Librem 5 USA VPN service

Hardware Librem 5
21

The Librem One suite is not part of the installed software on the the Librem 5 USA?
Another expensive add-on to an already expensive phone?
The librem tunnel = OpenVPN? when available this should be an easy way to activate?

22

Librem One is a service not a software package. I understand your misunderstanding here because in the iVerse everthing revolves around “Apps”.
You can install openVPN or wireguard on your L5 thru the PureOS repository for free (so it is included, kinda). And you have the freedom to chose what provider you want to use. There are provider which offer a free tier but most charge you a fee.
Purism charges you for their tier which includes the vpn. And I think that is fair.
If you think the L5USA is too expensive and so should come with perks…, well thats your perogative.

-H

1 Like
23

For what it’s worth, ProtonVPN offers a free tier, works pretty well, and is relatively trustworthy. That’s what I use when I’m not using Tor. ProtonVPN will probably work at some point with the Librem 5, if it doesn’t already.

Nevertheless, $8/month does not seem exorbitant for the Librem services. Purism is a social purpose company doing groundbreaking work that no one else is doing, so paying for Purism services carries the extra incentive of participating in the social purpose of Purism.

24

Just to make this clear, I am not criticizing anything or anybody. Just thinking out loud and asking questions.
I am learning on the go how everything works (or not).
If Librem One is a service and not a software package as you claim, what apps are really included on the Librem 5 and 5 USA? Is there a list available somewhere?

25

I have tried ProtonVPN in the past, today very expensive. I think that SurfShark the one I am using today should work as well. My preference is Perfect Privacy, not sure it can be used with PureOS.

26

The passive agressive cousin of criticizing.

It is the PureOS software repository. Which is pretty much debian stable.
You can look at those repositories. They are openly available.

-H

27

VPN Manager it come enabled starting from Phosh v0.15.0 so you only need the file .ovpn from your vpn provider and upload the file to phosh-vpn-manager it all, to turn OFF or ON the VPN service there is button on in the slider menu, where is all button like BT, WLAN, TORCH, GSM, VPN

1 Like
28

Perfect Privacy offers openVPN access. So, Yes, That would work with PureOS.

-H

29

Your first comment is totally misplaced.
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, Debian stable.

30

Hi @dav69!
The current build comes with a few default apps pre-installed, including:

  • Calls (Phone dialer)
  • Chatty (SMS/MMS/XMPP app)
  • Web (GNOME browser)
  • Contacts
  • Terminal
  • Settings
  • Store (PureOS software repository)
  • Advanced Network Connections
  • Archive Manager (manages compressed packages)
  • Backups
  • Calculator
  • Calendar
  • Camera (Dev Preview/“Millipixels”)
  • Clocks (World time, alarm, stopwatch)
  • Disks (graphical info about drive space, incl. attached drives)
  • Document Viewer (.pdf and other formats)
  • Files (directories/files browser)
  • Geary (email client)
  • Image Viewer
  • Lollypop (stored music player)
  • Maps (GNOME Maps)
  • Text Editor
  • Usage (info about system performance, storage, and thermals)
  • Weather (GNOME Weather)
  • Chess (game)
  • 2048 (game)

Besides these, the Store lists a few dozen additional apps (and growing) that are made to be officially adaptive to the small screen, from the PureOS app repository (drawn from the PureOS/Debian repo), in the categories of:

  • Create
  • Work
  • Play
  • Socialize
  • Learn
  • Develop
  • Codecs
  • Fonts
  • Input Sources

In addition to these, a simple search button lets you find any of thousands of other apps from the wider repo, in any category you can think of, some of which may also be adaptive to the Librem 5 (or PinePhone), but not guaranteed. Many of them may be not fully adaptive, but still usable. Others are becoming adaptive as developers start to take the new Linux phones into account, or as Purism’s developers adapt other apps along the way. All it takes to install them is tapping the “Install” button.

Some of us have been testing apps over the last year and reporting on the good ones here: List of Apps that fit and function well [Post them here.]

I encourage you to browse through those to get an idea of how things are progressing, and how the app ecosystem is shaping up.

If there’s something in particular about the Librem 5 you’re curious about, I’m sure some of us here can answer or point you in the right direction. :slight_smile:

Here’s a nice demo from Purism’s main site:

EDIT: Additionally, the Librem 5 has built-in settings to change scale, so an app that doesn’t normally scale well can be made to do so by just reducing it a bit.

2 Likes
31

Hi amarok
Outstanding! Really appreciate your input! Perfect!
All I was looking for.
Thank you!

2 Likes
32

BTW, you also have the freedom to uninstall even the default apps, if you want to, although that might render the phone basically unusable. But if a different replacement app comes along for one of the default apps, say a better phone dialer, you can certainly change over at will.

1 Like
33

Good to know, thank you!

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34

Thanks for pointing this out. I see that the Advanced Network Connections app can handle VPN connections, just like Network Manager on desktop systems like Ubuntu or other Debian derivatives. Nice! Demo here.

2 Likes
35

There are thousands of software packages and they are all free.

Whether they are installed by default is a separate question.

In my opinion, the packages that are installed by default should be “light touch” i.e. the bare minimum for a working phone and it’s easy to install additional packages at no cost using the PureOS Store app. That is contrasted with the approach taken by e.g. Microsoft of filling a sizeable chunk of the disk with packages that most users will never use.

I believe that some VPN package should be installed by default both because it is likely to appeal to the target market and because in certain dodgy jurisdictions it might be better to have it already there. I believe that that VPN package should be one that is compatible with the Librem Tunnel service.

However for the most part we should not get too hung up about what is installed by default and what is not installed by default - because it is your phone and you are free to uninstall what is installed and install what is not installed.

Do you have an existing working Linux install in the Debian family? Suspecting that you might not, you can browse on the web here: https://packages.debian.org/stable/ albeit that there is some assumed knowledge. Presumably one can use a search engine over those web pages. You can also download the whole list as a text file.

If you already have a Librem 5 phone then you can browse available packages using the PureOS Store app.

Of course some apps that have a GUI won’t (yet) be adapted for the small screen of a phone, and may work a lot, a little or not. Sometimes, requesting the phone to scale the screen for that app will make it better.

36

Thank you,
“I believe that that VPN package should be one that is compatible with the Librem Tunnel service.”
I looked up and found that about 8 current VPN services will work with Linux, 5 highly recommended that work with Debian. Do I need the Librem tunnel to install one of those VPN services?
if yes, how is this accomplished?
I am just new to all this, trying to pick up on the way all the information I need.
So yes, I apologize for asking som many and maybe redundant questions.

37

I checked out the Librem Tunnel page describing the how to connect.
And well, as I mentioned before I am new to the Linux environment. So yes….

38

No. Librem Tunnel is a VPN service, like those other ones. It’s part of the “Librem One” bundled subscription that includes:
Librem Mail
Librem Chat
Librem Social
Librem Tunnel

For comparison, think ProtonMail + ProtonVPN, for example.

I would say first try to install whatever client the VPN service provides for Linux Debian/Ubuntu. If the client doesn’t work, or if they don’t provide one for Linux, you should still be able to download their OpenVPN configuration files, then use the Advanced Network Connections app as I described above.

I think we have to make a distinction here: Most any VPN service should work on Linux, but not all of them provide client software for Linux, what some people might call an “app.” A client does nothing special; it just presents the controls to you in a nice clickable package. Really, it’s the code underneath that does the magic and makes the secure connection over the internet. The protocols, e.g. OpenVPN, IPsec, etc., are the same, irrespective of your OS.

EDIT: This flatpak should work, too: eOVPN
Think of it as a generic OpenVPN client, for when your provider doesn’t make one available for Linux.

39

Thank you so much amarok.
Librem Tunnel has been connected in the past to PIA, or still is?
I have been looking at the Librem One bundle, my understanding is that the bundle is not yet a finished product? Hopefully in the near future?

40

I myself haven’t used Librem Tunnel or Librem One bundle, but others here can probably fill you in on the current status.

Re PIA, that’s what I’ve read also.