Fairphone 6 + PostmarketOS working main camera!

3 days ago by TheMightyCat to c/linuxphones

Today i bring the working main camera!

Building on the work nondescriptpointer did on the wide lens camera i have written the driver for the main camera and now its working alongside auto focus and color correction.

The color correction still a work in progress, but you can already see how much it improved the image.

before:

After:

But the after is still very grainy, plasma camera storing in jpg isn't exactly helping either, ill be working to get rid of the grain.

If we look at the same scene form my android galaxy A16 you see that there still is alot of work to be done:

I'll continue to work on the camera, but i wanted to get something out today (mainly so i could send to nondescriptpointer xd)

I asked him what role he wanted to play in the upstreaming and we agreed he would send it and i would review and assist. So i successfully pulled down another soul into the linux phone kernel rabbit hole muhahahahaha

News roundup

Alot of things happend lately so good thing to discuss them, the big one:

Emergency calling test

You may have noticed that everywhere i put warnings that emergency calling is not verified yet. i wanted to fix that but after searching i couldn't find anything about it.

So i just called the police non emergency line and explained the situation, the operator told me that the information wasn't public but provided me with an email to send my application too.

I was a bit sad cause if its a non public thing its probably gated behind being big tech, but i send the email anyway, and much to my suprise i got back.

De testen zijn goedgekeurd voor dinsdag 18 augustus tussen 13:30 en 14:15 uur.

Met vriendelijke groet,

(name censored) B ICT,

Tactisch & Technisch Beheer 1-1-2 (TB112)

Translation:

The tests have been approved for Tuesday, August 18, between 1:30 p.m. and 2:15 p.m.

Kind regards,

(name censored) B ICT,

Tactical & Technical Management 1-1-2 (TB112)

So Im really excited for this, and then you know for sure that you can reach the emergency number with your linux phone.

Fairphone 6+

So the Fairphone 6+ has been officially announced an as soon as i can buy one im buying one, testing my image, and fixing any issues.

Im really glad for the donations so i can justify to myself this purchase instead of spending 650 euros for a phone that i already have.

Donations

I'm really grateful for all the people that donated and still continue to donate, i was over the moon when i got my first donation and i never expected to get this much. From the bottom of my heart thank you all very much.

I want to be open on where it's going. And i think as donators you deserve to know that its being spent wisely. so i made a script that builds this page from my bank statement:

https://catcrafts.net/financials

If it all works then donations should be reflected live and it will show the expense for the FP6+ when i buy it, net will drop in the negative as the remainder is coming out of my pocket.

If you want to send a donation please do so to the updated link: https://catcrafts.net/shop/donation this will be reflected in the dashboard live and for tax reasons its now mega clear that its a donation.

Catcrafts as a company

Im contacting a notary with the plans to have Catcrafts corporated as a non profit company (stichting), this is is depending on all the legal stuff however so this isn't set in stone.

If and if this company goes somewhere and i could quit my job, i will pay myself a salary to live on that will be publicly visible on the financials page. Dutch law requires for non profits that salary to be at max market confirming and not a shadow way for paying out dividends, so its guaranteed that any money in the company will go towards furthering the mission.

I think a non profit phone company has a genuinely good proposition, i praise fairphone alot for the things they do right but in the end they are still an profit seeking business so im a bit wary, and they still post on Musk's X so my long term judgement on their company is still out there

I applied to be a fairphone partner with in my eyes a pretty good pitch, if they accept my opinion will be improved ;) hopefully i just need to have more patience or they are ghosting me ;-;

Shipping restrictions

I'm sad to announce this but i don't think i can do worlwide shippng, earlier i said i would be shipping worlwide but i must sadly retract that statement for reasons out of my control. I will be shipping worldwide with the following exceptions:

US, CA: It's seemingly impossible to get a Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheids­verzekering (corporate liability insurance) for the United States and Canada in the netherlands, its all worldwide excluding US and CA. Getting coverage for those requires "contact us" with probably a very hefty premium, and selling without insurance is too risky as that would mean financial ruin if i get sued.

