/e/OS workshop and install party in Argentina

[soldan]

Hello!

First of all, this text was written with deepl, sorry if there are mistakes.

I’m soldan, active member of the argentinian hacktivist group called “cybercirujas”. We are a group that militates the free software from concrete actions in the territory. We repair computers and recycle them with free software, in addition to generating debates around issues of what we call “technopolitics”: right to privacy, right to repair, criticism of the data oligarchs and other related issues. We are a very active group in Argentina, with great deployment throughout the territory, reaching the mass media both in Argentina and neighboring countries (we have even been interviewed by the Spanish newspaper “El país”).

In the last months we started to spread, divulge and raise awareness about android cell phones and how to extend their life. We have given some online talks, written some texts and due to the growing interest, we are going to give a workshop about android phones life extension.

We are going to give two workshops. This 11/23 in the city of Posadas, province of Misiones, and on 12/11 in the city of Buenos Aires. In this workshop we will teach the basics of an android phone and we will explain how to unlock our phones, recommending the use of /e/OS. In this sense, we will explain how to install /e/OS in android and we will talk about why we recommend that free android in our phones.

I wanted to tell you about this activity because I think you might find it interesting. From our militant space we understand that it is extremely important to raise awareness about our mobile phones, not only for privacy issues, but also for the fact of giving survival to the phones, which are the most disposable computer objects in the world. In Argentina it is also very expensive to access a new phone, often the cheapest phones are of poor quality and it is more convenient to buy a used phone in good condition with support for /e/OS or other free rom. For example, I use as my main phone a Moto G7 Power with /e/OS and I am completely satisfied with the performance.
For this Saturday’s workshop, I have 7 people signed up who will bring phones to modify, plus I will bring some old phones that can run different versions of /e/OS and I will provide netbooks with which to install the system. For the workshop in Buenos Aires city we have 15 registered.
I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Greetings and thanks for the work you do.

[soldan]

this was written with deepl sorry for the errors

I wanted to tell you about this first “Install Party”.

The city of Posadas is the capital of the province of Misiones, which is about 1100 kilometers away from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. I lived in Buenos Aires from 2012 to 2022 and there I was developing the Cybercirujas community, and now I try to replicate it in Misiones (we have cybercirujas community in other provinces of Argentina).

The workshop was attended by 5 people, 3 of which had no knowledge of customs roms or alternative software and lasted about two and a half hours. I brought 3 netbooks with Linux and 3 phones to install /e/OS: a Moto G 4G (peregrine), Moto G2 codename Titan and Redmi Note 7 codename lavender. The G2 has no /e/Os rom so we installed lineage.

But before all this, we explained how an Android works, the bootloader, recovery and how to know the specifications of a phone and search for ROMs in XDA/Lineage/e-os. I didn’t stop on how to unlock the bootloader and install recoveries because there was little time and it was rather introductory, but I did show how to install ROMs on an android and we stopped to install /e/OS on the Redmi note 7 and Moto G peregrine.

There was a couple who are cell phone technicians, but at the hardware level. One of them was fascinated with how smoothly /e/OS ran on the Moto G peregrine. They had recently bought a new phone because theirs was running very slow, and this Moto G, which is from 2014, ran smoother than their previous phone. I also showed them how to use alternative open source stores to test other applications, since they had no phones available to modify.

All in all, it was an excellent start. They were very happy and surprised by all the information, which they were completely unaware of. The couple of technicians agreed to check what old phones they have stored, for a next meeting, to do a complete installation, unlocking bootloader, installing recovery and then switching to /e/OS or Lineage depending on the model.

I didn’t take many pictures but I upload the few I have.

[soldan]

friendly reminder

this wednesday 11, from 7pm to 22 pm in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires we will be holding a custom rom installation workshop, focusing on /e/OS.

