Use these instructions to flash the firmware jail, which should enable functionality on the SparkLAN module:
Sorry, it isn’t that simple. This is because all builds of PureOS aim to exclude any blackbox firmware.
So the procedure really does depend on the history of the phone.
If it started life with the older make WiFi card then, as @FranklyFlawless says, it will be necessary to
- create the firmware jail, and then
- put the correct firmware in it (i.e. the firmware for the SparkLAN card).
If it started life with the SparkLAN card then Purism would have shipped the phone with both of those two bullet points taken care of - and something else may be going wrong.
Any vaguely recent build though, regardless of WiFi card, will know how to mount the firmware jail and load the firmware from the jail into the card - when that is necessary (and it is only necessary at the current time for the SparkLAN card).
Ha ha. Yes, if one of your government agencies is after you, you are probably correct.
But, as I did write, security is not the only reason to need to start from a clean slate when you buy a random phone off the internet from a random stranger.
Said stranger may have been a tinkerer. All manner of settings might be in unusual states. All manner of optional software may have been installed. You need to start from a known state. If I worked in Purism Support (NB: I don’t) then the first thing I would ask you to do is to reflash.
In order to reflash you don’t need working WiFi on the phone (or indeed any internet at all on the phone). You do however need a desktop / laptop (or at a stretch other options) that is running Linux and which does have a working internet connection.
It probably wouldn’t do any harm to ask the seller about the history of the phone and its WiFi card. I understand that the seller may choose not to respond / is under no obligation to respond / may no longer exist / etc.
What country are you in?
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False Jail it is an OpenSource THING which makes sense if this FOSS-BLOB-Firmware is hosted in /lib/firmware directly, so an opensource user here could recommend a simple Command that would solve the whole problem without going to an useless False Jail. However there are True Jail but this is not the case right now.
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I’m in the United States, and I think government agencies are after everyone (not just little old me). The seller was a reseller, who didn’t know anything about these phones.
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In that case you could send it in to Purism for repair and get it sorted out properly.
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Might do that if it isn’t working after this; did the flash, followed the steps, solid red light, now I wait…
will it turn itself on? Am I supposed to turn it on after the the light is solid red? The steps are not entirely clear on this point.
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After reflashing Byzantium, the script should indicate success, the Librem 5 should turn solid green, then show the LUKS prompt. The default passphrase is 123456.
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You may need to post some of the terminal output from the host computer (redacting anything that is sensitive). That way we can see whether the flash did succeed.
Provided that the flash finished, whether it succeeded or failed, it should be OK to reboot the phone. (And if it didn’t work, you can safely have as many attempts as you need.)
The question is though: Were you previously using the encrypted file system (requires a passphrase to be entered at boot before the login PIN) or the unencrypted (plain) file system? And which did you choose to reflash to?
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Okay, I would like some clarification on flashing steps please.
When the “./scripts/librem5-flash-image --stable” step is complete, how should I turn the phone off so that I might turn it back on while holding the volume up button? Previously, I turned the phone off via the drop down menu at the top, and then turned it on via the method described, but I found the phone would not turn on while I was holding the volume up button.
If I am unsuccessful after loading, and nothing is different when I turn it back on, do I have to download and flash everything all over again? It doesn’t seem to have took.
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Usually I turn off my Librem 5 USA using the drop down menu, but you can also force shut it off by holding the power button for over 5 seconds. If you are unable to enter flashing mode using the first method, follow the detailed instructions for the second method instead.
You don’t want to hold either volume up or volume down to reboot the phone after a flash.
The instructions say, for the procedure after a successful flash: Remove the USB C cable and hold down the power button for 15-18 seconds to reset the phone.
Yes and no. If you follow the default procedure then yes. If it looks as if you are going to have to do this a few too many times 
and if your internet is slow then there are additional optional flags to the flashing script to expedite the process i.e. only download once.
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Yeah, because it absolutely will not turn on if you’re holding volume up as the instructions indicate.
Each time I do the step “./scripts/librem5-flash-image --stable”, it insists on downloading it all over again, over 4G, which did gobble up my remaining data, but I was going to upgrade that anyways. It is, however, very slow; why does it not search for a temp file? I’m now downloading it again for the third time because of the volume up command. These instructions are confusing and incomplete IMHO. How exactly do I enter flashing mode after the download step (./scripts/librem5-flash-image --stable) is complete?
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Either of these two methods.
Just to confirm, you’re performing these commands on your Linux computer, right?
See if these more detailed, but simplified instructions help: Time to flash is now - but how? - #16 by amarok
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I’m doing it on the phone itself. I have Mint on my laptop, but I am not doing it via the laptop.
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OK, there’s your problem. You have to use the computer to download and then flash the OS onto the phone.
If you’re running Mint 21.x, you should be good to go. If the package called uuu is available in the Software Manager, or is found with apt search uuu in the terminal, then you’re ready to start.
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Because you implicitly told it to delete the temp file (which I assume it did).
./scripts/librem5-flash-image --help
You can download once by using the options --skip-cleanup --skip-flash --dir DIR
and then flash as many times as you want by using the options
--skip-cleanup --skip-download --dir DIR
where DIR is a suitable directory to contain the temp file e.g. ~/tmp presuming that you create such a subdirectory (tmp) of your home directory (~)
and in either case in addition to whatever other options you choose e.g. --stable.
If it didn’t delete the temp file by default, I’m sure some people would complain that it is tying up 5 GB of disk space.
However you are dead in the water if you try to do this on the phone itself. I draw your attention to, from above:
In order to reflash you don’t need working WiFi on the phone (or indeed any internet at all on the phone). You do however need a desktop / laptop (or at a stretch other options) that is running Linux and which does have a working internet connection.
but I guess I can see that that wasn’t clear enough.
The official instructions just say:
This guide describes how to reflash the system image on your Librem 5 phone from a workstation
and maybe that doesn’t highlight what “workstation” means and what it implies.
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Okay, I have successfully reflashed my Librem 5, but the Wifi and Bluetooth still do not show up; flipping the switches doesn’t effect it, bluetooth software ‘switch’ remains greyed out, and the Wifi settings in menu do not populate or appear at all. I guess I will contact support now. Thank you all for your help.
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After reflashing the Librem 5, if you have not done so already, you should reflash the firmware jail.
Otherwise, keep us informed if Purism support are able to resolve your issue. You will likely need to send in your Librem 5 for an RMA.
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Or at least attempt to determine whether it already exists at all.
The system log will probably be indicating success or failure with loading the firmware from the jail to the card.
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