Using Sailfish OS on the FP2 - Experiences and Issues

[AnotherElk]

Nonetheless, as you said, the @explit version provided here is capable of running Android apps.

Where does it say that and how would it do that without Alien Dalvik for Android 4.4 Apps or a theoretical (non-existing) Alien ART for Android 5+ Apps?

Perhaps @mal could say something definitive about that, as I definitely lack insight here.

Up until now I took it that the way Sailfish OS is installed on the Fairphone 2, based on an existing Android installation, doesn’t mean that once Sailfish OS is installed you additionally have a fully functional Android somehow in the background or else where you could run Android stuff.

[explit]

hello all!
First: This version is not mine, i packaged it only. Alien Dalvik is an commercial product. It has NEVER exist in this SailfishOSversion, will never exist, and i will not discuss about it in the forum.
So please, stop discussing about a commercial product, for which you have no license.
if somebody of you guys has an aliendalvik in the Sailfish image, its an mistake - please uninstall it with

devel-su
zypper rm aliendalvik

Otherwise you use illegal Software on your Fairphone 2

By the way, i have no Fairphone 2 anymore, switched to Sony Xperia X with SailfishOS and legal AlienDalvik.
I waited very long for official SailfishOS with Aliendalvik for FP2, but it never came out.

So i don’t maintaine this build anymore. without a device its impossible.

I wrote alredy on another place in this Forum: If the Fairphone Team or community want that i will maintain Sailfish Installation, images, manuals etc. - all they need to is to send me a device.

i hope its clear now.

[pa4wdh]

Hi all,

I’m new here, and i’m planning to buy a fairphone specifically to run SailfishOS on it. I own a Jolla phone now and need a dual-sim phone.

I’m a bit confused with the messages here, does SailfishOS run in the current fairphone model ? I don’t mind a bit of fiddling, but in the end I need a phone that works (call, sms, calendar+caldav, sync, notes are my main apps).

Thanks for all the work so far !

[AnotherElk]

I’m a bit confused with the messages here, does SailfishOS run in the current fairphone model ?

New camera module and the display module in the latest FP2 devices need Android 6 base to work. I encountered a very serious bug that is currently preventing me to release the new version. The issue is a kernel panic when initiating Bluetooth scan, but otherwise Bluetooth seemed to work though. Hopefully I can figure out what is causing that.

A little update for the new year, I managed to work around the kernel panic issue when doing bluetooth scan by using a very old modem firmware from Android 5 base, it seems to be working fine otherwise also, I did encounter a small issue with youtube in web browser (seeking in videos causes browser crash) and I’m currently thinking whether to figure that out before release or not. I will do some testing to see that I don’t notice any other issues.

Also be aware that Sailfish OS on the Fairphone 2 is a community port and as such doesn’t include (as in: currently no way to get it) Alien Dalvik to run Android Apps.

[pa4wdh]

Thanks for your reply AnotherElk. I don’t care for android at all, it’s one of the main reasons i use SailfishOS

@mal I’m quite experienced with linux related stuff and made some SailfishOS apps, is there something i can help you with ? (given the fact that i don’t have a fairphone yet).

[ben]

I am not using SailfishOS myself, but I would like to support @explit and @mal’s efforts. So I would be willing to contribute 10€ to a “crowdfunded” FP2 for @explit. If you are interested too, please send me a personal/direct message. If a few people a interested, I will set up a separate thread for the funding. I would be looking for a used Fairphone offered here in the Forums.

[explit]

Mi Nickname is “ExPLIT”, not Explicit , btw.

[lkraav]

In the meanwhile I bought an Xperia X and made SailfishX my main phone for time being.

After 3 days, the experience has been quite smooth. It’ll be interesting to see which modern Sony device they will be supporting this year. Maybe it’s not worth it to work on FP2 anymore and just leave it to Android.

[Ingo]

So I would be willing to contribute 10€ to a “crowdfunded” FP2 for @explit. If you are interested too, please send me a personal/direct message.

Count me in! Some more people are needed, though

[TobiasF]

Maybe it’s not worth it to work on FP2 anymore and just leave it to Android.

I think some users bought the FP2 because of Sailfish OS. Cancelling the adaptation of an official Sailfish OS will disappoint those users.

So, since you are not interested in Sailfish OS on FP2 anymore, stop posting to this thread.

We don’t kick out users because they are not using a Fairphone. Maybe they have good reasons not to use a Fairphone.

