OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - Linux => Topic started by: Adam Boardman on January 30, 2019, 03:31:33 am
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Are there any changes you think should be included before we release DebianTP3?
Ideally quick easy fixes or tested pull requests for bigger changes.
I was wondering about:- Splitting of the bottom bar to a left and right one?
- Graphical updates for wall papers or lock screen backgrounds?
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The one big thing I think would go down well is defaulting to no Glamor - disabling it transformed my device from alpha-quality to daily driver. It's a massive improvement in performance - scrolling feels as smooth as full size laptops afterwards. You do lose Chromium and VLC, but considering how well Firefox works with Glamor off I think it's a worthy default. Also needs a new login screen as sddm doesn't take kindly to it, so maybe too big a change for TP3...
Other smaller things:
- https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35185 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35185) (better to build from source and disable acceleration) - can't imagine using Gemini without this
- I've found a vertical panel works well, not something I'd normally use but it feels natural on the Gemini. (I don't think you need two bars, one double-width icon-only one is plenty)
- I can't remember if it's in already, but I've got lxqt-runner bound to alt+space, nicer than the fiddly start menu imo
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The one big thing I think would go down well is defaulting to no Glamor - disabling it transformed my device from alpha-quality to daily driver.
How do you disable Glamor? I would like to try. Thanks.
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The one big thing I think would go down well is defaulting to no Glamor - disabling it transformed my device from alpha-quality to daily driver.
How do you disable Glamor? I would like to try. Thanks.
I believe I rebuilt xf86-video-hwcomposer without --enable-glamor-hybris, cant remember if there was more to it than that
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Ah, okay; I was hoping to avoid having to build anything from source. (used to do this all the time in the old days of Linux in the 90s mind you...)
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Any chance you could fix the KDE keyboard situation?
It's soooo much more powerful and better suited for the high-dpi screen than LxQT. Among its many advantages, you can actually use the taskbar. Icons can be probably sized as well.
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Any chance you could fix the KDE keyboard situation?
It's soooo much more powerful and better suited for the high-dpi screen than LxQT. Among its many advantages, you can actually use the taskbar. Icons can be probably sized as well.
I've got no issues with DPI scaling on lxqt, it works excellently
I have the following env vars set:
GDK_DPI_SCALE=1.75
GTK_CSD=0
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=1
QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1
XCURSOR_SIZE=48
And xdefaults
Xft.dpi: 192
Xcursor.size: 48
And 96 dpi set in lxqt
Basically all from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI)
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How do you disable Glamor? I would like to try. Thanks.
I believe I rebuilt xf86-video-hwcomposer without --enable-glamor-hybris, cant remember if there was more to it than that
It can be disabled by setting Option "AccelMethod" "None" in the device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, for example:
Section "Device"
Identifier "MediaTek HWC"
Driver "hwcomposer"
Option "AccelMethod" "None"
EndSection
If you update to latest libhybris and xf86-video-hwcomposer from Gemian repos, chromium will still work, but with color channels flipped. Might be interesting to compare performance though. If it is really much better without glamor, we could look into dri3 support without glamor, which would allow EGL applications to still work, although a bit slower due to buffer copy involved.
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The one big thing I think would go down well is defaulting to no Glamor - disabling it transformed my device from alpha-quality to daily driver.
How do you disable Glamor? I would like to try. Thanks.
I believe I rebuilt xf86-video-hwcomposer without --enable-glamor-hybris, cant remember if there was more to it than that
It can be disabled by setting Option "AccelMethod" "None" in the device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, for example:
Section "Device"
Identifier "MediaTek HWC"
Driver "hwcomposer"
Option "AccelMethod" "None"
EndSection
If you update to latest xf86-video-hwcomposer from Gemian repos, chromium will still work, but with color channels flipped. Might be interesting to compare performance though. If it is really much better without glamor, we could look into dri3 support without glamor, which would allow EGL applications to still work, although a bit slower due to buffer copy involved.
That would be a good idea if possible
I've done a lot of work with gl + mali on android, it's borderline impossible to upload textures without heavy stalling using the standard GLES userspace api (even with pixel buffers etc), as glamor is doing (or was when I last checked). It must be possible at some level though for android itself and apps using things like hardwarebuffer/graphicbuffer to be unaffected
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That would be a good idea if possible
I've done a lot of work with gl + mali on android, it's borderline impossible to upload textures without heavy stalling using the standard GLES userspace api (even with pixel buffers etc), as glamor is doing (or was when I last checked). It must be possible at some level though for android itself and apps using things like hardwarebuffer/graphicbuffer to be unaffected
Would be nice to have some comparisons/measurements beforehand though. I think when you last used glamor it was a bit slower than current due to glFinish hack from Rockchip.
The ultimate solution is switching to Wayland, as then the compositor renders with GLES and it is fast even with texture uploads for shmem windows, but that's outside of TP3 scope. The problem with Wayland though is that there is no standard server implementation like Xorg, each compositor is an implementation of its own.
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With switching to Wayland we would loose X11 and many applications with it. This would be nearly the same as switching to Sailfish. So I would vote against it.
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Any chance to get cameras and GPS?
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Maybe it is worth to wait until the Android update. There might be a chance for a 4.x kernel with it. Well, or does anybody know the upcoming Oreo update sticks with the 3.18 kernel?
Anyways, the kernel should be upgraded (if not already happened, I am using a custom one) to current git. The latest fix, disabling the keyboard on lid close works quite well. Before, when recognizing the Gemini in the pocket getting hot, already a quarter of battery juice has been lost...
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With switching to Wayland we would loose X11 and many applications with it. This would be nearly the same as switching to Sailfish. So I would vote against it.
Desktop Wayland compositors have XWayland support, which is basically running Xorg server on top of Wayland and it works pretty good. It is just Sailfish choose not to support legacy apps for obvious reasons.
Any chance to get cameras and GPS?
For cameras, either libcamera_compat_layer from Ubuntu Touch or gst-droid from Sailfish can be used as middleware, but then we need respective camera app ported. For GPS, are there actually any "desktop" apps capable of utilizing it?
Maybe it is worth to wait until the Android update. There might be a chance for a 4.x kernel with it. Well, or does anybody know the upcoming Oreo update sticks with the 3.18 kernel?
Anyways, the kernel should be upgraded (if not already happened, I am using a custom one) to current git. The latest fix, disabling the keyboard on lid close works quite well. Before, when recognizing the Gemini in the pocket getting hot, already a quarter of battery juice has been lost...
It sticks with 3.18 as MediaTek did not port mt6797 support onto 4.x.
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@TheKit:
Thanks, good to know.
Then (obviously) I would also like the Wayland solution, but as you told, this would be too much for TP3. The kernel part is a bit unfortunate, really hoped for an update. 3.18 is pretty much EOL... Also hoped for a newer kernel fixing the sd card performance after sleep issue, present in both, Android and Debian.
