[Community Build][3.3.0.16][Updated 18th Aug] Sailfish OS for Fxtec Pro1

[John Veness 54]

8 hours ago, fxtec-preorder-47xx said:

Which thread? Never read about anything 'driver' concerning the camera?! Can u point me to it?

I think @_DW_is referring to this thread:

 

[piggz 67]

PSA Updating to Sailfish 3.4
The update to Sailfish 3.4 on the Pro1 is much anticipated.  Not only will it bring the great features in 3.4, but it also bring encrypted home partition for added security of your data.

While this is a great feature, it is also not straight forward to implement, requiring a completely different style of installation to previous releases.

Because of this, it is not possible to upgrade an existing 3.3 release to 3.4.  The 3.4 release must be flashed onto the phone, after which it will be possible to restore any backups taken.

Trying to force an upgrade from 3.3 to 3.4 will certainly result in a soft-bricked device, requiring a re-flash, so do not do it!

The burden of trying to maintain 2 seperate builds of the OS is impractical, so it is best to just "bite the bullet" and do the flash.

The upgrade to 3.4 will be available in the coming days now that it is generally available for porters.

Regards

Adam (piggz) and the SFOS Porters

[jamescarruthers 37]

Getting more and more tempting!

[claude0001 1,271]

Thanks for the heads-up. I may give SFOS another try at some point.

On my last test, I was driven away by the completely outdated stock browser-engine, as well as by the non-availabilty of more recent web-browsers in the reops.

Now, the new version (3.4) ships with Gecko 52 according to the release notes. While this may be a significant improvement over the previous state, it is still ridiculously outdated considering that Internet access is THE most important feature in a smartphone (at least IMHO). Jolla need to get this lack of an up-to-date web browser fixed once and for all -- otherwise I see no future for the platform.

Let me emphasise that I very much appreciate the architecture and philosophy of SFOS otherwise. But, If I simply wanted a full-featured UNIX on my phone "just" lacking a decent web browser, I could as well continue to use my N900 ...

Edited November 22, 2020 by claude0001

[EskeRahn 5,399]

4 hours ago, claude0001 said:

Internet access is THE most important feature in a smartphone (at least IMHO).

Different users, different usage patterns. When i tried out SFOS I do not recall if I even opened the browser.

[claude0001 1,271]

3 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Different users, different usage patterns. When i tried out SFOS I do not recall if I even opened the browser.

It was the first thing I tried -- because I knew that the browser situation in SFOS would be problematic.

When you read about SFOS you quickly realise that this is a long-standing issue: Jolla seems to not have the resources to keep up with browser development (which is quite a task, I acknowledge). Things are made worse by the fact that their core community is on "official" devices, which allow to simply run Android Firefox via the compatibility layer. As a consequence, also the community have little interest in developing or porting a better native browser.

Edited November 22, 2020 by claude0001

[piggz 67]

4 hours ago, claude0001 said:

It was the first thing I tried -- because I knew that the browser situation in SFOS would be problematic.

When you read about SFOS you quickly realise that this is a long-standing issue: Jolla seems to not have the resources to keep up with browser development (which is quite a task, I acknowledge). Things are made worse by the fact that their core community is on "official" devices, which allow to simply run Android Firefox via the compatibility layer. As a consequence, also the community have little interest in developing or porting a better native browser.

Its getting a lot better.  3.4 updates the engine to esr52, and the next release updates again to esr60

[claude0001 1,271]

On 11/22/2020 at 3:19 PM, piggz said:

Its getting a lot better.  3.4 updates the engine to esr52, and the next release updates again to esr60

As I said, Gecko 52 ESR may be a big improvement over the engine in SFOS 3.3, but they are still failing to catch up.

Gecko 52esr was released in 2017, since then we've had 60esr, 68esr and 78esr. 91esr will probably have been released (scheduled for July 2021) by the time Jolla adopts 60esr.

The technical reason for this seemingly lost race is that SFOS's build environment (gcc, libc, Qt and all that) lags behind the average Linux distribution, so that recent versions of some programs (like Gecko) cannot be built (easily).

Do not get me wrong -- I like the fact that SailfishOS is around, but for (business?) reasons I do not understand, Jolla try to do "their own thing" instead of basing their distribution on one of the big players (like Debian or CentOS). Wouldn't doing so remove the need to play catch-up on things (like gcc) that most (desktop) Linux users do not even perceive as a potential compatibility problem, because the big distributions just pick them up fast enough?

