Librem 5 firmware updates

Hardware Librem 5
6

So unless you have a burning desire to reflash your whole phone, you would want to update uboot explicitly.

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7

Maybe I’ll wait to see if we’ll be obliged to reflash in order to upgrade to crimson.

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8

@dos ?

I would love to know this, as someone who is still on amber. If crimson is going to be another reflash, I will try to skip byzantium. (But I may not get away with that because my MNO is switching off 3G by Dec 31 this year.)

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9

Can’t tell at this point. It should be upgradeable, but we’ll see how that goes in practice.

amber hasn’t been supported for a while. Please upgrade!

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10

Can we migrate to Crimson early?

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11

dos answered that a few times, have a look at his post history.

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12

As far as I know, including those mentioned, there are a total of 6 (2 are combined):

  1. DAS U-Boot
  2. TTXS (Smartcard Reader)
  3. USB PD Controller
  4. Firmware Jail (also includes Redpine RS9116 firmware)
  5. BM818-x1

The first four on this list can be performed sequentially directly during and after reflashing the Librem 5. The last two are performed on the Librem 5 itself.

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13

Smartcard firmware flashing is performed on the Librem 5 as well.

In fact, all of them can be performed on the Librem 5. Some can also be done from a host computer using uuu and flashing mode.

There’s also touchscreen controller (FT8006P) and GPS module (Teseo-LIV3F) with upgradable firmwares. I’m not aware of anything else.

That’s a bad link (personal fork), and Redpine firmware is included in the firmware jail these days.

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15

Thank you for the new information. I performed most of my firmware updates using a PureOS live USB since most firmware update instructions usually involve it in some way or another. I cannot remove Redpine from the list due to my trust level, but I will do it once it has been elevated.

I have not seen the touchscreen and GPS firmware repos, but I will take a look and gather some more information.

16

There’s no GPS firmware repo, but you can find it on STM website. There were no updates available since the very first Librem 5s were built though, so there’s nothing to see there - all phones in existence have the latest firmware.

I have asked internally about public availability of touchscreen firmware. There was one change early on that disabled filtering at the screen edges, which was too strong and pretty annoying. You can check the version with:

sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/edt_ft5x06/lic_version /sys/kernel/debug/edt_ft5x06/fw_version

If it’s either:

7
2

or

2
3

you have the latest one. The command has to be executed while the screen is on, otherwise it will return garbage.

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17

Thank you for the instructions, the output I received was:

7
2

Are the other values for a different touchscreen controller then?

18

Yes, there are two panel versions with different versioning.

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19

Hello Everybody

I personal have my thoughts about what i am reading about firmware updates here
I find it a bit strange that we all have to hunt or ask separatly for support for better firmware for a device which has known problems with software and firmware
I understand perfectly that this device and the software is still in heavy development but if there is better firmware it should be provided by Purism in updates for all of us
yust my believe

Best regards for all

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20

Is this still accurate? As in, do the scripts still work? I ask because I tried flashing the USB PD Controller update and the script was not working for me.

I think upgrading the firmware may help with ongoing suspend issues I am having…

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21

The scripts should still work. There are build dependencies which are not mentioned at all during the procedure, but they are shared with reflashing the Librem 5.

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22

Where might I find the build dependencies?

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23

As mentioned earlier, they are shared with reflashing the Librem 5:

You may also need to install udev rules from the same instructions.

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24

How does one test their phone to see if any firmware would need updating/grading?

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25

Usually there is a command or application that determines the firmware version for the hardware it is tied to. For example, bm818-tools displays information about the Broadmobi BM818-x1 cellular modem.

26

I think that’s the point of

sudo apt build-dep .

from the official reflash procedure. That should work on an ongoing basis whereas hard-coding a list of packages, even a currently correct list, is inviting future problems if the dependencies change.

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