Regarding GPS apps, it should be possible to run navit on the gemini, still using this on my old n900, but there are quite some more, i.e. kismet supports GPS, via gpsd if I remember correctly.
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I hope that TP3 will fix the problem I am encountering. I had to reflash my gemini with android and debian, when I did the dist-upgrade and install kernel I had not taskbasr come up after rebooting the gemini, I only had the background and was unable to access any menus.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
@TheKit:
Thanks, good to know.
Then (obviously) I would also like the Wayland solution, but as you told, this would be too much for TP3. The kernel part is a bit unfortunate, really hoped for an update. 3.18 is pretty much EOL... Also hoped for a newer kernel fixing the sd card performance after sleep issue, present in both, Android and Debian.
Regarding GPS apps, it should be possible to run navit on the gemini, still using this on my old n900, but there are quite some more, i.e. kismet supports GPS, via gpsd if I remember correctly.
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I hope that TP3 will fix the problem I am encountering. I had to reflash my gemini with android and debian, when I did the dist-upgrade and install kernel I had not taskbasr come up after rebooting the gemini, I only had the background and was unable to access any menus.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
@TheKit:
Thanks, good to know.
Then (obviously) I would also like the Wayland solution, but as you told, this would be too much for TP3. The kernel part is a bit unfortunate, really hoped for an update. 3.18 is pretty much EOL... Also hoped for a newer kernel fixing the sd card performance after sleep issue, present in both, Android and Debian.
Regarding GPS apps, it should be possible to run navit on the gemini, still using this on my old n900, but there are quite some more, i.e. kismet supports GPS, via gpsd if I remember correctly.
It's a dependency issue in the new pulseaudio update, I had assumed it was 'just me' with the amount I've changed things but I guess not
You can fix it by installing ubuntu-application-api3-touch via apt
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Ok thanks
I hope that TP3 will fix the problem I am encountering. I had to reflash my gemini with android and debian, when I did the dist-upgrade and install kernel I had not taskbasr come up after rebooting the gemini, I only had the background and was unable to access any menus.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
@TheKit:
Thanks, good to know.
Then (obviously) I would also like the Wayland solution, but as you told, this would be too much for TP3. The kernel part is a bit unfortunate, really hoped for an update. 3.18 is pretty much EOL... Also hoped for a newer kernel fixing the sd card performance after sleep issue, present in both, Android and Debian.
Regarding GPS apps, it should be possible to run navit on the gemini, still using this on my old n900, but there are quite some more, i.e. kismet supports GPS, via gpsd if I remember correctly.
It's a dependency issue in the new pulseaudio update, I had assumed it was 'just me' with the amount I've changed things but I guess not
You can fix it by installing ubuntu-application-api3-touch via apt
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It would be great to have GPS indeed.
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- https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35185 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35185) (better to build from source and disable acceleration) - can't imagine using Gemini without this
I thought I'd persuaded someone to report back to me when they had the perfect config for that mouse thing so I could branch it into gemian, they never got back to me, very happy to add that. I can add you to the project on github or whatever suits.
- I've found a vertical panel works well, not something I'd normally use but it feels natural on the Gemini. (I don't think you need two bars, one double-width icon-only one is plenty)
Sounds interesting, I did try the double bars version for a while but lost the config when I got the digital rain and never got round to doing it again after a pointless reflash. Digital rain just needs a flat battery/disconnect to fix. If folks with interesting layouts could post screenshots then we can pick what we think is the most generally useful as a default, and the others would make a good set of examples for folks to see whats possible.
- I can't remember if it's in already, but I've got lxqt-runner bound to alt+space, nicer than the fiddly start menu imo
Cool, I've put that in, very useful.
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Any chance you could fix the KDE keyboard situation?
It's soooo much more powerful and better suited for the high-dpi screen than LxQT. Among its many advantages, you can actually use the taskbar. Icons can be probably sized as well.
I've got no issues with DPI scaling on lxqt, it works excellently
I have the following env vars set:
GDK_DPI_SCALE=1.75
GTK_CSD=0
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=1
QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1
XCURSOR_SIZE=48
And xdefaults
Xft.dpi: 192
Xcursor.size: 48
And 96 dpi set in lxqt
Basically all from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI)
Have you ever tried KDE Plasma compared to LXQT? It is about 3 or 4 times more useful. All of those settings can easily be adjusted with a GUI, for instance.
The Gemini is more than capable of running it, except the keyboard doesn't work correctly.
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Any chance you could fix the KDE keyboard situation?
It's soooo much more powerful and better suited for the high-dpi screen than LxQT. Among its many advantages, you can actually use the taskbar. Icons can be probably sized as well.
I've got no issues with DPI scaling on lxqt, it works excellently
I have the following env vars set:
GDK_DPI_SCALE=1.75
GTK_CSD=0
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=1
QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1
XCURSOR_SIZE=48
And xdefaults
Xft.dpi: 192
Xcursor.size: 48
And 96 dpi set in lxqt
Basically all from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI)
Have you ever tried KDE Plasma compared to LXQT? It is about 3 or 4 times more useful. All of those settings can easily be adjusted with a GUI, for instance.
The Gemini is more than capable of running it, except the keyboard doesn't work correctly.
Yeah it's my desktop of choice, but I find lxqt fits the Gemini's limited hardware and screen area better. It's a shame that it's kind of unfinished software, especially the version shipped in stretch
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- https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35185 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35185) (better to build from source and disable acceleration) - can't imagine using Gemini without this
I thought I'd persuaded someone to report back to me when they had the perfect config for that mouse thing so I could branch it into gemian, they never got back to me, very happy to add that. I can add you to the project on github or whatever suits.
Sounds good I'm happy to contribute whatever way works best
I'm still using the config as posted in that thread, no complaints using it regularly once you get used to the different gesture for dragging than what people might be used to on laptop synaptics touchpads, everything else feels pretty natural
- I've found a vertical panel works well, not something I'd normally use but it feels natural on the Gemini. (I don't think you need two bars, one double-width icon-only one is plenty)
Sounds interesting, I did try the double bars version for a while but lost the config when I got the digital rain and never got round to doing it again after a pointless reflash. Digital rain just needs a flat battery/disconnect to fix. If folks with interesting layouts could post screenshots then we can pick what we think is the most generally useful as a default, and the others would make a good set of examples for folks to see whats possible.
This is my current layout:
[img]https://imgkk.com/i/ab7p.png\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
(Really could do with https://github.com/lxqt/lxqt/issues/131 (https://github.com/lxqt/lxqt/issues/131))
- I can't remember if it's in already, but I've got lxqt-runner bound to alt+space, nicer than the fiddly start menu imo
Cool, I've put that in, very useful.
Awesome, couple more things I've just remembered I added that might be useful...
