Trebuchet present, but can't switch to it

I was poking around my OnePlus 6T backup phone today and noticed that Trebuchet is installed on the phone. Full disclosure, I prefer Trebuchet to Bliss. I’m sure there’s some sort of technical /e/ explanation for why I shouldn’t, but I just do. So the fact that it was available was a pleasant surprise. However, what does not seem to be available is the ability to make it my default launcher. Is Trebuchet really present on the phone? Is it’s existence in the Settings/Apps menu just a ghost from the Lineage fork? If it’s already present, is it even possible to install the “full” version?
thank you!

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This is mentioned as an aside in this and following posts Seems to prevent installation of Trebuchet now.

It is present, but it has been disabled so it can’t be run or used as your default launcher / homepage. I’m not sure why /e/ do that - it may be something to do with gestures.
You could try uninstalling the built-in version (search the forum for uninstall default apps), then installing the version from F-Droid (where it is called Launcher3)

:warning: Be very careful with integrated Trebuchet removal : if it is needed by some /e/ system apps (linked libraries) the device may not restart at all, or Bliss may not start (at the end, this is quite the same …).

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Just learned this the hard way (That’s what I get for playing with my phone while half awake).

Trebuchet appears to be tied to the home button. I removed Trebuchet with ADB, but now I can’t use my navigation bar, and the option to pick one has disappeared from Settings.

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:frowning: /e/ should really have left Trebuchet as the default launcher instead of their own half-baked effort which doesn’t work without Trebuchet, but won’t let users use Trebuchet.

Solution is to switch to a proper launcher like OpenLauncher :slight_smile:

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Don’t worry, learned my lesson about messing with preinstalled apps back when I still had an /e/ S9+!
Definitely share your frustration about unusable preinstalled software though @petefoth, would much prefer Trebuchet or at least the ability to switch to it.
Open Launcher certainly looks interesting but I’m not sure I want to install a THIRD launcher onto the phone if I’m already stuck with two. They aren’t making good music anymore, but there’s still plenty of classic albums I DON’T own! :grin:

You probably figured it out by now, but anyway … :wink:

You may try to install back Trebuchet within an ADB root shell, with pm install --user 0 /system/product/priv-app/TrebuchetQuickStep/TrebuchetQuickStep.apk
Package name is com.android.launcher3, to find the install source from a running /e/ device you can issue pm list packages -f com.android.launcher3.

While your device had no Trebuchet installed, did you try to install the full version from LineageOS ?
I think it may carry out the necessary libraries for the navigation bar, along with the “launcher” intent …

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I’m curious as to how this may have turned out. I think Trebuchet is a great launcher; minimal android. Though I like Bliss for what it is and it’s goals, I was never a fan of the iOS workflow. I want my home-screen to be minimal and as customizable as possible. Hide the rest of my apps in the app drawer. The rest of /e/OS is awesome! i just rather use Trebuchet.

I use Shade Launcher for now. However, like another user posted. I really do not like seeing a list of 3 launchers on my device. If I were able to use Trebuchet by default I would get rid of Shade Launcher.

Just have Bliss and Trebuchet listed as options in /e/OS/. The option to switch to this as a default launcher should be left up to the user.

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At the moment, the ability to use Trebuchet as your Home screen / Launcher is still disabled in the /e/ Code, specifically in this commit

I raised this as a gitlab issue, but I don’t believe it will be addressed by the /e/ developers, because a conscious decision was made to remove the functionality (for reasons which no-one from /e/ has explained).

I also noticed trebuchet app burried in eOS. Another related question. Is Trebuchet doing anything on the rom or can I delete it outright? I use KISS launcher.

I believe it is there to provide / enable the ‘Recents’ functionality in the default Bliss launcher (i.e. the list of recent apps that appears when you press the square navigation button). If you remove it, then that functionality will not work in Bliss. I have no idea whether or not it is used by other launchers, or whether that functionality would continue to work in other launchers if you delete it

You were absolutely right, without trebuchet app then Recents stops working.

I tested just now and as soon as I disabled it like this:
$ adb devices
$ adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.android.launcher3
Package com.android.launcher3 new state: disabled-user
=> No recents

Then
$ adb shell pm enable com.android.launcher3
Package com.android.launcher3 new state: enabled
=> I immediately have recents again, no need to reboot or anything (on this occasion).

This seems to be integral Android functionality no matter which launcher you use.

I agree with, though I suggest you try “Lawnchair2” (at the time of writing this is at version 12.1.0 Alpha 3, albeit being an alpha, I tested it for around two weeks and I had no issues.

It is the closest launcher to LineageOS’s Trebuchet in appearance and features I found.

There is a old port of Trebuchet on XDA Forums but is very bare bones.

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Yes. Lawnchair is what I use. I suggested OpenLauncher as another one that behaves and looks like Trebuchet. But they’re all good, and they’re all better ths Bliss :wink:

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