Droidian 100

Droidian snapshot 💯 released!

After several months of development, the Droidian Project is happy
to announce the release of Droidian 100. Some highlights:

Core:

• Debian sid, as of 2024-11-04
• Graphical stack:
  • wlroots 0.17.4:
    • Fix screenshots being upside down using 3rd party apps
  • phosh 0.43.0:
    • Improvements on Quick Settings
    • Accent colour support (Droidian contribution)
    • Improvements on notification system
    • Improvements on Lock Screen
  • phoc 0.43.0
  • GTK 4.16.5
    • Workaround rendering issues on Adreno GPUs
  • phosh-mobile-settings 0.42.0
  • phosh-osk-stub 0.43.0
  • squeekboard 1.42.1
  • Firefox 132.0
• Replace stock keyboard with phosh-osk-stub
• Droidian now tracks the latest Firefox version, rather than the ESR one
• mobile-power-saver:
  • Allow to automatically disable Bluetooth if unused (Can be enabled in Settings -> Power)
• Initial Setup:
  • Re-add timezone selection
  • Some mobile-friendly changes
• Settings:
  • Refactor Droidian specific changes to ease future maintenance
  • Waydroid: rewritten panel:
    • Improved design and UX
    • Allow to easily install F-Droid
    • Allow to show/hide applications in the Home Screen
    • Allow to disable notifications from Android apps
    • Allow to bridge an internal directory to Waydroid to ease
      file sharing between Droidian and the Waydroid runtime
    • Allow to uninstall apps
  • Display: add swipe to wake settings (requires hardware support, thanks @Bettehem)
• Brightness:
  • Various improvements through the stack: brightness is now changed via the
    Android Lights HAL using a new library, libdroid.
  • Fix (again) brightness level not being restored on reboots
  • Huge improvements to the auto-brightness feature
• callaudiod 0.1.10

Experimental:

• For advanced users, add a Droidian-flavoured wayfire version (0.9.0), modified to work
  with our wlroots fork.
  This is experimental and not supported yet.

Apps:

• GNOME 47 update, including updates to:
  • Software
  • Settings
  • Clocks
  • Text Editor
  • Calendar
  • Calculator
  • Contacts

Platform:

• runonce: allow executing user-specific runonce scripts
• halium-wrappers: fix missing symbol on apps not linking zlib (thanks @Deeepkkk)
• Improve scanning for LVM LVs, make scan opt-out rather than opt-in (can be disabled with droidian.lvm.disable)

Devices:

• Generate udev rules at firstboot
• Fix for mobile data being stuck in 2G mode in some devices
• image-flashing-template:
  • Do not require a boot image
  • Prompt for a device if no device id has been specified in the Droidian
    kernel configuration

Notes:

• Default PIN is 1234.

Droidian is a volounteer-driven project not bound to any company.
If you like this update, please consider supporting next developments:
https://opencollective.com/droidian

Droidian Project
@arpio23 @bellegarde-c @erfanoabdi @erikinkinen @g7 @r3vn

nightly

[rootfs-templates] Bump

Signed-off-by: Eugenio Paolantonio (g7) <me@medesimo.eu>

Droidian 99

Droidian snapshot 99 released!

This is a rather big release, with development that spanned several months. Some highlights:

Core:

• Debian sid, as of 2024-08-21
• New graphical stack:
  • wlroots 0.17.4:
    • Various improvements to the hwcomposer backend
    • Enabled triple buffering
    • Fix some rendering issues with some PowerVR rogue GPUs
  • phosh 0.41.0
  • phoc 0.41.0
  • gtk 4.14.4
  • phosh-mobile-settings 0.41.0
  • libhybris 0.0.5.53
  • feedbackd 0.4.1
• mobile-settings:
  • Support for double tap to wake on some focaltech panels (thanks @WHO53)
• mobile-power-saver:
  • Allow to automatically downgrade modem technologies on WLAN, saving power

Telephony:

• Improvements to ofono2mm:
  • Better logs
  • Better reporting of modem state (should fix the dreaded mobile data not reconnecting issue)