In lxqt globalkeyshortcuts.conf
[Print.20]
Comment=scrot
Enabled=true
Exec=scrot(+ dependency on scrot) for screenshots on Fn+R (key that looks most like it should take a screenshot imo)
[XF86TopMenu.34]
Comment=show desktop actual
Enabled=true
Exec=/(somewhere)/minimise-all#!/bin/bash
for i in {1..20}
do
xdotool getactivewindow windowminimize
done(+ dependency on xdotool) for a winkey+d/m like behaviour on Fn+D, since the lxqt show desktop command doesnt work (can't remember if this is a side effect of no compositor)
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The shortcuts are defined in https://github.com/gemian/lxqt-common/blob/...yshortcuts.conf (https://github.com/gemian/lxqt-common/blob/master/config/globalkeyshortcuts.conf) we already have print screen and show desktop working so far as I know, I'd rather you left working things working unless you get a consensus to change, ie a poll here to check which of two options people prefer.
So far I've given github access to the gemian project to anyone who wanted (messaging me with an email address is probably best), no abuse so far though also virtually zero use either. The gatekeeping comes in when we build components, currently you've to persuade either Nikita (TheKit) or I to code review any changes and kick off a jenkins build before it gets pushed to the apt repository.
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Have you ever tried KDE Plasma compared to LXQT? It is about 3 or 4 times more useful. All of those settings can easily be adjusted with a GUI, for instance.
The Gemini is more than capable of running it, except the keyboard doesn't work correctly.
It can be workarounded for now by disabling conflicting key shortcuts in System Settings.
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Would it be possible to get USB c full dock support for Dell dock wd15? Aka ethernet/hdmi/display port/usb/power delivery?
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Would it be possible to get USB c full dock support for Dell dock wd15? Aka ethernet/hdmi/display port/usb/power delivery?
This doesn't use displaylink technology so it is very unlikely you could ever use the video output. Impossible, I would go so far to say.
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Ah ok , I think we have a Kingston sd4000 somewhere at work I can yet out, anything special I need? It's display lynk. I have the USB c adapter needed.
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Ah ok , I think we have a Kingston sd4000 somewhere at work I can yet out, anything special I need? It's display lynk. I have the USB c adapter needed.
V2 displaylink has open source drivers and v3, AFAIK, does not. You will need the evdi kernel module and then some user space binaries for arm64. It may be possible but certainly not for the faint of heart.
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Has getting ethernet working been addressed?
Would be nice to have that option to use the Gemini hub (or possibly other usb adapter...) when WiFi not available.
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Has getting ethernet working been addressed?
Yes that's been working fine since August: https://github.com/gemian/gemini-linux-kern...509d60851cba362 (https://github.com/gemian/gemini-linux-kernel-3.18/commit/4c34e318ebfcf53d2ab6dbcb6509d60851cba362)
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Has getting ethernet working been addressed?
Yes that's been working fine since August: https://github.com/gemian/gemini-linux-kern...509d60851cba362 (https://github.com/gemian/gemini-linux-kernel-3.18/commit/4c34e318ebfcf53d2ab6dbcb6509d60851cba362)
Great!
Thanks for all your excellent work for the Gemini!
Mark
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Multiple image choices would be nice.
Minimal Image -- I would like to set up this device from scratch arch linux style. That way I can try different window mangers under the gemini without trying to rip out lxde, As well for logging in I only want auto login, as I only use the device so lightdm is over complicated and a waste of spce among other things. I clean base to start off with would be nice. for instance here is what somebody else is doing with the base image New gemini experience (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35483). I will try to get exwm working with ming
Kde image -- I wouldn't use this but would have a different suite of apps compared to lxqt
other de/wm images -- So people can chose a base they want like void linux (https://a-hel-fi.m.voidlinux.org/live/current/)
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Given Planets Gemini update 68, specifically releasing sfos 3 beta from Jolla, plus:
We will update the partition tool with new versions of the software when new images will be released by the community.
This has taken the pressure off the TP3 release which I had thought was supposed to go out along with the new Android 8 + SFOS 3 etc.
So we might as well wait till we've got a few more things sorted out. Plus someone needs to figure out what the plan is with multi-OS in the new LVM land of the sfos release. I'm assuming we can lvm resize things to fit in a debian image too? But as that would require reformatting my device I'm unsurprisingly not so keen.
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Thanks for this update. I very much want to try out Sailfish OS, but would like to be able to try Debian at the same time. For the moment I've held off installing SFOS, because I was hoping for a new Debian TP3 at the same time. If it really isn't due soon, I guess I might just give sailfish a go. But wouldn't it be better to get the new TP3 out anyway? There must be a fair number of people like myself who are waiting for it, and the increase in users might just help give it a boost. (My excuse for not having sorted it so far is being 'time poor' for fiddling with lots of settings.) I'm sure there are others like myself who are desperate for an escape from Google and Android on the Gemini. The hardware (by which I suppose I mean the keyboard) is great; I'm just waiting for a better OS!
Anyway, all this by way of thanking you, Adam, and others for the work that is being done on getting Linux running well on the gemini. If there is anything we can do to encourage you, please say!
Ian
Given Planets Gemini update 68, specifically releasing sfos 3 beta from Jolla, plus:
We will update the partition tool with new versions of the software when new images will be released by the community.
This has taken the pressure off the TP3 release which I had thought was supposed to go out along with the new Android 8 + SFOS 3 etc.
So we might as well wait till we've got a few more things sorted out. Plus someone needs to figure out what the plan is with multi-OS in the new LVM land of the sfos release. I'm assuming we can lvm resize things to fit in a debian image too? But as that would require reformatting my device I'm unsurprisingly not so keen.
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I very much want to try out Sailfish OS, but would like to be able to try Debian at the same time.
Check some other recent threads on the Sailfish chat, or for that matter the partition tool itself, you'll find that Planet have decided against the 'stowaways' form of multi OS hosting thus meaning that you can only install Android+One other OS with the flash tool. The options disappear as you select them from the drop-downs on the partition tool.
This is what I was referring too with my multi-OS comment above, if your game for it then you could try installing the Android+Sailfish as from planet (get happy with it and decide how much space you want to keep for it), then resize (shrink) your Sailfish LVM volumes, and get back to us and we could try making a LVM compatible version of Debian that you could then 'dd' to a boot partition/root unzip from within sailfish to a new debian volume in the space made available by shrinking the sfos volume. First thing I'd like to know is what the sailfish volume names/size etc are. The idea is that our debian LVM release (probably TP3) would have different names from sailfish and so you could then install either A+S or A+D from planet then later do the resize and copy the other one (or Kali/UBPorts/Other future OS) across later for multi-os usage. Thus allowing OS changes without resorting to the flash tool.
I'd also be interested to know if people would want to have things split so that maybe a stretch root and a buster root are available with a debianhome that they both mount so that you can share user files between os's? (could possibly also extend to get sfos/kali to mount the same root?) Or is it best to keep things clean and just allow users to mount the other homes as desired, there are some bits of software that change their file formats between versions and so for example Telegram Desktop gets confused when you launch the stretch version after launching the buster one (you just have to login/2fa again).
