Anyone using a Linux Smarphone?
from hdnclr@beehaw.org to linux@lemmy.ml on 02 Oct 19:36
https://beehaw.org/post/22475244
from hdnclr@beehaw.org to linux@lemmy.ml on 02 Oct 19:36
https://beehaw.org/post/22475244
Is anyone here using a (non-Android) linux Smartphone? Curious what type of phones y’all are using and what your experience has been.
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I am also looking for a linux smart phone at the moment. I have not found many that don’t seem to be sold out, or aren’t quite there yet.
If I find anything promising I will edit.
I just got myself a fairphone gen 6. I want to put postmarket OS on it, but had a kind of rough start. Haven’t gotten it working yet :(
eOS works great for me on my fairphone 5, I suspect the model 6 is similar. Just be VERY careful about the anti-rollback protection, read the install instructions carefully and follow them exactly. And don’t use the easy installer, it can brick your phone.
doc.e.foundation/devices/FP6/install
For everyone else, here are the supported devices:
doc.e.foundation/devices
eOS is based on aosp though.
Postmarket OS isn’t? Oh whoa, I just checked for myself, I had no idea, thought it was aosp too!
Cool, thanks for the correction.
Yeah. Seen this story before. Google will shit all over AOSP, and it will slowly start hurting more and more. Thought I’d give a full blown Linux mobile distro a go this time around. Maybe even get to contribute some
Great idea. I’m going to consider the same.
Ive got a 4. Its pretty fantastic on /e/ so far.
I used a Nokia N800 and later an N9. Both were painfully slow though otherwise pretty cool. Neither is usable now, due to the 3G mobile networks having been phased out in the US.
Worldwide. The whole world is on the process of killing 3g.
WiFi works fine, tho
Yeah there just isn’t much attraction to using those old phones over wifi though. The N800 is basically a tiny Debian box and maybe I could think of a cool use for that, but tmux, raspberry pi, meshtastic gizmos, etc all compete too. Neither phone is able to usefully run a web browser. I used to be on talk.maemo.org which is where users of those phones hung out, but that site shut down some years ago.
I wanted PinePhone to work decently so I could daily drive it but when I got it it was already far behind from my old phone hardware-wise. PostmarketOS had run roughly. It was kinda usable but I couldn’t manage to use Signal on it (it was a desktop app that time). GPS wasn’t working either. 2 most important things for me. Battery life was also abysmal.
This was years ago though, PostmarketOS is probably much much better now. I sold that PinePhone so I don’t know its current state. I wouldn’t expect more from what I tried.
If I’m gonna get a Linux phone now, I want to see a good Android app emulation. At least until we get real alternatives. I still need a couple apps from Aurora Store. F-Droid apps have a better chance to be ported to Linux from Google Play ones anyway.
Same boat here.
I still futz with my PinePhone but mostly as a portable music/video player.
Eagerly awaiting the rebirth of CalyxOS
I have a Xiaomi Mi A2 that I ran ubuntu touch on. The camera didn’t work, and it was based on ubuntu 16.04. They’ve dropped support for it now. It was not ready to be a daily driver.
I should be getting a poco x3 nfc in the mail tomorrow. It should have excellent support on both postmarketos and ubuntu touch. I don’t expect it to be a daily driver, but I can’t get the idea out of my head. I don’t like where iOS and Android are headed.
Yes, running OnePlus 6 with Mobile NixOS (actually mostly just NixOS with a couple modules from mobile NixOS). I will try to make the config public when I get it into a less rough state. It’s… useable as a daily phone, but you have to be really into it to do it.
It’s not like desktop Linux where if you’re a tech enthusiast you can ignore a few rough edges and just use it like you would a more mainstream OS.
I had to flash a specific old version of OxygenOS, using almost undocumented tools, which could easily brick the phone if something went wrong, just for GPS to work. I have to recompile my kernel every time it updates. I had to write my own scripts for the hardware slider thing to work (which has a nice benefit of letting me use it for whatever I want; I want to make it switch between NORMAL and INSERT in my editor just as a laugh).
