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Posts in category tech
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PostmarketOS: Some impressions (and solving a QMI Protocol Error)
During another day when I had nothing else to do, somemow “PostmarketOS” came to my mind again. I checked the website and noticed in the “Supported Devices” that I actually own one of them, an old OnePlus 6T.
The web flasher didn’t work under my Chromebook with Chromium under Puppy Linux. Something along the lines of “unable to open device” in the developer console. Maybe related to the fact that Chromium probably shouldn’t be run as root? (The device was detected anyway.) So I switched to my desktop PC to flash it. That worked. (In the process the dtbo partition is deleted, so going back to LineageOS requires a bit of an effort. Just a word of warning.)
One of the first things I noticed, I haven’t been able to unlock my SIM card. During the setup wizard, the UI was simply crashing when I tried. When I tried unlocking the SIM card via the settings menu, I was always getting an error
Couldn’t verify PIN: QMI protocol error (3): ‘Internal’
Same as for the command line. In a conversation with @anderslund@expressional.social I was actually able to solve the problem by swapping the SIM slot. Not sure if it actually has to be done while the device is switched on, or if it would also have worked if the device was turned off. However, mobile data doesn’t work at all (with 1und1 as a provider, in the network of Vodafone), although I set the right APN, there’s a red icon in the top bar over the mobile indicator, and I get no network access whatsoever without WiFi.
Anyway… For the UI, I tried out Phosh, Plasma Mobile and Sxmo. Of all these, I liked Phosh best, but still, I don’t like it particularly. I think I should take a closer look into how to customize the keyboard. It seems kinda “cramped” to me. But still, may daily driver smartphone is a Google Pixel with GrapheneOS. So I actually have no real purpose for this, anyway.
Right now, I’m listening to radio streams via “Shortwave”. Previously, this device was used for listening to Spotify. Kind of a “media device”, if you will.
Also, the rotate screen function appears way too sensitive. (There’s probably a setting for that). When I’m not careful, the UI sometimes fidgets back and forth and is then “stuck” rotated by 90 or 270 degrees, and doesn’t rotate back when I hold the device upright, I have to rotate it to the other side first. Very annoying. I think I’ll simply switch off screen rotation.
Overall, it’s awesome such a project exist. I wouldn’t trust it as a daily driver. Yet.
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