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I'd also be interested to know if people would want to have things split so that maybe a stretch root and a buster root are available with a debianhome that they both mount so that you can share user files between os's? (could possibly also extend to get sfos/kali to mount the same root?) Or is it best to keep things clean and just allow users to mount the other homes as desired, there are some bits of software that change their file formats between versions and so for example Telegram Desktop gets confused when you launch the stretch version after launching the buster one (you just have to login/2fa again).
I chose sailfish for all three positions on the online tool and all space to linux, zero for Android and the Gemini boots to sailfish, runs sailfish and there’s no Android there spoiling the party.
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If you could do a 'sudo lvscan' to tell me the volume names that would be handy.
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CIFS/SMB/NFS support I was unable to map widnows network share and my search indicated that the kernel modules don't support it ? Looking to map windows shares over network or vpn , I use zerotier one its really a nice vpn mesh network solution and quick .
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CIFS/SMB/NFS support
Can you perhaps list the modules you want added? Preferably after testing that the kernel boots & works. You can build a kernel on the device by pulling down https://github.com/gemian/gemini-linux-kernel-3.18.git (https://github.com/gemian/gemini-linux-kernel-3.18.git) and checking out the native branch, a 'debuild -b -uc -us' will give you a .deb to install, but you might find it easier to just selectively copy the relevant lines from: debian/rules to make a new .img file.
You'll want to add your modules to: arch/arm64/configs/aeon6797_6m_n_halium_defconfig
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Adam, maybe it is worth taking a look at my kernel configuration at: https://www.mygnu.de/2019/02/modular-linux-...-lid-close-fix/ (https://www.mygnu.de/2019/02/modular-linux-kernel-for-the-gemini-pda-with-lid-close-fix/). Well, the kernel boots and includes most useful modules and some other stuff. Some documentation on the config changes can be found in the older kernel posts there. Might make sense to use this config or something similar for the main kernel.
Btw.: Thx for the cut+paste fix.This greatly increases usability of the Gemini. Great job. Never thought it is a kernel issue. Thought it might have been some problem with my keyboard config...
Mith
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I did try experimenting with building as modules based upon your blog (old version of that granted, actually very old I've clearly not been paying much attention to your kernel config work), but couldn't get it to work. Tested patches welcome, if you get a working kernel from a debuild on debian stretch (use native or packaging branch depending on arm64 vs amd64 host).
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I did try experimenting with building as modules based upon your blog (old version of that granted, actually very old I've clearly not been paying much attention to your kernel config work), but couldn't get it to work. Tested patches welcome, if you get a working kernel from a debuild on debian stretch (use native or packaging branch depending on arm64 vs amd64 host).
I'll give it a try using the debuild aproach. My build machine for the Gemini kernels usually is a jetson board running Ubuntu 16.04. This should be ok for the debuild aproach. Right? Don' t have a powerful enough machine running Stretch... Otherwise I had to install a VM on my Laptop...
How does the kernel deb package distinguish which boot partition to flash? Have not tried any of the kernel debs on the Gemini, yet. Just want to make sure not to flash the wrong partition while testing (using the 1st boot partition for Debian).
Mith
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I'd recommend you add a lxd/lxc Debian 9 container (thats how I test my kernel builds using the packaging branch), the build server does it though jenkins arm on amd building from the native branch as whilst I got the packaging branch building there I couldn't get it to put the right arch in the package in the right place.
I don't remember whether it was a build problem or a boot problem with the modules version but I remember getting stuck and deciding it wasn't important enough for me to be bothered with trying to figure it out.
If you've got the latest bootloader then we know which button you pressed to boot so we display the correct 'dd' line to install the kernel, if not then you get a more generic message telling you to select the right partition yourself.
The idea is once we've got some good feedback on the suggestion being right we might swap the kernel package to actually do the 'dd' itself, for now kernel updates are manual so you needn't worry about it writing to the wrong place.
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Do I get you right, that if I build on amd64 I have to fork from the packaging branch and if I build on arm64 I have to fork from master?
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Yea the names are confusing, master is the generic branch just has the fixes so is for use by others eg sailfish (though they appear to have a mer branch too now), 'packaging' was my first debian-ized version using stretch cross compiler (gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu), when I got stuck getting that into the jenkins build system I made the 'native' branch which uses the slow qemu building so is the same as if you were building natively on the gemini ie arm64. I still use it locally though so fixes have to be applied to all three branches in the end.
So for 'debuild -b -uc -us' use branches as per:
amd64 - packaging
arm64 - native
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How do you disable Glamor? I would like to try. Thanks.
I believe I rebuilt xf86-video-hwcomposer without --enable-glamor-hybris, cant remember if there was more to it than that
It can be disabled by setting Option "AccelMethod" "None" in the device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, for example:
Section "Device"
Identifier "MediaTek HWC"
Driver "hwcomposer"
Option "AccelMethod" "None"
EndSection
If you update to latest libhybris and xf86-video-hwcomposer from Gemian repos, chromium will still work, but with color channels flipped. Might be interesting to compare performance though. If it is really much better without glamor, we could look into dri3 support without glamor, which would allow EGL applications to still work, although a bit slower due to buffer copy involved.
An update on this: I've updated everything and reverted all packages (except for repowerd and gemian-lock) to unmodified versions - unfortunately it's still slow with glamor enabled. The effect is most noticeable in Firefox which literally goes from 15-30 fps to < 1 fps, but you can also feel the difference scrolling in terminals and other apps. I will say it is improved though compared to when I last tried
But thank you for that AccelMethod config tweak, saves me maintaining a modified xserver-xorg-video-hwcomposer package!
-
If you could do a 'sudo lvscan' to tell me the volume names that would be handy.
Hi Adam,
Sorry for the delay getting back to you.
The result of # lvscan from my sailfishOS gemini is as follows:
/dev/mmcblk0rpmb: read failed after 0 of 4096 at 0: Input/output error
ACTIVE '/dev/sailfish/root' [2.44 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/sailfish/home' [37.00 GiB] inherit
A df shows that I'm using 60% of the root, but only 3% of home, so I should be able to shrink that and give Debian 20 GiB or so to play with. That should be enough, given I've an SD card which could be pressed into service for extra storage.
I hope that helps. Are there other commands you'd like me to run?
I love the idea of trying out shrinking the Sailfish volumes and creating a Debian that can run. Happy to be a guinea pig, if you don't mind the fact that I'm an amateur not a professional and may need some hand-holding, if we start doing complicated stuff! (So I'd welcome recommendations for what commands to use from Sailfish—or Android—to backup the whole thing before I start, and then what commands to use from SailfishOS or Android to shrink the /dev/sailfish/home folder.)
I'm keen to try out Exagear's Eltech's Exagear desktop to run some Intel-only programmes and according to the manual it requires Debian, which if I've understood correctly precludes Sailfish, if it is based on Redhat Linux — I've not had much to do with non-Debian based Linuxes so a bit hazy as to the main differences beyond the fact that I can't apt-get stuff but have to pkcon.
