Some time back - to be precise, before the pandemic, some users had volunteered and started organizing flash parties in various EU locations. Wanted to check if there is an interest to revive such initiatives.
Flash parties as you may know are basically a get-together of users. In these events, some expert users volunteer to help install the OS on the device of other users. The users seeking assistance understand the installation is at their own risk and the volunteers are just trying to help.
These events are not organized by Murena, but I can check if /e/OS team members can also be a part of it provided the venues are accessible to them.
yay flash party! how could existing structures be used and contributed to? less burden on organisation. They are out there and already know locations and public venues to congregate on.
Fairphone has the Angel concept per city. The FSFE did various campaigns on android flashing and has an event once per month. The Right-to-Repair movement is close to flashers. Orgs that do “software freedom and rights” that link events to flash parties.
The way this was being organized earlier was a group of users would
choose a location.
Based on consensus, the date and time was set.
Maybe that approach could be taken.
I am checking if we could share some Murena goodies like stickers, posters and may be a couple of T-Shirts.
Also checking if any of the /e/OS Team members from that locality can also join
Some ground rules for the flash parties:
The service is voluntary and the user requesting help is accepting it at their own risk
The user requesting help should take care of their data backup or be prepared to lose data existing on the phone
The users should come with their own cables and chargers where possible
volunteers are under no liability in case the device bricks as a result of the installation
In spite of all our experience, devices installs can go wrong.
I have a Pie /e/OS and would like to find someone to flash to update /e/OS on my MI8.
My brother offered me the MI8 and he installed /E/Os on it (he spent two days back in 2019 and he has a high level in computer science).
A friend of mine “broke” his phone while trying to instal /e/Os, and i think i could make errors too.
So for me a flash party would be useful (in Brittany/Bretagne if some peoples are interested).
One thing I would strongly recommend is to properly define beforehand what the party will offer. Most and foremost, clarify your willingness or unwillingness to deal with the backup of a participant’s phone data. My impression is that those who want help with the transition to a custom ROM almost always want to have their backup taken care of by the helper, too.
I for my part have recently made it clear to people requesting help with installing a custom ROM on their Fairphones that I will not take care of their backup - so they either need to backup by themselves beforehand or not mind losing their data.
Yes, I’d be very interested in helping organize an event. Anywhere between Bern and Interlaken (Switzerland). I’m not an expert, but a fan. And after enjoying a preinstalled Samsung S9, I’m in the progress of installing eOS on an Asus Zenfone. Would be excited to get together with likeminded and support conversion of phone owners to eOS.
I can’t open the easy-installer (under MacOS 13.0.1), and I would like to install e/os on a S9 (Samsung) that I just received.
I wanted to know if there were people around Lyon who could give me a hand?
I have an S7e that has been running perfectly on e/os for 2 years now.
We are currently trying to organize such flash party in Lyon (France), for the beginning of April 2023.
If accepted, it would be part of the JDLL 2023: https://jdll.org/ (a yearly event on FOSS). We would be next to the existing install party (focused on computers, that already has a liability waiver paper to sign, that we might copy/adapt).
I’ve already flashed several devices around me, and unofficially flashed a couple of smartphones at the JDLL 2022. The other volunteer also has experience on flashing /e/ OS on devices.
To organize this, our idea would be to have a compulsory registration, for several reasons:
Know the exact models of devices, to filter the ones that are incompatible, the ones that should be easy (EasyInstaller), and the ones that might be difficult/risky. It should also allow us to download the necessary things before D day, ask the users to backup their data, and (for some models) ask for unlock keys
Be able to set time slots for each person/device: we would be only 2 persons available to do the installations, and we need to make sure the area will not be cluttered by people waiting
We are volunteers, and the registration/installation would be open to anyone, and 100% free.
Regarding the backup of phones, it would be good to provide an “official” procedure to do it. It’s in general pretty easy for Photos/Videos/Music/Documents, but much more difficult for the rest (OS settings, apps and their settings/data etc)
So together with a friend of mine I’m hosting a little Flash Party in Bern, Switzerland next week. The background simply is that I want to flash the latest version of /e/ on my phone, and I thought it’s more fun with more people. It’s a bit on short notice, and primarly geared towards friends, but I thought I’ll share it here and see what happens.
Hi Raphi
Thanks so much for sharing the event! If it’s ok for you, I would like to keep it spontanious. I’m not working in Bern between Christmas and New Year, so the commute is quite far. Otherwise I might enjoy getting out of the house
).
The background simply is that I want to flash the latest version of /e/ on my phone, and I thought it’s more fun with more people. It’s a bit on short notice, and primarly geared towards friends, but I thought I’ll share it here and see what happens.