Tag: Linux Phone

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Linux Phone Milestone: Moving In

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 and today I am moving into my PinePhone. Let’s get started!

Previously

After around four years of ownership, my PinePhone UBports Edition has PostmarketOS/Phosh and is working on a network. Now that the big solar storm is over, it actually gets signal.

Password Adjustment

Before I properly move into my phone, I have a couple more topics to explore first. One: I need a relatively short user password to unlock from sleep. At the same time, I also want to require a longer password for admin functions. Two: I set up Full Disk Encryption (FDE) while installing PostmarketOS, with testing in mind. I need something a bit less guessable.

The root password can be required in a number of ways from a special admin account to not having sudo. I tried the later, and dependencies insisted it stay. Online search results were frequently more into removing admin privileges entirely, but I did pick up on the history and intended context of sudo as being programmed to easily revoke root access when no longer needed – as well as log commands used so IT knows who did what and hopefully how to fix it. One detail of note was the wheel group (as in a car’s steering wheel). Early Unix required wheel to su (Substitute User) into root, but it’s not a universal standard.

Or I can configure sudo by editing /etc/sudoers. Using visudo is recommended to check syntax, but it dropped me into vi/vim, which I’m having none of. I installed nano, then tried/failed to set it as system default text editor. Otherwise, I might have tried a configuration where sudo just asks for the root password. Instead, I commented out the line giving users with the wheel group sudo privileges. (NOTE: While finalizing this post, I found this may break app stores. Next post about PinePhone, I will try requiring the root password instead.)

With sudo hobbled, I learned more about FDE. As it just so happens, PostmarketOS was built for it. I got the name LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup) and a hint that the boot partition might need to be left unencrypted by the time a community member on the Pine64 community gave me the exact command to change my key:

$ sudo cryptsetup luksChangeKey /dev/mmcblk2p2 -S 0

In my case, I double checked the partition name before performing it with su instead of sudo.

Update on August 8, 2024: I disabled SSH password login, requiring key login instead.

Moving In

Confident I had secured it to my skill level, I did some more “normal” new phone/computer behaviors, such as finding the dark theme, using AM/PM, and adjusting automatic sleep times. My background image had to be moved over with scp (Secure CoPy) and it took a reboot before it showed up. I also moved my ringtone and notification sound over from my previous phone in the same way, installed them, and rebooted again. While it would have made things a little easier, I’m forgoing on NFS access until my homelab servers are moved away from common LAN subnet addresses.

Moving my old contacts list wasn’t too hard either, though I did get help from an automaton app on the Android side to export to .vcf format (Variant Call File). I then used an SD card to move them over. Phosh’s default contacts app by The GNOME Project accepted it no problem. The longest part was weeding out stale contacts going back to high school.

The luck ended with WayDroid. One goal for this phone is demoing Android apps in on Linux. Waydroid looks like the best option. I installed it no problem, but initialization took a few attempts when the 2 minute sleep kept corrupting a large download. From there, I tried installing an F-Droid client, but I got an error in-terminal about the WayDroid session stopping.

Takeaway

My Linux phone is not completely stable by any stretch of the imagination. It keeps crashing, the battery feels like a joke – and overall, the thing feels slow no matter what I do. But remember that I have an early prototype aimed at developers and enthusiasts. Pine64 has production models released, and they aren’t the only ones making phones to run Linux. I am just thankful they didn’t make the screen so big they had to mutilate it to accommodate the camera.

Final Question

Blunder! I just noticed the local app store hangs when trying to install… maybe? Probably because of my sudo configuration, but I will need more time with it as I build up a to-do list for another follow-up post. What all should that to-do list contain?

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Milestone: First Linux Phone Call

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 and today I am messing around with my prototype PinePhone to see if I can’t get it on the cell network for good. Let’s get started!

My Carrier History

Around four years ago, my family had to switch away from a cellular company that let its coverage degrade. We’d been with them since I was small, but for whatever reason, they opted to wait for new technology before replacing a destroyed tower. They lost us as customers over it. I had just gotten my PinePhone at the time. I had made one short call on it.

I made an honest effort to research network compatibility and thought I had made a match, but our then-new carrier turned out to be very closed-minded about allowed 3rd party devices. I poked at it for a while, learning a little bit each time, but progress was very slow.

