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Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in June 2024

Planet Debian - Mon, 2024-07-01 21:46
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in May 2024

Planet Debian - Mon, 2024-07-01 20:08
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Get Started With Selenium: 4 Short Video Tutorials

Planet KDE - Mon, 2024-07-01 20:00

In just 8 minutes you too will be ready to start using Selenium AT-SPI.

Working to make your apps accessible to everybody, while reducing its power usage and improving its quality by doing more system testing, may seem as daunting as climbing Mount Everest. Luckily, KDE provides a lift to help you, Selenium AT-SPI.

Check out the following four-part guide to get started with this wonderful tool! Part 1 "An Introduction to Selenium" can be viewed here:

Click to watch Part 2 "Setting up Selenium", Part 3 "Identifying Accessibility Issues", and Part 4 "Writing Selenium Tests".

Selenium AT-SPI, originally based on the Selenium web application for automating testing purposes, has been ported to Qt by Harald Sitter. With this tool, KDE can reach all three of its current goals:

We are thankful to Season of KDE 2024 contributor Pradyot Ranjan for his excellent work preparing these video guides.

Let's make KDE community's software the best it can be. Have a great time using it!

Interested In Contributing?

Selenium AT-SPI is hosted here. If you are interested in contributing, you can join the Matrix channels KDE Eco and Automation & Systematization Goal and introduce yourself. Thank you to the Season of KDE 2024 admin and mentorship team, the KDE e.V., and the incredible KDE community for supporting this project.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

KDE Plasma 6.1.2, Bugfix Release for July

Planet KDE - Mon, 2024-07-01 20:00

Tuesday, 2 July 2024. Today KDE releases a bugfix update to KDE Plasma 6, versioned 6.1.2.

Plasma 6.1 was released in June 2024 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.

This release adds a week's worth of new translations and fixes from KDE's contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and include:

  • Discover: Fix share dialog. Commit. Fixes bug #488976
  • Libtaskmanager: improve efficiency when window icon frequently changes. Commit. Fixes bug #487390
  • Do not hide panel settings when a panel-parented dialog takes focus. Commit. Fixes bug #487161
View full changelog
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Seth Michael Larson: Lockdown Mode for Apple devices

Planet Python - Mon, 2024-07-01 20:00
Lockdown Mode for Apple devices About • Blog • Newsletter • Links Lockdown Mode for Apple devices

Published 2024-07-02 by Seth Larson
Reading time: minutes

Back in September 2023 the libwebp vulnerability (also known as BLASTPASS) was being actively exploited to target a journalist's mobile device. After reading the report from Citizen Lab I learned about an iOS feature called "Lockdown Mode" for Apple devices.

I've been running Lockdown Mode for almost a year now, and at the time I promised a write-up of my experience with the feature, so here it is!

How does Lockdown Mode keep your phone more secure?

Lockdown Mode prevents some methods of sending or injecting data into your phone without your active engagement (such as preloading data, injecting data into unsecured connections, etc). Data that's processed by your phone automatically, such as images, can exploit flaws in image format parser in order to escape and begin executing code.

BLASTPASS exploited memory safety issues in the libwebp library which processes WebP images. The malicious WebP image was delivered to the target's device via a PassKit attachment which can be sent in a text message.

What does Lockdown Mode disable?

Here's the full list of disabled or degraded features when Lockdown Mode is enabled, quoted from Apple's docs on the feature:

  • Most message attachment types are blocked. Some features such as links and link previews are unavailable.
  • Certain complex web technologies are blocked. (ie JavaScript JIT)
  • FaceTime calls from unknown contacts are blocked. SharePlay and Live Photos are unavailable.
  • Photo location information is excluded. Shared Albums are removed and disabled.
  • Wi-Fi must be secure for device to connect to a network. 2G cellular support is disabled.
  • Mobile Device Management and Configuration Profiles are disabled.
What are the impacts?

The biggest impacts for day-to-day usage is two-fold: Message Links and Search.

With Lockdown Mode enabled, links will not highlight like they typically do, and they won't show the fancy preloaded image that gives you a preview of the content on the other side of a click.

Not having links and link previews in messages is a real inconvenience. The fastest work-around to extract a link in the middle of a text message is to either copy the whole message into your own message box and then copy the URL or to screenshot the message and use Live Text to copy-and-paste directly from your screenshot.

