Planet says new Linux info today

[depscribe]

On Indiegogo, in response to a question from someone in Japan who has received his Gemini but apparently no documentation, a Gemini spox writes:

. . .we will be publishing a Linux update today with further details. Also we will publish keyboard update, including Japanese Kana mapping, today.

So.

[Murple2]

The update is up.

The good -
Flashing the device seems like a painless process
Planet computers seem to be promoting variety when it comes to flavours of Linux
They are releasing firmware/software releases imminently and have bought up there own support pages and forum


The bad -
Sounds like there is a lot of stuff not working yet. 4G works on sailfish, but my guess is this uses libhybris and the android drivers. This won't help us with other distributions and I would not recommend this approach. Its hacky.

The ugly -
PC are confirming that the bootloader and kernel will be open source. This doesn't tell us much. There will definitely be closed firmware blobs involved in the boot process (the bare metal mediatek stuff) and we haven't got information yet on how all this gets cobbled together, or even which bootloader(s) are used.
In regards to the kernel, and no offence to anyone, but no shit sherlock. The kernel source has to be opensourced otherwise they are breaking the licence for its use. That doesn't mean that key components will be open sourced or free from proprietary blobs. They also don't tell us what kernel base they are using. If anyone has ever looked at mediatek developed kernel branches you'll know what a travesty they are.

That's all just my interpretation. I'm still very excited. The community will get this device working brilliantly I'm sure, we just need to start getting them in the wild.

On a related note do you think planet computers would do us a deal if we donated money for developer devices to be sent out to all of the main distro developers - perhaps they would meet us half way and match our contributions?

[terryowen]

This update was tremendously disappointing, IMO.  I suppose at least being in the (hopefully) next batch I'll have plenty of time to get used to not having an out of the box, ready to use Linux device. And it will give everyone in the first batch time to test various options out.

While I would still prefer Debian, I would be happy with Ubuntu or Postmarket OS, though I'm not at all into Sailfish OS. (Both Postmarket and Sailfish have tons of non-working features, so doubly disappointed that they are considered viable options.)

[Varti]

I'm quite happy about this update, nice to see that we'll already have other options besides Android and Linux.

On a related note do you think planet computers would do us a deal if we donated money for developer devices to be sent out to all of the main distro developers - perhaps they would meet us half way and match our contributions?

What we know for sure is that Planet has already contacted Fedora, Kali and Mint devs, and also devs of some other undisclosed distros. I'd first ask them which other devs they have contacted, how did they respond and if they have also already offered them some developer devices.

While I would still prefer Debian, I would be happy with Ubuntu or Postmarket OS, though I'm not at all into Sailfish OS. (Both Postmarket and Sailfish have tons of non-working features, so doubly disappointed that they are considered viable options.)

I'd like to know what's the current status of both postmarketOS and Sailfish OS, i.e. what works and what doesn't. From what I have found so far, postmarketOS seems to be still at its early days (e,g, phone calls still don't work), though it looks promising: https://www.postmarketos.org/blog/2017/12/3...f-postmarketOS/
I have not been able to find much recent info about the status of Sailfish OS, though. So far I have only found this thread, though it appears that many of the bugs listed there have not been reproduced by other users: https://together.jolla.com/question/167110/...-company-doing/

Varti

[vader]

I was really hanging out for Debian - but I must admit, I always liked sailfish for a phone os. It was built on mer, and as such is a fully functional Linux (unlike android).
It was also built for a phone, so I would guess phone features would work. Another plus is that it can run (some) android apps, so you can have the best of both worlds -
install your banks android app, and still have a secure full Linux to play with. You can install the build chain (gcc...) and compile/run apps in the terminal. I'll probably end
up trying them all, but as I have a 4G version, and it will be my daily driver, I am actually leaning towards sailfish. Bring back the days of the N900

Another issue is that debain/Ubuntu is great when plugged into a monitor, but I think it might be hard to read (small) whilst the phone based OSs already have this in hand.

PS. I develop all day in debian, hence my initial preference.

[Varti]

Someone asked on #planetgemini what's the purpose of the blue LED on some of the photos, does anybody know?

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Could it be a charging LED, or maybe is it the Caps Lock led?

Varti

[pakman]

I'd like to know what's the current status of both postmarketOS and Sailfish OS, i.e. what works and what doesn't. From what I have found so far,

...

