What should I do first?

[csaunders]

All,

I’m about to receive my brand new Cosmo, what in your opinion are the very first things I should do before I play?

E.g. what do you wish you’d done first? What should I  configure, setup and/or install first on my brand new machine so that I don’t suffer needlessly later on?

I’m thinking that TWRP is the very first thing or is there other backup and recovery tools I should install first?

(Ps I’ve seen the Gemini “Some useful hints” thread, this is more of a “first things first” thread)

[csaunders]

Well, I'm kinda answering my own question, so far I've done the following:

- Purchased a cover for it before getting my new unit so it doesn't get damaged (For NZ users I found a cheapo leatherette cover perfect size and fit at YoYoSo)
- Fully charged it before using
- Freaked out cos my unit came with a US plug (despite me selecting UK plug) - Solved by using with another USB adapter but finally realised I could just bend the US plug pins to the NZ socket angled pin shap as it's multi voltage and multi cycle and a switching power supply unit - works perfectly)
- Learned how to create a WiFi network connection (hint the WiFi setup for a new network is  under network and internet and you don't have to manually type your config in there is a way to get it to 'find available' networks though it's not obvious how and I can't recall what I did to get it to do the search thingy (cos at first it doesn't do anything but sit there with no available networks listing etc. like on other devices) (n.b. There is a WiFi setup icon on the far right of the dock menu which probably auto searches but you can't find the icon on the dock without swiping to the left to see more hidden doc icons)
- Discovered you can drag left on the pop up dock menu bar to see more icons
- Freaked out some more as the box says 'Verizon version' yet I didn't select that option when placing my contribution - turns out it's irrelevant and works nicely on Voda NZ with 4G speed downloads of 20 Mbs+ where I am
- Purchased a Bamboo stylus (first gen) works wonderfully as a mouse alternative
- Re Watched Official Planet How To video #10 to learn the short cuts which conveniently teaches the basics of Android switching and killing apps and resizing windows and return to the desktop etc. (I'm an iOS user from way back this is my first Android device)
- Discovered my keyboard light isn't broken but simply turned all the way dimmed down
- Learned how to open up the config settings options app by function-Del key (the little cog item)
- Learned how to find out which version my device is (hint the 'about this phone' menu item which is hidden under the advanced option (which expands the list) of the system menu item)
- Performed successful update to v22 by doing the 'wireless update' thingy also under the system menu (hint plug your device into the mains power during an update you don't want to run out of battery and fubar your machine)
- Learned to swipe up from bottom of screen to see full list of all installed apps and do an app search so that I can find the flaming Cover Display Assistant app
- Thought I successfully updated the Cover Display thingy to v 1.1.1.14 when in fact I was required to press 'Flash Now'
- Got a dreaded 'Flashing Error' when attempting to flash Codi
- Pressed repeatedly on 'Flash Now' till I realised that the machine was just "thinking" and eventually the progress bar did its thing (despite the 'Flash Now' button remaining in that state don't push it repeatedly just be patient and it will happen lol)

That's it for now... plenty for a newbie to learn

[csaunders]

Note at this stage I still haven't put a password into the thing nor logged onto my Google account yet (wanted to get the upgrade past the dreaded OTA hacked thing first as I was on v19).

Going to learn how to use and install TWRP and create a backup image before I properly commit to installing a bunch of stuff on it so I always have a clean image to come back to in case I stuff up.

[csaunders]

Well this is fast becoming a log of what I've done to date, hopefully will be useful to someone out there.

Anyways I haven't screwed it up yet :-)

I made the decision to turn off the Codi display for now as I haven't moved to using the Cosmo as my primary phone (still carrying the iPhone SE) so I figured I might as well save on battery life (my use case is primarily to use my Cosmo as a note taker and project management tool).

Next I changed the screen width mode so I could get more screen real estate and increased the screen resolution which meant the size of the icons and text reduced quite a bit (and very nice looking indeed) -

[Fn][Del] to enter the config settings menu, {System}{Advanced}{About phone} and tap on the 'Build number' entry seven (7) times to get Android to enter developer mode (seems scary but you can make the screen change and then disable immediately afterwards) and then when you go back a menu to the 'System' menu you get a new menu entry the 'Developer options' menu, navigate to the 'Drawing' section and then select 'Smallest width' and change the value (I chose 600).