If you're able to persuade your partner to send links in a separate message, that also speeds up the copy-and-paste process by copying the whole message. Persuading your partner is left as an exercise to the reader :)

The other major impact is not being able to search through my messages. This feature is super helpful when you're trying to recall something from years ago, but not something you're using every day usually. This feature being disabled has never been such a problem that I've had a memorable negative outcome, but it definitely is frustrating when you know the answer is somewhere in your messages.

The only other time Lockdown Mode has introduced friction is during Trina and I's wedding. The wedding party was sharing pictures and videos via a Shared Album which aren't available when Lockdown Mode is enabled. Fortunately, I could disable Lockdown Mode for a short time after the wedding was over, copy all the photos that I wanted, and then re-enable Lockdown Mode to work-around this.

Beyond this, some image formats don't load in any context (likely WebP?) and I haven't noticed any slowdown from not having a JavaScript JIT.

Would I recommend Lockdown Mode?

For most people: no. If you have a decent reason to expect you'd be the target of a cyberattack, then you should definitely consider it.

There is a non-zero amount of extra friction to using your phone, but as someone who's trying to actively reduce my phone usage anyway it wasn't a big issue over the year that I've had it enabled.

Bonus tip: Quick one-time disabling of biometric authentication

Privacy gated by biometrics (ie, "Face ID" or fingerprint scanners) doesn't have the same legal protections as a password. Biometrics are quite convenient, especially if you've configured a relatively short amount of time that your phone will lock itself after a lack of use.

So how can one have the benefits of biometrics while maintaining the ability to disable biometrics if needed?

By holding down the volume up and side button on your iPhone you'll bring up the screen that offers to shut down your phone or enter "SOS mode". If you select cancel on this screen your phone will become locked again but will require non-biometric authentication for the next phone unlock.

Give it a try on your phone, so you understand what to do ahead of time.

Because this process is fast (takes less than a second of holding the two buttons) it's great to have in your back pocket in case you need it. It's also useful for one-time activities when you're separated from your device such as crossing a security checkpoint.

Thanks for reading! ♡ Did you find this article helpful and want more content like it? Get notified of new posts by subscribing to the RSS feed or the email newsletter.

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Quansight Labs Blog: An overview of the Sparse Array Ecosystem for Python

Planet Python - Mon, 2024-07-01 20:00
An overview of the different options available for working with sparse arrays in Python
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in April 2024

Planet Debian - Mon, 2024-07-01 19:18
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Paul Wise: FLOSS Activities June 2024

Planet Debian - Mon, 2024-07-01 18:16
Focus

This month I didn't have any particular focus. I just worked on issues in my info bubble.

Changes Issues Communication
  • Respond to queries from Debian users and contributors on IRC
Sponsors

All work was done on a volunteer basis.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Sahil Dhiman: Personal ASNs From India

Planet Debian - Mon, 2024-07-01 15:45

Internet and it’s working are interesting and complex. We need an IP address to connect to the Internet. A group of IP addresses with common routing policy is known as an Autonomous System (AS). Each AS has a globally unique Autonomous System Number (ASN) and is maintained by a single entity or individual(s). Your ISP would have an ASN. IP addresses/prefixes are advertised (announced) by an AS through Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to its peers (ASes which it connects to) to steer traffic in its direction or back.

Take for example Google DNS service at 8.8.8.8 owned and operated by AS15169 Google LLC. AS15169 through BGP announcements, lets all its peers know that traffic for whole of 8.8.8.0/24 (including 8.8.8.8) prefix should be sent to them. See the following screenshot response of mtr -zt 8.8.8.8 from my system. From my Internet Service Provider (ISP), AS133982 Excitel Broadband, traffic travels to AS15169 to reach 8.8.8.8 (dns.google) and returns via the same path. This Inter-AS traffic makes the Internet tick.

ASes comes in different sizes and purposes. Like AS749 DoD Network Information Center which holds more than 200 million+ IPv4 addresses for historical reasons or AS23860 Alliance Broadband Services which has 68 thousand+ IPv4 address for purpose of providing consumer Internet.

