First Impressions Sailfish (3.2.0.12) on the Pro1

[Popanz 24]

Ok, here are my first Impressions from Sailfish (Alpha state) on Pro1:

The Porting-Team did a great job so far!!! Anyway it's still Alpha and you can feel that still on some missing features and some rough edges. I always used official Sailfish devices in the past, so this is my first community port.

• Boot time is the first thing which is something which made me somewhat nervous on the install process. The first boot takes ages but also the following ones take more than 3 times longer than that on my XperiaX. 
• SIM Card is detected and I can make phone calls. But I can't access mobile data, I get the mesage SIM is inactive. (Mobile data settings are the same than in my XperiaX). Connection over WIfi is possible and works fine.
• After installation I set up my Jolla account and entered Jolla store. I could install the Jolla standard apps, and some further apps are shown, but not very many. Doing pkcon refresh shows up "Failed to obtain authentication"
• Keyboard works, but the mapping is wrong on my qwertz device. I have offered my help on Github for that.
• Onscreen keyboard sometimes doesn't show up. After opening the hardware keyboard and closing it, it shows up again.
• The sensors quite often do not work after boot. On next boot these problems are usually gone. Relevant here are nearly all sensors including multitouch. When they work, they work. So no erratic failures. But after a boot the chance is high that they are not working. 
• Camera works including the hardware button for it.
• GPS doesn't work. (Already on Github as a known bug)
• The same applies to FM Radio
• Bluetooth is working. I connected to my Sony SRS-X11 without problems, did no further tests.
• Sound is working through Speakers, when I connect my headphones Sailfish crashes immediately.
• Graphics are fluid, anyway I have the feeling, that not all cores are fully used. 
• Adjusting display brightness works, but the slider is reacting somewhat strange. I would call it nervous 😉
• Double tap to wake phone works, but not always. Found no pattern yet, maybe it's me: I often grab the phone in a way that on the edges my fingers touching the screen. (Bigger bezels would have been better, even so it doesn't look that nice. I already made that experience on Android)
• Can't say to much about battery yet. Doesn't look to bad at the moment, but I had the impression on Android Battery life was a little bit better. On the other hand, I haven't tested that intensively on Android. I simply don't like Android. The first thing I wanted to test there, was the keyboard. So I opened the notes app and was immediately asked for my google account. For taking notes? Really? I have no Google account and I definitely won't have in future.   

That's my first impressions. If these sound bad, you got me wrong. All in all Sailfish feels great on this device, even so it's still an alpha. I hope the team makes rapid progress, so I can switch to the Pro1 as my main device.

To the developers:
I am no coder. But I'm willing to help in any way I can. Testing, simple works like translations or whatever and of course with sponsoring some beers. Just let me know!
Keep on your great work!

 

Edited November 23, 2019 by Popanz

[VaZso 1,988]

10 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

What is the difference between "boot" and "reboot" here? Turn off and on, versus a restart? Or do you simply mean that on next (re)boot you could get lucky and things works better?

Just some thoughts... I have worked with an ARM board for a project. The board was only a few months old so practically there were no downloadable uSD images which works instantly and also not even for the OS I wanted to put on - but there were some instructions.

I have compiled uboot and put an OS to the card. It worked well on one of my boards, but was rhapsodical on the other.
On that board it usually booted up the second time... or third time... but then it worked well.

I have looked into the source code of uboot and found the problem when it does not boot is that it can not reach the system RAM.
I have checked the initialization code of the RAM and put some delay between the initialization code and the actual use of the device, that has solved the problem and it reliably worked then on both of my boards.
Then I have contacted its development team and told what the problem is and soon they told me there was a delay near the place I put it but it was removed - so they put that back again.