I would appreciate if anyone that isn't a massive company has experience with this, will be contacting my insurer aswell to see what's possible on this front

RU, BY, KP: Sanctions make it a criminal offense for me to ship to these countries.

imsd

Device OS Carrier
The Fairphone (Gen. 6) postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 KPN NL
The Fairphone (Gen. 6) postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 Telekom Deutschland GER
The Fairphone (Gen. 6) postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 Phonero
The Fairphone (Gen. 6) postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 Telia Norge

Thanks to the community we now have 4 confirmed working carriers! If you are using the image please let me know so i can add it to the list!

Making a Linux phone

Ever since this project i've been dreaming about making my own linux phone, i've been looking into it here and there and while this might just be the sleep deprivation talking i think i can do it.

Making a good linux phone however is the hard part, and i don't think i can make an better arm linux phone then the fairphone 6 as those qualcomm chips are impossible to buy.

So im not going to, i'll make a RISCV one. will it be bad? yes, will it end up like the pinephone? most probably, will it run hot and have terrible battery life?, most likely. will it cost me a ton of money?, yes.

BUT

It will be a phone as open as i can make it, with good software, and a (in my eyes ethical) non profit company backing it. i think there is a good business proposition to made there, whatever the case its very long term anyway.

Meeting the lead pmos dev

Correction: There is no lead pmos dev, and the developer in question has since responded here: https://lemmy.world/comment/25358433

I'm keeping the original text here for transparency sake but i shouldn't have called him out like this.

My sincere apologies.

Original:

Imagine my surprise when i see the lead pmos dev on a dutch tech forum, and i'm named, and then heart sank trough the floor when i'm being made out for something that can be disproved with a 10s search.

Luckily the record was set straight fast!

Translation:

I don't want to hide context so here is the full thread:

https://tweakers.net/...

What's next

  1. More color correction
  2. Laser rangefinder autofocus instead of software only.
  3. Selfie camera
  4. Fingerprint sensor
  5. Extensive testing

And then the FP6 is done, i will open my shop and continue with the FP6+

Since a long time i feel purpose in my life again, and i have alot of stuff still planned! And getting all the patches upstreamed is also probably a half year commitment atleast.

If you made it this far thank you for reading! As always ask me anything in the comments and ill do my best to answer.

inari 73 points 3 days ago

Every time you post in this community it feels like Christmas morning

path: 0 25335821, hotness: undefined, score: 73, children: 0
MalReynolds 46 points 3 days ago

Thank you for your service. Seriously.

I've been happy on gOS, but now I'm considering a Fairphone (perhaps as well for a while), because of you.

path: 0 25336209, hotness: undefined, score: 46, children: 0
Arilou 29 points 3 days ago

Thanks for the work you’re doing. The Fairphone 6/6+ running PostmarketOS is something I’m looking forward to seeing. I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of trying to get a Fairphone and your work is tipping the scales towards me maybe buying one.

path: 0 25337606, hotness: undefined, score: 29, children: 3
KryptonNerd 7 points 3 days ago

I've been using a fairphone 6 since it came out and honestly been really enjoying it. There are only two issues that I can think of. One is the placement of the volume buttons, they're in a really dumb place which causes you to do accidental screenshots. You do get used to it over time so they become less frequent, but still happens sometimes. The other issue is an IPv6 issue that a few Android phones have, it only causes issues for a few applications on certain WiFi networks and can be gotten around by just turning on a VPN and going through that, but again it's still worth being aware of. The position of volume buttons obviously won't change, but hopefully someone will fix the Android network stack so that the IPv6 issues are sorted.

path: 0 25337606 25338379, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 2
WhyJiffie 4 points 3 days ago

what is the ipv6 issue? do you have links?

path: 0 25337606 25338379 25340296, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 1
KryptonNerd 3 points 3 days ago path: 0 25337606 25338379 25340296 25340734, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
Canuck 29 points 3 days ago

Hope you manage to find a way for US/Canada, especially given how hard it is already to get a hold of a Fairphone in North America

path: 0 25336200, hotness: undefined, score: 29, children: 3
TheMightyCat 15 points 3 days ago

I hope so too, it really comes down on what the insurers say.