I got a oneplus 6 to install nixos, but I’m currently using LineageOS as I kind of got stuck on the nixos install, and I needed a phone. I previously had nixos on a pinephone and it was cool but too slow to use seriously.
I have a second oneplus 6 with a wonky usb port, am going to try to fix that and maybe give nixos another go. Sounds like its even more hassly than I thought!
I can’t even get wire guard to work and he’s writing his own scripts for a Linux phone. How do I get this knowledge?
Honestly, it’s mostly just trying shit out, breaking your install and fixing it, and having fun. In the grand scheme of things doing all that stuff is not that difficult, mostly tedious; my day job involves more complex and often interesting problems. It’s just gluing together things which other people wrote, looking at what breaks, and either fixing it properly or just hacking it together with perl.
Finally, I can confide to you that I’ve spent half a day getting wireguard working on that very phone a couple months ago, only to find out it was because I didn’t poke the right holes in the firewall :)
What sucks is in the USA you need VOLTE for the phone to work, and I’ve not found a phone that clearly supports it
Looks like BM818 in Librem5 supports VoLTE, but might have issues with some networks.
PinePhone’s (and one of Mudita’s phone’s) EG25 modem technically supports VoLTE, but was very flaky for me (in a mid-low signal area)
FuriLabs (FLX1) seems to have VoLTE working.
Ubuntu Touch explicitly states that it does not support VoLTE.
Ubuntu Touch doesn’t officially support it yet, but it is working reliably for several phones now.
Wtf is this?
Voice over LTE, meaning in the USA we don’t have 3g anymore so the phone has to support voice over LTE
Or just use WiFi?
Not exactly useful if you’re not in an area with WiFi.
I just fat-fingered myself into a need for a new phone. I’d really like to get away from Android, but I’ve yet to hear anyone say any smartphone running Linux is ready for daily driving.
😢
I have been waiting for 10 years or more. And it still isn’t. It will never be unfortunately.
I do think it will move way faster the shitter android gets.
Really, its a function of how many of us give these companies money to buy their hardware
So, yeah, the shittier android gets, the more of us jump ship. The more of us jump ship, the better the ecosystem becomes.
Huh, I’ve never noticed you write a message without the need to replace a “th” before.
Sometimes, sentences come togeþer wiþ so many in a row I feel self-conscious. More rarely, I produce one, or none.
You become hyper-aware of how heavily English relies on “th” when you walk þis paþ.
Did you ever read that book that was written without using the letter “e”? Now there’s something on which English - the word itself even - depends.
I’m using Sailfish OS on a Jolla C2 phone. The OS is great, very good native software and it also runs Android apps.
How’s your experience been with the GPS? I have been using sailfish on a Sony phone and loved it but getting a GPS lock just took forever for me.
Surprised no mention here yet of a Pixel 3a? Both Ubuntu Touch and PostmarketOS seem to run best on it, so I’ve had it on my eBay search notifications for a while hoping to be able to toy with one. I really don’t expect it to be daily driver material though.
What about swappa? I just replaced my 3a with a 7a. I would consider donating it to the cause but had thought about doing something with it.
I wouldn’t do Ubuntu Touch on the P3a if you’re in an area where VoLTE is required. It seems this model is too old to get the treatment it needs.
This, but Pixel 4a. Nearly identical phones, except one has more RAM.
I just bought like five of them. Best Pixel on the market, imho.
Can you use Signal on a Linux phone? I know there’s a desktop Linux client, but it relies on being activated from an Android or iPhone app to function, in my experience.
I don’t have experience with mobile Linux (still on Android), but you can emulate Android apps through Waydroid and that would (probably) work. Granted, Idk if notifications would work, but that’s an option if mobile Linux can handle Waydroid. There’s also Molly, which is a signal client that doesn’t rely on Google Play Services for notifications.
www.ubuntu-touch.io/apps/ can run Android apps with Waydroid. I don’t know if Signal works with this, but Android apps run with good performance using Waydroid (I just read about it, never used it myself).
