Hi,
I just reveiced today my L5
I set a new encryption phase and after reboot I just wasn’t able to decrypt the phone
So I said lets reflash it (based on this: Reflashing the Phone)
But after I started to dissamble to remove the battery one screw droped from it
And it seems there are two of them (from the bottom) that can’t be tighten in the hole
Should I think someone looked into it (or maybe even worse … )?
What can I do to be able to tigth the screw in the hole?
Regards,
Use a screwdriver with the appropriate bit. It should be a Phillips #00.
You don’t need to disassemble anything in order to remove the battery! You just unclick the back cover.
Also, there is a known issue for some users with a “pogo pin” dropping out of the phone if the phone is actually disassembled e.g. Disassembled my Librem 5 and this fell out (has photo) so I just want to confirm that you are talking about a screw and not a pogo pin.
Regardless, a photo may give more clarity as to what you are referring to.
Maybe review: Disk decryption passphrase - #26 by veleno and subsequent discussion for what is an acceptable disk encryption passphrase and what will possibly get you into difficulty.
So what works for me for reflashing is to do it the same way we do on desktop PCs. i.e. instead of the Purism flash script, I figured out from the script what the URL to the .img is, download that image of PureOS for L5, and then write it to an SD card. Then I reboot while holding Volume Down causing the L5 to boot the SD card. Then on the card, I use the standard Linux dd command included in basically all distros to directly read or write from a file or device, pointed at the eMMC of the L5 while it is not in use. [dd is also what I use for writing the img to the SD card]
So to flash we can dd with input file as the img and output file as the L5’s main eMMC storage. Or we can do the process in reverse to make a full backup of everything on the L5 including the system.
By buying an SD card larger than my L5 main memory, I recently had an experience where dd in this manner let me basically do a perfect transition from old L5 device to new L5 device. Unlike the flashing script that requires a computer and operates in one direction, dd is simple and straightforward and can seemingly do anything.
It can probably also break anything, though. Be sure to make backups.
Edit:
And whether reflashing from a PC or from an SD card, the most hardware you have to touch is the SD card tray. No disassembly required. But some people say the SD card tray shorts and burns cards unless you have the device off while opening and closing the tray. Better safe than sorry on that one, in my opinion.
Edit 2:
Also I didn’t check if this is true, but I think booting from an SD card might boot eMMC main storage first - to a limited degree - then detect user wants SD card. So you probably should never zero out or nuke your eMMC while planning to rely solely on SD card boot because for all I know maybe then it wouldn’t boot. But it’s still a convenient thing to have SD card booting.
I have had two differing experiences with this: the first time I did that, I nuked my eMMC* (accidentally) and I couldn’t boot from the SD. The second time I nuked my eMMC I was fully able to boot from the SD without anything on the eMMC.
*The L5 was in need of hardware repair at the time.
I didn’t explain myself well … I just removed the back cover and 1 screw dropped from it and another one wasn’t far from doing same
I may try this approach wit Crimson as I’d like to try that as well …
I added a photo … so those 2 screws can’t be tight in the hole
The same thing (imaging the eMMC using dd) can be done with Jumpdrive without having to fiddle with SD cards.
The bootloader (u-boot) always boots from eMMC. It can then boot Linux from SD if requested.
Given that it apparently can’t be tightened in the hole, that would tend to suggest that, no, noone looked into it. It sounds like a minor manufacturing issue (stripped thread?). You will probably need to consult with Purism Support.
Contact information:
Yeah … I would say usual response is under 6 weeks 
[for sure not 6 hours]
I sent the email on 15th this month and still no response to it 
Current usual response time is 1-2 weeks:
