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Librem 5
The Librem 5 is a phone running a Debian derivative named PureOS that is designed for all open software and hardware. It is manufactured by Purism.
Support
If something isn't working for you, you can get in contact with Mobian developers and the Mobian community in various ways. All of them are listed here.
Root Access
The phone comes with a terminal emulator built in, you can run sudo bash to get root. Then after changing the password for the default user account (purism on PureOS, mobian on Mobian) you can run apt install openssh-server to enable remote logins. After that it can be run just like any other Debian system.
Reflashing the Phone
Install flashing tools
Install librem5-flash-image from contrib. To be able to flash arbitrary images (Mobian, PureOS, your own?) as described below, you'll need to:
Use librem5-flash-image >= 0.0.4
Apply this patch on top of version 0.0.3 (binary package of 0.0.3 with the patch available here)
Download necessary bits
u-boot
You can download the pre-built "official" binary from Purism's Jenkins
Mobian requires a specific (patched) u-boot binary which can be fetched from CI artifacts (this version is still compatible with other distros such as PureOS)
System image
There’s currently no pure Debian image for the librem5, but you may want to try a Mobian image.
Prepare the files
Create a ${FLASH_DATA_DIR} directory with the following contents:
The u-boot image downloaded above renamed to u-boot-librem5.imx
The system image downloaded above (g)unzipped and renamed to librem5r4.img (adapt file name to your board / phone revision)
Put the phone in download mode
As the flashing script will remind you, you need to:
- Turn all Hardware-Kill-Switches off
- Remove battery
- Hold volume-up
- Insert the USB-c cable: (red light blinks, no green light)
- Reinsert the battery: (red light is constantly on, the script will continue)
Perform the flash
Now run:
$ librem5-flash-image --skip-download --board librem5r4 --dir ${FLASH_DATA_DIR}
You need to adapt the --board argument to your actual model. At the time of the writing the following boards and phone revisions are supported:
- devkit
- librem5r2
- librem5r3
- librem5r4