/e/ Pie is out for FP2

Discuss The Products
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Hi fellow (current and future ;)) /e/ users. I decided to give /e/ a try yesterday and wanted to let you know about my experience and ask a few questions as well. I’ll start with the questions, as I guess this post will be a bit lengthy, but hopefully my experience report will be useful for some people contemplating a switch.

So, Questions (I have a FP2, and /e/'s default “Bliss” launcher):

  • On the Widget page, I tells me to “tap to set up weather” but nothing happens. I can add an additional weather widget (based on the stock “Weather”-App, which works but us also somewhat useless as it does not tell a forecast) but the initial widget stays there, seems irremovable, and keeps asking to “tap to set up weather”
  • In /e/ “Apps” (‘their app store’): Is there a way to see what is the source of the App? Some apps have different versions for PlayStore and F-Droid and I would prefer to get the F-Droid version (E.g. OsmAnd~ will give free maps if installed from F-Droid). Or do I have to install F-Droid seperately for this?
  • speakin of maps: From what I read there was supposed to me a Maps App? Did they remove it or am I missing something?
  • There is an issue with microG that prevents a proper Signal account registration and thus Signal again falls back into the ‘websocket’ operation. Apparently the issue is fixed in microG 0.2.11 – does anybody have a feeling when to expect this upgraded in /e/? (The fact that microG is completely properly set up was actually my main reason to give /e/ a try :rofl:)
  • The minimum brightness is WAAAAYYYY too bright. Much more so than at the very beginning in FP Open. It is so bright that I can read the screen easily in daylight (which tells you how blinding it is in a room with no lights) :frowning: – anybody else has this and can it be fixed?
  • In “Tasks” I can set a due date for tasks -> can this be used to send me Reminder notifications?
  • In UnifiedNlp settings: I seem to remember that I had to download/keep up to date some lists of signal towers/WiFi maps when I used it in FP Open. Now there is no such option. It only says “2 Backends configured” and one is “Mozilla Location Service”, and the other “Nominatim” but no real options (lists, country codes etc.). Am I missing something? Will it work anywhere in the world?

… and my installation protocol, maybe this is useful for people who want to give it a try as well (check the links and don’t rely on my info! ;))

  1. Backup Apps
  • I backed up the user data of every relevant App individually (leaving out things like maps, which can be downloaded again): Contacts, Signal (which finally properly backs up everything incl. group messages!), ToDo-Lists, Podcast metadata (listened episoded, subscriptions), Photos/Movies + OpenCamera folder, …
  1. reinstalled TWRP (which was removed by the last FP Open update)
    (in Linux:)
  • sudo apt-get install android-tools-fastboot
  • sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
  • activate USB debugging in the developper settings of your phone
  • test whether phone is recognized by adb: adb devices
    • if not, you might have to add it’s ID to ~/.android/adb_usb.ini – see here
  • reboot into bootloader: adb reboot bootloader
    • phone will show black screen with FP logo and blue LED will blink slowly
  • test again if connection works: sudo fastboot devices
  • flash TWRP: sudo fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.4.0-0-FP2.img (replace version number accordingly, also for this command to work, the .img file needs to be in your current working directory of the terminal)
  • reboot by sudo fastboot reboot
    • I had some issues making TWRP not being overwritten by the stock android recovery – supposedly it should help to press VOLUME UP while sending this command and keeping it pressed during reboot. This allowed me to boot into TWRP but it still was not permanent. I had to additionally do “Reboot” > “Recovery” from within TWRP and then confirm the query about whether to allow it to make changes (to avoid TWRP being overwritten).
  1. TWRP Backup
  • I found this later, might be useful next time :wink:
  • remember to back up to SD and ideally copy the backup to the PC to be on the safe side
  1. Flash /e/
  • from here with some small modifications necessary:
    • Download the /e/ install package that you’d like to install from here.
      https://images.ecloud.global/dev/FP2/
    • If you aren’t already in recovery mode, reboot into recovery mode:
      adb reboot recovery
    • [Optional: Tap the Backup button to create a backup. Make sure the backup is created in the external sdcard or copy it onto your computer as the internal storage will be formatted.] -> see above!
    • Go back to return to main menu, then tap Wipe.
    • Now tap Format Data and continue with the formatting process. This will remove encryption as well as delete all files stored on the internal storage.
    • Return to the previous menu and tap Advanced Wipe.
    • Select the Cache and System partitions to be wiped and then Swipe to Wipe.
    • THIS DID NOT WORK FOR ME: Sideload the /e/ .zip package:
      • On the device, select “Advanced”, “ADB Sideload”, then swipe to begin sideload.
      • On the host machine, sideload the package using:
        adb sideload filename.zip
        [apparently the signature verification is based on certificates which again rely on TWRP 3.2.3.0 being used (don’t quote me on that! :stuck_out_tongue: )]
    • INSTEAD I HAD TO: push the .zip file to the phone:
      adb push filename.zip /external_sd/ (that was the name of my sd in the file browser… it might be /sdcard/ for you; also, you could copy it anywhere but i guess sd makes sense)
    • Via Install in TWRP: browse to the .zip file location, select it for installation with unchecked signature verification (you already checked the MD5/SHA 256 sum on your PC after downloading the .zip file, right? :wink: )
    • Once installation has finished, return to the main menu, tap Reboot, and then System
  1. Copy back necessary data from backups
  • dep. on the individual apps, but maybe this will be relevant for many: for Signal make sure to follow their instructions precisely since you cannot play back the backup later. That is, copy the backup back to the phone before starting the Signal app again on the new system.

Overall quite smooth process just annoying as usual that I had to gather all the pieces of information from all over the net + FP-Forum, so again, maybe this is useful and let me know whether we should maybe polish this a bit to make it a guide. Pinging @paulakreuzer in case :wink:

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