Could you share what those are?
Just to name a few…
| – | Both wifi and or cellular cut out from time to time. (not sure what triggers it) |
|---|---|
| – | Side toggles for turning on wifi/cellular do not always function. Off position does always work though |
| – | Sound call quality for ppl on the other end is not great. Commonly hear that it sounds like i am talking to them in a tunnel. |
| – | Battery does not hold a good enough charge without being tied to charger throughout the day. Not practical for driving. |
| – | Every reboot of the phone reset (or does not keep certain settings) within the phone. |
| – | GPS tracking within the Maps app is not very accurate for pin point location |
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Thanks for taking the time to tell us!
I’m still interested about which settings are getting lost on reboot. Do you mind expanding on that?
I think GPS does not work at all yet, so that will improve with time. We’re also working on battery life.
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I can confirm. After booting up (or switching on the Wifi kill switch), the Wifi connection is good. Then, after a few minutes the Internet suddenly stops working, although the icon above says it’s still there. Turning the switch off and on again usually helps… It typically happens when a wall is between me and the router.
Never had such problem. The switch is reliable.
Nobody complained for me. But I usually don’t speak outside.
It got much better withing the last months. From 100% to 30% it goes in 9 hours for me. (Cellular connection is on, Wifi is off with a soft switch).
Settings of which are lost upon reboot…
- display size does not stay customized…always resorts back to 200%.
- Mega Pixel exposure and balance settings, never save.
Also my L5 has issues connecting to certain Bluetooth devices. It usually see all broadcasting devices, just has troubles connecting to some, ie: the BT stereo in my Toyota 4Runner.
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@irvinewade I installed minicom on L5 and followed the above instructions with method B.
Here is what happens: I get into the modem ttyUSB1 and ATI returns the modem information.
I issue the two AT commands given It says OK. I disconnect from minicom (hang up) and turn off the modem as instructed. Then I flip the kill switch on and the modem reconnects with mobile telephony.
Again connect to it with minicom and isse
ATD6912345678
Nothing happens. It does not dial anything.
If I now issue
AT+BMRAT
it returns +BMRAT: FDD LTE
but there is no call going on as I said. If I go to the phone and now use calls to dialout it works (it does make the call) and on the minicom screen the AT+BMRAT now returns
+BMRAT: GPRS
So maybe I do something wrong? Could it be that gnome-calls is running and needs to stop somehow?
Moreover I noticed that if I change the NetworkMode to “3G 4G (preferred)” (as instructed by Azevedo) the phone can not make calls and can not receive calls. The only remedy is to return it to “2G 3G 4G (preferred)” and then it works again.
any help/ideas ?
gnome-maps uses goe-clue which in turn uses different sources (by ip, by cell tower location, by gps). Cell tower location has been working for me. gnome-maps doesn’t tell you what it uses though.
Try rebooting the phone. Fro. what I recall that was needed. Note that purism warns that enabling volte on your phone can cause the modem to get in an unusable state.
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As I haven’t done this myself, not from me. But see the reply from @steve.
I suggest that people should disable the other sources. Allowing it to use any online sources (like WiFi-detected BSSID addresses) is a privacy risk anyway. If you force it down to “GNSS only” then at least you know the GNSS is working, or not.
Based on the original complaint about positioning accuracy, I’m thinking that that is the problem i.e. it was not using GNSS for positioning but instead some other source.
Only if the database is online, and it doesn’t have to be.
TBH I have no idea if it is in this case.
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True - but that’s what I meant by “online sources” - and why I chose “WiFi-detected BSSID addresses” rather than “IP address”.
You can definitely get an offline geolocation database for “IP address”. That’s OK.
I am doubtful that you can get an offline geolocation database for “BSSID addresses”. (The reason for this is something of a trade-off. It’s lose-lose. Lose if the database is online and you can interrogate the database with a BSSID address. And lose if the database is offline i.e. people can download it.)
You can examine /etc/geoclue/geoclue.conf for the two privacy-dubious (or worse) options that it offers.
That is not to say that this can’t be done. In theory you can find an alternative online BSSID lookup that you do trust. In theory you can create and distribute your own offline BSSID lookup database.
