SailfishOS on Google Pixel Devices

Hardware Adaptation
#1

Google officially supports AOSP with drivers and everything for their Pixel devices. I used AOSP on the Pixel 3a for quite some time and it worked pretty good. Almost perfect (except for the lack of Google Play Services)

So i am wondering, if you can run an AOSP without any modifications whatsoever and even with official support by Google with Drivers and everything, why is there no Sailfish OS X for the Pixel Devices?

Aren’t they the, by far, most easy devices to port to? I used AOSP on my Xperia XZ in the past too and i remember that running AOSP on the Xperia XZ came with much more downsides and issues. Especially Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and things like that worked absolutely flawless, never had any crashed and so on. You could even lock the bootloader after flashing AOSP and if you returned to the original Android, you could unlock and lock again too. So after using it with AOSP for over an year i flashed back the original Android, locked the bootloader and sold it for a very good price. So im suprised that SailfishOS X runs on the Xperia devices but not on google devices.

Are there any plans?

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#2

Probably not. Pixels are very easy to be ported and, what it is more important it is a well established policy to continue that way so unlikely to change. Xperia’s are good too, discounted the proprietary Camera keys and, like Pixel, Sony has been consistent with its commitment with ports. Now, what I think took SailfishOS to concentrate in Sony’s is that, at that time, Pixels were not as popular as Xperia’s, and… well… Google.

But the tables are turned now, Pixel is a popular line and Xperia… well, can disappear any day now. Sailfish does not have resources for more ports lines and, being a Russia’s provider the one paying the bills and that, any time the USA can make Pixels difficult to be exported there… you understand why Sailfish is in a very precarious position here.

Sailfish needs a radical change of course here, either enter a partnership with a different emergent hardware provider (Fairphone, Volla Phone, etc) or even, now that Xperia is ailing, it is also in a better position for them also to take a radical shift and recognize that 2021 is not 2012 and a important segment of customers preferences had sifted radically from Android and experiment with a new OS… an unlikely radical change from a traditional Sony though.

Finally, Sailfish also should consider open up the OS completely, it is risky, they did tried and got a harsh response from us consumers, but many of us have changed and now are willing to pay for privacy when 4 years ago we wouldn’t. I don’t blame them though, it is easy to talk…

What has moved your from your “almost perfect” Pixel 3a’s AOSP (GrapheneOS?) to here?

How much work is it to port Sailfish OS to an Android device?
#3

(GrapheneOS?)

Nope, pure AOSP. Downloaded and build using the instructions here: https://source.android.com/

I don’t want to run the Android OS, i need to use Android Apps, nothing more, nothing less. Sailfish OS gives me a real Linux System that is also capable in running Android Apps. That is what i need.

I owned the orignal Jolla 7 years ago and i loved it but the Android Support had so many issues back then and the phone was pretty much outdated when it was released and it didn’t got better over time.

I always wished they would have provided better Hardware to run Sailfish OS but as nothing was available and my Jolla broke down, i went back to Android (no other option). I used the Xperia XZ for a very long time with AOSP and due to that i know, that its a mess. Its just a painfull horrible mess not comparable to the AOSP on the Pixel 3a that just works. It just works. You can upgrade it for years without it having randomly flashing your user data or GPS suddenly stops working or sudden reboots or freezes and so on.

Due to my experience, im thinking the Sailfish OS developers are fight on two fronts. The unstable AOSP/Vendor Driver mess on the Xperia Phones + running Sailfish OS on top of those crappy vendor drivers.

Sonys i having big trouble being able to run a vanilla AOSP on their phone, not a good base to port Sailfish OS onto in the first place and using the Pixel devices would help them solve a lot of troubles by having a reliable base that just works©®™

SailfishOS lacks lots of features the everyday user needs and the Android Support is far from complete too having issues with Bluetooth and NFC and lots of other things. I just think, it would save them lots of time and ressources using a Pixel device as base instead of an Sony (even though i love their Hardware. They are so much better, but only with the original Sony Android they come with).

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#4

Well explained! It might be a real conundrum for Sailfish with Sony’s difficulties (on sales and ports) or move to pixels and possibly antagonizing its main existing source of income.

#5

I would also be very interested about Sailfish OS running on Pixels. I know that the Xperia are not the only devices where Sailfish runs, I ran it on a Fairphone for example.

The only thing I found while searching on internet is SailfishOS on Google Pixel 3a · GitHub but it’s quite outdated and without any instructions so I was not able to go further.

The other solution to have a degooglized phone able to run Android apps is to run https://e.foundation but this is a cleaned Android, not a Linux OS, so I would definitely prefer Sailfish.