Apps:

• Several applications have been updated to the GNOME 47 level:
  • Maps
  • Weather
  • Initial Setup
  • Eye of GNOME
• Qt5 applications should now open the On-Screen Keyboard automatically once a textbox has been focused

Platform:

• runonce: allow versioning for runonce scripts
• android-base: add several new groups (thanks @WHO53)
• Fix delay autostarting applications and keyboard on some devices
• batman has been completely dropped from the snapshot archive
• waydroid: update to version 1.4.3
• Fix WLAN enablement in some MTK devices
• Fix for missing devtools in recent nightly images (thanks @Bettehem)

Devices:

• 5.10-android12 kernel: updated to 5.10.218
• Google Pixel 3a: allow configuring Double Tap to Wake via the Control Center
• linux-packaging-snippets:
  • Allow specifying a custom clang compiler (thanks @berbascum)
  • Allow specifying multiple extra configuration fragments (thanks @berbascum)

Droidian trixie (snapshot 27 - Sep 2023)

The Droidian project is pleased to announce the release of the 27th snapshot.

As usual, if you are already running Droidian trixie there is no need to reflash.

We want to thank everyone who has been running Droidian for the past few months.

This is going to be the first snapshot based on trixie.

For more information about the developments in Droidian read the blog post here.

Highlights

• Based on Debian 13 Trixie
• GNOME 44 (except some non-essential packages)
  • phoc 0.29.0
  • phosh 0.31.0
  • squeekboard 1.22.0
• Volla Phone 22 has been temporarily removed from the builds
• The camera stack has been updated with support for smooth video recording, multi camera support, zoom, flashlight and a completely redesigned user interface.
• Support for fingerprint has been added for all devices.
• Support for automatic notch and cutout detection has been added for all devices.
• Support for NFC has been added for all devices that support NFC.
• Support for MTP has been added for all devices.
• Waydroid, NFC, MTP, fingerprint and encryption settings have all been integrated into the settings app
• Preliminary support has been added for Halium 12 (halium images, libhybris, A12 toolchain, etc)
• Hardware video playback is now in working.
• Numerous bug fixes, improvements and cleanups through the whole stack.

Supported devices

These devices are officially supported by Droidian:

F(x)tec

• F(x)tec Pro 1 (qx1000) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable
• F(x)tec Pro 1-X (qx1050) - fastboot-flashable

Sony

• Sony Xperia 5 (bahamut) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable

Google

• Google Pixel 3a/3a XL (sargo/bonito) - fastboot-flashable

Oneplus

• Oneplus 3/3T (oneplus3/oneplus3t) - recovery-flashable

Poco / Xiaomi

• Xiaomi Redmi 7 (onclite) - fastboot-flashable
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7/7S (lavender) - fastboot-flashable
• Xiaomi Redmi 9C (angelica) - fastboot-flashable
• Poco M2 Pro / Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro / Pro Max / 9S (miatoll) - fastboot-flashable

Volla Phone

• Volla Phone (yggdrasil) - fastboot-flashable

Samsung

• Samsung Galaxy S9 (Qualcomm) (starqlte) - fastboot-flashable

Known issues

Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL

Full-disk encryption

This port doesn't support full-disk encryption at the moment.

Camera is inconsistent

Camera currently only works in Waydroid

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7/7S

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is currently unavailable

Waydroid

Waydroid should be started with WiFi turned off

Oneplus 3/3t

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is not possible on this device.

Camera does not work

Camera does not work yet.

Xiaomi Redmi 9C

Rotation is inconsistent

Rotation is currently broken and after rotation touch will be inverted.

Waydroid

Waydroid is currently not usable because of veth missing in the kernel.

Poco M2 Pro / Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro / Pro Max / 9S

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is currently unavailable.

Volla Phone

Auto-brightness

Auto-brightness always goes to lowest brightness setting possible. It can be disable from Settings.

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is currently unavailable.