[csaunders]

Discovered Planet Computers responded to a question regarding max microSD card size supported in the comments of How To Youtube video #3.... going to go out and buy one for myself:

"So far we have tested 512GB microSD, but we believe that 1TB will also work. We have tested SanDisk Ultra 512 GB microSDXC Memory Card + SD Adapter with A1 App Performance Up to 100 MB/s, Class 10, U1"

[ehem]

- Freaked out some more as the box says 'Verizon version' yet I didn't select that option when placing my contribution - turns out it's irrelevant and works nicely on Voda NZ with 4G speed downloads of 20 Mbs+ where I am

I seem to recall thinking New Zealand would be either Japanese or Verizon frequencies.  We're finally to the point of most devices being able to get LTE world-wide (though NZ and JPN are interesting), which means it is time for carriers to start adding new frequencies.

First on my list, go into developer options and set "allow bootloader unlocking".  Then `adb reboot bootloader` then `fastboot flashing unlock`.  Also reboot into recovery and allocate space for Linux.  I'm planning to modify the setup further, but these are the two steps which wipe data.

[csaunders]

Bought the Samsung 512GB microSDXC UHS-I card EVO Plus brand.

Couldn't work out how to format it on the Cosmo, and wasn't immediately recognised by the 'File Manager' application, but noticed that in the back ground was another app requesting I setup the SD card.

Once I learned that 'Phone' storage encrypts the card I chose 'Portable storage' rather than 'Phone storage'. Apparently the 512GB isn't completely available once formatting you lose about 1/16th (which I guess is because 51GB isn't the same as 1024bytes * 512GB worth)

Worked fine. Then spent ages trying to work out if it's exFat format - which the Planet Computers web site specifically states you need to ensure the card is formatted as [exFat] else you can't use it for TWRP / Linux images for as the Cosmo can't access them in the boot loader (if I understood correctly).

Apparently it formats the large size cards by default in the exFat format though the PDF I was reading cautioned me that other o/s's like linux and mac might not be able to access the exFat format which seems strange if the point of the exFat formatted SD card is to put the Cosmo Linux image on and then boot into Linux (as then I won't be able to access my exFat card I'm guessing).

Still don't know how to reformat the card from Android if I want to do so manually nor do I know how to prove what format the card is in so I'll just have to assume I've got it right.

Time will tell...

[csaunders]

I seem to recall thinking New Zealand would be either Japanese or Verizon frequencies.  We're finally to the point of most devices being able to get LTE world-wide (though NZ and JPN are interesting), which means it is time for carriers to start adding new frequencies.

First on my list, go into developer options and set "allow bootloader unlocking".  Then `adb reboot bootloader` then `fastboot flashing unlock`.  Also reboot into recovery and allocate space for Linux.  I'm planning to modify the setup further, but these are the two steps which wipe data.

Hi ehem.

A quick google shows:

Verizon   4G on bands 2, 4, 5, 13 & 66 none of which are in use by Spark (3,28,7 and 40 though not used yet) or Voda NZ (3,1,7,38) - hence my initial panic.

I've come to the conclusion the verizon bands are in addition to the supported bands in my model or that the box sticker was incorrect / irelevant.

I'll have to read up on 'allow bootloader unlocking' as I have no idea what you mean though I'm guessing it has something to do with the dual boot into linux or TWRP etc.

[csaunders]

I'm planning to modify the setup further, but these are the two steps which wipe data.

lol you weren't kidding about 'wipe data' ... I've just re-partitioned and installed TWRP (and failed to install Debian/KDE for some reason) and on reboot into normal mode realised I've lost some of my configuration item settings (though not the codi or cosmo version upgrades I'd performed).

Definitely lost both WiFi and Timezone keyboard settings etc. and on initial reboot I was presented with the standard welcome configuration screen.

[csaunders]

Well I failed at installing TWRP as well it would seem. Despite creating the boot partitions correctly and installing TWRP into the correct 'EMPTY_RECOVERY_BOOT_2' partition it won't reboot into TWRP (if I select it as an option from the boot menu it simply reboots back to the boot menu in a never ending cycle).

Installing Debian/KDE fails and if you accidentally select 'fast boot' you get stuck at the 'fast boot' loader screen for ever.

HINT: to exit 'fast boot' loader screen and do what looks like a forced power down simply hold down the [esc] key for about 15~20secs till it forcibly shuts down.