Sony Xperia Z5 Compact

Hi altogether,
I had to finish using my suzuran. The battery looses complete energy within less than an hour. So I refunctioned the z5C to a web cam. The build I need now is for a

Sony Xperia XZ1C

Thank you in advance if someone creates one for me.

.

Oh no, I still need it for my Z5C…

SOLUSfiddler

I’m using it now. Downloaded and installed this morning. Just finished setting it up with all my apps :slight_smile:

I plan to investigate making builds, but that’s for later!

Do we have any idea what’s been added since the latest build by @Unknown in January?

By the way, I also have an old Z1c that I run LineageOS 16.xyz on, works fine and I will sell it soon, together with the magnetic charger dock and a bumper.

You want to have it?

SOLUSfiddler

Today I managed to build an unofficial ROM. I’ve installed and run it on my Z5 Compact. If anyone else wants to give it a try, let me know and I’ll upload it somewhere. No warranties, and at your own risk!

For information, my run command was

 docker run \
  -v "/srv/e/src:/srv/src" \
  -v "/srv/e/zips:/srv/zips" \
  -v "/srv/e/logs:/srv/logs" \
  -v "/srv/e/ccache:/srv/ccache" \
  -e "BRANCH_NAME=v1-nougat" \
  -e "DEVICE=suzuran" \
  -e "SIGNATURE_SPOOFING=restricted" \
  -e "REPO=https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/android.git" \
  registry.gitlab.e.foundation:5000/e/os/docker-lineage-cicd:latest

Yes, I’d be interested.
Would you upload it to somewhere, please?

SOLUSfiddler

Done! The ROM is here e-0.9-n-20200519-UNOFFICIAL-suzuran. Digest and checksum files are in the same folder
Reminder: I have installed this ROM on my ZX5 Compact, and it runs, but you should treat it as an untested build. Please try at your own risk
Have fun!

Wow, great!

Thank you so much, of course I’ll try it only as an experimental build.

SOLUSfiddler

The ROM has now been uploaded to Android File Host. I will remove the version on my ecloud.global/files later today

Thank you so much!
I’ve downloaded your ROM from Android File Host and have installed it, ie. replaced my former Z5C ROM by “unknown” with yours.
I shall let you know if/when something scary crops up.
So far it’s been good and apart from a few different icons on my home screen your ROM seems to function fully.
Fab!
SOLUSfiddler

I’ve just posted another new, untested build. Details here

Hello all,

I’ve been a long time fan and user of the Z5 Compact, and I recently tried “e-0.7-n20200117”;
I unfortunately didn’t get very far with testing, as I saw that I was unable to install or update from “Apps”
Also I had trouble running my banking app among others, even though I had checked microg, and added my account there.

Thank you @Unknown and @petefoth for your contributions - I am looking forward to testing a slightly older build, or perhaps even the “e-0.9-n-20200602”.

Hi @kaizen. I found that Apps is not very reliable , so I just installed Aurora Store from Apps, and I use Aurora Store to install most of my apps. I installed my Home banking app (UK Nationwide bank) and it runs with no problems. I am now running e-0.9-n-20200602, but I had no problems either under e-0.7-n20200117
I hope you will be able to use it on your device
Pete

I appreciate the tip, thank you @petefoth - My assumption is that my problem had something to do with Google services.
I’m quite excited to try out your recent build. Feels good to be updating this phone again. :smile:

Hi, Could anyone please point me to a list which apps are reliable now on the Xperia X5 compact ?
Having grown increasingly disgusted with Google’s fingers being into everything and being a software engineer, I’m really very temped to move over to /e/ but don’t want to find things I rely on are flaky. Apart from the basics, a good camera app is especially important. The Z5 has an amazing camera and apps like OpenCamera just dont do it justice. Cheers, Geoff.

As I understand it, it is Sony’s proprietary software that makes the cameras on their phones so good, Unfortunately, the software is protected by DRM* keys which - unless you jump through some very arduous and unreliable hoops - are lost when you unlock the bootloader (which you have to do to flash /e/, Lineage, or any custom ROM). So I think the only way to keep the ‘amazing’ camera is to keep the stock software :frowning:

I believe this is the one reasons across all phones models which impacts the camera performance. OpenCamera or other FOSS camera software are not able to fully utilize all the options available.

On a different note check @Ingo_FP_Angel’s response for a different device here

Continuing the discussion from Sony Xperia Z5 Compact:

Thanks Pete. That’s interesting (and a little depressing!).
I have been trying ‘A Better Camera’ and it performs virtually as well as the stock Sony camera, better if you use DRO (but slower of course). Wonder if they got round the DRM issues.

Do you happen to know if there is a checklist of what’s still unreliable using /e/ on the xz5c please ? I’d love to swap to /e/, but I do need my phone to be reliable for the basics like calls, SMS, calendar, contacts and email.
Cheers,
Geoff.

Not that I know of. I used my Z5C for several weeks before I got /e/ running on a XZ1 Compact. Everything pretty much worked. I don’t recall any problems with the apps you mention. I use K-9 mail from F-Droid, rather than the built-in Mail app (which is an earlier version or a fork of K-9) because it handles multiple accounts better (e.g different colours for different accounts).

As vendor blobs are now (with android 10) on a dedicated partition, is there a chance to see in the future those camera specific software considered as attached to the hardware