Better not to use Signal. It’s intentionally made less secure by requiring a phone number.
Wire is better. Native Linux app. No phone number needed.
If you are, you’re usually limited to progressive web apps. Not a bad thing, just something to be aware of. That’s the reason I had to give up when I tried. Not having a decent navigation software was really hard.
For me it was battery life. The thing wouldn’t sleep properly.
Sleeps good enough for the music stream to be choppy, but not good enough to last a day.
I intend to get a Fairphone 5 or 6 and test-drive Ubuntu Touch on it, hoping to daily drive it… but it’s all theoretical at this point. If I can’t get a real Linux distro to do everything I want reliably, Lineage OS is my fallback plan. I believe in the Fairphone mission, so that’ll be my next hardware purchase either way
I daily drive a Librem 5. First thing to note is do not expect a well polished experience. Battery life is bad, only about 4 hours of light use, and 8 or so hours if left in suspend. It can do VoLTE, send SMS, use web apps and any apps coded with libadwaita or kirigami. Other desktop apps can be forced to scale on the display, but it won’t be perfect.
I use Signal desktop as my main means of communication on the Librem 5. I have a spare normie phone for setup, but Waydroid is an option. I do use Waydroid for a few apps that have no web browser equivalent.
Idk, all I can say is, you have to really want it to live with it. I don’t do gaming or heavy social media use or anything removed that, so it is just fine for me. But it’s definitely not for everyone.
Is that battery life in airplane mode or not? Curious how long you get in airplane mode.
oneplus 6T and poco F1 on mobian and postmarketOS. SDM845 devices with 8 GB RAM and fast storage, about the peak of performance you can have nowadays for about $50 apiece. I’d encourage anyone to get a cheap device, fun to play around with and prepare for the day when it becomes viable. ubuntu touch is also possible, but since it’s halium (like android + linux VM) it wants me to downgrade to Android 9 which is virtually impossible for me; the former two run full linux kernels and don’t have that limitation - spotty hardware support, though.
performance is acceptable, the power to do almost anything you want, access whatever and whenever you want. I run it without broadband, just wifi. the cameras are unusable. since I keep the modem off, GPS doesn’t work either. so it’s a linux laptop with touch, basically. the apps are a shitshow, rarely will you find one that supports touch and adapts to the vertical zoomed-in screen.
but it’s getting better, shit’s way better now than it was only a year ago and eventually it’ll get there.
as long as you’re aware it’s not an android alternative, you’ll have a good time.
I have a pinephone for wifi and my SIM is in a CatB40 that only does calls/sms.
FYI there’s !linuxphones@lemmy.ml and !linuxphones@lemmy.ca if you’re looking for more enthusiasts
I daily drive Ubuntu Touch on a Fairphone 5. It’s not without quirks, but I like the experience. Many practical and nice native apps, Android app support through Waydroid, banking and things that would require Google Play verification I solve through the browser. Fairly good battery life, VoLTE is solved for the FP5 and some other models (which has been an issue with many Linux phones) and the community is very active solving issues and helping each other day and night.
Warning: the devs of waydroid said it should never be trusted for sensitive use, due to security issues
I wish… and I did try. You can see my post history but basically PinePhone and PinePhone Pro sitting neatly on the shelf.
They work. Sure, but between battery life or rather power management, lack of camera on the Pro, lack of MIPS on the base model to use Android apps via Waydroid, I had a lot of fun tinkering, but for me these are not daily drives.
For now I’m stuck with deGoogle Android thanks to /e/OS pre-installed by Murena on a CMF Nothing 1. It’s neat thanks to F-Droid, Termux, KDE Connect, GadgetBridge, etc but overall I’d much rather be on Linux proper. If there is a path please do share.
Sony Xperia III with Sailfish OS flashed on it. Running Android emulation for a few apps like local public transport, K9 Mail. No Google.
Nice thing its easily programmable in Python / Guile / Rust. Plus has a FLOSS Linux app store.
I also have a Gemini PDA with a physical keyboard, which runs Sailfish as well. It’s nice to use vim on it.