Thanks again for all your work on all this.
All the best,
Ian
-
Cool, thanks, currently thinking of a plan that would involve dd'ing a new boot image to one of your bootX spots, that will look for an MMC card with a stretch.img.gz and a stretch.config.txt file on it. The config would say what space to allocate, and do the resize, copy, etc. Will send you link when we have something to test.
-
Thanks, Adam. That sounds fantastic. I'll wait to hear more in due course!
(Currently I have Sailfish in boot 1, and Android in the 'hold esc and silver button' boot position—is that 3 or 4? In any case, that leaves space for Debian in the 'boot with silver button' position.)
-
Hello Adam,
many thanks for the debian stuff. I'm also using a trible boot (debian, Sailfish and Android - only 4GB for that ;-)).
And so i'm also very interested in a solution which allow me to boot debian and Sailfish. So you can also count on me for testing proposes.
At the moment i did not update to the licenced Sailfish because of losing debian :-( which i did not want.
So if you have something please let me know. May be i cannot install it right now (i first have to order a Sailfish licence but i will order it if a solution is available).
Again many thanks
Gabriel
Btw. i think at tjc (together.jolla.com) you can also find some information about the Sailfish lvm configuration - and many more ..
Cool, thanks, currently thinking of a plan that would involve dd'ing a new boot image to one of your bootX spots, that will look for an MMC card with a stretch.img.gz and a stretch.config.txt file on it. The config would say what space to allocate, and do the resize, copy, etc. Will send you link when we have something to test.
-
Cool, thanks, currently thinking of a plan that would involve dd'ing a new boot image to one of your bootX spots, that will look for an MMC card with a stretch.img.gz and a stretch.config.txt file on it. The config would say what space to allocate, and do the resize, copy, etc. Will send you link when we have something to test.
V slightly off topic: I don't know if you have seen this, but on the talk.maemo.org website there are instructions for running an xwayland image in a chroot on Sailfish. The relevant scripts are instructions are all stored on github at https://github.com/elros34/sailfish_ubu_chroot?files=1 (https://github.com/elros34/sailfish_ubu_chroot?files=1)
This loads a xfce4 ubuntu image which works with the Gemini. The current script copies over the keyboard definition from Sailfish - and this works partially with the Gemini but has the same problems that running KDE with the old Debian TP2 image had - various keys are dead; and also the Fn key is not recognized.
Do you think there would be a way of linking Debian TP3 so one can use it as an image within Sailfish under xwayland, but with a working keyboard unlike the current XFCE4?
-
Cool, thanks, currently thinking of a plan that would involve dd'ing a new boot image to one of your bootX spots, that will look for an MMC card with a stretch.img.gz and a stretch.config.txt file on it. The config would say what space to allocate, and do the resize, copy, etc. Will send you link when we have something to test.
Hello Adam,
using an own boot partition on the Sailfish LVM would also allow to use the same /home (if somebody wish) .
Sailfish use the user nemo with following IDs (i take it from my FP2 not from an original SailfishX, but it should be the same - may be @idc could check this?):
$ id
uid=100000(nemo) gid=100000(nemo) groups=39(video),100(users),990(ssu),991(timed),995(oneshot),1000(system),1002(b
uetooth),1003(graphics),1004(input),1005(audio),1006(camera),1013(media),1023(me
ia_rw),1024(mtp),100000(nemo)
$ id
Using the same /home would allow access the SailfishX nemo account from debian and vice versa with out splitting up the /home partition in two separate partitions.
May be some security reasons speak again this approach, but if the PDA is used as a single user system it should work (and if someone will split access rights it is possible to use an other id for the gemini account on the debian system).
Using the same ID for nemo and gemini require a symlink on home from /home/gemini (or an other account if required) to /home/nemo.
Only my thought - should be discussed ..
-
... may be @idc could check this?):
$ id
uid=100000(nemo) gid=100000(nemo) groups=39(video),100(users),990(ssu),991(timed),995(oneshot),1000(system),1002(b
uetooth),1003(graphics),1004(input),1005(audio),1006(camera),1013(media),1023(me
ia_rw),1024(mtp),100000(nemo)
$ id
Typing the same command on my gemini SFOS gives the result below (so some minor differences?):
uid=100000(nemo) gid=100000(nemo) groups=39(video),100(users),991(ssu),992(timed),993(oneshot),996(input),1000(sys
em),1002(bluetooth),1003(graphics),1005(audio),1006(camera),1013(media),1024(mtp
,3003(inet),100000(nemo)
Hope that helps
Ian
-
A first bash at an (untested) LVM install.
You'll need an SD card with a ext4 partition containing: - gemian-config.txt (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-config.txt)
- gemian-stretch.img.xz (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-stretch.img.xz) (gemian-desktop-minimal, you may wish to install gemian-desktop/gemian-desktop-wifi for a fuller set of apps)
You may omit NEW_LV_SIZE from the config to allow the new volume to take the remaining space after the home partition is reduced in size. Though having both smaller and then online growing whichever happens to need extra space first might be a nice way to use the system.
You'll need to flash/dd a new boot image:- linux-boot-lvm-stretch.img (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/linux-boot-lvm-stretch.img)
The boot image only attempts an install if it fails to find the volume to mount, so no need to flash a different kernel if it works, reboots should take you back to the installed system.
Note: I've not tried this out, so only guinea pigs who are happy to go back to the flashing station should try it out... You may also like to pre-review the scripts geminipda (https://github.com/gemian/initramfs-tools-halium/blob/native/scripts/geminipda)
-
Thanks, Adam. I've ordered an SD card and will have a go when it arrives. Will let you know how it goes.
-
A first bash at an (untested) LVM install.
You'll need an SD card with a ext4 partition containing: - gemian-config.txt (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-config.txt)
- gemian-stretch.img.xz (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-stretch.img.xz) (gemian-desktop-minimal, you may wish to install gemian-desktop/gemian-desktop-wifi for a fuller set of apps)
You may omit NEW_LV_SIZE from the config to allow the new volume to take the remaining space after the home partition is reduced in size. Though having both smaller and then online growing whichever happens to need extra space first might be a nice way to use the system.
You'll need to flash/dd a new boot image:- linux-boot-lvm-stretch.img (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/linux-boot-lvm-stretch.img)
The boot image only attempts an install if it fails to find the volume to mount, so no need to flash a different kernel if it works, reboots should take you back to the installed system.
Note: I've not tried this out, so only guinea pigs who are happy to go back to the flashing station should try it out... You may also like to pre-review the scripts geminipda (https://github.com/gemian/initramfs-tools-halium/blob/native/scripts/geminipda)
Hello Adam,
may thanks for files. I hope i can install it next weekend.
About the linux-boot-lvm-stretch.img (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/linux-boot-lvm-stretch.img), which boot (boot, boot2, or boot3) device i have to use for dd?