Sadly that is one issue i cannot program my way out of.

path: 0 25336200 25338389, hotness: undefined, score: 15, children: 2
Vicinus 4 points 3 days ago

I know nothing about the space, but if you set up a subsidiary in the US/Canada, would that get around the issue? Like ship to subsidiary with your insurance and then the subsidiary gets US/Canadian insurance for the final leg to the customer.

path: 0 25336200 25338389 25339672, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 1
BurgerBaron 3 points 3 days ago

I used a middle man service in the host country to buy a PlayStation (Vita) TV and then re-ship it to me in Canada when Sony dumped remaining stock steeply discounted, but only for the USA, a long time ago. Probably still possible just a PITA.

Time to look up if Netherlands has such businesses, I'm not sure about their legal system.

path: 0 25336200 25338389 25339672 25342326, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
Robin 14 points 3 days ago

FYI, I got a "technical error" when trying to send a donation through Bancontact from a Belgian bank. It might just be me, and I'll try again next time I see one of your posts to remind me. But if anyone else has issues and sees this please leave a reply. Hopefully my bank will get their shit together soon and support Wero to EU banks.

path: 0 25336575, hotness: undefined, score: 14, children: 2
TheMightyCat 9 points 3 days ago

Seems like my bank is having some trouble, ive created a new page on my website that runs trough my payment processor instead: https://catcrafts.net/shop/donation

it should now work with bancontact.

path: 0 25336575 25338216, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 1
Robin 6 points 3 days ago

Yeah that worked :)

path: 0 25336575 25338216 25341246, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
Yerbouti 11 points 3 days ago

So stupid that we can't get these in Canada. Great project, keep it up.

path: 0 25340174, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 6
dudesss 6 points 3 days ago

https://clove.co.uk/ sells them.

Just make sure to go to your local CBSA customs office. Never paid UPS for import fees. Its always cheaper to pay at a CBSA office.

path: 0 25340174 25348087, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 5
TheMightyCat 4 points 2 days ago

Ive looked into canada and the issue is that the fairphone 6 is not radio approved in canada, even if you ship it to canada it either will not work or is not allowed to be used for as far is i understand.

I'm looking into all the legal stuff and it's alot more complicated then i first thought.

path: 0 25340174 25348087 25351008, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 4
dudesss 5 points 2 days ago

I've read a lot of stories online that were only successful. I have a Fairphone 6 in far east of Canada, and its working great. 4G and 5G are working.

Plus it was declared and went through customs / CBSA.

This site might be accurate for service provider compatibility: https://www.kimovil.com/...

path: 0 25340174 25348087 25351008 25355931, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 3
TheMightyCat 5 points 2 days ago

Good to know that it works, but i'm still not sure about the legality of it. Im not a lawyer and i really don't know this so please bear with me, but the Radiocommunications act states:

No person shall manufacture, import, distribute, lease, offer for sale or sell any radio apparatus, interference-causing equipment or radio-sensitive equipment for which a technical acceptance certificate is required under this Act, otherwise than in accordance with such a certificate.

And i can't find that the Fairphone 6 has this certificate?

path: 0 25340174 25348087 25351008 25355931 25356360, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 1
ArchEngel 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I know someone in Manitoba who has one and its working fine on the Bell network.

path: 0 25340174 25348087 25351008 25355931 25356301, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
inari 11 points 2 days ago path: 0 25354781, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 1
TheMightyCat 9 points 2 days ago

I see, thanks ill fix it.

Yeah I really astounded in the massive amount of donations currently, at a bit of loss for words but really thanks so much for everyone that donated!

path: 0 25354781 25354806, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 0
majster 10 points 3 days ago

Wow this is looking great! I'm currently using FP6 with /e/OS and I love it. Is there any way to boot this from SD card and try it out?

Also the ugly question...how are calls and text messages? My understanding is that this the biggest of the problems that mainline Linux phones faces.

But seeing posts like this it makes me really hopeful that owning and operating a smartphone will be possible with similar freedom as a PC.

path: 0 25338322, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 5
TheMightyCat 13 points 3 days ago

I don't think there is a way to do it form the SD card, but i think there is a way to flash it to a different partition, kind of like dual booting on a PC. But i would have to test that.

