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?

2 Likes
#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?

#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).

1 Like
#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

4 Likes
#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

#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.