I created a Gemini_x27_A4GB_L52GB_Multi_Boot.txt with 'default boot' SailfishX, (second is recovery) and third is TWRP recovery and fourth is Android.
I think i can scaling down the SailfishX about 10GB.
If i'm able to set the German keyboard on SailfishX and debian without booting Android (last time i didn't work :-(), i also will delete the Android partition ;-).
-
I messed up those images, so some new ones apologies if you downloaded them already.
You'll need an SD card/USB memory stick with a partition containing:- gemian-config.txt (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-config.txt)
- gemian-stretch.img.xz (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-stretch.img.xz) (gemian-desktop-minimal, you may wish to install gemian-desktop/gemian-desktop-wifi for a fuller set of apps)
You may omit NEW_LV_SIZE from the config to allow the new volume to take the remaining space after the home partition is reduced in size. Though having both smaller and then online growing whichever happens to need extra space first might be a nice way to use the system.
You may also omit LV_TO_REDUCE_NAME from the config if you already have enough space available in your volume group.
You'll need to flash/dd a new boot image:- linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img)
This time I have test it, granted on a slightly different setup, I put an SD card in, created a LVM VG of planetlinux (the scripts prefer this to sailfishos though should boot/install to whichever is available), I then inserted a USB memory stick with the config & img files (FAT32 commented out the TO_REDUCE lines as with a fresh VG there is nothing to reduce), flashed the boot image to my choice of bootX and rebooted into that with the appropriate key combination. It took just under an hour for the actual install to happen, uncertain if that is due to the XZ compression applied to the image or the slowness of my SD/USB cards. This does of course mean that you could create the LVM setup on a desktop with a SD card reader and just do the flash/dd of the boot image on the device. I could write either of these up in more detail if needed. Its also occurred to me that you don't need to name the new LV in the config file as that is set from the cmdline inside the boot image which was one of the issues I had before where the config was making a different LV to the one the boot image was going to try to boot.
gabs5807 - given your current selection of boots (your using all of them) you'll have to sacrifice one, I'd probably drop TWRP to start with myself... but whatever you use the least.
Something I've noticed with this fresh image is that the QTerminal console fonts seem to be lacking a bunch of characters, fn+y|u, shift+fn+y|u etc gave you arrow pictures in different directions, now they give nothing. Must be a package missing from the minimal desktop install.
-
<snip> I could write either of these up in more detail if needed. Its also occurred to me that you don't need to name the new LV in the config file as that is set from the cmdline inside the boot image which was one of the issues I had before where the config was making a different LV to the one the boot image was going to try to boot.
gabs5807 - given your current selection of boots (your using all of them) you'll have to sacrifice one, I'd probably drop TWRP to start with myself... but whatever you use the least.
</snip>
Hi Adam,
My new sd card is now arrived. And I realised (thanks to your mention) that I can of course use a USB stick to hold the files. The offer of a more detailed write up--a bit more hand-holding-- would therefore be of great help to me. (I haven't messed with LVM partitions before) I have sailfish on boot 1 (i.e. default), and Android at the last boot (holding esc and silver button together). Ideally, I would like to avoid having to reinstall the Android.
Available, then, I have 40GB devoted to 'Linux' (i.e. Sailfish at present--I'm sure this could be reduced to 16GB or less, leaving 24GB to Debian); and 16 GB to Android. I have 128GB sd card (currently in vfat or xfat--still in its packet--what's the best way to format this to make it available to Debian). And I've a 16GB USB stick, which sounds like the way to get the gemian-config.txt and .img onto the whole thing.
For the initial step, of resizing the Sailfish partition, I presume I need to be in something other than Sailfish?€”so presumably, as I only have SFOS and Android on my gemini as yet, that has to be done when I'm booted into Android, is that right? So I presumably need to install some sort of terminal? Or is there another route ...?
Gabriel, did you manage to find time this weekend? How did it go?
Looking forward to trying it out.
All the best,
Ian
-
You have two options from where you are:
1. Ignore the SD card (or use it for the install source), and keep the android and sailfish on the primary eMMC but also add Gemian: This would involve dropping the previously mentioned install files on the USB or SD and plug it in, 'dd' from sailfish terminal* or use the flash tool to install the boot image to boot2 (leaving your android and sailfish on boot and boot3). Reboot and pick boot2 (silver button), the install process will do the LVM resize and install for you (probably take an hour, so make sure your fully charged or powered).
* - Kernel/boot image install from terminal, sailfish might hide terminal until you enable dev mode:
wget https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/lin...-lvm-gemian.img (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img)
sudo dd if=linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot2
2. Leave the primary eMMC with android and sailfish mostly untouched, place the SD card into the Gemini and install Gemian to that: Still needs the boot image 'dd' from sailfish terminal* then the following to setup the LVM:
Re-partition the full SD card to an LVM host (will clear the contents, could also delete and re-create the fat partition smaller if wanted):
sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk1
d - delete the current partition
n - create a new one (selecting defaults will fill the disk)
t - change the type, pick 8e (LVM)
p - print the partition table (keep a note of the relevant /dev/...)
w - write table to disk and exit
Create the volume group (using name planetlinux will keep it entirely separate from sailfishos) on the SD card (replacing the LVM partition as above):
sudo lvm vgcreate planetlinux /dev/mmcblk1p1
Edit the config file as suggested (removing resize bits) and put the install files on the USB stick and reboot into boot2 (silver button only). This will do the lvm create and install (will similarly take ages).
-
<snip> I could write either of these up in more detail if needed. Its also occurred to me that you don't need to name the new LV in the config file as that is set from the cmdline inside the boot image which was one of the issues I had before where the config was making a different LV to the one the boot image was going to try to boot.
gabs5807 - given your current selection of boots (your using all of them) you'll have to sacrifice one, I'd probably drop TWRP to start with myself... but whatever you use the least.
</snip>
Hi Adam,
My new sd card is now arrived. And I realised (thanks to your mention) that I can of course use a USB stick to hold the files. The offer of a more detailed write up—a bit more hand-holding— would therefore be of great help to me. (I haven't messed with LVM partitions before) I have sailfish on boot 1 (i.e. default), and Android at the last boot (holding esc and silver button together). Ideally, I would like to avoid having to reinstall the Android.
Available, then, I have 40GB devoted to 'Linux' (i.e. Sailfish at present—I'm sure this could be reduced to 16GB or less, leaving 24GB to Debian); and 16 GB to Android. I have 128GB sd card (currently in vfat or xfat—still in its packet—what's the best way to format this to make it available to Debian). And I've a 16GB USB stick, which sounds like the way to get the bemoan-config.txt and .img onto the whole thing.
For the initial step, of resizing the Sailfish partition, I presume I need to be in something other than Sailfish—so presumably, as I only have SFOS and Android on my gemini as yet, that has to be done when I'm booted into Android, is that right? So I presumably need to install some sort of terminal? Or is there another route ...?
Gabriel, did you manage to find time this weekend? How did it go?