Edited November 23, 2020 by claude0001

[piggz 67]

SailfishOS 3.4 for the Pro1

Its here at last, SailfishOS 3.4 for the Pro1!

NOTE: DO NOT OTA UPDATE FROM 3.3 YOU MUST REFLASH

This update is exciting as it brings full home folder encryption to you device, just like official devices, improving your privacy, along with all the other features of SailfishOS 3.4.

Becuase of the device encryption, it is nescessary to flash, and the method of flashing is different that before (but easier).

To install this release, download it from:
https://gitlab.com/sailfishos-porters-ci/t5-ci/-/jobs

Prerequisites:
*A linux machine
*fastboot tool installed

You want to download the latest "run-build-lvm-testing" version, do not use the "run-build-lvm-devel" version, that is for developers, and there is no guarantee that version wont break randomly.

When you have downloaded, extract the artifact.zip, and the .zip inside it.  
Using a command prompt navigate to the folder.
Put the phone into fastboot mode
Execute the flash.sh script as root (sudo sh flash.sh)
After flashed, reboot the phone (sudo fastboot reboot)

Now enjoy your updated device!

Discuss on telegram: https://t.me/sfos_user_pro1

 

[pcfe 5]

@piggz and the SFOS Porters, thank you for the build! Very much appreciated.

dumb question;

between running 3.3 and flashing 3.4, I flashed the factory image 20200825 that Waxberry has in his post at community.fxtec.com . That included `fastboot flash boot_a …` and `fastboot flash boot_b …`.

Do I need to put TWRP back on my device or will it function fine with just `hybris-boot.img` in `boot_a` (which `flash.sh` kindly did for me)?

side note: I have nothing against TWRP, I use it on a couple devices, I just wonder if I need it on my Pro¹ since I seem to never have used in on that phone except for the initial SFOS flashing from µSD-card. I see the value of TWRP based backup on some devices but have not backed up my Pro¹ with SFOS that way.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by pcfe
missing word added

[pcfe 5]

20 hours ago, pcfe said:

@piggz and the SFOS Porters, thank you for the build! Very much appreciated.

dumb question;

[...]

 

doh! :facepalm: nevermind,

I had forgotten that this device and SFOS always did that (no TWRP on device after SFOS was put on[1]), sorry for the noise.

 

pcfe

[1] https://gist.github.com/Kabouik/f77539b3eb6a77b032d2fa827271b81d#backup-sfos-using-twrp--beware-not-tested-on-sfos-image-with-lvm-encryption

[tdm 2,322]

A bit OT but ... does Minecraft Java run on this?  And if it does, how well does it run?

 

[EskeRahn 5,399]

On 12/31/2020 at 5:49 AM, tdm said:

A bit OT but ... does Minecraft Java run on this?  And if it does, how well does it run?

I took the liberty to split the answers from @claude0001 to a separate thread

 

[jamescarruthers 37]

On 11/23/2020 at 9:18 PM, piggz said:

SailfishOS 3.4 for the Pro1

Its here at last, SailfishOS 3.4 for the Pro1!

NOTE: DO NOT OTA UPDATE FROM 3.3 YOU MUST REFLASH

This update is exciting as it brings full home folder encryption to you device, just like official devices, improving your privacy, along with all the other features of SailfishOS 3.4.

Becuase of the device encryption, it is nescessary to flash, and the method of flashing is different that before (but easier).

To install this release, download it from:
https://gitlab.com/sailfishos-porters-ci/t5-ci/-/jobs

Prerequisites:
*A linux machine
*fastboot tool installed

You want to download the latest "run-build-lvm-testing" version, do not use the "run-build-lvm-devel" version, that is for developers, and there is no guarantee that version wont break randomly.

When you have downloaded, extract the artifact.zip, and the .zip inside it.  
Using a command prompt navigate to the folder.
Put the phone into fastboot mode
Execute the flash.sh script as root (sudo sh flash.sh)
After flashed, reboot the phone (sudo fastboot reboot)

Now enjoy your updated device!

Discuss on telegram: https://t.me/sfos_user_pro1

 

Are these instructions suitable for someone running Lineage OS, or were they just meant for people already on the earlier version of Sailfish OS?

I ask because I followed them but the phone wont boot past the very first screen with two logos (FxTec [top] and Sailfish OS [bottom]).