Similarly, some individuals also run their personal ASN including a bunch of Indians. Most of these Indian ASNs are IPv6 (primary or only) networks run for hobby and educational purposes. I was interested in this data, so complied a list of active ones (visible in the global routing table) from BGP.Tools:

Let me know if I’m missing someone.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

ADCI Solutions: What to do if a warehouse system displays the remaining stock incorrectly

Planet Drupal - Mon, 2024-07-01 15:43
<p>The online warehouse system of this <a href="https://www.adcisolutions.com/work/online-inventory?utm_source=planetdrupal%26utm_medium=rss_feed%26utm_campaign=online_inventory">Drupal-powered online store</a> calculated the remaining stock of different suppliers incorrectly. The culprit was a custom code and an erroneously configured search. Here's how we fixed this and other issues along the way.</p><img data-entity-uuid="11ac02b3-fd6f-49e7-98f2-4edf245de63c" data-entity-type="file" src="https://www.adcisolutions.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/online-warehouse-management-system.png" width="1346" height="922" alt="online warehouse system drupal">
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

TestDriven.io: Reusable Components in Django with Stimulus and Tailwind CSS - Part 2

Planet Python - Mon, 2024-07-01 15:42
This tutorial looks at how to add server-side components to our client-side setup with Django.
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre: restart sshd immediately after upgrade

GNU Planet! - Mon, 2024-07-01 14:52

from arch:

After upgrading to openssh-9.8p1, the existing SSH daemon will be unable to accept new connections. When upgrading remote hosts, please make sure to restart the sshd service using systemctl try-restart sshd right after upgrading.

We are evaluating the possibility to automatically apply a restart of the sshd service on upgrade in a future release of the openssh-9.8p1 package.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #457 - Drupal Architecture

Planet Drupal - Mon, 2024-07-01 14:00

Today we are talking about Drupal Architecture, Common Site Building questions, and How we solve things with Drupal with guest Alexander Varwijk. We’ll also cover Drupal 10.3 as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/457

Topics
  • Where do you start when thinking about a new site or feature.
  • Where is the line for extending vs forking
  • Do you have solutions that you default to when building a feature
  • Do you find people come to Drupal with specific third party requirements
  • What do you think about Headless
  • When do you choose to contribute a new module to Drupal
  • Will recipes change your architecture
  • How do you learn about new ways of doing things
  • Where did you get your username, are you the king of the Netherlands
Resources Guests

Alexander Varwijk - alexandervarwijk.com Kingdutch

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Baddý Sonja Breidert - 1xINTERNET baddysonja

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

  • Brief description:
    • Have you been wanting to use Workspaces, Single Directory Components, Recipes, or the new admin menu in your Drupal site? The new Drupal 10.3 release is better for using all of these and more.
  • Module name/project name:
  • Brief history
    • How old: It was tagged on Jun 20 by catch of Tag1 and Third & Grove
  • Features and usage
    • In this new minor version, Workspaces is now declared stable, and Single Directory Components are now fully integrated into core, instead of being in an experimental module.
    • Drupal 10.3 also includes the new Access Policy API that was funded as part of the Pitchburgh process kicked off at DrupalCon Pittsburgh
    • The “super user” access policy that automatically grants user 1 every permission can now be turned off in services.yml
    • Also, Recipes and the new Navigation menu are available as experimental features
    • The Actions UI, Book, and Statistics modules are deprecated, and contrib projects are available
    • Install profiles can now be uninstalled, and new sites can be installed without any profile at all
    • 10.3 also includes a revision UI for taxonomy terms, and they can also be used with content moderation
    • All core-provided image styles now include WebP conversion
    • The state service now uses a cache collector for performance, which requires opt in within settings.php for existing sites
    • There are other performance improvements, including: POST requests are now render cacheable, duplicate queries during logins are avoided, and big pipe requests now avoid reading session from the database multiple times
    • With 10.3 developer can also make use of a new AJAX command to open a URL in a dialog, and a new DraggableListBuilderTrait, among a host of other changes
    • Of course, there are some additional deprecations, so the Project Update Bot has already been busy creating new MRs
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

RoseHosting Blog: How to Install Python on Ubuntu 24.04

Planet Python - Mon, 2024-07-01 13:30

In this tutorial, we are going to explain how to install Python on Ubuntu 24.04 OS. Python is a high-level ...

