Topics

16

Cosmo Communicator - CoDi / Codi broken

« on: August 15, 2021, 05:04:44 am »

Hi,

  it seems I was able to own the device for almost 1½ years but now CoDI apparently was broken. I just had a phone call and everything was working perfectly. Next thing I know, five minutes later when I take the Cosmo out of case, the CoDi is mostly black except for a few lit pixels.

  Now taking a better look, looks like there's a hairline fracture going horizontally through the display panel. There is nothing visible on the outer plastic casing, so initially it did not look like there's anything wrong. Only when carefully inspecting under bright light I can see it. Codi utility still shows everything and firmware flashing works too.

  What have been the experiences of shipping the product back to planet and getting the Codi replaced? Do they do this under warranty? I mean, the 2 year warranty as mandated by both EU and British consumer protection should apply here, especially since the phone was not dropped or anything like that. How long do the repairs take?

  I have already backed Astro so I just might live without the CoDi the next few months until those are shipped as well...It's not like I used it all that much, except to see who's calling.

17

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Airmail basics, quitting the app

« on: July 24, 2021, 07:43:43 am »

I finally got around to trying Airmail with my IMAP mailbox and it is surprisingly good client, and no ads or anything too. I have been using Outlook for work account but for personal stuff this seems to work well.

However, one really basic question: How are you supposed to quit? The standard controls (on right side of screen) are not there. I can of course use e.g. fn+d but is there some setting to make the standard controls appear?

Seems silly I know...

18

Cosmo Communicator - CoDi / Codi firmware 1.1.1.16

« on: April 28, 2021, 04:21:32 pm »

Seems this just came available. Any release notes anywhere yet about what's improved?

19

Astro Slide - Android / Building LineageOS for Astro feasible?

« on: February 13, 2021, 02:09:44 pm »

Unlike Cosmo, the Astro really doesn't seem to have too many custom components (like CoDI). The slider keyboard is of course there but it shouldn't require anything *too* special. Due to this, I'm wondering how to keep my device updated in the long term since Planet really doesn't seem to have a history of keeping devices up to date in the long term.

In practice, how hard would it be to build LineageOS for it? Mediatek seems to have lots of closed stuff in their SoCs but there does seem to be support for at least *some* Mediatek chips...any thoughts?

Someone apparently ported it to Gemini PDA in 2018, https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/rom-7-1-2-unofficial-lineageos-14-1-geminipda.3770821/ and https://www.xda-developers.com/planet-computer-gemini-pda-lineageos-14-1/ - so it's not totally infeasible.

20

Cosmo Communicator - Android / New version approaching

« on: February 11, 2021, 03:15:08 pm »

In the CODI updater inventory file at http://fota.planetcom.co.uk/stm32flash/cosmo_stm32_firmware_versions.txt there are couple of interesting new lines:

F:V1,1,1,15:T1.1.1.15/Cosmo_firmware-stem_ospi2_1_1_1_15.bin:1190692:a343cd957bae6ce52d49bb3c8d6b6b06:V1.1.1.14/Cosmo_resource-stem_resource_1_1_1_14.bin:15639712:9d68a1261b824ef7021c31df0d2745c4

(Version 1.1.1.15 of CoDI, T probably means "testing").

and

#test versions
A:Cosmo-9.0-Planet-02032021-V25:V1,1,1,14:V1,1,1,15

So Android V25, test version from 3rd of February?

Maybe we get a actual release soon-ish. At least they promised security level to be updated to December...

21

Astro Slide - Hardware / Holy Downgrade, Batman!

« on: January 11, 2021, 11:52:55 am »

The latest update at

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/#/updates/17

shows that lots of the specs got downgraded.

CPU speed by itself. Not that bad as such. However...Losing Wifi 6 (.11ax), AV1 decompression, getting a smaller battery, and no BLE audio.

Time to ask for a refund and switch over to FXTec Pro1 X? I guess not since that also does not have 5G support (or ax).

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pro1-x-smartphone-functionality-choice-control

EDIT: changed URL to a direct link to the update. Varti

22

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Android 11 for Cosmo?!

« on: December 02, 2020, 07:47:15 am »

Whoa, this is interesting, statement by Planet at the Astro Indiegogo page in response to concerns about keeping the Android updates rolling:

The next Android update for Cosmo is in the works with latest security patches and a few other changes. Also we hope to upgrade Cosmo directly from Android 9 to Android 11.

Now...I'm not sure how to react to this. How well did the original Gemini PDA Android version update from 7 to 8 go?

23

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Firefox update broke addons

« on: August 12, 2020, 07:28:05 am »

If you have not updated to latest Firefox on Android, I warn you - do not make that if you have any significant addons installed.

Several addons, including my favorite keyboard browsing addon (Sakakey) simply stops working. Those are not "recommended" extensions apparently.

Anyway, for me, I just downgraded the Firefox to 68.11 from https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/mozilla/firefox/ and then restored my addons from a Titanium backup I had made earlier.