Looking forward to trying it out.
All the best,
Ian
@idc: Hello Ian, sorry i'm not able to test it .
My wife use the PDA for some work and she was on the run during this weekend .
I hope i can manage it soon.
By the way, i see that jolla is releasing the next version soon (see tjc ).
Best regards
Gabriel
-
Adam, thank you very much for the extra handholding instructions.
I had a go tonight. Followed the instructions as presented above for option 2, seeking to install to the sdcard from a USB stick plugged into the planet usb-hub (substituting devel-su for sudo 'cos using Sailfish).
One oddity was at the lvm vgcreate stage, where the output from your command above was as follows:
/dev/mmcblk0rpmb: read failed after 0 of 4096 at 0: Input/output error
/dev/mmcblk0rpmb: read failed after 0 of 4096 at 4128768: Input/output error
/dev/mmcblk0rpmb: read failed after 0 of 4096 at 4186112: Input/output error
/dev/mmcblk0rpmb: read failed after 0 of 4096 at 4096: Input/output error
Physical volume "/dev/mmcblk1p1" successfully created.
Volume group "planetlinux" successfully created
I hoped this was a success despite the odd 'read failed' errors.
Then I plugged my prepared usb stick with files (included edited config) at top level, and rebooted.
Debian immediately presents the swoosh symbol and the message:
PANIC: Installable image not found on external drive
It just occurred to me that perhaps my thumb drive needs to be formatted as ext2 rather than the vfat it currently is. Might that be the reason it isn't being recognised? My first thought was that the problem might be because my usb thumb drive is plugged into the planet usb hub and perhaps that isn't being detected? I haven't got a usb-c thumb drive that I can plug directly into the righthand USB-c port, so I may have to have a go at option 1 next.
However, it is late here now, so I thought I'd report the above first and sleep on it. I'll see what I can manage tomorrow. (And welcome any advice, if the above errors suggest that I did something wrong somewhere along the way.)
Thanks again for all your help here and all the best,
Ian
PS Gabriel, thanks for your message too. Looking forward to hearing how you get on when you have the chance. :-)
PPS In case it helps with troubleshooting, I can say that rebooting into Sailfish, the USB drive is recognised by Sailfish OS, so I don't think it is a problem with the drive—unless, as suggested above, it needs to be formatted as something other than vfat. (My Mac also recognises it.)
-
Interesting, I tested it using a USB-c converter and a vfat memory card, I didn't try it with planet adapter in the mix. I don't see why it wouldn't work with that combination.
You could also try re-partitioning your SD card so it has both the LVM partition and a vfat one and then put the install image+config on the vfat part and try that. This might be useful as some folk have reported that having a memory card without a vfat partition causes android to keep offering to reformat a corrupted card.
I also got lvm errors from the internal memory, didn't seem to cause any problems though.
-
Hi again, and thanks again for your help here. I was a bit busy yesterday evening, but I ordered a couple of usb-c to usb-a converters, which arrived today, and once home I had another go. To be precise, I repartitioned the sd card, as suggested, with an LVM planetlinux partition (102GB) and a small vfat partition for Android (18GB), but I left the config and linux files on the usb stick and plugged that in via the usb converter instead of the planet adapter.
Certainly, I think it went further today. Some three hours after I rebooted with the silver button held down, the Debian swoosh is still visible, along with the message, 'Gemian booting - /dev/planetlinux/gemian'. Does this mean that it completed the copying/installing and is trying (but failing?) to boot? Or do I now need to hold escape to turn it off and force a reboot? Just wanted to check, as 3 hours seems to be a bit longer than you were expecting it to take. I didn't take note of the initial message and haven't watched it for all 3 hours, so I'm not sure if it is giving the same message as when it started, or whether there was an intermediate message saying something along the lines of 'copying' or 'installing'.
Anyway, I thought I'd feedback. I have to go out now, but will plug it in and see whether it has changed at all when I get back in another couple of hours (which will be a full five hours or more since I started it off with the reboot).
Thanks for any thoughts you have. And thanks for all your work on this!
All the best,
Ian
-
The sequence should have been:
Gemian Installing - ...
Resizing filesystem ...
Gemian booting - ...
The installing part took ages, the others were quite quick. I'd not give the booting more than two minutes before deciding something has gone wrong?
But yes try a reboot and also try mounting the /dev/planetlinux/gemian from within sailfish and see whats on it, size etc.
-
Thanks for your quick reply, Adam. Just to report that rebooting seems to have done the trick. (In other words holding down esc for ten seconds and then rebooting with the silver button held down.) I've logged into Gemian. I haven't yet done much looking around, but I had a go at apt-get installing gemini-desktop. No package by that name: I guess that is an alternative image, right?
I still need to do all the initial config, so if there is a list of recommended things to do first to set things up in a useable fashion, I'm grateful for pointers. It is late now so I'm going to turn in, but excited to have Sailfish and Gemian running at last.
Many thanks and all the best!
Ian
-
Glad you got it working, might be a typo but I thought it was gemian-desktop. The kinds of things to configure are listed on the TP2 (https://github.com/gemian/gemini-keyboard-apps/wiki/DebianTP2) page on the wiki. Though some of that might be done already.
-
Thanks. That's very helpful. You are quite right, I'd typo'd in gemini not gemian—it was pretty late at night! Once entered it went ahead (with a couple of errors, which I'll look into soon).
-
I messed up those images, so some new ones apologies if you downloaded them already.
You'll need an SD card/USB memory stick with a partition containing:- gemian-config.txt (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-config.txt)
- gemian-stretch.img.xz (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-stretch.img.xz) (gemian-desktop-minimal, you may wish to install gemian-desktop/gemian-desktop-wifi for a fuller set of apps)
You may omit NEW_LV_SIZE from the config to allow the new volume to take the remaining space after the home partition is reduced in size. Though having both smaller and then online growing whichever happens to need extra space first might be a nice way to use the system.
You may also omit LV_TO_REDUCE_NAME from the config if you already have enough space available in your volume group.
You'll need to flash/dd a new boot image:- linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img (https://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img)
This time I have test it, granted on a slightly different setup, I put an SD card in, created a LVM VG of planetlinux (the scripts prefer this to sailfishos though should boot/install to whichever is available), I then inserted a USB memory stick with the config & img files (FAT32 commented out the TO_REDUCE lines as with a fresh VG there is nothing to reduce), flashed the boot image to my choice of bootX and rebooted into that with the appropriate key combination. It took just under an hour for the actual install to happen, uncertain if that is due to the XZ compression applied to the image or the slowness of my SD/USB cards. This does of course mean that you could create the LVM setup on a desktop with a SD card reader and just do the flash/dd of the boot image on the device. I could write either of these up in more detail if needed. Its also occurred to me that you don't need to name the new LV in the config file as that is set from the cmdline inside the boot image which was one of the issues I had before where the config was making a different LV to the one the boot image was going to try to boot.
gabs5807 - given your current selection of boots (your using all of them) you'll have to sacrifice one, I'd probably drop TWRP to start with myself... but whatever you use the least.
