Topics

1

Cosmo Communicator - Linux / Installing rooted android on TWRP boot 2 in order to put UBPorts in 4. Any cons?

« on: April 30, 2021, 06:07:19 am »

Hi,
I would like to install Ubuntu Ports on my Cosmo and need therefore to free up boot 4, but would like to retain Gemian in boot 3. If I don't need wireless for rooted Android, is there any reason I shouldn't install rooted Android into boot 2 instead of TWRP? Would I be losing anything useful? So far as I can tell TWRP is of no particular use on this machine. The instructions here are ambiguous as to whether or not this is possible, referring to boot 2 only working with 'recovery mode', and suggesting only boot 3 and 4 can take rooted Android. (Let me know if I've missed something here.)

On my Cosmo I have Android in boot 1, Gemian in boot 3 and rooted Android in boot 4. (Though since reinstalling Gemian I can now see six options on booting: 1 NORMAL; 2 RECOVERY; 3 TWRP; 4 Debian/KDE; 5 ROOTED_ANDROID; 6 FASTBOOT.) I only ever use rooted Android once in a while in order to run Titanium backup, backing up to an SD card — because I use Android without logging in to Google and therefore, I believe, nothing is backed up by default. Presumably I could do this just as well with rooted Android in boot 2. Has anyone else done this?

Will the process of installing rooted Android in boot 2 mean I have to reinstall Titanium Backup or change any other settings, or am I right in thinking that rooted Android keeps everything (or nearly everything?) in the same partitions as unrooted Android, so reinstalling rooted Android to boot 2 as per the instructions would leave me with Titanium Backup and its settings unchanged?

Sorry for so many questions and thanks in advance for any help/advice you can offer. Despite using Android for a number of years, I still feel it is an OS I don't really understand.
Ian

2

Cosmo Communicator - Sailfish OS / Preview version of Sailfish for Cosmo

« on: October 27, 2020, 08:10:34 am »

I was corresponding with Davide Guidi, Planet Computers' CTO, about Sailfish. He has sent me the following link to download a preview of Sailfish for Cosmo, and encouraged me to make it available to interested parties. Note he mentions that screen rotation is broken — but I hope maybe people more technical than me might be able to fix this relatively easily?

Along with the recent announcement about making the CoDi work with Linux, I hope this might be welcome positive news for other enthusiasts for a google-free Cosmo!
All the best,
Ian

You can find the sailfish image for cosmo here: https://gitlab.com/sailfishos-porters-ci/cosmocom-ci/-/jobs/432617888/artifacts/file/sfe-cosmocom-3.2.1.20-devel-20200211/sailfishos-cosmocom-release-3.2.1.20-devel-20200211.zip

Installation is a bit tricky, You need first to install Debian Linux as for http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Linux_for_Cosmo.

After that you have to:

- untar sailfishos-cosmocom-release-3.2.1.20-devel-20200211.tar into the Debian file system itself, in a folder called ".stowaways/sailfishos” in the root folder. Basically it should be in /.stowaways

- flash hybris-boot.img in an empty boot partition, such as EMPTY_NORMAL_BOOT_4, for example dd if=hybris-boot.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/EMPTY_NORMAL_BOOT_4 bs=1M

That should be it, you should now be able to boot to Sailfish by selecting EMPTY_NORMAL_BOOT_4 at boot time.
This should be all, but let me know if you run into troubles.

As far as I remember, it might take a couple of reboot to finally boot Sailfish correctly. Also, keep in mind that it’s an early release, in particular screen rotation is broken.

The project is open source, feel free to forward the link to anybody that might be interested!


Kind regards,
Davide

3

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Replacement Planet Battery

« on: August 15, 2020, 05:58:28 am »

Hi all,
My gemini again cut out midway during a phone call and again then refused to boot, showing the corruption described here. This must be the fourth or fifth time I've had this corruption (over the period of about a year), and I've not been counting how many times it cuts out during phone calls (perhaps once a week or a fortnight, often without any corruption, in which case I just reboot and dial again). Anyway, it was a month or so before I was able to reboot it last time. Once again I find myself away from my linux computer (for reflashing) and set of screwdrivers (for disconnecting the battery), and therefore unable to use the phone for an extended period.

I presume the cutting out mid-call must be due to the phone trying to draw too much power from an aged or crap battery. I think this may have begun about a year after I had the phone, which seems a bit rubbish in terms of how long these things should last—and I don't think I've abused the battery. But I am now thinking a couple of year's on from having bought the device perhaps it is time I fitted a new battery.

I believe I read somewhere that Planet charges £70. I see there is a replacement advertised on Amazon here for £50. Or from ebay.co.uk here for £25.50 incl. postage.