There's also a whole bunch of UI issues.

I hope there's another browser that is oriented for keyboard navigation as some security holes are bound to come up...

Looks llke I'm not the only one disappointed with new Firefox. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox&hl=en&showAllReviews=true

24

Astro Slide - General Discussion / Astroslide

« on: March 30, 2020, 03:19:21 am »

I got spam from Indiegogo about Planet's next project:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-sl...er/x/19732232#/

Considering that Cosmo is "just out" I don't think I'll be shelling money just yet...

25

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Backing up for repartitioning

« on: March 28, 2020, 04:06:19 am »

Hi, what would be the best tool for backing up and restoring Android?

I'm planning to migrate my Cosmo from roll-my-own to Planet's official rooted Android, now that we know that it's the way to go for seamless OTA upgrades.

Anyway, I'd rather not use Google Drive because of, well, Google, and also, as far as I know, it will *not* include all data.

What would be the "best" tool to grab all data off the phone to PC and restore it back in? I cannot just take an image because, well, the partitions are going to change.

The other possibility is that I simply take backups of contents of specific applications where the settings matter, namely
- Nova Launcher
- SMS/MMS
- Termux scripts
- Photos & other content

...but I'm afraid I'll miss something. Any recommendations?

26

Cosmo Communicator - Android / OTA upgrade with Planet's official rooted Android

« on: March 27, 2020, 09:27:29 am »

Has someone here rooted Android using Planet's official images

and

updated from V19 to V20 OTA successfully? Did it "just work"?

If Planet's official rooted images can be updated like that, then I just might move back from roll-my-own roots to official ones...

27

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Migrating from roll-your-own rooted to Planet's rooted android

« on: March 07, 2020, 02:52:13 am »

I've successfully been running rooted Android (see https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=35879.0 ) and it has given no issues. I'm now running V19 of the firmware.

In latest Indiegogo update (#47), Planet is telling that they'll provide a new update this month.

I've rooted my phone using magiskmanager to create custom boot image and then flashed that using fastboot. I can roll back to unrooted version, upgrade the phone, grab the new image using spflashtool and root again.

However: since planet is going to fix the problem with SIM cards in their new rooted Android, it might be that this is a prudent time to migrate.
Looking at planet's instructions at http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Linux_for_Cosmo raises some questions.

- The instructions do not have any steps to unlock the bootloader. Are Planet's images signed, meaning that if you use them, you can actually use locked bootloader? I'm just thinking that from security perspective it might be nice to require a signed image so nothing can flash over it - and you get rid of the 5 second message on boot about this being untrusted. I'm assuming they are signed, but can you please confirm this?
- How do OTA upgrades work with Planet's rooted Android? My assumption is that you can just boot using the unrooted partition, do the OTA upgrade, then (hopefully) grab a new version of rooted boot image from Planet and install that. They need to provide the image due to signing requirement.
- The partitioning section states that  "If you select to reserve some space for Linux, 4 additional partitions will be created: ". What if I *don't* want to allocate any space for Linux? I'm happy with 100% Android (With the Devuan set up on the memory card). How do you install TWRP or the rooted Android if you don't allocate any space for Linux and therefore don't create the partition structure given in the article?

The last one is the one I'm most concerned about...

28

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Ethernet port

« on: February 27, 2020, 11:31:52 am »

I got myself the Planet USB Hub today. USB ports work, but how do I utilize the Ethernet port under Android.

In termux,

lsusb says that it's a "Realtek Semiconductor RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet adapter".
And device eth0 does appear.

However, is there any other way to configure this than via command line?

29

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / HDMI out not working

« on: February 23, 2020, 09:03:42 am »

I finally tested the USB-C to HDMI adapter from Planet. Cannot get it to work.

The screen (LG 55" TV) shows that the connector is connected (but it shows this regardless of whether the adapter is actually connected on the USB port side). However, there doesn't seem to be any signal.

I checked with termux/su and "lsusb" clearly shows that Cosmo does detect at least *something* in the USB port (two devices, 1d6b:0002 and 1d6b:0003). So I guess the adapter should work...?

The only selection related to HDMI is "open HDMI" in settings, and turning it on or off doesn't have any effect.

Is there some procedure I'm missing? Has *anyone* gotten their HDMI output to work?

30

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / VoLTE calls

« on: February 19, 2020, 03:25:47 am »

Has anyone noticed any sound quality issues when doing VoLTE calls?

I've gotten a few comments from colleagues that I sound like "I'm talking from a bottom of a well". I then made a few test calls to my other phone and couldn't hear anything wrong in the sound. I also saved my voice using the builtin recorder and played it back, no issues.

Then it hit me - I had gotten the feedback from calls to my colleagues cellphones. So I tested with another guy and turned VoLTE off. They immediately said that yeah, now it's much better.

I'm still wondering whether it's just me ("That's what you really sound like?!") or if there's something actually wrong with the VoLTE encoder on the Cosmo.

Anyone else witnessed something similar?