I've basically wrecked the phone again haven't I!?

Edited January 2, 2021 by jamescarruthers

[jamescarruthers 37]

I restored stock Android fine. It flashed fine and ran fine.

Then I installed SFOS again using this script thing and it is not on a boot loop. I see the first boot logo page for a few seconds, then a black screen, then the logo page, repeating....

Any ideas, please?

[jamescarruthers 37]

With a lot if help from the Sailfish people on Discord I got Sailfish 3.4 on the Pro1.

 

IT IS NOT AS EASY AS DESCRIBED ABOVE.

I could not load 3.4 from script after having been on LOS.

I had to re-load stock Android (instructions on this forum); load SFOS 3.3 THEN load SFOS 3.4.

[epninety 87]

I had to flash back to stock android (ugh!) after trying UBPorts, but installing SFOS 3.4 directly from stock android was no problem.

 

[_DW_ 628]

18 hours ago, epninety said:

I had to flash back to stock android (ugh!) after trying UBPorts, but installing SFOS 3.4 directly from stock android was no problem.

 

I've always reset to stock as well before trying anything else.  Mainly as the instructions assume you are on stock for each of them.  

[aerique 2]

On 11/23/2020 at 10:18 PM, piggz said:

SailfishOS 3.4 for the Pro1

Its here at last, SailfishOS 3.4 for the Pro1!

To install this release, download it from: https://gitlab.com/sailfishos-porters-ci/t5-ci/-/jobs

You want to download the latest "run-build-lvm-testing" version, do not use the "run-build-lvm-devel" version, that is for developers, and there is no guarantee that version wont break randomly.

Execute the flash.sh script as root (sudo sh flash.sh)
After flashed, reboot the phone (sudo fastboot reboot)

Exactly how long after flashing and doing `sudo fastboot reboot` should I wait before announcing my current flashing attempt as failed?

I downloaded `run-build-lvm-testing` from the latest `master` job: https://gitlab.com/sailfishos-porters-ci/t5-ci/-/pipelines/221095742

Nevermind: I just read the stock vs Ubuntu Touch report above. Reverting to stock first.

So after installing stock first using this guide:

I now have Sailfish OS 3.4.0.24 running.

Edited January 8, 2021 by aerique
Read new info on my issue.

[Swond 120]

Is there aby way, how to try SFOS virtually? Without installing on the phone?

[aerique 2]

The maximum volume of the speaker is somewhat low compared to other phones that I have. Is this a hardware limitation or can this be fixed in the software?

(Or is this just my phone.)

Also, adaptive brightness in a fully dark room does not go as low as when I disable it and just turn down the brightness of the display.

Edited January 12, 2021 by aerique

[jamescarruthers 37]

14 hours ago, aerique said:

The maximum volume of the speaker is somewhat low compared to other phones that I have. Is this a hardware limitation or can this be fixed in the software?

(Or is this just my phone.)

Also, adaptive brightness in a fully dark room does not go as low as when I disable it and just turn down the brightness of the display.

This is true on my phone on Sailfish too.

[VaZso 1,997]

16 minutes ago, jamescarruthers said:

This is true on my phone on Sailfish too.

Do you mean the earpiece or handsfree mode?

Anyway, just curious which speaker produces sound in handsfree mode?
Also curious do you also have the green-tint problem at dark brightness under Sailfish OS (like on stock).
(So I am just curious if it has the same behaviour under Sailfish OS like under stock OS.)

[aerique 2]

1 hour ago, VaZso said:

Do you mean the earpiece or handsfree mode?

Anyway, just curious which speaker produces sound in handsfree mode?
Also curious do you also have the green-tint problem at dark brightness under Sailfish OS (like on stock).
(So I am just curious if it has the same behaviour under Sailfish OS like under stock OS.)

At dark brightness it definitely looks "special", so I might have what you describe.  Can you elaborate?

(BTW I meant the earpiece.)

[VaZso 1,997]

12 minutes ago, aerique said:

At dark brightness it definitely looks "special", so I might have what you describe.  Can you elaborate?

(BTW I meant the earpiece.)

See in this thread.

Anyway, interesting that you find the volume of your earpiece a bit low while we find it is too loud using stock OS (I had to turn the slider to minimum level to be usable and it also can easily produce distorted sound at maximum volume level).
So if there is no misunderstanding, both problems could be solved in software I think. 🙂