L5 Items that still need to be polished mentioned in various other blogs Oct 2023

Hardware Librem 5
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  1. On wake from suspend, especially after receiving notification phone balks at waking, sometimes the screen backlight turns on, sometimes it does not, sometimes it wakes with UI lockscreen after several power button push tries
  2. For Byzantium please update phoc to 0.32 to get rid of the Firefox menue flickering, it is really bad (at least I think that was supposed to be fixed by it)
  3. On first boot from restart or phone start it does 80% or more of the time not connect to the mobile network, I almost always have to toggle mobile data, this should really be unnecessary
  4. Fix the burned in shadow images, maybe that is fixed with phoc 0.32?
  5. Please prioritize captive portal support and http support
  6. When battery drops below 15% the battery % indication is completely unreliable and too many battery is almost dead notifications popup as it reaches 0% since it happens typically over a very short period of time (10min)
  7. GPS even with all the scripts applied, ephemeris, etc uploaded it still takes too much time to get a fix and this should really be done automatically
  8. The gnome settings menu isn’t really built for mobile and is lacking a lot of privacy features regarding what access an app has to which data, the .deb .appimage .flatpak app permission design should be consolidated and mobile settings integrated into gnome settings
  9. The gnome default applications should be expanded to include other items such as text editor, word editor, terminal, password manager and hooks should be included for those
  10. When running updates apt update, or update from gnome store, the backup functions need to be inhibited, you can’t be running a backup while you update the system, that causes all sortsof issues
  11. Finally there should be all sortsof inhibits when battery is low including backup should be delayed, updates should be delayed and update checking, screen brightness should be reduced, bluetooth should be turned off etc. in other words, a power savings mode is completely missing and should be added to power settings
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Nice list, but it is missing what is for me the biggest issue at the moment: that the mobile data connection sometimes stops working (I think due to bugs in either the kernel or in the modem firmware or both).

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I would simply like my modem to work period…not just in one part of town…lol.

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Thanks I always like to post these general lists, its more subjective but some of these issues don’t seem like they should take too much time to develop, there are just being prioritized - that is why I raise them. Some probably need to be upstreamed to the gnome eco system so everyone can profit, or maybe even be developed by Gnome.

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Camera functionality for video chats while using Telegram or other programs.

Better functionality downloading, installing, and removing apps via PureOS store.

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The Gnome App (pureos app) store is so bad I have feeling that will take a while to resolve, it is more reliable on Ubuntu 23.04 using Store v44.0 - so there is always hope (it is still too slow, and installing and uninstalling should be completely asynchronous without having to refresh the entire installed app list) but it allows you actually uninstall apps, like .deb apps, and OEM installed apps.

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  1. Firefox flicker, phoc.
  2. Audio input/output sensing and switching. Phone catches my wired headset/mic properly, but not my car aux and wired mic (even though those components and patch cables are confirmed good. The phone always uses the internal mic – bad to unusable except in an otherwise silent room.
  3. Fix Bluetooth to support all media types, not just speakers and keyboards…
  4. Integrate all the nice Firefox fixes. I forget who is doing all that good work but it should be included in the build in the PureOS repository.
  5. Pipewire and Noise Torch preinstalled and integrated into Gnome settings!

The L5 has been my daily driver for ten months and I happily endure the above rather than than use a Spydroid or iSpy. I eagerly look forward to Crimson and all this being fixed!

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Thank you for the well considered and well balanced critique. I agree on almost all your points.

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To add to the list, SD card not working occasionaly when phone comes out of suspend.

This is extremely annoying, since I’m keeping part of my home directory on it.

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That used to be the case for me, but some resent updates have made this pretty solid for me. Maybe it was a kernel update or a driver update, but I don’t have that happen anymore the last month or so.

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Not hearing the phone ring on the other side when making a call.

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You can’t be at two places, can’t you :grin:

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One problem that I experience several times a week is an unresponsive numeric keypad on the login screen. Waking up the L5, and trying to enter the numeric passcode, fails. No numbers enter into the display - it is just blank. I have to toggle the screen off and on to try to get the keypad to respond. Sometimes that works. Other times I have to restart the L5 with a long press of the power button.

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I have noticed that too, this is new to me since last phosh 0.32 upgrade, that hadn’t happened before much on my L5, maybe related to item 1. This also happens after unlock, where no key entries are registered and toggling screen on / off resolves the issue. Absolutely a need to fix item :), I am hoping those are all phoc related and issues will go away with 0.32 phoc, but don’t know until this is backported, or crimson is out.

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This bug has been happening to me for a long time, months and months, preceeding phosh 0.32.

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Would you consider reflashing a new Byzantium image to see if it resolves your issue?

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Yes to all your points. However all I want is a phone. My L5 is the only phone I have.
And I love my L5 warts and all. What you are raising is a complete mobile COMPUTER solution as the spyware phones are. Even if I had an ISpy phone I would not use the Fbook and other social apps, I actually pity all the poor souls running about holding their spyware in front of their faces. What has their life become?
fwiw I notice a new trend , people buying old style phones, that are only phones. Guess why?

as and aside regarding a word processor. has anyone loaded Collabora Office on an L5? I would like to load Collabora Office but to use only the SD memory, say 512G.?

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But apparently one can double negate all over the place. :wink:

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I was mostly talking about the automated start of backup function while performing a manually initiated update. Since my backup start is automated and in the background if it is inhibited it would just try again when there is no inhibit and it does try again when you manually cancel the automated backup. You can still start it manually, and I agree even with inhibit if you started it manually it should do what you ask it to do (but if it is automatic then it should not), or at least attempt to do the backup and upgrade.

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In general, interoperability with external hardware should be improved.
The librem5 is too picky about what hardware it works with:

  • WiFi
  • Bluetooth
  • USB-C

When it runs then often not flawlessly, at least not with my hardware (headphones, keyboard, access point, USB hub)

1 Like