Feedback on Jolla C2

Devices
#123

My C2 arrived in an off state with a battery level around 50%. I was cautious due to failure reports here, so charged it before attempting setup. This worked without a hitch. I then immediately updated to SailfishOS to 5.0.0.21, which also went well.

I didn’t get home screen rotation to work initially, but did after a reboot. Could be a problem between keyboard and chair, but it prompted me to run the CSD tool, which revealed a couple of failing hardware tests. (I have reported those on the forum.)

The phone came in a very nice box - also an interesting way to publish source code :wink:

I appreciate the lack of charger and cheap earphones, that would only serve to increase e-waste. Also appreciate the flyer with a greeting to the community.

The phone looks nice and feels pretty well made. It’s also big! Maybe not compared to what I see other people carry, but compared to my preference and previous devices. I’m sure I will get used to it, though.

Three hardware features are notably missing. A camera button would have been nice, but wouldn’t make a huge difference when the app takes several seconds to start anyway.

I think I will miss the fingerprint reader and/or NFC capability more. Fingerprint is a useful shortcut when you have a long Unlock code. A U2F or FIDO2 hardware key (Yubikey) could be used for quick unlock within a sudo-like time window, but I’m worried about wearing out a USB port that is difficult to replace. That’s when NFC would have been handy.

Another convenient solution would be to have a long encryption passphrase separate from a shorter unlock code:

And speaking of encryption, why not LUKS2 on new devices?

[Edit to add link to failure reports]

8 Likes
#124

Thank you for the detailed und objective report.
Mine is still in germany :slight_smile:

#125

It is my understanding that it went a bit like that.

There were known issues when
the hardware was ready to be flashed.

Instead of delaying shipping again for some time to get an image with fixes included, it was decided to flash and ship as-is, and deliver an OTA update containing the fixes more or less in parallel. A ‘same-day-patch’ if you will.

Which is what we’re seeing today.

Personally I like this approach.
Granted it could have been communicated much more clearly.

That being said, we don’t know what the ‘known issues’ mentioned above were exactly. Some of the things people are reporting were likely not yet known issues at the point when this decision was made.

2 Likes
#126

Just received my C2 yesterday. I went through the initial wizard. Everything completed successfully. After that I installed the latest 5.0.0.21 update. The update also completed successfully. Everything seems to be working, except for the camera video recording.

3 Likes
#127

Agree, especially info how to reflash the device by computer including publishing a working flash image. At the moment, customers don’t even know how to reflash the device. OTA update helps nothing if one doesn’t come over the language selection and device stucks.

So question is:

  1. how to set C2 into flash mode
  2. Software and operation process on Linux, Mac and Windows
  3. working image for initial setup and network connection to load future updates.
1 Like
#128

Now, take this with a ** big grain of salt** because I may be very wrong here.

But AFAICS most SFOS devices come with their recovery image right on the device.

Try:

devel-su
ls /boot

and you should see hybris-recovery.img.

One should be able to copy this off the device and use it as recovery image. Of course that needs a booting device in the first place! :slight_smile:

And we will still need to know how to get into fastboot mode, but I’m sure that info is out there somewhere in Turkish for the Reeder S Pro Max.

Again, I might be wrong here, better wait for official info by Jolla. But someone adventurous might want to try.

9 Likes
#129

I tried the C2 for one day, as a replacement for my Xperia X plus.
It is a good experience so far, with a few issues.
I like the UI, the addition of the App Support button on the menu bar is really convenient.
Using the command line, I was able to install storeman and my usual apps from here with no issue.
The issue I have are the following:

  • Issue with sending SMS, it worked at first when I switched to 3G preferred, but failed later on. In the end, my phone lost the SIM card and the network entry menu, I had to remove my sim card.
  • Issue with App support, MicroG is not recognized by other apps (Spoof permission is enabled on both SFOS and the android setting of this app)
  • Still no usable GPS location unfortunately.
  • I am not able to play / pause music with button on my jack headset

Nice device overall for the price, I think I will love it :slight_smile:

6 Likes
#130

Thanks @nephros for this hint! So I’ll hurry to copy this recovery image from phone to computer, just for the case…

edit: went fine! Have the image on computer now.

#131

Found something on YouTube - it involved holding one of the volume buttons while powering on. Tried both - neither did anything.

1 Like
#132

What about /home (Käyttäjän tiedostot)?

#133

Can you try to do a df -h ; df -i from the terminal?

Does it also say no space or inodes left?

1 Like
#134

Mind you there are two takes on this method, while holding the correct volume button make sure you try both methods:

1 - use the powerbutton to power on
OR
2 - insert a usb cable to power on

I’m stating this so obvious because I’ve flashed at least 40 phones of different manufacturers over 20 years, and in many brands only method 1 or 2 works, but they are usually not mutually exclusive depending on brand.

