Using Sailfish OS on the FP2 - Experiences and Issues

…and it worked for me, I am now on the FP2 running on Sailfish OS, thank you, mal! I will hand it over tomorrow.

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I’m currently running Ubuntu Touch 16.04 OTA-8 on the Fairphone and it works surprisingly well. So I’ll postpone my Sailfish OS installation a bit. As far as I know, the Sailfish source code still isn’t available, right?

Which source code? Sailfish is mostly open source, but partly closed source, just like Nokia’s Maemo and successors have always been. What you’re using is a community edition. It lacks features, most notably Alien Dalvik (the Android emulation layer). Without that, it is IMO difficult to use the device as your sole, primary smartphone device but YMMV.

See also e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS#Community_enthusiasts’_ports_to_devices_from_other_vendors

The interface source code is closed right? Or where can I find it?

I used Firefox OS for years as my primary device, and I’m now running Ubuntu Touch. I’m totally fine with the fact that I can’t run APKs. The web is the platform anyway :wink:

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Anyone using devel repos can now test the 18.04 modem partition on their device after updating to latest versions of packages from devel repos. I have enabled on-demand use of proximity sensor in devel and based on my testing for more than a week the battery life seems good now and we can stop using the old firmware. I’ll include the change to next Sailfish OS release for FP2 (3.0.2.x) when that is ready.

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Testing of Sailfish OS 3.0.2.8 for FP2 has gone as planned without any regressions found so far. If no issues are found then I will make the release later this week. The release will still be based on FP Open OS 18.04 as before due to the lack of Android 7 sources but at least the proximity sensor issue is fixed and everyone can update to 18.04 modem partition after updating to Sailfish OS 3.0.2.8 release for FP2. I will give detailed instructions how to do that in update instructions.

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I did some preliminary testing of Sailfish OS 3.0.3.9 on FP2 and so far everything is working the same as before. Before releasing the new version I’ll try to fix the randomly occurring camera issue when updating or installing Sailfish OS. Also I’m thinking about making a proximity sensor calibration tool for Sailfish OS but not sure if I will make it before this release yet.

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Hi mal,
first I have to say thank you a lot four your Sailfish OS (SFOS) port for our FP2! I was using UT since September on my FP2 and I really like UT but in daily usage I finally got too annoyed by the instability from UT on our FP2 (frequent crashes of Unity 8/GUI during typing of messages etc, slow or not existing hardware support (camera, LED light, FM radio).
As more I was really positively suprised by the technical quality of your SFOS port on the phone! It is really smooth and stable, not worse than the official Android ROMs and fully working hardware support.
I like SFOS as a system as well, however it is a bit sad that SFOS and UT don’t work together more in the apps. There are some really good SFOS apps (I like for example gpodder) but many are very old and unsupported. On the FP2 we don’t have AlienDalvik and cannot move to Android apps as alternative. Especially the browser is much weaker (slower, lagging and sometimes freezing) than the UT browser. I really miss a Signal app now (the only one existing is abandonded and cannot be installed anymore in Storeman). Finding an Youtube App was also kind of difficult among all the abandonded and forked and forked and abbandonded old YT apps on SFOS, until I got the hint of using ‘LLs vPlayer’ in the UT Telegram group.

I will have a look on SFOS a bit more but I consider maybe just going back to an Android Open Source Project based ROM (Fairphone Open). There I can use the Android apps without an emulation layer and don’t bother with Google.

Best, rom4n

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Sailfish OS 3.0.3.9 beta6 is now available at Sailfish OS 3.0.3.9 beta6 release

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Now Sailfish OS 3.1.0.12 is released by @mal see Sailfish OS 3.1.0.12 beta7 release
Thank you

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It’s stated on https://shop.jolla.com/ that the free version of Sailfish X doesn’t come with Android apps support. Does this build support it?

It also says that Sailfish X is currently available in the countries of the European Union, Norway and Switzerland (“Authorized Countries”) and the use of our website and services to purchase Sailfish X outside of the Authorized Countries is prohibited.. I am in the EU but as someone who only use FOSS for years, I’m very uncomfortable with such statement. It looks like Sailfish sources are even more closed than Android ones, so how can I trust it?

As a community Sailfish “port” there can be no AlienDalvik layer as not licensed unfortunately.

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That means that Ubuntu Touch with Anbox is actually a better solution. Even if it’s really slow (I hoped Sailfish emulator performances were better).

Not right now as anbox on UT is early alpha and doesn’t even have hardware access to camera etc. It crashes frequently and lots of apps don’t even start.

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As mentioned above it is a third-party, proprietary technology.

Sailfish is based on Mer, like Android is based on AOSP.

The Sailfish UI is closed-source. For Sailfish and Android I am not sure how much % is FOSS and closed source, but it is hybrid (even though both might be FOSS in the minds of people).

Calling iOS and Windows hybrid is a bit of a stretch. They’re almost exclusively proprietary.

You may port Sailfish to your platform, but then you don’t get certain features such as Android emulation and customer support. When you pay for a license, it is for X years of support. In that way, it is more like the traditional model of proprietary software. But it is honest about it, upfront, instead of you being the product. The powerful thing of Sailfish is arguably that you pay for it and keep your privacy, and that you get a slick UI with powerful gesture support.

Honestly, when I get my FP3, I am looking forward playing around with Sailfish on my FP2 for a while.

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Addendum:

Jolla is rather upfront about what exactly is FOSS and what is proprietary.

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If I can’t use Android Apps on a Sailfish FP2, than it’s not an alternative for me… Some apps I use are surely not on Sailfish. But perhaps I’ll try it just to see how it works.

Maybe /e/ then is for you, they can use any app from F-Droid :wink:

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