So these problems can happen and even there is a chance you write a code which works well on your device and also work on other devices but there are some of them which may have problems because not all the components are the same - even though in theory, the should.
(That is one of the reasons of beta testers required and also there is a human factor - another person can more easily reveal some faults than the developer because tester is just experiencing - so some bugs can be revealed more efficiently that way. 🙂 )

[EskeRahn 5,350]

@VaZso (My deleted comment was on some wording that was a bit unclear, that has now been clarified )

[VaZso 1,988]

16 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

@VaZso (My deleted comment was on some wording that was a bit unclear, that has now been clarified )

Yes, I saw it had been clarified in original message, but I saw those messages which were speaking about that clarification were removed just after I sent my message.
However, I left my message intact...

[electristan 34]

How is it going with using Sailfish as a daily driver (if you are)?

Any update on getting the Jolla store working, or Mobile Data? Those seems fairly keys first step.

[Popanz 24]

Small update and answer to @electristan's question:

• The problem, with Jolla store has vanished over night (without reboot). All apps show up now.
• Battery life is definitely worse than with android at the moment, but I think, if you don't use it to extensively, it will bring you through the day. 
• Still can't get mobile data to work. No matter if I enter access data manually or if I leave it to the automatic (anyway the same data).
• The funny behavior of the brightness slider is just there, when the device boots up without the sensors. Which happens not that often as I feared at the beginning

Minor problems I have not reported yet:

• I can't access the device via ssh over usb. Over Wifi it works  fine.
• You can't set ISO manually on the camera app. Pictures are good enough, have look at talk.maemo.org

Daily driver? No way at the moment. FOR ME the show stoppers are:

• No mobile data
• no GPS
• Wrong mapping of the keyboard
• Complete crashing, when inserting earplugs

If these problems are solved  I will give it immediately a try. Sailfish feels too sexy on that device.🥰

 

[electristan 34]

@Popanz thanks a lot for the update, will be trying as well when mine arrives, but as you say there are a few major areas needing to be fixed before it's stable as a primary phone.

And i agree, just to darn sexy to resist 🙂

[silversolver 849]

On 11/23/2019 at 4:41 AM, Popanz said:

I simply don't like Android. The first thing I wanted to test there, was the keyboard. So I opened the notes app and was immediately asked for my google account. For taking notes? Really? I have no Google account and I definitely won't have in future.   

That kind of creepy stupidity is not actually baked into Android, but is part of the G-crApps (GApps) that are usually shipped with it. Because they're not baked into the OS, the creepy bloatware is not installed by default on some custom ROMs, such as LineageOS, but comes as a separate package to install, or not....I have been running Android without gCrapps for a long time now. It's more like traditional Windows or Linux experiences, where you install programs from downloaded packages, and your machine is your own, running locally, unless you intentionally install a program that uses the internet. There are gCreep-free programs available for any and all tasks where gCreep can deliver a solution. Android is actually pretty good in its pure form. Unfortunately, few people know what that is, presumably by design.

Edited November 26, 2019 by silversolver
typo

[silversolver 849]

This whole discussion has made me rather curious as to what SailFish was and why certain people find it so interesting. I read this article https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/01/jolla-sailfish-os-team-interview-mwc/ and will definitely have to give it a try now. I find myself very ideologically aligned with their mission.

[netman 1,424]

13 minutes ago, silversolver said:

This whole discussion has made me rather curious as to what SailFish was and why certain people find it so interesting.

I think one of the main nice points is that you get actual multitasking rather than androids crippled idea of it, even for GUI programs. People seem to also praise the UI in sailfish, but personally I'm not so unhappy with android in that regard.

[silversolver 849]

1 hour ago, netman said:

I think one of the main nice points is that you get actual multitasking rather than androids crippled idea of it, even for GUI programs. People seem to also praise the UI in sailfish, but personally I'm not so unhappy with android in that regard.

Honestly Android has gotten very good. I'm not unhappy with it at all, in its pure form. Without the GcrApps, it's reasonably secure and pretty private because the GcrApps are how they monetize your data, but without them it's essentially just a HAL, UI and API support libraries. I prefer installing from packages, and installing only what I like my phone to have. It sounds like SailFish will give me that, but I will have to play with it once I have a supported device to know what will really suit my preferences.

