Does anyone here use a linux phone in 2018?

mark_alfred · 08-19-2019, 04:53 AM

Meh. It's Google's surveillance via their software offerings, rather than Google's few hardware offerings, that's the concern. So, if an old refurbished phone of theirs is the ticket away from their software, then great. And regardless, I think having access to a Linux phone that's more compatible with my desktop will be a benefit. So, I'm going to get the Nexus 5 and test it out. It'll be interesting to see if everything works on it, given that Replicant has never succeeded in fully working (unlike LineageOS with proprietary blobs). If so, then it's a full Linux phone for a fraction of the price of the upcoming Librem 5.

ondoho · 08-20-2019, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

It's Google's surveillance via their software offerings, rather than Google's few hardware offerings, that's the concern.

I'd like to disagree.
That is admittedly not Google, but then it's also not about Google phones, so who knows? I wouldn't put it past them.

But you are right, a better OS on an Android device is definitely an improvement.

But then again, AFAIR Ubuntu Touch is still pretty much Android.
I'd love to hear more about it when you get it; esp. if it's possible to run "apt upgrade" and "apt install" & run Linux software.
In other words, does it really free your phone, or is it just a different lock-in.

The best would be to be able to mount a remote filesystem so it is fully equal with local filesystems (e.g. sshfs, NFS). Once I can do that on a phone OS, it's bought.

mark_alfred · 08-20-2019, 02:50 PM

ondoho, the UBports site does speak of convergence, so perhaps the software has progressed a bit since the time of the wiki site that you linked to. But yes, I do appreciate you bringing that to my attention. Good to not set my expectations too high.

Perhaps even closer to a pure Linux phone is postmarketOS (based on Alpine Linux), which Plasma Mobile describes as its underlying OS for LG Nexus 5 (codename lg-hammerhead). However, sounds like it's difficult to set up, and, from this link here, sounds like a lot of stuff doesn't yet work on it.

amyacker · 08-22-2019, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david3217

Hello everyone,

The web seems to have a lot of startandhalt linux phones from 2006 or so. I'm wondering if and how people are running linux phones this year? Is it just a regular Ubuntu install but with an app that handles calls and texts? or?

Do you have to buy a certain type of phone? or do you buy a regular Android phone and then somehow wipe it and install linux?

Any help will be appreciated

Nice. I tried ubports on a nexus 5. Had to switch.

mark_alfred · 08-22-2019, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amyacker

Nice. I tried ubports on a nexus 5. Had to switch.

Are you saying that ubports on the Nexus 5 was good?

rokytnji · 08-22-2019, 01:34 PM

Wish I knew of this when I had my Blackberry Touch.

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/h...-on-blackberry

They are cheap

Germany_chris · 08-27-2019, 10:16 PM

You can an AOSP ROM without flashing GMS then using F-droid for apps

mark_alfred · 09-01-2019, 09:36 AM

Okay, so I did install Ubuntu Touch (from UBports) on the refurbished Nexus 5 I bought. There is a package which makes installing quite easy. However, the package did not work for me. I suspect it's because I use Debian with root enabled, rather than relying on sudo (which the package seemed to assume). So, I had to manually install it, which took a while. But it works now.

Not sure what I think of it yet. I tried, in the terminal, to run "apt update", and it did run, but it told me that:

Quote:

updating from a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default. See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

I'm not sure how I go about installing new stuff on here. Mind you, it took me a while to figure out LineageOS (Android) without Gapps (basically use F-droid to install stuff), so I assume it'll take a while to figure out Ubuntu Touch. The Unity desktop, which I loathed, does make a little more sense on a phone than it did on a desktop.

mark_alfred · 09-01-2019, 10:37 AM

Hmm. Seems Ubuntu Touch isn't really Linux. Or, at least, it's no more Linux than is Android, since it uses the same kernel that Android uses.

mark_alfred · 09-01-2019, 11:19 AM

Well, I might be able to get apt working on it, by temporarily converting the phone to r/w mode rather than read only, to at least to install a few packages from the repositories, which at least will feel closer to being Linux (and afterword converting it back to read only mode, apparently for safety). Links: 1 & 2.

ondoho · 09-02-2019, 12:01 AM

^ Thank you for those last two links, very interesting.
Nevertheless, the sheer fact that apt is installed and essentially usable, makes this a much, much better alternative to all Android or AOSP-based phone OSs.

