I was really expecting your last paragraph to say the opposite of what it says 😂

I'm not fine with others making it look like porting devices can only be done with "AI" while pretty much all of the work is done without it, not the other way around.

Quickly slop porting over a device may look impressive on the surface, but creates a lot more work later on.

I like what Nura does: Put in the work once, get it upstream, save a lot of work later on. Maintaining downstream forks with a lot of quick hacks for dozens of projects just isn't sustainable. (Perhaps that's the reason SailfishOS has very slow development: Too many downstream things to maintain... This might also be why they are slowly opensourcing more components: They are probably hoping the community does the work for them.)

Same. And as there's no small 5G device option for mainline Linux yet, I thought someone has to do it... so, uh, I didn't hide quickly enough from the work. :p

I was really expecting your last paragraph to say the opposite of what it says 😂

I don't have this device but, on behalf of everybody who does and will be able to run mainline linux on it in the future due to your work: thank you!

This is awesome, I love seeing more device getting some love!

Thanks for the recommendation I'll check it out!

@dadarobot I have a voip service (US company: callcentric.com, I find them quite good, but I don't know if they're worth it without a US address). The sip stuff is just in the background. It's like your internet IP number. It's provided by your ISP but you don't (usually) ever have to deal with it. Same with sip. The numbers you deal with look like regular phone numbers. There is some kind of argle-bargle regarding "regular" cell numbers. You can switch them to a voip service, but there's some kind of aggro about switching a voip number to cell. Or something. You're right about it all being horribly confusing. On purpose, I'm sure.

I see you're quite a detective :D

Yes, I know of webtunnel bridges, but I didn't try to run Tor on this device via CLI. Maybe I should!

Old domain redirects to the new one, unfortunately

But yes, this is to be talked through anyways

I'm sure the project could still keep the repos available on the old domain in addition to the new one, perhaps ask them, if it helps with access.

The phone feels sluggish

Maybe I am just used to it, but LGTM on swmo on a much older device. Maybe it's that, or maybe it's because you are using Flatpak or something, or both?

I could not find VPN software that would work on this phone in my heavily controlled jurisdiction

#pogoda

I see... Anyways, so the easiest thing one hypothetical evil spy would do is just run the Tor daemon. "webtunnel" is the only option that still functions unfortunately (apart from meek but technological advancement made it unusable for most applications); source: friend. In /etc/tor/torrc:

SOCKSPort 0.0.0.0:9050
SOCKSPort [::1]:9050
ControlPort 9051 #optionally add the hashed control password thing
AutomapHostsOnResolve 1
UseBridges 1
# run `which lyrebird` if it doesn't run, will save you some nerves and feeling stupid
ClientTransportPlugin webtunnel exec /usr/bin/lyrebird

then add a few WebTunnel entries.

Bridge webtunnel [2001:db8:28ff:ae4f:c:9ef6:1722:ac46]:443 1098B4E153AB1666B4F63F48325A103FB005940F url=https://pod04.oneclickhost.eu/FeTyRXzPPAzwIjuxzWxwl09N ver=0.0.7
Bridge webtunnel [2001:db8:259c:faa6:24a9:cce0:c60f:4642]:443 23958FC105E58061AFD2DECC61D363F28AB36490 url=https://pod02.oneclickhost.eu/lzcHh4sbo8bOTwkc4IwkSxNS ver=0.0.7
Bridge webtunnel [2001:db8:11d3:d5e7:2939:8453:7baf:868f]:443 531640559965FB7501EB5C006018F61D1E9FA1BB url=https://cdn-34.triplebit.dev/Aec3euCh4ux3deij ver=0.0.2
Bridge webtunnel [2001:db8:8229:577b:8f3a:bc4c:7d18:24be]:443 4C26D2BA24011E89875857BDB338969D08CAAE0B url=https://test.notalot.org/ApKhNDWZv4MCjbH05W6eQFkF ver=0.0.4
Bridge webtunnel [2001:db8:4a7:f9d5:dd5:a50d:e609:b356]:443 0FF5783D11A1B411A5815CE0C6C25AD584D281FE url=https://cdn.xoomlia.com/dzq3/ ver=0.0.3

Whoops, I dropped some! How could I possibly do such a crime...

Then one could enable it in rc, or otherwise disable it there and run tor in a terminal each time. Test: env ALL_PROXY="socks5://[::1]:9050" curl https://check.torproject.org/ | grep -i congratulations.

Now, what most would be tempted to do is set that environment variable globally. This would actually be a mess because even a single application (Abaddon the Discord client for example) could use multiple libraries at once, some respecting it, some respecting /etc/sysconfig/proxy, others respecting gsettings and so on and so forth. It will basically just yell at the internet that you are using Tor. Sometimes even the application itself might have an option to proxy but it won't apply to a plugin or something.

Instead, one would install torsocks, add AllowOutboundLocalhost 1 and EnableIPv6 1 to /etc/tor/torsocks.conf (so that it's still usable with the environment variable), then copy .desktop entries of each program you want to run with Tor from /usr/share/applications into ~/.local/share/applications and change each Exec= line (yes, there are sometimes multiple) from, for example, abaddon to env ALL_PROXY="socks5://[::1]:9050" torsocks abaddon. The variable is still there for performance reasons, and because it may sometimes break without it.