I would prefer to keep my BSSIDs out of these databases but it is almost impossible - since people will visit your home bringing an Android phone (whether family, friends, service providers). If only I could persuade them all to use a Librem 5 … 
it turns out from all the above that indeed these three are main issues and can not be easily tackled at the moment, in decreasing importance:
- VoLTE
- Suspend
- Properly working gps+apps_using_it
After those I would personally add better camera support and then offline-maps. By the way GPS works better for me now that I am in Athens than when I was on Samos island.
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Dear all, I received my L5 some weeks ago.
Before writing my first impressions, I preferred to use it or try to use it a bit.
Right now I can only say I’m happy to have it in my hand.
But going on, I sincerely expected a lot of things to work ‘out the box’ already.
The power consumption is a nightmare: even without use it, the phone’s battery goes down in less than a day. Unlikely I lost the original plug/charger; trying to charge the battery with other phone devices it takes quite a day. Is there anyone who can tell me if it’s normal? I mean, do I need to buy an other original plug/charger? Also the temperature of the device seems too high. And not only when is charging. Anyone has the same situation?
Bluetooth doesn’t work. A group member was so kind to suggest how to solve it. I don’t know if I’m will able to do it but anyway I expected it was already working.
The volume setting is always poor (too low), the same if you want to use the speakerphone. I have to say that it seems to be a ‘common problem’ of Linux phone. I’m using a Volla phone with Ubuntu Touch that works fine but the volume setting has more or less the same problem.
The camera is better to not consider at all; same for the led to illuminate something. I hope is a problem of firmware/setting and not the quality of the led itself. In this moment a match makes more light.
Hope to see big improvements in power management asap; as it is now, it’s quite impossible to use it in a ‘normal’ manner.
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Everything you say is normal for L5. The only excuse is that these issues are very hard to resolve. Battery consumption is high because the phone does not suspend yet. It turns off the screen but never suspends. This is not trivial to fix as the modem should be able to wake up the phone with incoming calls.
I do not know about the charger… I use a pine64 charger and see that it draws a peak of 1.7 Amperes. So make sure the charger can handle this.
Camera is an area of continuous development. I thought BT was working. I will check it. The worst issue for me is not the battery but VoLTE. People do not understand what I am saying. The phone drops to 2G for calls. I will hardly be able to keep the phone as a daily driver as I use it now for a few more months. I will be forced to quit it if VoLTE does not get fixed. I know it is not easy but I need to communicate with people.
Suspend is No2 issue for me.
About the torch I love the fact it does not hurt my eyes. These white leds of other phones are terrible to my opinion and better suited in a surgery room.
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I find the volume normal. Have you adjusted speaker volume and internal microphone in the Sound settings?
Bluetooth initially worked for me last year, but after a certain update, it stopped working. I’m not using it, so I haven’t really tried to get it working again. I expect some future update will restore it at some point.
The heat you feel comes from the fact that the frame is being used as a heat sink. Not ideal, probably.
All these issues have been discussed in depth in previous threads. I’m hopeful we’ll see some power improvements eventually. Can’t come soon enough, of course.
Honestly, the battery consumption right now is not bad at considering all the integrated circuits that L5 has to power feed, and also considering that it still lacks crucial pieces to connect to save more battery, when the purism team finishes all that, I see the L5 reaching the 24 hour performance without charging.
Just buy another genuine charger to L5 like Power-Delivery 3.0 plus IF-USB Certified like this charger, this charger also is fully compatible with L14 and L5
https://www.u-buy.com.tw/en/product/2NWXB57Y-fantany-usb-if-certified-85w-usb-c-power-adapter-usb-c-pd-charger-included-6ft-max-100w-usb-if-certi
Bluetooth it working fine to me, there are still some bugs on the driver but for me work fine if i reboot the L5 with bluetooth enable on settings and HKS.
The L5 has a non convencional orange led so it will help to take nice photos contrast, the professsional Nokia N9 it has had an orange led too.
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Latest work on suspend:
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Bluetooth works with some devices and doesn’t work with other devices.
Ignoring the bogus readings of 85°C what readings are you seeing?
During charging, if the temperature actually gets too high then charging will be temporarily disabled and the red charging light will be flashing instead of steady. Are you seeing that behaviour?
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Interesting quote. Please can you explain it more detailed? Can’t find info on internet. And why no one today smartphone uses it?
Is it possible to change flashlight colour?
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Yes. But the volume stays low; I mean the max volume level is lower than others phone. If the environment it’s noisy , in my case it’s difficult to follow the call