Reflashing PureOS on the Librem 5

Software PureOS
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Last night I reflashed PureOS on my Librem 5. Sometimes it’s just nice to start over with a fresh OS installation. I have some critiques here for Purism, based on that experience. First of all, as an experienced Linux user, the documentation and tools were well done. I followed the instructions. Everything worked. It was easy for me.

This reflashing process is however, just one more example of how Purism chooses (apparently with concious intent), to scare away the average customer while catering to only those who have at least some experience with Linux.

Using this flashing process as just one example, why couldn’t someone at Purism take maybe an hour or two, to build a tool that does the same job automatically, with only a few inputs from the customer. Example of tool:

Tool: What would you like to do? (Choices: re-flash PureOS, Exit)

Tool: Which version of the Librem 5 do you have? (Choices: Aspen, Birch, Chestnut, Dogwood, Evergreen)

Tool: Which version of PureOS would you like to install? (list current and unreleased versions)

Tool: Warning, this will erase all information….. Hit ENTER to proceed

…installing dependencies, …downloading flash image…, process stops and asks you to plug the phone in to the PC via USB, process continues,

Tool: The reflashing of PureOS to your PC has been completed successfully.

Does this kind of a tool offend the sensibilities of the Linux experts that build the current flashing tools? As long I see a bunch of Linux command lines (that intimidate non-linux-users), I am not going to recommend this phone to my mother, to my sister, to my non-linux-user friends, etc.. Even GrapheneOS installs with more of an idiot proof set of instructions to flash GrapheneOS to your Google phone. Don’t forget that the average person in the general population is a Linux idiot. When they see Linux commands, they’re going to not even attempt the process. Doesn’t Purism want their business too? They are the majority. Linux users are a small percentage of the population. How long really (maybe one hour?) would it take someone at Purism to build and deploy such a tool? Such a tool does seem extremely remedial to most Linux users, especially when there are specific instructions available.

But the customer’s wishes always prevail. At this time, Purism appears to see its target audience as a very niche group of cult-like followers. Not to disparage this very niche group of cult-like followers. Apparently, I am in that group myself. But the question is more to Purism about: Do you want to sell phones in the thousands or in the tens of millions? These forums are great for Linux developers. But the product documentation and tools for phone owners should be written for average people.

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So, I think the challenge that I would perceive in this case – if I were Purism (and I’m not) – would be the issue of moving goal posts. Purism’s stated goal is to sell freedom respecting tech, not to sell the most tech to the most people (as I understand it).

If they want to sell the most tech to the most people, then they have to chase the moving goal posts. Because even if someone at Purism makes a GUI app that handles the flash script on its own, then the users will start saying it’s “easy” to flash from Windows instead of from PureOS. We have actually trained the average people to make it “easy” only to fall into corporate traps and proprietary software. To stop falling into corporate traps and proprietary software is “hard.” But isn’t this culture actually manufactured by the corporations and not by the physical rules of base reality?

What if it turns out that corporate ability to influence culture is so powerful that the cult-like followers are the only people who will buy freedom respecting hardware, even if Purism would maybe be happy to sell their hardware to the masses if the masses would wake up and want it?

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Just one observation … you can’t assume that the customer runs PureOS on the host computer - or, if so, what version of PureOS it might be. So while a GUI tool could surely be built that covers all the functionality of the existing script, it would be harder to ensure that the host computer dependencies and versions are going to be appropriate for the GUI tool to work. (Of course that problem already exists when using the existing script but a GUI tool would make it harder.)

So do we limit the GUI tool to running on PureOS byzantium and PureOS crimson (the latter in case someone has a Librem 11 and wants to reflash the Librem 5 from the Librem 11)?

What if the customer also has two Librem 5 phones and wants to reflash one from the other? Then the GUI tool has to be adaptive.

Straight off though … there ought to be options for

downloading without reflashing
v
reflashing without downloading

in addition to the default of doing both.

In an ideal world that is a question that you wouldn’t have to ask at all. However I don’t know that the Librem 5 has been engineered to allow that.

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Seems like functionality that belong in this sort of program:

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I had to laugh at how this flashing process went. At first, I thought I had to use PureOS on a PC as the host PC. So I downloaded the PureOS ISO image on to a thumb drive, booted in to it, and started the flashing process. That worked until about half way in to the new Librem 5 image download, the downloading just stopped. My 16 GB thumb drive was then full.

So I decided to see if the re-flashing would work from my Ubuntu PC and that did work. But my USB cable was as described happens in some cases, only works with the USB-C plugged in on the correct side. So the first flashing attempt failed to detect the phone. Then I flipped the USB-C plug over and started the flashing process over. It worked the second time. However the hard reset of the Librem 5 did not turn it off. Only the screen and LED turned off. During the whole flashing process (unknown to me) the phone had never been turned off since the first flashing attempt. But I did wonder why the LED stayed yellow the whole time during the flashing process. Then I did a hard reboot after the re-flashing process was over and the PC reported that the process showed “Successful 1”. When I booted the phone, the image and new OS were good.

Does anyone here know where I can get a Mobian image for the Librem 5? Does the Mobian install work the same way? Does everything work on the Librem 5 in Mobian?

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Geez that sounds painful. I think if I were you I would instead consider flashing the Librem 5 from itself, using only itself, at some point… Then you don’t have to worry about the PC and all that:

But this does require an empty / available SD card.

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Good pickup. I’ll see whether I can get that fixed.

As an aside, if your host computer normally runs Linux but not PureOS, and you have Live Booted into PureOS in order to reflash the Librem 5 then I would suggest mounting an internal disk of the host computer and dropping the downloaded file there - as there will typically be more free space on an internal disk than on a 16 GB thumb drive.

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I just updated the old thread that I referenced above to have a much more thorough, much more in-depth tutorial for how to flash a Librem 5 with nothing but an SD card. (No PC, no connector cables, etc). The guide contains a 32 step process that may take some time, but avoids the need for a PC or a thumb drive or whatever else. I wrote this based on memory and did not sit and test the guide tonight, so if anybody wants to try it and tell me that it didn’t work, feel free to reply on that thread.

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Several years ago I tried to install PureOS on to a laptop and ran in to several issues then, that made PureOS not work on that laptop. So I have avoided installing PureOS on to any PC since then. But with this Live Thumb drive just a few days ago, my Intel NUC6 booted PureOS and worked quite nicely. So now I am considering installing PureOS on to that same PC to use as a software development tool and as an application server for my Librem 5.

The PureOS Live drive that I downloaded from Purism came with Plasma installed. I would like to try to get Plasma mobile running on my Librem 5 at some point, and maybe do some application development using QT. So I figure that either PureOS with Plasma running or maybe Kubuntu might make a good PC platform to develope with.

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