In recent months, the family’s phones have been succumbing to planned obsolescence. I found a carrier for my area on the PinePhone’s compatibility chart, and we made the switch.

Linux Phone Basics

Unlike phones in the Apple/Android ecosystems, Linux phones run Linux. It won’t argue if you install –say– the full version of Firefox instead of one optimized for a mobile desktop environment. While using an app store is an option, the command line is available for those who wish for a challenge on a touch screen.

I am the proud owner of a PinePhone Ubports Edition, the second prototype phone produced by Pine64. It originally came with Ubuntu Touch installed, but the experience was kind of slow. This led me to look into lightweight options, and I flashed PostmarketOS/Plasma Mobile to an SD card to explore.

Recent Developments

I finally committed. While working on another project within the past month, I installed PostmarkedOS internally. My first mistake was trying to approach this installation as a normal Linux installer. Nope. It had me configure everything from the command line. My second mistake was installing a desktop grade version XFCE. While I still had access to a terminal, the sub-compact on-screen keyboard was a crutch at best, but I used it to 1. connect to Wi-Fi, 2. update and install Plasma Mobile, and 3. remove XFCE – all while trying to get it ready to test at the new carrier’s store the next day.

The next day came, and things worked out so I could be at the store. Good thing too, because I had previously disabled my modem by a dip switch under the back cover. I also noticed a bunch of apps missing from my minimal Plasma Mobile installation, and I kept mistaking some sort of configuration app for a browser. I made the connection later.

Ultimately Plasma Mobile kept crashing, so when I went back to my SD card, I did some more research and chose Phosh (Phone Shell), an even lighter weight desktop environment developed my Purism for their Librem 5 phones. So far, no memorable crashes, but I’ve not stress tested it yet.

Access Point Name

So, I put my new SIM card into my PinePhone running PostmarketOS/Phosh, and I got intermittent signal thanks in part to a combination of only using on 4G technology and solar activity strong enough to decorate night skies across the US in aurora borealis. The catch was an error manifesting as an orange square with a black exclamation mark.

While waiting for an afternoon to help out at the church office for the afternoon, I reached out to the Pine64 community on a whim. Shortly after, a helpful user there walked me through setting up the correct Access Point Name based on my carrier. Minutes later, I received an important incoming call, and the connection held up for minutes, unlike the seconds I would get out of Plasma Mobile (Thank you, Jesus for that timing!).

Takeaway

I am thankful to have a working phone again. I still have challenges ahead, like filching apps from the Play Store using Waydroid (or a similar compatibility layer) and having a simple unlock password while using a longer password for disk encryption and administrative tasks.

Final Question

Did you get a chance to see the northern lights this time around? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments below or on my Socials!

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A Thought of Incomplete Towers

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 with a small thought for the week. Let’s get started!

As much as I hate to admit it, scope is important when working on a project. Luke 14:28-32 bids anyone who wants to build a tower first assess its cost and compare against personal treasury. The advice truly applies to non-monetary resources as seen in the following illustration of a king going to war with an army twice the size of his own. Even if you are the only witness to the foundation you laid, incomplete projects are a constant source of annoyance when you lack the resources to complete them.

I am in such a situation in pursuing a Linux phone. Even this post is an example. I was going to observe how I probably should have focused my attention on a tablet. It’s basically just a phone without a dialer, right? Alas, as I began writing this paragraph, I figured I should do some background research on Linux tablets… If phones are wanting, tablets are even farther behind.

I’ve taken a few days to think about it. When given a choice between a phone or a tablet, the typical user will choose the phone. With the bias towards phones, limited development efforts are focused accordingly. From personal experience, I have observed how apps designed without the larger screen in mind sometimes do strange things if they even install. The same thing happening with an entire operating system is not something I’m prepared to deal with.

In other news, I’m now active on Twitter @Shadow_8472. I’m still considering my balance of priorities: digital privacy vs. free speech, so at most I’ll be adding around here is a traditional link on my socials page. However, I believe the new direction Elon Musk is taking the platform is an improvement from what it was doing prior to his buyout.

Final Question

What projects of yours would have benefited from an evaluation beforehand?

I look forward hearing your answers on in the comments below or on my Discord Socials server.

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