1 Like
#135

Tried that too. No dice.

(I have a working device, just trying to investigate a bit).

2 Likes
#136

Disk usage overall.

C2_Disk_usage
C2_Disk_usage720×937 27.5 KB

Here is link to df -i printout
df -i
Here is link to df -h printout
df -h
Expires in a week.

Looks like all the goodies came along :grinning:
C2_root

Yesterdays failed upgrade attempt broke something.
C2 cannot download the update any more and hangs in “Waiting for connection”, when trying to fetch update package. #pkcon refresh also hangs.

Otherwise I can open browser and go browsing network (as long as I don’t need to type anything :grinning:)

On-screen keyboard has stopped working or does not come visible. Cannot write in browser or Notes.

Luckily I can now concentrate on admiring the beautiful sharp foto’s that the camera takes. :slightly_smiling_face:

Update 29.10.2024.

  • On-screen keyboard magically returned next day. Now I can write in browser and apps.
  • Package manager(s) are sort of offline. Updating OS with settings is impossible, because update UI cannot download update package, instead update is hang in “Waiting connection” until timeout.
  • Package manager pkcon cannot install anything, propably because it also cannot find any server or update repositories or something.
  • Jolla store and Openrepos cannot install anything and do not recognise any installed apps.
  • Installed apps cannot be uninstalled from app grid.

So my phone is in kind of Kiosk mode. I can use it, but cannot make software changes :grinning:

Waiting (patiently) instructions from Jollyboys to learn how to reflash Sailfish OS. :pray:

Update 1.11.2024
I caved in and send service application to Jolla zendesk and eventually send phone to Jollyboys for repairing (=ReFlashing)…

3 Likes
#138

I have the same issue. My C2 starts, i can enter my security code, but than… wait… wait… wait… watch the turning wheel. But nothing happens. A factory reset would prob. help, but it is not supported, which is very hard for me to beleive.

2 Likes
#139

Thanks.

Yes, that sounds like a half-the-packages-installed kind of update situation.

I’d hop into the terminal (or rather, ssh) and first try to find out what’s breaking pkcon (very likely the broken part is packagekitd, or dbus itself).
There may be useful packages left at /home/.pk-zypp-dist-upgrade-cache.

If that can be made to work again, something like sfos-upgrade --verify, or very careful use of zypper dup might be able to recover the install/update.

You can also try to look through /var/log/zypp/history and try to find which installation failed, if any.

This story tells about how someone could recover this way from a broken update.

4 Likes
#140

Hmm. there’s nothing in history relating to Sailfish upgrade…

2024-10-25 10:29:44|command|root@JollaC2|'/usr/libexec/packagekitd'|
2024-10-25 10:29:44|install|harbour-paketti|1.1.1-1|aarch64|root@JollaC2|store|80a8b1c3432766d746401592c4b195767dda660b47fe6afd510dedd33977560f|
2024-10-25 10:30:34|command|root@JollaC2|'/usr/libexec/packagekitd'|
2024-10-25 10:30:34|install|harbour-barcode|1.0.53-1|aarch64|root@JollaC2|store|6b6e769c3671840e856ba57bf17f17e6ede5b3f79f72b8bfae4cb2e6eb971f52|
2024-10-25 10:35:45|command|root@JollaC2|'/usr/libexec/packagekitd'|
2024-10-25 10:35:45|install|harbour-qrclip|1.0.11-1|aarch64|root@JollaC2|store|8a29b9814efdcd103c896805714ac5b1b4aef2a11c29da798ceb20fafbd96733|
[root@JollaC2 zypp]#

There are packages in …upgrade-cache directories…
bash: sfos-upgrade: not found
bash: zypper: not found
I’ll look into that Story…
Thank you for your help. :+1:

#141

I noticed that camera app when opened from locked phone froze at one orientation a few times.

#142

I realized that there is not much I can do, so I decided to file a ticket at Zendesk. Guessing I will have to send the phone back to Suomi. :cry:

1 Like
#143

Been driving C2 for a day now and besides some android app crashes and network oddities (that seem to correct thenselves like magic) nothing too awfully disturbing happening. WhatsApp didn’t find storage but then it did and Spotify had some trouble connecting to services - both working fine now though.

The device is rather large compared to the Xperia 10 II so that will take some getting used to. The sleeve volume buttons are way stiff and rather annoying to use - good that there are other options.

Camera works nicely, took some sporting event pics yesterday and even though blurry, I’m ok with this, not a pro photographer in any sense. Video is broken though. Since there’s no official channel for CHUM & OBS on this 5.x yet, I’ve just done “zypper ar” to the latest repos and everything installed from those seems to be working fine for now at least.

Needed to copy ‘wget’ and ‘clear’ from the old SFOS-device since they didn’t seem to exist in C2 by default. Now they work without issues too. So far no other extra needs have risen.

5 Likes