Something I've noticed with this fresh image is that the QTerminal console fonts seem to be lacking a bunch of characters, fn+y|u, shift+fn+y|u etc gave you arrow pictures in different directions, now they give nothing. Must be a package missing from the minimal desktop install.
I did a test and put the gemian-config.txt and gemian-stretch.img.xz into filesystem root of my sdcard. dd linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img to boot2. On first boot it said: Panic cannot resize home.
I restartet sailfishos and did the resize manualy: lvm <enter>; lvresize --size 16G /dev/sailfish/home. commented LV_TO_REDUCE_* out and did a restart. It installed debian and booted it.
Next I will restore my old debian (have a tar) into the lvm gemian partition and hope it will boot too.
Very nice start, only resize does not work. Happy to have a lvm gemian.
I had tested 2 other varaints:
1. build an image file of lvm sailfishos and did a loop mount at initramfs. Worked, but on update it writes a nwe boot image to boot and did not find original lvm. I had to build a new boot image myself.
2. moved all from lvm to .stowaways (like before). sailfishos did not show the system storege under settings storage and disabled backup before update. But updates still works. The boot partition was not updated, I had to build the image with stowaways support manualy and dd it.
I think with gemian lvm sailfishos updates will work like they should.
But we still have the update dilemma for this multiboot environment: Every automatic updated operation system tries to write to boot (1st boot partiton).
edit: how it looks atm:
lvscan
ACTIVE '/dev/sailfish/root' [5.86 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/sailfish/home' [16.00 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/sailfish/gemian' [16.00 GiB] inherit
-
sailfishos and gemian are working fine with lvm.
Funny: under settings storage I now have an 'unmounted memory card (ext3) gemian'.
-
Hi Adam,
Been awhile.....any news on TP3?
Just curious....
Thanks,
Mark
-
I think Nikita sent it to Davide a wee while back and its now on the new v8 partition tool: https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html (https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html)
I've not managed to test it yet as I updated my Ubuntu on my desktop and it won't flash any more for me. I'm probably still working on other stuff for a couple of weeks but will probably get back to working on TP4 (buster based) in due course.
-
Thanks for the update!
-
Looking at that new partition tool, it looks like it is not possible to have Debian in the first 'slot', or to have Debian at all without having one of the android options in the first slot. Has there been some significant change to the newer software that makes it impossible to run Debian and sailfish at the same time as was possible in the previous partition tool, or is it possible (if not recommended) to bypass the partition tool and install Debian standalone as before?
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Looking at that new partition tool, it looks like it is not possible to have Debian in the first 'slot', or to have Debian at all without having one of the android options in the first slot. Has there been some significant change to the newer software that makes it impossible to run Debian and sailfish at the same time as was possible in the previous partition tool, or is it possible (if not recommended) to bypass the partition tool and install Debian standalone as before?
I think this thread may shed some light on it.
https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35730 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35730)
Plus this answer from above.
https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showto...mp;#entry291329 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35696&st=30&p=291329&#entry291329)
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I think Nikita sent it to Davide a wee while back and its now on the new v8 partition tool: https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html (https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html)
I've not managed to test it yet as I updated my Ubuntu on my desktop and it won't flash any more for me. I'm probably still working on other stuff for a couple of weeks but will probably get back to working on TP4 (buster based) in due course.
But it is without lvm support.
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I think Nikita sent it to Davide a wee while back and its now on the new v8 partition tool: https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html (https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html)
I've not managed to test it yet as I updated my Ubuntu on my desktop and it won't flash any more for me. I'm probably still working on other stuff for a couple of weeks but will probably get back to working on TP4 (buster based) in due course.
But it is without lvm support.
Is it possible to switch to TP3 without reflashing? I don't want the Android 8.1 option based on the horror stories out of the Android forum.
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Is it possible to switch to TP3 without reflashing? I don't want the Android 8.1 option based on the horror stories out of the Android forum.
Just use apt? TP[X] is just a shortcut to the latest package updates and changes on the DebianTP[X] wiki pages.
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I reflashed my Gemini over the weekend with the debian image from February (don't ask why it is a long story that involves Android 7). When I installed gemian-system the install fails due to a SSL certificate problem when trying to retrieve the system.img. The certificate has expired.
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The certificate has expired.
Thanks for pointing it out, fixed.
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The certificate has expired.
Thanks for pointing it out, fixed.
Thanks
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Has there been and update on the best way to use the gemini linux as a phone for day to day usage? The problem I am having is battery drain. I did a search on power saving on this forum and there doesn't seem to be a central location or thread on power saving. Any thoughts? Has TP3 included some of the feedback from the threads on this forum?
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@gabs5807:
I have moved your Gemian+SailfishOS install guide to a new thread (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35850 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35850)), so that it gains more visibility and also since it was anyway a bit off-topic here. I hope you don't mind
Varti
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Hello,
anything new to Buster on Gemini PDA (gemian)?
I think at the moment there is many attention to Cosmo, but for the PDA it also would be fine to get an update to buster.
Is there also a kernel update in sight?
Planet released Android 8(.1?) for the PDA so there should be a newer Android kernel and binary blobs available.
May be with some Video Hardware support?
Looking youtube videos is really painful .
Many thanks gabs5807
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Is there also a kernel update in sight?
Planet released Android 8(.1?) for the PDA so there should be a newer Android kernel and binary blobs available.
I think there has been no kernel upgrade with Android 8. Still having the Android version before here (using Linux only with the Gemini).
Can anyone confirm that with Android 8 there still is the 3.18 kernel. (from settings or running 'uname -a' in termux root shell)?
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I think there has been no kernel upgrade with Android 8. Still having the Android version before here (using Linux only with the Gemini).
Can anyone confirm that with Android 8 there still is the 3.18 kernel. (from settings or running 'uname -a' in termux root shell)?
You are right. At the git there is only a 3.18 kernel ..
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I think Nikita sent it to Davide a wee while back and its now on the new v8 partition tool: https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html (https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html)
I've not managed to test it yet as I updated my Ubuntu on my desktop and it won't flash any more for me. I'm probably still working on other stuff for a couple of weeks but will probably get back to working on TP4 (buster based) in due course.
@Adam Boardman, long time ago you wrote this ;).
I know you're very busy - but any thoughts making a TP4 (buster based) ::)?
Many thanks Gabriel
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I think Nikita sent it to Davide a wee while back and its now on the new v8 partition tool: https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html (https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool8.html)
I've not managed to test it yet as I updated my Ubuntu on my desktop and it won't flash any more for me. I'm probably still working on other stuff for a couple of weeks but will probably get back to working on TP4 (buster based) in due course.
@Adam Boardman, long time ago you wrote this ;).
I know you're very busy - but any thoughts making a TP4 (buster based) ::)?
Many thanks Gabriel
If such an update is in the making that would be amazing :)