(And to me it was kind of obvious that at least the kernel would be an Android kernel. Maintaining device compatibility on such a low level is a hell of a lot of work, and even if you made your own you'd still need to put all those firmware blobs in that no off-the-shelf smartphone can work without. I hear they make quite a large part of the kernel.)

mark_alfred · 09-02-2019, 10:03 AM

So, I installed phablet-tools as this link suggested. Note, I had to install it from source, since I use Debian rather than Ubuntu. Anyway, the install worked. I proceeded to try using it to switch the properties of the phone to RW from RO, and got the following feedback:

Code:

mark@debian:~/Templates/phablet$ phablet-config writable-image
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/phablet-config", line 4, in <module>
    __import__('pkg_resources').run_script('phablet-tools==0.1', 'phablet-config')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 666, in run_script
    self.require(requires)[0].run_script(script_name, ns)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 1453, in run_script
    exec(script_code, namespace, namespace)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/phablet_tools-0.1-py2.7.egg/EGG-INFO/scripts/phablet-config", line 21, in <module>
    
  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/phabletutils/fileutils.py", line 20, in <module>
ImportError: No module named lzma

So, I assumed it did not work. However, upon trying the command sudo apt update in my phone, I was actually given a response.

Code:

78 packages can be upgraded.  Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
W:  No sandbox user '_apt' on the system, can not drop privileges

So, it may be that the phablet-config code I tried did work, or that I forgot to add "sudo" to my apt update command that I tried previously. To test, I'll try and install something.

Okay, that did work. I installed wyrd, a command line (ncurses-based) calendar application. It did install. Unfortunately, it won't work on the phone, since the screen is too small [Fatal error: exception Failure("Wyrd requires at least an 23 line window.")] Which does mean the program is working, since wyrd gives the same warning if I try to run it in a small sized terminal window on my desktop. Anyway, so I removed it, and then removed a dependency (the package remind), via the command sudo apt autoremove. So, apt is working.

The sites discussing this said that upgrading all the packages via apt is not a smart move, so I'm just going to use it to install individual packages for now, and then return the phone to RO status to allow the proper updates to occur.

I'm going to try installing some bigger programs via apt.

mark_alfred · 09-02-2019, 12:44 PM

I installed calcurse and that worked. The only issue with commandline programs is they often rely on the function keys, which are missing on the phone.

I then tried to install a small graphical program called mousepad (a small text editor for XFCE). It installed, but it did not work. So I removed it, which went fine (including using sudo apt autoremove to get rid of the dependencies). I then tried leafpad, and that also failed. Seems that x-window programs won't work. I rebooted the machine, and now it's back to read only status and will not shift into read write status.

So, even though apt can work, well, seems it really can't. And the options with Ubuntu Touch are limited, given that the Open Store is pretty sparse (though Android apps can be run via a container known as Anbox).

mark_alfred · 09-02-2019, 08:16 PM

My screwing around with Ubuntu Touch on my Nexus 5 broke it. I tried reinstalling, but that failed. Finally, I did manage to get TWRP recovery program back on it, and wipe it, to then install LineageOS on it (some notes here). I may try Ubuntu Touch again later, in combination with my Ubuntu laptop, to see if I can better control using the phablet-config utility, so I can try some more screwing around with apt. [edit] I did reinstall it to further play with it.

ondoho · 09-03-2019, 01:01 AM

Try again!
How many times have you screwed up your Linux install before you settled on something?

A few remarks, in case you do:

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

Code:

ImportError: No module named lzma

It's missing the lzma module, some compression library.
Not sure where to get that or if it's relevant for the functionality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

I installed calcurse and that worked. The only issue with commandline programs is they often rely on the function keys, which are missing on the phone.

Some Android keyboards can deal with that - let's hope UBports' keyboard also does. It's not a big thing, maybe just a matter of choosing a different input "language".