Librem 5 - JMM’s notes

Links

You can get a Librem 5 at https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
A lot of documentation at https://developer.puri.sm/Librem5/Development_Environment/Boards.html
Helpful snippets at https://source.puri.sm/explore/snippets

Misc

Camera app is Millipixels (like Megapixels)
Warning! You’re not supposed to take the SIM card out while power is on, as it may irreversibly damage the SIM card.
I think if you power up with the volume down button held it’ll boot from the SD card? Apparently running an OS from the SD card is much slower. Haven’t tried it yet.
I have a L5v1-05 (seen under the battery), which I think means it’s the Librem 5 “Evergreen”.
If you can’t run apt because of some lockfile and a packagekitd process, try sudo systemctl restart packagekit.service
Try installing “stevia” which is called “phosh-osk-stub” for a different on-screen keyboard.
Fun fact about the Librem 5 is that it can stand upright due to its thickness.

Reflashing

So I updated from Byzantium to Crimson, then the next day I tried updating from Crimson to Dawn (which I didn’t really hear anybody really suggesting, but I wanted newer packages). Updating didn’t go well, haha, and I ended up in a boot loop. So I had to figure out how to reflash it on NixOS.

https://forums.puri.sm/t/reflashing-the-librem-5-up-to-date-tutorial/24142
- Seems like maybe you need git python3-jenkins python3-tqdm uuu
  Here’s a shell.nix I made that may help you run the script:
```
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:

pkgs.mkShell {
    buildInputs = with pkgs; [
      (python3.withPackages (ps: with ps; [python-jenkins tqdm]))
      uuu
    ];
}
```
  Use nix-shell in the directory with shell.nix to evaluate it.
- git clone https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/librem5-flash-image.git
  - Seems like images are at https://storage.puri.sm/librem5/images/ and https://storage.puri.sm/librem5/u-boot/
Steps for getting Librem 5 into flashing mode?
1. Turn all hardware switches off (so disable modem, wifi, camera/mic)
2. Take out battery
3. Hold volume up
4. Put in USB-C cable, connecting to computer. You’ll see the notification LED blinking red.
5. Put the battery back in, the LED will stay solid red now.
6. Release volume up button.
7. You’ll see NXP Semiconductors i.MX 8M Dual/8M QuadLite/8M Quad Serial Downloader when running lsusb.

I tried running librem5_flash_image.py --dir=$HOME/Downloads --variant=luks --dist=crimson, which created/downloaded flash_librem5r4.lst, librem5r4.img, u-boot-librem5.imx.
It tried to flash using uuu, which failed because it didn’t have permissions.
Rather than just re-running the script as root, I ran sudo uuu -v flash_librem5r4.lst (which runs the through a bunch of flashing commands).
You’ll see something like:

uuu (Universal Update Utility) for nxp imx chips -- libuuu_1.5.181

Build in config:
	Pctl	 Chip		 Vid	 Pid	 BcdVersion	 Serial_No
	==================================================
	SDPS:	 MX8QXP		 0x1fc9	 0x012f	 [0x0002..0xffff]
	SDPS:	 MX8QM		 0x1fc9	 0x0129	 [0x0002..0xffff]
	SDPS:	 MX8DXL		 0x1fc9	 0x0147
	SDPS:	 MX28		 0x15a2	 0x004f
	SDPS:	 MX815		 0x1fc9	 0x013e
	SDPS:	 MX865		 0x1fc9	 0x0146
	SDPS:	 MX8ULP		 0x1fc9	 0x014a
	SDPS:	 MX8ULP		 0x1fc9	 0x014b
	SDPS:	 MX93		 0x1fc9	 0x014e
	SDPS:	 MX93		 0x1fc9	 0x0159
	SDPS:	 MX95		 0x1fc9	 0x015d
	SDPS:	 MX95		 0x1fc9	 0x015c
	SDP:	 MX7D		 0x15a2	 0x0076
	SDP:	 MX6Q		 0x15a2	 0x0054
	SDP:	 MX6D		 0x15a2	 0x0061
	SDP:	 MX6SL		 0x15a2	 0x0063
	SDP:	 MX6SX		 0x15a2	 0x0071
	SDP:	 MX6UL		 0x15a2	 0x007d
	SDP:	 MX6ULL		 0x15a2	 0x0080
	SDP:	 MX6SLL		 0x1fc9	 0x0128
	SDP:	 MX7ULP		 0x1fc9	 0x0126
	SDP:	 MXRT106X	 0x1fc9	 0x0135
	SDP:	 MX8MM		 0x1fc9	 0x0134
	SDP:	 MX8MQ		 0x1fc9	 0x012b
	SDPU:	 SPL		 0x0525	 0xb4a4	 [0x0000..0x04ff]
	SDPV:	 SPL1		 0x0525	 0xb4a4	 [0x0500..0x9998]
	SDPV:	 SPL1		 0x1fc9	 0x0151	 [0x0500..0x9998]
	SDPU:	 SPL		 0x0525	 0xb4a4	 [0x9999..0x9999]
	SDPU:	 SPL		 0x3016	 0x1001	 [0x0000..0x04ff]
	SDPV:	 SPL1		 0x3016	 0x1001	 [0x0500..0x9998]
	FBK:	 		 0x066f	 0x9afe
	FBK:	 		 0x066f	 0x9bff
	FBK:	 		 0x1fc9	 0x0153
	FB:	 		 0x0525	 0xa4a5
	FB:	 		 0x18d1	 0x0d02
	FB:	 		 0x3016	 0x0001
	FB:	 		 0x1fc9	 0x0152
	FB:	 		 0x0483	 0x0afb
Wait for Known USB Device Appear...
>Start Cmd:CFG: SDP: -chip MX8MQ -compatible MX8MQ -vid 0x316d -pid 0x4c05
>Okay (0s)
New USB Device Attached at 1:12-NXP       FLASH
1:12-NXP       FLASH>Start Cmd:SDP: boot -f u-boot-librem5.imx
100%1:12-NXP       FLASH>Okay (0.701s)
New USB Device Attached at 1:12-
1:12->Start Cmd:SDPV: delay 1000
1:12->Okay (1.001s)
1:12->Start Cmd:SDPV: write -f u-boot-librem5.imx -skipspl
100%1:12->Okay (0.692s)
1:12->Start Cmd:SDPV: jump
100%1:12->Okay (0.098s)
New USB Device Attached at 1:12-
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: ucmd setenv fastboot_buffer 0x43000000
1:12->Okay (0.008s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: download -f u-boot-librem5.imx
1:12->Okay (0.073s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: ucmd mmc dev 0 1
1:12->Okay (0.062s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: ucmd mmc write 0x43000000 0x42 0x1000
1:12->Okay (0.07s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: ucmd mmc partconf 0 0 1 0
1:12->Okay (0.009s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: ucmd mmc dev 0 0
1:12->Okay (0.063s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: ucmd setenv fastboot_dev mmc
1:12->Okay (0.008s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: ucmd setenv mmcdev 0
1:12->Okay (0.008s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: flash -raw2sparse all librem5r4.img
100%1:12->Okay (489.3s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: reboot
1:12->Okay (0.008s)
1:12->Start Cmd:FB: Done
1:12->Okay (0s)

It seems like maybe the LED turns orange while flashing it.
Eventually it’ll boot up, and you’ll enter the default passphrase of “123456” for the LUKS password.
You’ll get an error like “encrypting the filesystem, please wait”, which will take several minutes before going through.

To-do

Getting the GPS position: gpsd?
cgps?
geoclue?
This assisted GPS snippet from purism?, which uses data from https://storage.puri.sm/agps/ to, I guess, get a list of satellite positions/trajectories?
- 2026-02-06 - I need to send a correction for the documentation. They list a command that forgets to include “socat”.
Should try playing with the haptic motor. See https://developer.puri.sm/Librem5/Development_Environment/Boards/HowTo/Simple_Input_Output.html