I note that apart from the cutting out during phone calls, the battery seems to hold charge for days on end. I normally recharge every night and it often has 60 or 70% charge left at the end of the day — sometimes less perhaps 30%. I've just recently had the phone away from power for a couple of nights without charging. So in theory at least it's holding power ok — except for the crucial matter of cutting out mid-phone call, which seems to happen as much when the charge is at 90% as when low.

Has anyone else tried replacing their battery? Recommendations or advice on choosing between Planet, Amazon and ebay from china. Anyone who has seen this 'cutting out' problem found that a new battery fixes it? Would love to hear positive or negative experiences.

PS I notice the Amazon battery says it will be in stock on Oct 4th and delivered on the 13th-21st, so I guess that rules that out. UK customs have a horrible habit of holding stuff ordered from China and overcharging, so I'm guessing that although the ebay looks more attractive, it may actually cost more like £36 by the time the post office has charged me extra and required me to cycle into the sorting office to collect it (I am extrapolating from my experience of ordering an aftermarket leather case from China for the Cosmo). Still a bit cheaper than Planet's offer though.

4

Cosmo Communicator - Linux / Linux still being worked on

« on: June 12, 2020, 04:28:56 pm »

Thought I'd report here (as well as in the Sailfish forum). I dropped Davide another query about current timings for Sailfish. Here is his response:

Things slowed down quite a bit unfortunately, as we received much less community support for the Cosmo Communicator in the past weeks.

Because of this, there is no place to get in touch with the latest information at the moment, this will hopefully change in the future when/if more people will contribute.

We are working closely with one open source contributor to release the next Linux version. The last Debian/KDE version I tested had suspend/resume when the device is open/closed and Linux modem support, including calls and SMS.

There are a few bugs that needs to be fixed before the release, which should happen in the coming weeks.

The same developer is responsible for the porting Sailfish to the Cosmo, so there will be no progress on it until we complete Debian.

I've reinstalled Android on my Cosmo, just to get a bit of use out of it—but I'm still waiting for the release of Sailfish, and in the meantime my Gemini with Sailfish remains my main phone. (I will be interested to see the results of their Debian work.) I'm not personally in a position to contribute to either Debian or Sailfish development. (Busier than ever in lockdown, what with homeschooling and the day job.) But I wonder whether more people would be able and prepared to contribute if there was a more obvious way to keep track of what was being done and what help is needed.

Anyway, Davide's report that there is work going on that will hopefully reach us before too long is very welcome to me.

5

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / New Sailfish OS 3.3.0.14

« on: April 04, 2020, 09:55:38 am »

Hi,
Just a heads up that Sailfish 3.3.0.14 was released to Early Adopters on the 2nd April. Usually it will be made available to everyone else as an update about a week later. I'm looking forward to upgrading my system.
Sadly, it doesn't appear that support for the Cosmo was included in this version. This is disappointing. I've emailed Davide Guidi in the hope of hearing whether there is any work going on to make a version available for the Cosmo. I'll post if hear anything back.
All the best,
Ian

6

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / New Sailfish release 3.2.1.19

« on: December 12, 2019, 10:57:30 am »

Jolla Releases Sailfish OS 3.2.1.19 Nuuksio to Early Access (EA) Subscribers

Release notes here: https://together.jolla.com/question/217843/...es-321-nuuksio/

Nothing about the Cosmo yet ...

7

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Sailfish 3.1

« on: August 20, 2019, 07:09:58 am »

Hi,
This forum has been pretty quiet over the summer. I see something about a Sailfish 3.1. :
https://together.jolla.com/question/208530/...c-to-gemini-pda
Has anyone tried this out yet and can perhaps state how easy it is to upgrade and whether enough has changed/improved to make it worthwhile?
I'm happily using Sailfish 3.0.1.13 for some months now as my main phone. Apart from the absence of Signal Messenger, I don't feel like I'm missing very much. (Though I probably would like to spend more time getting to know all the stuff the thing can do—I currently don't use it for much more than phone calls, email, web browsing and texts.)

All the best,
Ian

8

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / EPOC on Wine on Exagear on SfOS?

« on: February 18, 2019, 04:41:01 am »

Hi,
I've not yet managed to load SfOS but hope to soon, so please forgive an ignorant question from a newbie. If as I understand SfOS is built on Linux, is it theoretically possible to run EPOC on Wine on Exagear on SfOS as mentioned for linux here?
https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showto...st&p=289981

I don't suppose anyone has tried this, have they? (As mentioned in the last post on that thread it appears that Exagear may stop being available from end of this month.)
Thanks in advance.
Ian