly damaged -- Pro1, and do not hesitate to buy as soon as one pops up. I've done so recently, to get a spare for my original Pro1 I got from f(x)tec 4 years ago. By picking the best parts from the two, I was able to assemble my very own "Super-Prawn" that looks and works better than my original one did even when brand-new. My Pro1-X cannot compete, even after months of trying to make it a viable successor, and is now shelved again. Probably forever.

Now that I own two Pro1s, I feel like I'm in a better position to judge whether some problems are by design, in software, or just due to missing QA. Examples: Keyboard: The one of my original Pro1 was slowly starting to fail, with some keys being detected only on the second or third press. Some loyal F(x)tec advocates got close to get me believe the keyboard issues were induced by my self-built Lineage-16 ROM. Guess what: After migrating my identical setup to the other (similarly old) hardware things just work again. -> QA all along! Camera: After moving to that newly-purchas

Overall I think this is a quite good analysis. That they managed to grow the (SD835) Pro1 from the ash of the Livermorium project almost seems like a miracle from today's perspective. The original Pro1 was indeed far from perfect. It had its QA issues, and also some design flaws. But overall, as you can tell from the numbers of Pro1s vs. Pro1-Xs offered on the aftermarket, those who have one tend to cling to their Pro1 to this date. It will remain the best (last?) keyboard slider for some time to come. Despite owning also a Pro1-X (admittedly through Expansis' grey-marketing 😳), I recentl

Good point, but I would assume the SD835 QX1050 (aka. "Pre-Christmas-Pro1-X") to be compatible with the SD835 QX1000 ("original Pro1"). To my knowledge there are no differences besides larger built-in storage and larger RAM. Both should™ not prevent you from flashing an original Pro1 ROM. Have you tried that? Images made for the "post-downgrade" QX1050 with SD662 surely cannot work on a Pre-Christmas-Pro1-X (with SD835). Certainly true. But the different camera (two lenses vs. one lens) is the most apparent external difference between a "Pre-Christmas Pro1-X" (really an SD835 Pro1) fro

Thanks for sharing. That keyboard looks quite interesting. I've bought this one some time ago, but the rubber keys are mushy, and the lack of a TAB key reduces its usefulness for terminal work quite a lot. Despite the similar "square" layout, which certainly requires some getting used to, yours looks much more functional Good luck with your slider project.

There is a long thread about this: https://community.fxtec.com/topic/3427-sound-problems-with-no-response-from-fxtec-support-for-45-days-pre-christmas-device/?tab=comments#comment-59239 Unfortunately with no satisfactory solution. The Pro1 applies some aggressive filtering on the built-in mics that seemingly cannot be disabled. You get best results by using a USB microphone or by recording from the 3.5 mm jack. In the latter case, make sure to disable NFC during recording. It will otherwise introduce a low-amplitude, but clearly audible, "clicking" background.

Does anyone have background information on this? Why did F(x)tec make this site private? Much valuable technical information on the Pro1 and Pro1-X is documented here, which is certainly relevant for aftermarket users, even though the Pro1/X are no longer produced. Think of the maemo.org forum, which is still active today, 15 years after the N900 was launched ... Could we have something like that?

Despite my previously announcing the opposite, I did it again. Here are updated builds of good-old LineageOS 16.0 for the SD835 Pro1 (QX1000): https://findus.zwergenschaenke.net/~puma/linux.html#lineagepro1 The ROM dated "20240327" gives you all backported ASB fixes up to March 2024. As always, my build includes some local modifications specific to the Pro1, as documented in the patch tarball. These have not changed since last year. Credit goes to @Laska for getting me to fire up my old Pro1 again. This made me realise how much LOS 16 was better suited for my use-case compared t