Olimex and Pinebook laptops ported!

[Manoj]

Check out the /e/OS on the Olimex or Pinebook Laptops.
The documentation can be found here
Please note the builds are still in the beta version and need a lot of refinement.
Your feedback will help us optimize the builds further.

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services

[Nastja]

awesome job guys. Thanks.

I never heard about Olimex. On https://www.olimex.com/Products/DIY-Laptop/ they write:

Assembling this DIY laptop you would probably learn a lot of new things. You can build it together with your kids or students, sparking interest in electronics and technology in general. You will know every bit of your laptop and will be able to fix if something doesn’t suit your needs or gets damaged.

Anybody owns a Olimex notebook? Is this complicated to assemble? Similar to Raspberry?

[b3pio]

Wish I didnt sell my Olimex Teres kit now… And to @Nastja it was very easy to assemble, kind of like a big pi kit. They give very detailed instructions.

[MarcusE1W]

Happy to report that I have installed it and it works quite well for a early product.

There is a graphic glitsh that happens now and then but seems not to be the forebearer of bigger problems and just goes away.

[Manoj]

Hi @MarcusE1W thanks for testing the build. Please can you share the details of the issue in a bug here. It will help us track and resolve it.

[MarcusE1W]

E on the Pinebook

Here is a short summary for /e/ on the Pinebook 1080p and what works, some glitsches and most importantly, how to navigate /e/ on the Pinebook with touchpad and keyboard.

If anyone else has more shortcuts or mouse gestures that work I would be very interested.

What works nicely

• Sound
• Video
• Keyboard
• Touchpad
• Camera
• Wifi
• Bluetooth (tested with a loudspeaker)

Some niggl

• Graphic glitshes, every now and then the screen flickers. However, this seems to always go away without consequences Issue #1092
• Only one home screen, no additional screens are shown, that means not all apps are directly accessible Issue 1093
• Menu key has no clear function on home screen, in my case it opens Firefox most of the time. This seems a missed opportunity for more keyboard shortcuts, however I don’t even know if Android and /e/ support that.
• SOMETIMES THE KEYBOARD THINKS IT IS IN CAPS LOCK MODE. I have not found out what triggers that or what turns it off. This seems unrelated to the actual Caps Lock key.

Keyboard shortcuts:

As the touchpad is not a complete substitute for a touchscreen, the keyboard operation of /e/ is more important. Here are the keyboard shortcuts that I have figured out to work so far.

/e/ Keyboard shortcuts: Navigation

• Alt-Tab : Switch between apps
• Menu button: In a app it activates the App Menu
• Menu button: On the Homescreen (Launcher) the function is less clear, in my case it opens Firefox when you press a bit longer.

/e/ Keyboard Shortcuts: Typing

• Alt + Del: Delete an entire line
• CTRL + X: Cut text (will cut all text on-screen unless specific characters are highlighted)
• CTRL + C: Copy text to clipboard (will copy all text on-screen unless specific characters are highlighted)
• CTRL + V: Paste text from clipboard
• CTRL + A: Select all text in the current field
• Alt (no other key): Get the menu for emojies

/e/ Keyboard Shortcuts: Scrolling

• Spacebar: Page down in any Web page/document view
• Shift + Spacebar: Page up in any Web page/document view

Mouse gestures

The touchpad emulates some touchsreen gestures to use /e/. This is what I have found so far

• Swipe Screens: On the home screen (launcher) click and hold, then swipe left or right to get to different screens on the Bliss Launcher.
• Spell correction: If a word is underlined red, click with one finger to see the context menu
• Two finger scrolling works, however it not natural scrolling, so it feels the wrong way around
• Shift + Touchpad-Left/Right: Highlight text for cutting or copying

Starting an app

If the app is on the home screen, you can start it from there. However, if your app is not on the Home screen and you cannot see it you can still start it from the Search screen.
To get there double tab the touchpad to create a left click, keep your finger on the touchpad and move it to the right, so essentially swiping to the Search screen.