I have not been able to find much recent info about the status of Sailfish OS, though. So far I have only found this thread, though it appears that many of the bugs listed there have not been reproduced by other users: https://together.jolla.com/question/167110/...-company-doing/

SailfishOS is a bit of a curate's egg at the moment, but is being actively worked on and improved and a new release is coming out right now, see https://blog.jolla.com/sailfish-os-2-1-4-no...e-early-access/ . For more information about what Jolla is planning for Sailfish this year, see their blog entry at https://blog.jolla.com/sailfish-x-whats-next/

It is not yet clear whether SailfishOS for the Gemini will be the "commercial" one with support for Android, MS exchange and predictive typing, or the "community" one that lacks these features. Android support has some serious shortcomings at the moment, it uses Alien Dalvik and targets Android 4. GAPPS is not supported. This means that some Android apps work and some don't. Some apps stop working when new versions are released, if the developers introduce new dependencies on Google Play Services or decide not to support Android 4 any longer. Jolla have promised improved Android support this year (see their blog entry that I linked to above). If anyone who tries out Sailfish on the Gemini wants to contribute to my Sailfish Android Wishlist for 2018, please feel free.

Having said all that, I use it as my main mobile phone platform now, and the telephony is fine.

[James P]

I think expecting a team the size of Planet Computers to write their own open source drivers for some of the hardware in the Gemini is very optimistic

[AndyM]

I'm not as tech savvy as many of the Gemini backers appear to be. However, I do know that Ubuntu have been working for some time to get their system to work on mobile devices. So I would guess that this might be the most developed of the options currently on offer. I'm looking forward to finding out!

[Varti]

SailfishOS is a bit of a curate's egg at the moment, but is being actively worked on and improved and a new release is coming out right now, see https://blog.jolla.com/sailfish-os-2-1-4-no...e-early-access/ . For more information about what Jolla is planning for Sailfish this year, see their blog entry at https://blog.jolla.com/sailfish-x-whats-next/

Thanks for the links, I have now a better overview on the Sailfish OS' status. And welcome back pakman, you are now one of the oldest, still active users here

Varti

[pakman]

And welcome back pakman, you are now one of the oldest, still active users here
Varti

So I'm officially a greybeard now  

When I get my Gemini, I'll have to update my sig. I tried to start my old Zaurus up not long ago, but it doesn't boot any longer, I suspect some flash memory corruption. I may try to sell it for parts.

P.

[Varti]

When I get my Gemini, I'll have to update my sig. I tried to start my old Zaurus up not long ago, but it doesn't boot any longer, I suspect some flash memory corruption. I may try to sell it for parts.

Might be also due to the battery, AFAIK if it can't hold anymore at least a bit of charge, a Zaurus won't boot even with the charger plugged in. If the unit still works, you should anyway be able to enter the diagnostics menu with just the charger plugged in: unplug the charger and battery, wait for 10 seconds, plug the charger in, press D and M together plus the switch on button, and keep pressing D+M until the menu appears (~ 5 seconds).

Varti

[pakman]

When I get my Gemini, I'll have to update my sig. I tried to start my old Zaurus up not long ago, but it doesn't boot any longer, I suspect some flash memory corruption. I may try to sell it for parts.

Might be also due to the battery, AFAIK if it can't hold anymore at least a bit of charge, a Zaurus won't boot even with the charger plugged in. If the unit still works, you should anyway be able to enter the diagnostics menu with just the charger plugged in: unplug the charger and battery, wait for 10 seconds, plug the charger in, press D and M together plus the switch on button, and keep pressing D+M until the menu appears (~ 5 seconds).

Varti

This is getting very off topic of course... I did manage to get into the diagnostics menu but there were some errors reported there already, and further exploration didn't get me to a bootable system.  . I got a new battery from Ebay, so I don't think that that is the problem.

P.

[Varti]

[OT]

This is getting very off topic of course... I did manage to get into the diagnostics menu but there were some errors reported there already, and further exploration didn't get me to a bootable system.  . I got a new battery from Ebay, so I don't think that that is the problem.

Ah... sorry to hear that then
[/OT]

Varti

[TheWalt]

Someone asked on #planetgemini what's the purpose of the blue LED on some of the photos, does anybody know?

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Could it be a charging LED, or maybe is it the Caps Lock led?

Varti

It looks like caps lock and low battery.

[img]https://i1.wp.com/geminiplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/WP_20180220_11_28_33_Pro.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]