Distrohopping on Librem5

 In continuation to my previous blog-post expressing my excitement/happiness at receiving the librem5, being a distro-hopper (maniacal) in the beginning times of my GNU/Linux journey, I couldnt hold myself. So went ahead prepared an SD card and installed my first distro of choice, Debian GNU/Linux on the librem5. However, the experience was anticlimactic. The stable version did not boot and the weeklies just gave me a "glimpse" of the mobian logo. Yes, there are other methods like "jumpstart", but, I do not want to go that route. I want my librem5 as pristine as possible. It is already running GNU/Linux and lots and lots of users and devs are putting continuous efforts to have the latest and greatest on the device. For now, I will stay with installing alternate GNU/Linux on the SD card. 

Since Mobian GNU/Linux did not boot successfully, I went towards the next effort, Postmarket OS. I am just amazed by the amount of effort put by this team and the long distance which they have already traveled. The tools developed by the team are beautifully documented. It was a joy to go through the documentation. It is like they want every individual to be able to boot Postmarket OS and they want it to do the heavy lifting themselves absolving the user from the initial resistance to free their phones. Kudos to the team and all the users. I just went to the Postmarket page for librem5 and blindly followed the procedure to get PMos on the SD card. It was so straight forward, I just remembered the first book I had bought to learn Redhat Linux 6, my first GNU/Linux installation. GNU/Linux has come a long way and the tools developed by the devs, just for the passion, is unbelievable. In the initial install, I chose the --fde(Full disc encryption) option. However, the device repeatedly asked for the passphrase. I changed the passphrase on the installation (Again thanks to the use-case already available and documented). Now,  PMos went past the passphrase window and stayed at the boot screen. Waited for half an hour, then powered the phone off. By this time, I would have removed and re-inserted by SD card not less than 10 - 20 times. The sim/sd card tray is very flimsy. Be very careful while handling it. Dont worry, I have very nimble hands.

I am a seasoned distro-hopper. I dont give in that easy. On the next day, I flashed PMos, without fde. Now, it booted and landed me onto a text login screen. No keyboard. Luckily, I decided to give the device some time. The device logged me into an empty screen with a wallpaper. Empty screen. Yes, that is what I like to see on any desktop. That is the reason I love window managers. That is the reason I have been on i3 since ... (I have forgot the count). Again, why empty screen? Well, I had chosen the choice of sxmo environment heavily inspired by DWM and i3(sway of course). I had seen few videos of sxmo running on the pinephone. However, the video I had watched was very hardware intensive. That is the actions were performed by a combination of hardware buttons on the device. I hate using hardware buttons on any device. I prefer double tapping the screen to unlock the screen and double tapping the screen again to lock the device. I want the hardware buttons for that rainy day. I want the hardware buttons to get into fastboot. Went to the sxmo website. Mind blown. My God!!. What an idea!? The gesture system is one of the best I have come across. It is the most intuitive gesture system I have come across. Oh, did i just indicate that to boot from the SD card, you just have to power the librem5 with the vol down button held down for at-least 05 seconds. You have to immediately hold down the volume down key after powering up the device. 

Let us continue about sxmo. The sxmo project has a very nicely curated set of apps. The most important contribution from the team are the scripts. The project has exposed many of the phone related activities as hooks for the user to tap into and make scripts to accomplish tasks when triggered by clicking the name of the script or a combination of hardware buttons. The present scripts written by the project devs are readily available from the script menu(swipe diagonally from the top right towards the center of the phone). The menu, when accessed through the documented shortcuts are context sensitive. That is the menu is displayed based on what is available on the screen. If it is a Firefox window, the menu will give an option to open a new window or a new tab, you get the idea... Tiling is a first class citizen on sxmo. It was a joy to see multiple windows stack one below the other. Other Operating systems took years to reach this level of window management. Anyhow, I will write on only "sxmo". Thanks again to all the devs and users making the GNU/Linux stack a reality on phones.

Librem 5, The phone all the GNU fans wanted

After a wait of nearly a year I have received the librem5. It has brought me immense joy to hold the phone in my hand. I funded the venture only to fund the effort. I was never looking forward to the phone. Placed the order through a friend's friend's .... friend in the States. The camaraderie to help out a friend without even knowing what is it I am buying goes a long way to explain the concept of friendship. It is amazing. Though the phone was received a year ago, it had to wait for the friends to come to our country. This requirement was very clear. It will come only when the friend is free and wants to visit his country. 

 It was pure ecstasy when I held the phone in my hand. It was like some sort of magic. I was holding the phone which was a culmination of efforts of so many like minded people with the singular effort and aim to make a "Free as in Freedom" phone. Having started using GNU/Linux since 2002, since my first PIII PC, I have run GNU/Linux on all my desktops and Laptops including Macbook Airs and Macbook pros. Let me not forget the countless hours spent on learning to use the "Freedom" way on the computers. It was difficult. I have persevered. I love the freedom I gain for the effort put in to customize the OS. I love the fact that every single word, every single screen, every single action is tailor made for me. 

For a person who knows the value of Freedom, GNU/Linux is my wet dream. Let us not forget the hours spent on modding Android phones to run CyanongenMod and Lineage OS on many Android devices over the years. Again, I loved the freedom these mods presented me when using a phone. While all other phones bound the user and made them to learn it their way. I had my phone tailor made to work my way. Yes, GNU/Linux is a rabbit hole. Yes, GNU/Linux is free if you do not consider time as money. 

Coming back to the L5, holding a phone which has GNU/Linux out of the box, was sheer excitement. For the first time, after buying a computer, I need not spend hours to bring the device and its characters to my liking. For the first time, I just started using it in "as is" condition. A great win for all the developers/users/visionaries who believed in the project. For me, it is still unbelievable. Yes, I know, it took a lot of time. It angered many of the investors. As for me, I was confident on the team to produce a working phone. My main confidence lay in the software stack, ie, GNU/Linux. It was always available for the purism team. 

I have forgotten when I ordered by L5. It does not matter now, nor it mattered when I ordered. When I received the phone, I explained the intention of me ordering the phone and the philosophy behind it to my friends. It went above their heads. Paying "that" money and waiting for "that" many years was not entering their heads. They know my passion, but still could not put their head together to understand this amount of madness. However, they were happy for me receiving the phone for which I had "Paid" with plenty of difficulties. 

I opened the phone and connected it to the charger. The lights were running in disco pattern and nothing was happening except that the vibration motor was running crazy and matching the disco lights on the device. A quick search took me to the purism how-to's and in seconds had my phone charging. Booted into the device and was immediately at home with the UI. It was just a small sized GNOME shell. 

Everything was familiar. Everything looked in its place. Everything was inviting me to hack on the device. Immediately install i3 and the like and have a dark background with nothing on it with a launcher on demand. This has to wait. I want to experience the vanilla L5. I want to savor all the efforts put in by the entire team of purism and all the independent devs and users across the world by using it and providing valuable feedback. 

Please acknowledge my heartfelt gratitude for embarking on a journey with no support from any big corporation, in the present modern times wherein, no government is questioning the strategy of throwing out phone/laptops since the batteries of the phone are made non-removable. Criminal. 

Of course, I am just getting started!!

Movies..... Feeling.....

 

Read, The Brothers Karamazov

 

Once upon a time in the west by Sergio Leone

 

The impending danger of plastic utensils

 

Bureaucracy, your time is up.