Droidian bookworm (snapshot 26 - June 2023)

The Droidian project is pleased to announce the release of the 26th snapshot.

Debian bookworm is now released as the latest stable Debian version, and it's the perfect time to release a new point-in-time snapshot!

As usual, if you are already running Droidian bookworm there is no need to reflash.

We want to thank everyone who has been running Droidian bookworm for the past few months.

This is going to be the last snapshot based on bookworm and we will be moving to Debian 13 trixie after this release.

The images for bookworm will still receive update from Debian repositories but no updates from the Droidian team. although in the current state they are quite stable images and can be used without any issues.

For more information about the developments in Droidian read the blog post here.

Highlights

• @FakeShell has been added to the Droidian core team.
• Based on Debian 12 bookworm
  • GNOME 43 (except some non-essential packages)
  • phoc 0.28.0
  • phosh 0.28.0
  • squeekboard 1.22.0
• Volla Phone returns to the official builds roster
• Volla Phone 22 is added to the official builds roster as a new device
• A bunch of previously community supported devices were added to the official builds roster with most features now working:
  • Oneplus 3/3T (oneplus3/oneplus3t)
  • Xiaomi Redmi 7 (onclite)
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (lavender)
  • Xiaomi Redmi 9C/9C NFC (angelica/angelican)
  • Poco M2 Pro / Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro / Pro Max / 9S (miatoll)
  • Samsung Galaxy S9 (Qualcomm) (starqlte)
• A new battery management solution batman was included in all devices together with its GUI. It will possibly prolong the battery life by even two or three times in daily use.
• Much more stable camera stack has been worked on and added to Droidian devices that did not support camera.
• New sysfs fallback in flashlightd code. This should ensure the flashlight works on most devices out of the box.
• Image has been cleaned off from all mobile unfriendly apps.
• Numerous bug fixes, improvements and cleanups through the whole stack.

Supported devices

These devices are officially supported by Droidian:

F(x)tec

• F(x)tec Pro 1 (qx1000) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable
• F(x)tec Pro 1-X (qx1050) - fastboot-flashable

Sony

• Sony Xperia 5 (bahamut) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable

Google

• Google Pixel 3a/3a XL (sargo/bonito) - fastboot-flashable

Oneplus

• Oneplus 3/3T (oneplus3/oneplus3t) - recovery-flashable

Poco / Xiaomi

• Xiaomi Redmi 7 (onclite) - fastboot-flashable
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (lavender) - fastboot-flashable
• Xiaomi Redmi 9C/9C NFC (angelica/angelican) - fastboot-flashable
• Poco M2 Pro / Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro / Pro Max / 9S (miatoll) - fastboot-flashable

Volla Phone

• Volla Phone (yggdrasil) - fastboot-flashable
• Volla Phone 22 (mimameid) - fastboot-flashable

Samsung

• Samsung Galaxy S9 (Qualcomm) (starqlte) - fastboot-flashable

Known issues

Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL

Full-disk encryption

This port doesn't support full-disk encryption at the moment.

Camera is inconsistent

Camera is inconsistent and does not work on all models of 3a and 3a XL

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is currently unavailable

Waydroid

Waydroid is unstable and does not start properly

Oneplus 3/3t

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is not possible on this device.

Camera does not work

Camera does not work yet.

Xiaomi Redmi 9C/9C NFC

Camera and touch screen

Because of Xiaomi not updating their codebase but releasing new devices, there are devices with missing camera drivers. as a result camera works on some revisions of 9C and 9C NFC but not others. Touch screen also suffers from the same issue for a portion of 9C NFC devices.

Rotation is inconsistent

Rotation is currently broken and after rotation touch will be inverted.

Waydroid

Waydroid is currently not usable because of veth missing in the kernel.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is only usable through an application such as blueman.

Poco M2 Pro / Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro / Pro Max / 9S

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is not recommended as device can get stuck on the encryption screen for up to 5 minutes until touch starts working.

Samsung Galaxy S9 (Qualcomm)

Full-disk encryption

While full-disk encryption does work it will lead to the phone becoming very slow and unresponsive.

