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Support

If something isn't working for you, you can get in contact with Mobian developers and the Mobian community in various ways. All of them are listed here.

Installation

This document guides the user how to install Mobian on their !Librem5, an open source smartphone designed by Purism to run Linux distributions.

Obtain the image

Pre-built Mobian images for the Librem 5 can be downloaded from this link. Installer images are available here.

Verifying the images

Mobian images come with multiple files:

• .img.xz: The flashable image

• .img.bmap: The bmaptool input for the image (See Method 1a below)

• .sha256sums: A file of SHA256 hashes of the image file.

• .sha256sums.sig: A detached signature for the .sha256sums file.

To verify the download, use the following steps:

1. Import the Mobian signing key from here. Once downloaded, check the key's sha256sum - as of 30 June 2022, sha256sum mobian.gpg should give 4ab90ff82a88f11f681e5e857503833eb2108c9a77edaa9f64b7648c1b91c60a  mobian.gpg .

2. Verify the signature of the .sha256sums file with gpg --verify <downloaded file>.sha256sums.sig, where <downloaded file> is the name without extensions such as .img.xz or .img.xz

3. If the signature is valid, check the other files with shasum -c <downloaded file>.sha256sums

4. If this prints OK for all files, then the download is verified.

Flash the image

In order to flash the Mobian image, you need to first install librem5-flash-image, then uncompress the downloaded image:

unxz mobian-librem5-UI-YYYYMMDD.img.xz

Note: before flashing an image for the first time, you need to install the required udev rules as root:

sudo librem5-flash-image --udev

Finally, just run librem5-flash-image and follow the instructions:

librem5-flash-image --embedded-boot --image /path/to/mobian-librem5-UI-YYYYMMDD.img

You will be asked to put your Librem5 in flashing mode:

• Ensure that the phone is switched off.
• Turn all Hardware-Kill-Switches off
• Remove battery (optional, should be working without doing so)
• Hold volume-up
• Insert the USB-c cable: (red light blinks, no green light)
• Reinsert the battery: (red light is constantly on, the script will continue)
• Release volume-up

After flashing is successful, the Librem5 will automatically reboot into your new Mobian system.

Note: the --embedded-boot flag instructs librem5-flash-image to install the bootloader to the eMMC boot partition and make it bootable; while not strictly required at this point, it will become mandatory in the near future.

Default pin and password

The default user is mobian and has the password: 1234. It is also used as PIN on the unlock screen.

The root-user is locked by default.

You should change the user password with

passwd

once you have terminal access. If you want to access your phone via ssh (recommended), you need to set it up, check that it works with a password, and then set up key access to remove password access from the ssh service.

Automatic resizing of your filesystem on first boot

After flashing the image and booting for the first time, Mobian will resize the root filesystem to take all possible space on the disk. This can take a while and will only happen on first boot. So grab a ${DRINK_OF_CHOICE} and be patient.

Updating the kernel for Wifi/Bluetooth Drivers

If flashing Bookworm, you may need to update the kernel to 6.1 in order to retrieve the Wifi/Bluetooth card drivers. This can be accomplished by tethering the Librem 5 to another device such as a laptop or desktop machine. The following steps are a rough outline of how to tether and upgrade the kernel:

1. Connect the Librem 5 to another machine via USB-C cable.

2. Select Automatic DHCP configuration for the network via: Settings->Network->Wired->Wired Settings (Cog/Gear icon)->IPv4->IPv4 Method-> Automatic

3. On the other machine there should appear a Wired Connection, Under the settings Network->{Wired Connection}->IPv4->Method->Shared to other computers, this will share your connection with any connected machines

4. On the Librem 5, open Console and run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade to install the latest kernel. After successful upgrade the networking wifi/bluetooth card should be available.

Using JumpDrive and qemu to get emergency access to your system

For example, you ran apt dist-upgrade from bookworm to trixie and locked yourself out. You will need to complete the apt dist-upgrade by getting a chroot access to your system. You will need to long press the power button to force shut down, then use ?JumpDrive to boot.

Note: Installation to eMMC section above covers how to use ?JumpDrive.

Once ?JumpDrive is active rootfs is auto mounted as /media/<username>/rootfs in GNOME (you will have to mount it manually if not auto mounted). We have to mount /boot partition as well.

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/<username>/rootfs/boot #Note: /dev/sda2 is rootfs

make sure /dev and /proc is available inside chroot

sudo mount -o bind /dev /media/<username>i/rootfs/dev
sudo mount -o bind /proc /media/<username>i/rootfs/proc

You will need qemu-user-static package installed.

Now get chroot access to phone via

sudo chroot /media/<username>/rootfs/

and you can continue the interrupted dpkg

dpkg --configure -a

Remember to unmount all mount points

sudo umount /media/<username>/rootfs/proc
sudo umount /media/<username>/rootfs/dev
sudo umount /media/<username>/rootfs/boot
sudo umount /media/<username>/rootfs

Upgrading from bookworm to trixie

Make sure the automatic screen lock is disabled during apt dist-upgrade so you don't get locked out. In case you are locked, out use the previous section to repair the rootfs.

Note: Using gnome software might be a safer option - but this has not been confirmed.

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