2 Likes
#6

On Pixels there are some ports of Ubports, but not of SFOS unfortunately .:frowning:

#7

Beginning to think pixel support might be needed for SFOS to survive, sony is either incompetent or the people who pushed for their open devices program are gone, quality of sony aosp is definitely sub-par. Pixels sould be getting proper support for a long time, so if someone can swallow giving money to googol for hw, they could actually get a device with everything working for once, unlike with xperias, where each and every device has its own problems/quirks and it seems to be a constant so far

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#8

google won’t be cooperative with J on having non-android OS on Pixels.
so only unofficial ports are possible

PS I dream of SFOS on Pixel Fold

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#9

Do they really need to get their permission to sell something like exchange/t9/alien-dalvik support for cummunity port? Really doubt jolla is getting any corpo interaction from sony, their bug reports on github are ignored as anybody else’s

1 Like
#10

It doesn’t matter if they “really” need it.
If they do it (sell it), Google has all the money/lawyers in the world to sue J, until they run out of money and drop dead.
J is in no position to beat this Goliath.

#11

Bumping this thread. Would Jolla consider adding Pixel builds?

1 Like
#12

Its an interesting alternative. On paper, Google Pixel devices look to be an excellent fit for porting. Hardware blobs are available, bootloader unlockable, devices are supported for longer period allowing you to switch AOSP base in future if needed, and can be bought for few years relatively easily in the shops. What’s important, we can start porting from the release of the device and don’t have to wait for AOSP version, as we do with Sony.

However, for some reason, I haven’t seen any ports for more recent devices, but maybe I missed some. Maybe someone can point towards existing ports on other Linux’es for Pixel 7 and up? Or maybe there are some reasons making this port difficult in practice?

As for Jolla jumping to a new hardware, I would expect that we would get some ports done first with their help and then see whether it works better than Sony or not.

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#13

One of the other Linuxes for the Pixels is GrapheneOS. Mind that the Pixels don’t have a SD card slot and as i know they are relatively small devices.

#14

GrapheneOS is an Android distribution (see List of custom Android distributions - Wikipedia), unfortunately. Not Linux, as SFOS, Ubuntu Touch, or Mobian, for example.

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#15

Yes, and that’s why i don’t want it. But a friend changed to Graphene because he and his wife ‘needs some Android apps’ and as a good side effect (for me), his wife gifted me her old X10…

#16

Kinda Nitpicking but technically speaking, Android is an Linux Distribution.

An Linux Distribution is an collection of Software that turns the Linux Kernel into an working Operating System.

Android is not GNU/Linux, but it is Linux.

But that beside, the only reason people have an Operating System in the first place is to execute Applications. No user really wants an OS, you need an OS to be able to use Applications on top of that.

Almost all applications that are developed for Smartphones are Android Applications, without Android or at least an Android compatible System, your Smartphone turns mostly into an Feature Phone. That is the reason why Mobian, Ubuntu Touch and so on are all basically only used by the developers who develop them and nobody else.

That SailfishOS was able to gain a userspace outside hackers was because it was Android Compatible, so people could actually execute applications.

But most of these people noticed, that its easier/faster and more convenient to just execute them directly on Android. And those who want an 100% pure FLOSS OS get an more OpenSource OS with AOSP.

I was one of the early adopters of the Jolla Smartphone and used every Version of SailfishOS. IMHO SailfishOS was an insanely clever idea that was executed so bad due to bad management decisions, that its basically dead since.

I just updated my Xperia and bugs i had and reported 10 years ago on my Jolla are still there in the latest release. Third Party support is basically completely dead.

Kudos to everyone still using SailfishOS, but i need a working phone and not a tech gadget toy that sometimes work if i play by its rules and accept what i all can not do with it

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#17

To be honest, there are always some kinds of issues with Android Stock ROM, LineageOS, and other Google-free attempts. Some may be fixed, while others may not. At least on SailfishOS, you are able to deep dive into the system and fix it by yourself or find workarounds.

That has been my experience since I started using Android hardware.

3 Likes
#18

Let’s try to stick to the topic of SFOS porting to these devices. We are running here off-topic in tems of definition of Linux and Android. Please refrain from it here as it is disturbing the flow.

So, to rephrase:

  • does anyone know about working ports for Pixel 7 and up that are using hybris or halium? Ports for SFOS, Ubuntu Touch or Droidian.
  • is anyone aware of technical issues preventing such ports?

Note that mainline could be of interest if it allows to use the device as a phone and call others.

3 Likes
#19

Maybe the newer chipsets called Tensor are the problem. Looks like they are more similar to Exynos rather than qcom or mtk.

#20

From a recent look through the forums the most recent porting ‘attempts’ at ubports were to pixel 4a. Zero pixel efforts from Droidian. I haven’t looked for a while but there was discussion on the 4(a) on the ubports forum (lineage 11, I think) which would be halium based (I guess), but it doesn’t sound like there is much going on.

EDIT, just from the lineage support maybe the Qualcomm Adreno 620 based 5a would be plausible?

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