Fairphone Open OS roadmap discussion

[tphysm]

@emmy

@keesj

We made a list (also based on the content of the forum) with needed apps and their “good” alternatives. Sometimes we considered that there was no app nice/good enough as a replacement.

Is that list available somewhere for us to comment on?

Yeah, that’d be nice. @keesj?

@Lidwien

I would like if possible use opensource on my phone, but I still needs some apps like ‘NS reisplanner’ provided by the Google Play store.

You may know about the other possibilities of downloading apps only available from the Play Store while not using the Play Store itself (as documented in the Alternative Apps(tores) topic mentioned by @paulakreuzer). But apart from the less trustworthy options mentioned there (Evozi, 1Mobile Market etc.) I want to emphasize the open-source program Raccoon, which I’d put more trust in. It can be installed as a client program on a desktop PC and just extracts .apk files from the Google Play Store (you still need a Google Play account, but it could be a dummy account and it doesn’t need to be linked to your phone). In particular, it’s also available for Linux (for German speaking people see this German blog post and the Droidwiki entry for more info).

@kuleszdl

Talking about features, one thing I would like to have changed by default is the DNS, so all requests sent from the FP2 would not go through Google’s DNS servers. Another feature I would like (also for the regular release) is a prompt for split passphrases for protecting the encryption key and the lockscreen without the need for additional apps here.

Nice feature requests. Is it possible to easily configure the DNS stuff such that the Google DNS servers can be replaced by other servers?

@sjjh

And especially these people could compile it themselves anyway…

I don’t know yet how the update process will be organised, especially concerning self-compiled versions. And recompiling the image every time a new update is published, wouldn’t be really practical to me.

[kuleszdl]

@tphysm

I don’t know yet how the update process will be organised, especially concerning self-compiled versions. And recompiling the image every time a new update is published, wouldn’t be really practical to me.

I guess notifications about critical updates (security and showstopper issues) would be sufficient - every time something like this gets fixed, it would be fine to recompile. You certainly don’t need to recompile to get some minor updates or the latest improvements in the source code documentation.

Anyways, I still think the most important target group for FP-OSOS are people who DO care about privacy and stuff, are willing to take some additional efforts and read through wikis etc. but for whom compiling themselves or installing linux (virtual machines) is way too much. Official and “trustworthy”, pre-rooted FP-OSOS images are the best solution => and basically what many FP1 owners like(d) most about this device.

[JacobVR]

Can you explain, what exactly is sustainable about selling a device that will not be updated anymore in the future? So I have to buy a new fairphone every few years? Don’t think that’s fair. I would like to keep my fairphone 1, but I can’t install some apps already. Somehow this does not seem to me as a good way to deal with resources. Maybe you could think of an upgrade on a new android-version as a paid service or something like that. If you wave mit some money, there might be support of the manufactures for an update. Would be a better solution than throwing away the old full functional phone, because the software is outdated.

[jom]

@n3ckxt

Having security fixes as soon as available on AOSP

It’s a shame which big software fails (including security) are in the current Android Version and how slowly at fixing the Fairphone-Team is.

[keesj]

Hi jom:

We will improve upon this and as suggested plan on Monthly updates

[jftr]

@JacobVR, you are right and many people agree with you.

Even Fairphone agrees with you. That is why they have invested resources in updating Fairphone 1. We don’t know yet whether anything will come out of it.

Meanwhile, you can try the unofficial update which is compiled by a community member. There is even a nice and easy tutorial how to install the unofficial update.

However this thread is about the future of “Fairphone Open Source OS” which is only for Fairphone 2.

[kuleszdl]

@jom

It’s a shame which big software fails (including security) are in the current Android Version and how slowly at fixing the Fairphone-Team is.

Are you referring to FP2? Are the fixes not included in the official image or does FP-OSOS (self-compiled) lack them?

[tphysm]

@kuleszdl

I guess notifications about critical updates (security and showstopper issues) would be sufficient - every time something like this gets fixed, it would be fine to recompile. You certainly don’t need to recompile to get some minor updates or the latest improvements in the source code documentation.

Well, Android security patches are being released on a monthly basis. And Fairphone seems to have the goal to keep up with that, as @keesj pointed out - and I highly appreciate that! In view of this, I wouldn’t like to recompile every month, in particular facing my weak hardware (need to free 70GB space every time; and syncing sources and compilation takes more than 12h).

[kuleszdl]

If it’s just the patches, recompilation and resync should be pretty quick if you use the compiler cache. But yes, you will need to reserve quite a bunch of disk space to do that.

My point was targeted mainly at people who want to compile their system themselves anyways. Of course, for the majority getting compiled binaries is more preferable.

[tphysm]

@kuleszdl

My point was targeted mainly at people who want to compile their system themselves anyways.

Fair enough.

[fp1_wo_sw_updates]

Nobody wants to compile anything

It’s boring and steals time. The pain is that all new features have to be adapted a little for each device and it’s OEM/SoC/bin blob bound source code. And not everything that is useful also ends up automatically in the Android-Code and it takes a while to end up in the OEM code. Also, most paid developers want a more “Apple-like” ecosystem, not so much a “Linux-on-a-phone” Android for security, user-friendliness, and marketing reasons.

[matthiss]

Is there any information on the release date of the OSOS binary? I don’t want to compile it on my own, but would like to start customizing it, without the thought of doing it all over again a week later.
Could someone who compiled an OSOS without GMS upload there files somewhere?

[fp1_wo_sw_updates]

@matthiss

Could someone who compiled an OSOS without GMS upload there files somewhere?

Not allowed. But maybe someone will ignore the strange licence and send you a private message with a link. The problem is the licence is pretty hard to understand. I’m not even sure if it is forbidden. But there is a discussion about that elsewhere if you search for it.