I’ll tell you later how it went. For now we have about 10 registered

[soldan]

Finally yesterday we did the install party and custom rom workshop, with emphasis on /e/OS in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina.
Approximately 10 attendees, of which none had previous knowledge about custom rom, android, android modification, free android stores and similar topics.
This time the workshop lasted a little longer, almost 3 hours, where we talked about the basics of the android ecosystem, how to know the specifications of a phone, how to search for roms in XDA and the main features of /e/OS and its differences with Lineage. There were some people who brought their “old” phones (Moto G7, Moto G3, Moto G6 plus) and having the bootloader locked, we proceeded to perform an installation from scratch, ie, unlocking the bootloader, looking for the corresponding recovery, looking for the ROM of /e/OS or in case there is no ROM in XDA and installing it.
The workshop was a success, people were very happy and asking for it to be repeated. I hope that soon we can make other workshops like this.
I attach some pictures of the workshop, which we did in a space where Cybercirujas is setting up its “operational base”

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Didou]

That’s awesome !

given your experience, what would be the check list to fulfill for reproducing such an event elsewhere ?

[soldan]

im using deepl for the traslate, sorry if there are errors

I love the question

I am a teacher of primary education, so I have facility to communicate and teach, something totally necessary for this task. Let’s think that this knowledge we have very few people, everything related to the world of custom rom or alternative androids is completely unknown to the common people. I’m not saying that you need to be a teacher, but you need to have patience and desire to teach. That’s why it is important to know how to communicate in a simple way so that everything is understood. We should not take anything for granted and explain everything as if nobody knew what a computer is.

I explain precisely that, that cell phones are computers, because they have RAM memory and a CPU, that for me is extremely important, that it is understood that a smartphone is a computer… a particular computer, of course.

For this specific case, where a ROM is going to be installed, it is necessary to have one computer per person, at most 1 for every 2 people. It is also necessary to have the phones, in this case, ask them to bring old phones and in case the attendees do not have them, bring their own. I have several phones, but ideally you should bring your own so that the bootloader unlocking process can be done.

Internet connection is also important. Where we did the workshop, the connection was not good, but I got ahead of that: I put together a form where they put which cell phone they were going to bring, and based on that, I downloaded the ROMs and recoveries. But there are always unforeseen events, and we had to download some roms and recoveries and the low wi fi signal did not help us.
Another thing to keep in mind is the help of others. In a workshop of this style, which is a very practical workshop, problems arise and I alone could not answer all the questions, I had two other colleagues (one of them is my mentor, who got me into this world of custom roms) that were helping with the problems that arose.

Finally, you have to take into account the time. The activity has to have a start and end time, you can’t learn everything in 3 hours, but in 3 hours you can learn a lot, and if you don’t get to do everything, if you get to plant a seed of doubt, of restlessness, of wanting to do. I think that’s the most important thing about these activities, the people who participate leave with new concerns that are left hanging around in their heads

I hope this can answer your question. From my side, we will continue to organize this kind of activities in Argentina, in every place we can. The limitation we have are the phones, I would like to get more old phones that run /e/OS but everything costs money haha.

[Didou]

Hello Soldan,

Thank you very much for this message.
I do not have enough time right now, but I will take time to read it and try to make a summary in the form of a check-list.

I’ve set a bookmark for tomorrow morning

[soldan]

hello didou!

don’t worry, we answer each other when we can that’s why forums are so beautiful.

I understand now about the check list, I just detail a little more the experience, but it would be good to systematize a little more, I think that’s what you meant, right?

Anyway, it’s interesting to think about this among the community and see how to generate more material for diffusion, accessible to any public.

[Didou]

you are right.

I’m going to create a new thread and make it editable, if possible.

[AudeM]

Thanks @soldan for sharing your experiences.

@mossroy @LePoissonLibre I think this thread may interest you if you’re not already aware of it

[Didou]

Hello all,

Here is the wiki post

[soldan]

Good morning!
I’ve been a bit absent from the forum, with a lot of work, but I wanted to tell you that we will be organizing another Android and eOS installation workshop in Buenos Aires city. We don’t have a set date but it will be between March 3rd and 14th.
I am also trying to organize a larger meeting in the city of Posadas, province of Misiones, but I don’t have much information about that yet.
On the other hand, we are about to put together some kind of ppt or presentation for this kind of activities. When we have something ready, I will share it with you.

[soldan]

good morning, dear friends

The date of the eOS installation workshop in Buenos Aires has been confirmed. It will be on March 5th, from 6pm to 10pm, at Espacio Cultural Tacheles the same place where I previously did the workshop. In this space we do Cybercirujas events and recently joined the “Club Argentino de Arcades” in the basement of the cultural center.

[soldan]

Now it’s official, we have a date and time for the /e/OS and degooglizacion workshop

soldan (@soldan@rebel.ar)