Now, the Tor people don't want Tor Browser to be packaged for MUSL. For some reason. You could, for example, run a Debian container (or just Whoix at this point, ask if you want the env variables to use system tor regardless). You would be basically the only person with this atrocious screen size even with letterboxing; so I suggest you to embrace it, turn all knobs on in Librewolf, get the foxyproxy extension (make sure it's actually working) and be pseudoanon instead of fully anon. OR install chawan browser (ALL_PROXY will work for most things but not the Gemini part for example, use torsocks for Gemini).

AHEM, anyways...

Often times, notifications didn’t come from inactive apps until I opened them.

That's by design. Like GrapheneOS. It's weird if you do get notifications from closed programs, however; those probably run some daemon all the time.

From what I've read, it is somehow a VoIP number only and I cannot switch it to a regular cell.

I did look into other VoIP services, but I quickly felt overwhelmed and do not understand sip and all the other stuff I need

SkyNet, Russia. Had issues ever since domain change, way before issues with SkyNet itself.

Can't tell on my side as I don't use gv, unfortunately

I use Spider for the same purpose as Webapp Hub. It is indeed a lifesaver and I should have mentioned it!

It does, but regular Wireguard doesn't work in my country. If it works in yours - this should work.

Does wireguard-tools exist in the alpine repos? If so, you might be able to get the VPN working via CLI, just have to get a config from your provider.

@dadarobot @Allero Is the gv number portable? I assume if you could you'd have moved it.

i mostly agree with all these points. been using nura on fairphone 5 for a week with phosh. my fairphone 6 with eos stopped charging, even after replacing the usb port, so im in the warranty process now.

my microphone doesnt work for calls, but i had problems on android with this phone too. also it was not for sale in the us, so maybe it has something to do with that somehow.

surprisingly usable, and frustratingly unusable all at once lol.

id recommend the app "webapp hub" turns websites into apps on the phone. rely on waydroid more than id like and it crashes regularly.

have many notifications going to my protonmail, and leave the protonmail app open constantly to get them.

i use google voice which is annoying for degoogling, since everyone has my gv number. theres no app to properly integrate it. theres also no clear replacement. if i lose my phone i can call or text from a computer or my wifes phone. during the pandemic i cancelled my phone plan and still got calls and texts. this is truly going to be the hardest thing for my transition away from google.

What is your ISP and country that makes you trouble accessing nura.eco?

Running Nura (PostmarketOS) on Pixel 3a XL.

Texting and calling work perfectly fine. Angelfish is pre-installed, and as far as Linux mobile browsing goes, it seems to be my favorite. Don't listen to podcasts, but there are podcast apps available. The battery life is superb. Ability to SSH into the phone is awesome.

That said, the phone feels a little sluggish. It doesn't freeze, no, but it's just not as snappy as my Android phone. Since I took Pixel 3a specifically to install Nura, I can't tell whether it's Nura, Linux overall or just the fact Pixel 3a is quite old.

Speaking more of experience, the Linux phone is exciting as a project, but overall it feels very...boring. For some, in a good way. It's there to do exactly what you want, but entertainment options are somewhat limited, and the phone isn't there to entertain you, either. I found myself just shelving my Pixel to barely remember about it.

I am the same - was using PinePhone Pro (though I was daily driving it), and after the screen cracked, I tried Pixel 3A and now daily drive it.

TLDR; I think it's worth giving it a go. No regrets here.

While it still has Android, you need to update to the latest version (from ~June 2022), as that enables VoLTE. VoLTE is required where I live, and the wiki page shows some complicated extra 81voltd process for using VoLTE, but none of that was required for me.

Calls, SMS, MMS work (though need to switch the APN like on Pinephone).

Both cameras work.

GPS works.

Battery is quite good compared to Pinephone Pro. A call does not wake from suspend, so I don't suspend the phone, and it definitely lasts the day and more, no problems. (I thought I did have my Pinephone Pro waking from suspend with a call a while ago, but then I upgraded Mobian and that disappeared...)

Processor is snappier to load things, and the phone runs cooler.

Mobian release wouldn't boot for me. PostmarketOS/Nura works.

Audio is a bit funny, in that there are no separate phone call vs normal profiles. There is only one profile, which has a weird setup of the main speaker as the L channel and ear speaker as the R channel. This would likely be a Postmarket quirk, and I am curious how Mobian does it (I hadn't tried the weekly builds, but that have hope). So you do need to manually lower the volume to ~15% during a call, and the phone call quality is reasonably good then (probably will be better when the audio output is only on the ear speaker).

Bluetooth audio works great for podcasts, more reliably than Pinephone Pro.

Haven't tried NFC.

The notification LED doesn't work, so you need to turn the screen on to see if you missed a call.

We were spoilt with the USB-C, but Pixel 3A's only works for charging and using as a fake ethernet device - not plugging in any devices or a monitor.

It's a lot more effort to flash an OS to play around with, since there's no SD card. It was nice being able to play around with a Plasma Mobile release to see how it is, then reboot and go back to normal.

I stated it so people can come to their own conclusions as to whether or not they want to use it, as it is a deal breaker for some, but not for others.

AI or not people want solutions

Be aware that not all screens work with Linux. Not sure about batteries.

Wishful drinking? 🤷🏻