And when they tell their experience with other devices, we can refine our goals and wishes for FP2 and future Fairphones.

[AnotherElk]

Cancelling the adaptation of an official Sailfish OS will disappoint those users.

There seems to be nothing official going on anymore as far as I could find.
Sailfish OS on the Fairphone 2 is a community port, and Fairphone and Jolla had talks but didn’t reach an agreement.

Will Sailfish OS be officially supported on the FP2?

Truth is; I do not know more myself. There have been talks between Jolla and Fairphone, but I wasn’t there at the table. As all things, in the end it has to do with money; development costs time, time equals money and apparently Jolla and Fairphone did not reach agreement yet over who is going to pay what part of the bill. It is very hard for me to say when the people involved in these talks will come to a conclusion and what that conclusion will be. I ask regularly, but as the talks are ongo…

Will Sailfish OS be officially supported on the FP2?

Don’t forget that there is also documentation, support, legal issues, updates and commercial parts to this project. New docs need to be written, support staff needs to be trained, contracts with Jolla need to be made, EULAs have to be updated, future support needs to be sustainable (we cant release and then let it be) and then there is the question: how are we going to sell it? Will we need to change the shop and allow people to choose which OS they want when they buy? Will people be able to …

… and that was November 2016.

Honestly, I tried Sailfish OS on my Fairphone 2, and it was running very well and was a nice OS and all, but it really finally died as a future option for me personally the moment I found out Alien Dalvik - which isn’t even available with the community port - only would run Android Apps in a simulated Android 4.4 and no further (for understandable technical reasons though).

If I would have to look beyond my current LineageOS installation now, I would certainly look into the UBports (ex Ubuntu Touch) direction instead. But LineageOS is behaving too well for that at the moment .

[pa4wdh]

I think you’re describing my situation perfectly: I need a new (dual sim) phone, and i want Sailfish OS on it. I simply do not want google anywhere near all the personal data that’s on my phone so anything android based is a no-go.

My two options are:

• Fairphone 2, and i’m not buying the hardware before i know it will work. I guess this mostly depends on @mal’s availability to actually do the work.
• Wait for official support of a dual sim version of the Sony Experia X

[mal]

A small status update again, I have gotten everything working well enough for next release (alpha5, based on Sailfish OS 2.1.3.7) but I still need to hack around a small issue in the build system which for some reason didn’t update certain package patterns. So hopefully I get the release out very soon in coming days.
On other development news I did first tests using backported bluetooth subsystem which will make it possible to use bluez5 and will add support for Bluetooth LE. This won’t be included in the next release but hopefully very soon after that in alpha6 release, next official Sailfish OS release is already quite close so I will do bluetooth testing in the coming weeks and the make another release soon after Sailfish OS 2.1.4.x is released.
Maybe I should also start calling the releases beta already

[gabs]

Hello Mal,
many thanks for the testing version 2.1.3.7 .
Did this version need an andriod update?
And which part of the android package must be updated?
Before or after Saifish OS update?

Many thanks again for supporting Sailfish OS on Faiphone.

Gabriel

[mal]

Hi, the upcoming release will require updated Android 6 base, version 18.02 to be exact, but also it requites the same old modem partition (for the proximity sensor battery drain, and also for a bluetooth bug) as before with all previous release, everything else can be updated. I will write proper installation and update instructions for the release.

[pa4wdh]

Thanks for the update @mal. I"ll wait for a few experiences and hope to be able to order a fairphone soon.

[wolfgang_peer]

Hey @mal great work. That sounds really good. Would it be possible to publish a link to an installable image of fairphone? I tried ‘older’ v. 2.0 sailfish os image on top android 6 of my FP2 (i got it view weeks ago) but Sailfish OS alpha 2.0 something ended up in just a ‘Blue’ Screen. So sadly i had to go to LinageOS 14.1 which works not to bad (just some camera issues)
So if you have a image which you would share, it would be really great .

[mal]

I will share the image very soon, just one small camera issue left that I just found this week during final testing. Hopefully my fix will be merged tomorrow and I can make the release image. I don’t want to share an image with non-working secondary camera.

[wolfgang_peer]

i am not sure if this helps, with your camera issue, but i had a problem with the camera in Fairphone Opensource 18 as well as in LineageOS 14.1. Today i installed the update for LineageOS 14.1 (nightly build 28.2.) and now the camera seems to work fine .