Opinionated Setup Script for Librem5

Hardware Librem 5
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I have been daily driving my Librem5 for a couple years now. During that time I have reinstalled the operating system numerous times. A couple times because I had to but mostly just to try out other options. That is the beauty of a open source Linux phone, you have options and the ability to exercise them. My personal favorite OS is PostmarketOS with Phosh as the UI. I happen to be running the edge version of PostmarketOS currently.

Over these last couple years it has been thrilling to see my Linux phone steadily increase in capability and ease of use. I could use it two years ago, but I greatly appreciate the the improvements and new applications the Linux community at large has provided.

As a way to do my part for the community, I created a script that configures a Librem5 per my recommendation. The script offers the following with each step being optionally run or skipped:

  1. Sets OS settings - lock screen delay and volume up to 150%
  2. Installs scripts, with desktop entries, that I use to overcome some remaining L5 software issues
    1. BT Reset
    2. Docked Display
    3. GNSS Share
  3. Installs my very own Music Dir Player (see my other post for details)
  4. Installs GPS apps
  5. Installs Nextcloud apps
  6. Installs other useful apps

I call this an opinionated script because it configures the phone and installs apps, that in my opinion, provide a great out-of-the-box experience. You might not agree with my selections, but at least you can try them out in one-shot with simple script.

Head over to github to get the script. The README has more details on exactly what it does and how to run it. In short:

sudo apk add git
git clone https://github.com/fun-o-form/Librem5-Scripts.git
cd Librem5-Scripts
./install-local.bash

The script is meant to be run on the alpine-based PostmarketOS, though many steps would work fine on debian-based PureOS.

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I guess the question would be … for the steps that don’t work fine on PureOS, how badly do they not work?

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The “Music Dir Player” step installs Java, and the “other useful apps” installs wlr-randr. The package manager (apk vs apt) would need to be changed as well as the package names. It won’t break anything to run this script as-is on PureOS, it will just error out and quit if you hit one of the two spots above. If this gets interest here, I would be willing to make the script smart enough to pick the right package manager and packages based on the platform.

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Thanks for this!

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What “Nextcloud Apps” are you installing? I’ve been wanting to get Chats to work with my Nextcloud Talk installation, but haven’t really dug into it yet.

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Nextcloud has been a huge help in daily driving my L5, and a huge part of what makes reinstalling the OS not such as big deal.

The Nextcloud apps this script installs are:

  1. Errands - A task manager that synchronizes with Nextcloud and works great on mobile. Great for shopping lists.
  2. Iotas - Synchronizes with your Nextcloud notes. You can add/edit/delete notes right from the app, edit notes in markdown, or view the notes in a nice rendered format. Also works great on mobile.

Those are the only two apps I add. Out of the box PureOS and PostmarketOS with Phosh support adding a Nextcloud account that synchronizes your contacts and calendar to your phone. You can also have it automatically mount a network file share to your Nextcloud storage, but I find that more distracting that useful with constant pop-ups about mounting and unmounting that drive as the network goes in and out.

I already had my own Nextcloud instance up and running before starting with my Librem5. However I increased my usage significantly once I saw how well Nextcloud and my phone integrated. The contact list synchronization in particular was a pleasant surprise.

I did briefly look into using Nextcloud Talk for messaging and calls with my family. After looking at that and other options, I opted instead to setup my own Matrix server (synapse) and use for messaging instead. Matrix works out of the box with Chatty, the messaging app already installed on your phone. There is also a plugin for your Nextcloud server that runs Element Web as a sub-page of your Nextcloud web UI. This let my kids message me on matrix from their extremely locked-down school iPads. Couldn’t install any apps, but a webpage still works fine. And of course there are Android and iPhone matrix clients.

I big differentiator for me on the chat client was the ability to have multiple clients running all connected to the same account. I don’t want a mobile only solution. I have Chatty running on my phone, Fractal on my desktop, Element on my tablet, and Element Web (via Nextcloud) on my work computer, all signed into the same account. If someone messages me, the message pops up on every device. Not all messaging apps allow simultaneous sign-ons like that. I believe Nextcloud Talk does but without Chatty integration, I stopped there.

One final note on Chatty, I couldn’t get Matrix to work with the Chatty version in Byzantium. The problem was an infinite loop trying to load matrix avatars following a Matrix API change. The CPU would max until you killed the app. I submitted a ticket on the Chatty GitLab page only to find out it was fixed in a new version Chatty. That is when I realized just how far back PureOS was on the Chatty version. That is what caused me to investigate PostmarketOS in the first place. If you are still using Byzantium, the built-in Chatty may not work for Matrix. Installing the flatpak version will work but won’t provide notifications even when the app is closed. I am sure there are workarounds other than using Postmarket.

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