I haven’t really seen or heard anything from users on their experience with running Mobian on Librem 5. Is it supported, is Mobian supporting all the Librem 5 functions, like camera, modem, GPS etc. How fast does it boot, run, launch apps compared to PureOS etc.
I have been using Mobian Trixie on my Librem 5 for many months. Everything that worked with PureOS works too. The difference is newer versions of gnome and other software. One thing I noticed broken is Browserpass extension no longer works with Firefox. You have to apply a patch to gnome-settings-daemon power-manager: Show sleep warning conditional to chassis type (!338) · Merge requests · GNOME / gnome-settings-daemon · GitLab or disable Screen Wake up on critical notifications in phosh mobile settings.
I guess I’m an old fart, looking up Trixie the first 20 taglines either tells me how to download it or whether it is safe to download.
What the heck does it do?
It is like scrolling through news and reading “Celebrity {x} dies (or does {y}).” Then I ask myself, who the hell was {x}? Because I never watched or listed to the subject when they were active.
ah ok so the 20231029 is trixie and 12 is bookworm based?
20231029 is trixie just flashed it and it worked and resized partitions automatically and properly. The few things I have noticed about the mobian image:
wifi doesn’t come up very fast after boot
the password entry using keyboard entry not pin entry is white themed instead of dark
the files manager works a little like nemo in that it keeps popping up the menue to create new folders when using touch, so its not quite optimized for touch (as in pureos so Purism must have applied some patches)
settings menue toggles sometimes don’t toggle
unfortunately the mobian images aren’t encrypted images so i doubt it is possible to “easily” enable whole disk encryption after the fact (flashing of non-encrypted image)
gnome store is soo much better and robust (I was installing 10 apps at the same time flatpak and deb, no problem, while navigating around searching for more apps and installing more apps), while installing applications works, system updates say download/restart however on restart it didn’t actually install anything and you have to do it through the terminal
online dav addressbook, calendar haven’t been able to add through calendar app or evolution not sure whats different there after restore from backup (which worked) it now connects
gnome-tweaks didn’t exist in mobian repository (should exist based on feedback and download should not be necessary typically) so had to download a .deb arm64 version
maybe it is just my imagination but apps launch a lot faster and so far close reliably (I take it back gnome-software just sortof crashed and didn’t show up in activity, had to killall gnome-software to close application window so maybe the occasional hickup, also console crashed on me on launch and when start typing immediatelly)
it does appear to charge slower than with pureos even though it identifies power delivery for the adapter and cable ~3Amps i think
apart from the suspend notifications showing which is fixed in pureos (to be fixed in gnome 46), the console when started doesns’t focus the cursor on text entry field, so user has to manually by touch select that
the openvpn connection connects faster to mobile data or wifi for some reason, maybe updated networkmanager/modemmanager software
networkmanager openvpn plugins are missing so have to be installed manually, mobian only has wireguard, while pureos installs openvpn by default which is nice on pureos
firefox-esr comes with all the mobile device tweaks, but it is a bit funny to see the tiny font url bar at the bottom, also gnome-browser actually kindof works here (crashes occasionally but manageable) though you still have to tab into text input fields since it is still always stuck on the url and doesn’t automatically focus on input fields with OSK
Actually I don’t think the Librem 5 does ever suspend due to the notifications and you have to manually from power menue select suspend work arounds exist turn off wake screen in mobile settings on notification
pureos allows suspend in 2min, mobian lowest setting is 5min, go to dconf “sleep-inactive-battery-type” and change setting from 300 seconds to 120 seconds and you get 2min
Trixie is the current testing version of debian, it is a buffer between sid/unstable and next stable. Packages that passes some quality checks goes from unstable to testing and when testing has no release critical bugs anymore, we will make a copy of testing and call it stable. Usually unstable and testing are very close.
gnome-tweaks was available from debian trixie repos (which are added automatically to sources.list I think). I could apt install gnome-tweaks now.
…
14. I see firefox-mobile-config has regressed when it comes to Browserpass extension. This used to work in bookworm, but no longer works in trixie.
15. For automatic suspend, you have to go to Mobile Settings → Feedback → Screen Wakeup → and then select none for Notifications urgency that lights up the screen.
Since I started with bookworm image and then upgraded to trixie, I still use pulseaudio and there is no echo (trixie is using pipewire). But trixie image may have the echo problem (it may be fixed too). mobian-base and mobian-phone-base is still from bookworm, I did not want to upgrade and confirm since this works. Let me know if you notice the echo problems (it may only be for 2G and not VoLTE network too).
Awesome both methods work thank you very much for the patch!
It is pretty odd that gnome-tweaks did not show up, maybe I mistyped. I can see
apt info gnome-tweaks now as 42~beta-4
for
unfortunately the mobian images aren’t encrypted images so i doubt it is possible to “easily” enable whole disk encryption after the fact (flashing of non-encrypted image)
I used LUKS 2 encryption of the 32GB root partition, but mobian did not like that and pull up the LUKS password entry field. Any tips what mobian needs as in grub or boot configuration file updates to detect LUKS root encrypted partitions? Looking at u-boot everything is edited out so I don’t think it is using that configuration file.
It does have the echo problem, or lack of external noise cancellation, the other user reports hearing more noises like you are driving in a car or echo.
Could someone post a how-to on a Mobian install on the L5 eMMC? I can flash PureOS to the L5 without issues using the dev scripts, but I think that the scripts need modification to flash a Mobian image, and I have no idea how to modify them. TIA for any help provided.
Downloaded the Mobian plasma mobile installer and when it launched it said it was installing Phosh
I’ve been running KDE on my desktop for a few months and figured I’d give it a try on the phone making for a more cohesive experience. Has anyone else run into this or is this maybe a flaw in the weekly build that I happened to download?
So the 5 19 build doesn’t boot after install for me. The 0303 does boot, but also says phosh during install but does in fact install kde plasma mobile. There are 800+ updates for the 0303 build, would be convenient if a newer build would boot since the 0303 install wouldnt connect to wifi and I had to use a wired adapter for the updates that are currently running.
After completing all of the updates mobian with plasma mobile still fails to connect to any wifi access point for me. My wifi troubleshooting knowledge is fairly mediocre so maybe theres something simple to be done to resolve this since all if the AP’s that wont connect worked fine under Byzantium with Phosh.