Volla Phone

Auto-brightness

Auto-brightness always goes to lowest brightness setting possible. It can be disable from Settings.

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is currently unavailable

Volla Phone 22

Auto-brightness

Auto-brightness always goes to lowest brightness setting possible. It can be disable from Settings.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is only usable through an application such as blueman.

Full-disk encryption

Full-disk encryption is currently unavailable

eMMC

It is possible that on some instances Droidian installed on the internal eMMC corrupts system files occasionally. This can be avoided by installing on an SD-card via Volla Boot Manager.

Droidian bookworm (snapshot 25 - March 2023)

The Droidian project is pleased to announce the release of the 25th snapshot.

Debian bookworm is now in hard freeze, and it's the perfect time to release a new
point-in-time snapshot!

As usual, if you are already running Droidian bookworm there is no need to reflash.

We want to thank everyone who has been running Droidian bookworm for the
past few months.

Highlights

• Based on Debian 12 bookworm, with Mobian repositories on top
  • GNOME 43 (except some non-essential packages)
  • phoc 0.25.2
  • phosh 0.25.2
  • squeekboard 1.21.0
• Google Pixel 3a returns to the official builds roster
• Halium 11: Enabled camera stack
• Fixed HW acceleration in WebKitGtk+ apps
• Fixed Flutter apps
• Fixed keyring unlock at login
• Multiple display support is now available for everyone, provided the device itself supports it
• Numerous bug fixes and improvements through the whole stack

Supported devices

These devices are officially supported by Droidian:

• F(x)tec Pro1 (qx1000) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable
• F(x)tec Pro1-X (qx1050) - fastboot-flashable
• Google Pixel 3a/3a XL (sargo, bonito) - fastboot-flashable
• Sony Xperia 5 (bahamut) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable

The following previously supported device is unmantained, and is not
part of the new unified build system introduced with the last snapshot:

• Volla Phone (yggdrasil)

You can still get the adaptation bundle for this device from the legacy
rootfs-api28gsi-all repository: https://github.com/droidian-images/rootfs-api28gsi-all/releases/tag/nightly

Please note that that adaptation is untested, and no support will be
provided.

Known issues

Generic

Onboarding process issues

The initial set-up wizard doesn't fit well with the small mobile phone screens. The user
should also reboot the device to load the eventual new locale configuration.

This will be fixed in a later release

Unable to add Google account from the Settings app

The Google Account login page doesn't allow text input. The only known
workaround for now is to press the "Next" button and then insert the account
credentials via the clipboard.

Broken sensors

Due to a configuration issue, the sensorfwd daemon doesn't detect any
sensor. This has been already rectified, and a System Update will put
things in place.

Older installations aren't affected.

F(x)tec Pro1

Encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate

The encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate if the keyboard has been opened.
It's still possible to enter the unlock passphrase via the physical keyboard.

Keyboard backlight disabled in encryption unlock UI

The keyboard backlight is disabled in the encryption unlock UI.

F(x)tec Pro1-X

Haptic feedback slow to appear

In some circumstances, it has been observed that it might take ~1 and a half minute
for haptic feedback to start working after a fresh boot.

Unstable camera stack

The camera stack in the Droidian side is unstable and it might take some tries to properly
load. We're looking at ways to fix this.

Encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate

The encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate if the keyboard has been opened.
It's still possible to enter the unlock passphrase via the physical keyboard.

Slow offline slot switch

During offline kernel updates (i.e. triggered via the Software app), the device
might take some minutes to reboot after doing a "slot switch". When this happens,
the display stays black until it eventually reboots.

In this case, it's possible to trigger an hard reboot by pressing Vol-Down and Power.

Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL

Full-disk encryption is not supported

The sargo port doesn't support full-disk encryption at the moment.

Sony Xperia 5

Slow offline slot switch

During offline kernel updates (i.e. triggered via the Software app), the device
might take some minutes to reboot after doing a "slot switch". When this happens,
the display stays black until it eventually reboots.