If you want to do it right now the way is probably making a full partition level backup, and then restoring that later.

Calls definitely were ugly, but they are fully working now!

https://ani.social/post/34656971

path: 0 25338322 25338383, hotness: undefined, score: 13, children: 4
majster 5 points 3 days ago

I see the thing is running as a userspace daemon. Is this same architecture that Android uses?

Anyway, hat off 👍

path: 0 25338322 25338383 25338508, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 3
TheMightyCat 5 points 3 days ago

No android uses the modem path (atleast on the FP6)

path: 0 25338322 25338383 25338508 25338534, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 2
WhyJiffie 6 points 3 days ago

btw does that mean with android the modem accesses the microphone and the speaker independently from the operating system? is there somewhere I could read more about this?

path: 0 25338322 25338383 25338508 25338534 25339723, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 1
unknownuserunknownlocation 8 points 3 days ago

I'm assuming the time of flight sensor isn't working yet, or is the camera just still too slow?

path: 0 25336844, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 1
TheMightyCat 10 points 3 days ago

No it's not working yet, it's on the todo list.

path: 0 25336844 25337620, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 0
domi 8 points 3 days ago

Awesome, did anyone test the VoLTE on a Fairphone 5 already?

I have a spare one laying around that I would love to get fully working with postmarketOS.

path: 0 25339022, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 1
TheMightyCat 6 points 3 days ago

Not that I know of.

Theoretically imsd should work on any qualcomm modem based phone, so if it does work let me know!

path: 0 25339022 25341668, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
rolandlo 7 points 3 days ago

@TheMightyCat

Awesome! Eagerly waiting for the pipeline to run successfully, so we get the update as well.

path: 0 25336495, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 1
TheMightyCat 4 points 3 days ago

It should run to completion successfully this time.

path: 0 25336495 25338293, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 0
Panties 7 points 2 days ago

Fingers crossed and thumbs pressed for the emergency call test!

path: 0 25354265, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0
PureTryOut 6 points 2 days ago

I'm not actually the lead dev of pmOS btw. In fact, we don't have any lead dev. We do have the core team though, of which I'm part of, but that does not make me a lead.

path: 0 25358471, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 2
TheMightyCat 5 points 2 days ago

I aplogize

https://postmarketos.org/team/

I thought since you were first on this list I assumed it, that was careless of me.

Turns out I'm pretty suspectible too with this, quite hypocritical of me.

path: 0 25358471 25358804, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
TheMightyCat 2 points 2 days ago

I have issued a correction, i read your other comment and you're right i shouldn't have called you out like that. I apologize again.

path: 0 25358471 25361639, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
Lanske 5 points 2 days ago

Such great work!!

path: 0 25354442, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
Svinhufvud 5 points 3 days ago

Great job!

path: 0 25336507, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
Duke_Nukem_1990 3 points 2 days ago

It's immensly cool watching your progress <3

path: 0 25355106, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
linuxphones
linuxphones

@lemmy.ca

login for more options
3712
460
2203

The Discussion on Linux-based Phones.


**Benefits**:
  • Hardware freedom.
  • Perfect operating-system competition.
  • Full utilization of specs.
  • Phone lifespan raises to 10+ years.
  • Less e-waste.
**Linux Mobile Distros**:
  • Sailfish🇫🇮
  • FuriOS🇺🇸
  • Ubuntu Touch🇩🇪
  • Postmarket OS🇨🇭
  • Mobian
  • Pure OS🇺🇸
  • Plasma Mobile🇩🇪
  • LuneOS
  • openSUSE Mobile🇩🇪
  • Nemomobile
  • Droidian
  • Mobile NixOS
  • ExpidusOS
  • Maemo Leste
  • Manjaro Arm
  • Tizen
  • WebOS
**Linux Mobile Hardware**:
  • Jolla Phone🇫🇮
  • Shift Phone🇩🇪
  • FLX1🇺🇸
  • Fairphone 5🇳🇱
  • Volla Phone🇩🇪
  • Librem 5🇺🇸
⚙️Contribute
🧼Go Clean From the Duopoly:
💻Related Communities:
📰News:
💬Messager:
⌚️Watch:

go to feed...