Phone dead. 123

Sharon · October 20, 2023, 7:36pm

I know it’s long, but it’s informative - thanks in advance for your valuable time.

It may be a Canadian thing. @irvinewade suggests air verses ground may differ.
But I would like to have 2 or 3 on the ready. As it stands now, I need to remove the battery and replace

P.M. Pwr L5 off. (Battery power at 76% - All kill switches are off.
Plugged pwr adapter into L5 Orange light comes on.
A.M. Still plugged in, boot L5.
green light comes for 2 seconds, goes out and nothing else happens.
Still not On, unplug pwr adapter. Try boot and orange light comes on. Nothing else happens - orange light goes out.
Plug pwr back into L5 Try boot, green light comes on.
Can log onto desktop.
Pwr @ 100%
Due to psycho screen, just holding L5 by two sides a little gently tight, loads 2 or 3 programs, 1 after the other. Sound Record opened this time and could not, would not swipe up, down, left or right or open the burger bars. Press to lock screen, open screen and it swiped up and out.
UPDATE:
Leaving the phone alone for 10 minutes and trying to tap anything is useless since it’s frozen.
The cure, is to log out of screen and back in again.

I read the post that suggests the cable might be loose at L5/Pwr I read that a long time ago and have been very careful and before even setting it down, I ensure there is nothing under L5 and cable that could bend the cable plug up or down. The cable is not bend-friendly, ie, so stiff that the loop can raise the cable so that too is taped down so as not to apply pressure on cable to raise/lower above/below the plug. Ergo, if it is a poor connection, it’s inside the L5, and sicne it was a possible reason for issues I simply left phone on desk and very gently tapped the connection joing of pwr adapter ate L5 and screen blanked out and I moved the cable 2MM and it came back again.
But once I get it docked and don’t touch the L5, I can send/receive texts - meh!

Hence, the need for 2 - 3 batteries. Also, I saw the announcement “Librem 5 Battery Life has been Doubled” but this L5 never got that memo. 2 hours and it drains 20% /w switches on. Another reason to carry a spare battery.

This battery when charging, stops at 100% still orange/redish light on I guess to let everyone know it’s still charging, is charged or ?.

I guess it’s time to bend over and Flash this L5. and begin again. I just don’t have the time lately.

As for another battery, again, another simple thing like buying part a that Puri uses is like trying to find the right bumper/screen protectors. nadda

JCS · October 21, 2023, 12:43am

First things first, that sounds extremely inconvenient. I do have 1 backup battery to bring with me when out for extended trips, but I’ve yet to use it. The above method to double your battery life occurs after enabling automatic suspend.

Have you already enabled automatic suspend?
Settings → Power → Automatic Suspend → On Battery Power?

I haven’t looked at the circuit schematics to confirm, but the harware killswitches (HKS) should have no effect on battery drain as the power management chip (PMIC) isn’t powering the corresponding circuits.

The bootloader automatically turns on the L5 when power is applied, so the LED notification dot is expected to illuminate. My L5 LED starts green with an associated vibration pulse, but occasionally does flash orange before powering the screen. If the notification LED on your L5 remains orange, there may be something stalling the boot process. I’ve had this happen before but cannot recall the details; it may have been following an unsuccessful shutdown/hard-poweroff. Perhaps @dos can clarify, but I think the only way to debug L5 bootloader issues is by connecting over a serial connection.

After automatically booting when power is applied, the L5 has a full-disk encryption (FDE) passphrase timeout, after which it will power off. I’m assuming you didn’t enter a passphrase after the device powered on in step 2, so this is expected.

How long did you babysit the phone after turning it on to see if the display would illuminate?

Hmm. This doesn’t seem right and, unfortunately, not unlocking FDE and reaching the kernel implies that meaningful logs can’t be retroactively reviewed after you’ve booted the phone. This occurs even after a gracceful shutdown?

Out of curiosity, how much free disk space is on your internal storage (i.e. not the microSD)? Running low on space can cause confusing/frustrating performance issues at the very least, and running out of space can cause havok (like when software can’t get the resources it needs and cannot even write an error log, etc). This has caused my phone to soft-lock a few times.

Sure, the USB-C power connector may have a poor connection, but I would imagine that you’d first notice obvious issues with charging status bouncing on/off when trying to charge the device.

The red notification LED should remain on while charging and turn off once it reaches 100%. If the device is warm, you may notice the red notification LED flashing instead (and may continue flashing after the battery is 100% charged).

I don’t understand. You can’t find the right battery? Or are you referring to the international shipping restrictions mentioned previously?

tendays · October 21, 2023, 7:11am

From this and also your past posts, @Sharon don’t you think you got a hopelessly defective phone? Have you contacted support by e-mail? You should probably return it.

When I had issues with my wifi card they told me to return the phone for repair and I was very happy with the service.

Sharon · October 21, 2023, 5:55pm

Short answer > You are right.

Long answer below:
I started out with Puri by installing Pure OS (POS) beside Ubuntu, and PopOS onto a workstation. That works great with the help of the dedicated Forum folk.
Then I saw the ad about their phones. I believed it. I bought a place in the queue, a phone ready to ship as a bonus for a friend/co-worker.Long story in brief he didn’t have a need for it and still has no digital mobile phone. It became mine.
As with many web sites, ‘support’ is of labyrinth with reams of FAQs, Forums (or what ever they are called this week), & Docs.
After a short time, I realized it has more issues than I could handle.
Then I saw a reply that included support@ so I emailed. Interpreting the reply, warranty expired. I thought the forums was support. There was no sense arguing about it because the email was firm. I’m not allowed to send email unless it is about a actual bug.

Was it under the 30 day warranty - yes, in the forums. So, I adopted the waif, made it my own, and during spare time, learned that the phone is a work in progress. I accepted the idea that it will be a long while before it can stand up to the digital phones where one doesn’t need to learn another language, read stuff after stuff to find a solution that isn’t there - yet.

In the end, it’s my own fault. I often preach Caveat Emptor, as the saying goes, and should have paid more attention to me.

The people in the Forums are very good. They’re quick to help, explain, and move me a little further through the proverbial tunnel that still blocks the light - if there is a light

~s

ps. I powered off last night and plugged in the pwr adapter. Starting I get a green light, after that it goes out leaving a non-responsive digital device. I know what tweak to do now.
I have mentioned I will do the ‘flash’ thing, when I have all the steps and docs in hand and a day to get through it. It’s grape harvest time so I’m torn between that and fun things like tweaking a phone.