So, I’m considering getting a Fairphone 5 and running E/OS both to go ‘green’ and ‘de-google’. In another topic I had many of my questions answered concerning the usage of this OS. The final hurdle before I commit to the purchase is the actual way of getting it (on there).
There are two options:
Buy it pre-installed from Murena. While the extra cost is certainly warranted to get it ready-to-go, the repairs are problematic for me as they a) the phone has to be shipped back to France, for a possible weeks-long turnaround and b) they don’t support user-replacement of parts under warranty (you pay for the parts yourself, thereby making warranty a bit moot)
Buy the device straight from Fairphone and getting E/OS on there myself. The main downside here is the tinkering that I’m not looking forward to, but am actively investigating through this topic.
it gives me two options, ‘advanced’ or ‘build’. Out of the two, it implies ‘build’ is easiest but that seems to be completely not the case as it describes getting a Linux PC, installing docker, building stuff… not what I’m looking for.
Advanced seems to be the way to go… but there are a lot of steps where stuff might go wrong.
I also read about an ‘easy installer’ for which FP5 support was pulled recently because of issues?
Not sure what the best/most reliable but above all easiest procedure here is. Any tips?
It is possible (I did it myself about a month ago) but you have to be careful about not hard bricking your phone, which can happen if the android security update is more recent than the eOS edition you are installing.
Have a big read though the install guide (link below) before embarking on anything. I followed the steps meticulously, and was ok. Took about 6 hours though!
So it’s still a bit of a gamble then? I won’t know the version of the device until I order one and have it in my hands - what if the version situation renders me unable to perform the install? Ship it back?
What IF you end up bricking it? Is that something covered under warranty or at least serviceable by FP?
I’ve dabbled in Linux in the past and replaced the batteries on my ‘non-servicable’ devices like ipads, kindles and dashcams. I’m no stranger to tinkering… but it has often served me well to not assume I know how things go and instead ask for unbiased advice. Hence my seemingly overly cautious way of going about this, I just want to make sure I don’t skip steps or miss any important tips/knowledge. Due diligence it’s easier to ask now than to report here in frustration after I fucked something up.
If the version of android is very recent, you could wait for the latest release of e/OS/ and then install that - looks like 2.0 is coming fairly soon. (This is my interpretation of the ‘hard bricking’ problem, but please do only go ahead if you’re sure. It certainly felt like a gamble when I did it).
If you did end up bricking it, I think fairphone themselves can recover it - but for a fee, and you have to ship the phone to them.
I had these questions, too, three years ago. And this was one of the main reasons to order a preinstalled Fairphone then. I thought the risk of doing OTA updates would be much smaller than installing it myself.
But very soon /e/ came to a point where a change of the Android below was needed, think from 10 to 11 (?). And at this time this couldn’t be done OTA, a manual update was the only way. So I did it using the easy-installer on a Linux machine. To be honest: It’s not soooo easy when you have never done it, even when you strictly do step by step as described. And when I did it the second time some weeks ago I struggled again somewhere in the middle and needed to start the installation again. But in both cases I managed it successfully.
Because of Android updates are now also be done OTA (at last on Fairphones) the need of the easy-installer is now much smaller. I guess, many people will never use it.
they’re all fair questions, good on you anyway and others to read them later. Just my impression is: when users switch without overlap there’s potential for remorse while much less so if a user goes through a trial period with easy fallback.
it’s easier to ask now than to report here in frustration after I fucked something up.