In this case, it's possible to trigger an hard reboot by pressing Vol-Up and Power.

Droidian bookworm (snapshot 24 - 2022-08-04)

The Droidian project is pleased to announce the release of the 24th snapshot.

This release comes after 9 months since the last one, and is the first
being based on Debian 12 bookworm.

Since late last year, nightlies have switched to bookworm. This release
is just a point-in-time snapshot of a known good state. If you are
already running Droidian bookworm there is no need to reflash.

We want to thank everyone who has been running Droidian bookworm for the
past few months.

Highlights

• Based on Debian 12 bookworm, with Mobian repositories on top
  • GNOME 42 (except some non-essential packages)
  • phoc 0.10.0
  • phosh 0.17.0
  • squeekboard 1.16.0
• Experimental Halium 11 support
• New unified image build system
• Support for the creation of flashboot-flashable images
• Two new official supported devices: F(x)tec Pro1-X and Sony Xperia 5
• Opt-in, online full disk encryption
• Support for devices shipping with a super partition
• Many bugfixes through the whole stack

Supported devices

These devices are officially supported by Droidian:

• F(x)tec Pro1 (qx1000) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable
• F(x)tec Pro1-X (qx1050) - fastboot-flashable
• Sony Xperia 5 (bahamut) - fastboot-flashable, recovery-flashable

The following previously supported devices are unmantained, and are not
part of the new unified build system:

• Google Pixel 3a (sargo)
• Volla Phone (yggdrasil)

You can still get adaptation bundles for these two devices from the legacy
rootfs-api28gsi-all repository: https://github.com/droidian-images/rootfs-api28gsi-all/releases/tag/nightly

Please note that those adaptations are untested, and no support will be
provided.

Known issues

Generic

Gnome keyring woes

The initial startup creates a broken, not-unlockable, login keyring.
You can remove it with the following command:

rm -f .local/share/keyrings/login.keyring

Whenever an application will try to unlock the keyring again, you will
be prompted to create one from scratch.

Unable to add online accounts from the Settings application

This is unfortunately an issue of the new gnome-control-center paired
with the older wlroots we are currently shipping.

You can workaround for now by running the Settings app via XWayland:

env GDK_BACKEND=x11 GSK_RENDERER=cairo gnome-control-center

KDE/Qt apps

This is not an issue per se, but due to how Qt is packaged in Debian, Qt
apps will not pull in the required wayland platform abstraction.

This can be installed manually via

sudo apt install qtwayland5

Some devices might have trouble in running recent KDE/Qt apps. Installing
a patched version of libhybris might help:

sudo -i
cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/droidian-libhybris-testing.list <<EOF
deb http://droidian-libhybris.repo.droidian.org/bookworm-libui-gralloc-eglcreateplatformwindowsurface/ bookworm main
EOF
apt update
apt dist-upgrade

F(x)tec Pro1

Encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate

The encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate if the keyboard has been opened.
It's still possible to enter the unlock passphrase via the physical keyboard.

Keyboard backlight disabled in encryption unlock UI

The keyboard backlight is disabled in the encryption unlock UI.

F(x)tec Pro1-X

Haptic feedback slow to appear

In some circumstances, it has been observed that it might take ~1 and a half minute
for haptic feedback to start working after a fresh boot.

Encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate

The encryption unlock UI doesn't rotate if the keyboard has been opened.
It's still possible to enter the unlock passphrase via the physical keyboard.

Slow offline slot switch

During offline kernel updates (i.e. triggered via the Software app), the device
might take some minutes to reboot after doing a "slot switch". When this happens,
the display stays black until it eventually reboots.

In this case, it's possible to trigger an hard reboot by pressing Vol-Down and Power.

Sony Xperia 5

Slow offline slot switch

During offline kernel updates (i.e. triggered via the Software app), the device
might take some minutes to reboot after doing a "slot switch". When this happens,
the display stays black until it eventually reboots.

In this case, it's possible to trigger an hard reboot by pressing Vol-Up and Power.