Is aliendalvik available to add to community builds, or only by buying or pirating?

[Craig 1,435]

Not even available to buy for Pro1.  And if it does end up for sale by Jolla, it may be restricted to Europe only like they did for Sony Xperia.

long time ago it was suggested that it may be possible to get anbox running under sailfish on pro1.  

[EskeRahn 5,350]

4 hours ago, silversolver said:

Honestly Android has gotten very good. I'm not unhappy with it at all, in its pure form. Without the GcrApps, it's reasonably secure and pretty private because the GcrApps are how they monetize your data, but without them it's essentially just a HAL, UI and API support libraries. I prefer installing from packages, and installing only what I like my phone to have. It sounds like SailFish will give me that, but I will have to play with it once I have a supported device to know what will really suit my preferences.

Is aliendalvik available to add to community builds, or only by buying or pirating?

as posted elsewhere, you should be aware that you through adb can disable or logically uninstall individual apps including the GApps. see e.g. this

[silversolver 849]

10 hours ago, Craig said:

Not even available to buy for Pro1.  And if it does end up for sale by Jolla, it may be restricted to Europe only like they did for Sony Xperia.

long time ago it was suggested that it may be possible to get anbox running under sailfish on pro1.  

Why is it restricted to Europe? What silly laws in the rest of the world stop it from going there?

[silversolver 849]

7 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

as posted elsewhere, you should be aware that you through adb can disable or logically uninstall individual apps including the GApps. see e.g. this

Thanks for the tip.....I will likely run LineageOS on mine, assuming the VoLTE works correctly in LOS.

Dumb question maybe, but is there a stock ROM image available for download somewhere? When they release the update they're already discussing with the HDMI over USB-C baked into it, will that come OTA only, or will we be able to get a full system image that we can flash from recovery?

[netman 1,424]

2 minutes ago, silversolver said:

Thanks for the tip.....I will likely run LineageOS on mine, assuming the VoLTE works correctly in LOS.

Dumb question maybe, but is there a stock ROM image available for download somewhere? When they release the update they're already discussing with the HDMI over USB-C baked into it, will that come OTA only, or will we be able to get a full system image that we can flash from recovery?

It's available here:

 

[silversolver 849]

Just now, netman said:

It's available here:

 

Awesome! Hopefully as new images become available they place them there too.

It is really a little beyond belief to have a phone manufacturer who actually supports people monkeying with the software on the devices, at least to the point of giving them an official factory image for when things "go pear shaped." F(x)tec is the phone company I always hoped would exist one day!

[Craig 1,435]

3 hours ago, silversolver said:

Why is it restricted to Europe? What silly laws in the rest of the world stop it from going there?

I've wondered the same thing myself.

https://jolla.com/sailfishx/

 

 

[elvissteinjr 355]

Wild guess: Software patents? They're not a thing in the EU, but very much so in the US and other countries.

[netman 1,424]

6 minutes ago, elvissteinjr said:

Wild guess: Software patents? They're not a thing in the EU, but very much so in the US and other countries.

 

Extra wild guess: importing cryptographic software in the US, tricky beeswax, they consider it a weapon.

[Sailfishmods 0]

Use VPN to buy a licence, it works. But I don't think you will get the android support for download over the store or terminal. Maybe only the MS Exchange support and text predict keyboard.

 

I really hope that sfos will supported in the future 🤞

Edited November 26, 2019 by Sailfishmods

[EskeRahn 5,350]

Another guess could be other legal requirements.

From in the benign end some emergency functionality,  to the more dire ones like required backdoors for NSA and the like in various countries with agencies of that nature.

[silversolver 849]

6 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Another guess could be other legal requirements.

From in the benign end some emergency functionality,  to the more dire ones like required backdoors for NSA and the like in various countries with agencies of that nature.

Ooh, now I really need to explore this LOL. But why would community versions apparently be available anywhere, whereas the official version with aliendalvik is not? I strongly suspect software patents are the issue here.