Update, Links:

[HOWTO] Compiling Fairphone Open OS / Rooting

The official answer has to be No, this is not allowed because your ROM contains the non open source blobs and that those restrict you from doing so. That said we are investigating how to help the community. One option would be to let the end user download and install the blobs. We can investigate more solutions provided those are … provided.

FP2: License for binary blobs

Hi all, Internally, we were gathering information and I think I can answer most of your questions. Note: I am not a tech or legal expert, so if you have more specific questions, please write our support team. Users can only use the blobs for software that goes on their Fairphone 2. The personal use (no commercial use) means that users cannot be remunerated for economic activities with this software or derivatives - e.g. selling the software. The terms do not require users to compile th…

I guess these lines are important: “Fairphone grants you (…) non-transferable, limited copyright license to download, install and use the Software for non commercial purposes only on a Fairphone 2 device in machine-readable (i.e., object code) environment”, “You must not take any actions that may result in the fragmentation of Android.” and “You are also not allowed to remove portions of the Software, alter or otherwise modify it, or translate, reproduce, copy, reverse engineer, reverse compile, disassemble or transfer the Software.” But I don’t see a lot about sharing here and the non-transferable is pretty vague. If everyone can download it you are practically sharing it anyway, it just makes things difficult.

But I’m not a lawyer and I guess the same is true for @keesj. There is no lawyer-like official statement yet, I think.

[Eagle5]

Q1 2016 is almost over. My FP2 is lying stupidly in its delivery box most of the time. What are the release plans/circumstances for the fposos?

[keesj]

@Eagle5 you have all the rights to be angry/loose patience. I am sure you won’t believe me but we are building the final build for release as we speak.

[anon72544029]

@keesj Great News! Can you give us more Information? And when do you plan to release it?

[Singulus]

Great to hear :), but what about the open pull requests here https://code.fairphone.com/gerrit/#/q/status:open, it feels like Android community support is kept small in favor of alternate OSes? I’m missing some focus and better information flow :-/. Guess you and all team members are really working hard, so I don’t want to sound angry or such ;).

[Azby]

So, I am little bit lost, it will be FOSOS or not? I just agree with the idea of having a more secure in the way that I could restrict any application to have internet access. say that, i have previously owned a Xiaomi Mi3, which have very nice secure features (at least from my point of view).
One of them is that the rom came rooted, so I could install a firewall and block all traffic I wanted
Other nice feature is that it allowed the owner to grant or deny access to contacts, sms, camera, etc, for each application.
That is what I call own a phone.

Maybe those features can be implemented without rooting? Using a preinstalled iptables firewall and the option to do allow and deny access for application?

I am not a geek of informatics but it is an idea.

bests

[kuleszdl]

@Azby

Maybe those features can be implemented without rooting? Using a preinstalled iptables firewall and the option to do allow and deny access for application?

Nope, I think you need root for applying iptable-rules.

[Eagle5]

Thanks for the support response @anon73900052

Here are my questions:

Dear Fairphone-team,
like some others I am eagerly waiting (with my Phone mostly unused in its box ) for the official release of the mentioned FPosOS. Regarding that, I have several questions:

• Is there a vague release date? (not just Q1-2016)
• Will a self built FPosOS be in the normal lifecycle (the updater is there - but will it be compatible)?
• Do you plan to offer a officially supported recovery system (like TWRP, clockwork)?
• Would it be possible to release a developer blog to always see the current state the FPosOS is in?
  – regarding that… I would love to see some nasty bugs that were smashed… that could be very educating.
• Am I free to publish the answers in the community forum?
  Thanks for your time and kind regards,Frank

---

I got the following response:

Dear Frank,

Thanks for your message. As you’ve seen, the
Fairphone 2 was shipped with Android™ 5.1 (Lollipop) operating system
(OS) with Google apps pre-installed. The OS has a special look and feel developed together with Kwamecorp, as well as a few custom Apps and features for an improved user experience.

Our goal is to take a more open source approach
to be able to offer owners more choice and control over their phone’s
OS. At the start of the development of Fairphone 2, one of the major
ambitions for the phone was to make the Fairphone 2 hardware an open
development platform.

So in essence:

We built a website as a starting point for learning more about our open source activities
and how you can be a part of it. There you can download the source
code, drivers and get information on how to build the Fairphone Open
Source OS—the open source version of the Fairphone 2 operating system.Advanced
users will be pleased to know the phone comes with the industry
standard OEM unlock feature allowing you more control over device.Finally,
what we wanted to achieve is to enable the organizations and the
communities who develop various operating systems and flavors to use the
Fairphone 2 hardware as a development platform, on which they could
develop and release their work. This is something that a large
proportion of our community has been very interested in for some time,
and we are proud to finally get this off the ground. For more info on
this, read this blog we recently published.You
should ask all your questions and put your comment on the forum, were
you will receive more acurrate information from our software team. The
release of the Open Source Software should not be long now. It is a
matter of weeks, I think.

If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch again!

Greetings from Amsterdam,

---

That is me getting in touch. Only one of my questions was answered: the roughly estimated ETA of the fposos.
I am fully aware of the open source code project and the sailfish OS port (and happy about the effort done there). But my other questions are still there. (Recovery partition, deployment, update lifecycle, etc. ) Please @keesj shed some light on this (and how the compilation went).

As a sidenode: I find it quite confusing being redirected to the community forum where I was told to ask my questions to the support, because this is the community forum. I appreciate, that you guys are here.

Edit: In the answer were several links… Maybe someone overlooked one, so I will append them here…
features
kwamecorp
OSS approach
fposos code
recently blogged