Read More

The post How to Install Python on Ubuntu 24.04 appeared first on RoseHosting.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Open Source AI Definition – Weekly update July 1

Open Source Initiative - Mon, 2024-07-01 11:48
An open call to test OpenVLA
  • Last week @quaid suggested conducting a controlled experiment to determine if data information alone is sufficient to recreate an AI model with fidelity to the original. He shared insights from the OpenVLA project, noting its possible compliance with the requirements of draft v0.0.8 and suggesting a test suite to compare models created with full datasets versus data information.
    • To this, @Stefano noted that there also are some master students at CMU who are conducting similar experiments to “kick the tires” of the draft definition.
    • @quaid proposed more precise criteria for evaluating model similarity, such as “functionally similar” or “practically similar” and further suggested detailing the values sought from open data datasets to improve the experiment’s framework.
Interesting research paper: “Rethinking open source generative AI: open-washing and the EU AI Act” Open Source AI Definition Town Hall – June 28, 2024
  • We held our 12th town hall meeting last week. You can access the recording and slides here if you missed it. The town hall presented some ideas for the next draft of the Definition, making it clear that there is no agreement yet on the data information concept and that part is still subject to change.
  • A new town hall meeting is scheduled for Friday, July 12.
Categories: FLOSS Research

FSF Blogs: June GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Seventeen new GNU releases!

GNU Planet! - Mon, 2024-07-01 10:14
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

June GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Seventeen new GNU releases!

FSF Blogs - Mon, 2024-07-01 10:14
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Real Python: Python's Built-in Functions: A Complete Exploration

Planet Python - Mon, 2024-07-01 10:00

Python has many built-in functions that you can use directly without importing anything. These functions cover a wide variety of common programming tasks that include performing math operations, working with built-in data types, processing iterables of data, handling input and output in your programs, working with scopes, and more.

In this tutorial, you’ll:

  • Get to know Python’s built-in functions
  • Learn about common use cases of Python’s built-in functions
  • Use these functions to solve practical problems

To get the most out of this tutorial, you’ll need to be familiar with Python programming, including topics like working with built-in data types, functions, classes, decorators, scopes, and the import system.

Get Your Code: Click here to download the free sample code that shows you how to use Python’s built-in functions.

Take the Quiz: Test your knowledge with our interactive “Python's Built-in Functions: A Complete Exploration” quiz. You’ll receive a score upon completion to help you track your learning progress:

Interactive Quiz

Python's Built-in Functions: A Complete Exploration

Take this quiz to test your knowledge of the available built-in functions in Python. By taking this quiz, you'll deepen your understanding of how to use these functions and the common programming problems they cover, from mathematical computations to Python-specific features.

Built-in Functions in Python

Python has several functions available for you to use directly from anywhere in your code. These functions are known as built-in functions and they cover many common programming problems, from mathematical computations to Python-specific features.

Note: Many of Python’s built-in functions are classes with function-style names. Good examples are str, tuple, list, and dict, which are classes that define built-in data types. These classes are listed in the Python documentation as built-in functions and you’ll find them in this tutorial.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn the basics of Python’s built-in functions. By the end, you’ll know what their use cases are and how they work. To kick things off, you’ll start with those built-in functions related to math computations.

Using Math-Related Built-in Functions

In Python, you’ll find a few built-in functions that take care of common math operations, like computing the absolute value of a number, calculating powers, and more. Here’s a summary of the math-related built-in functions in Python:

Function Description abs() Calculates the absolute value of a number divmod() Computes the quotient and remainder of integer division max() Finds the largest of the given arguments or items in an iterable min() Finds the smallest of the given arguments or items in an iterable pow() Raises a number to a power round() Rounds a floating-point value sum() Sums the values in an iterable

In the following sections, you’ll learn how these functions work and how to use them in your Python code.

Getting the Absolute Value of a Number: abs()

The absolute value or modulus of a real number is its non-negative value. In other words, the absolute value is the number without its sign. For example, the absolute value of -5 is 5, and the absolute value of 5 is also 5.

Note: To learn more about abs(), check out the How to Find an Absolute Value in Python tutorial.

Python’s built-in abs() function allows you to quickly compute the absolute value or modulus of a number:

Python >>> from decimal import Decimal >>> from fractions import Fraction >>> abs(-42) 42 >>> abs(42) 42 >>> abs(-42.42) 42.42 >>> abs(42.42) 42.42 >>> abs(complex("-2+3j")) 3.605551275463989 >>> abs(complex("2+3j")) 3.605551275463989 >>> abs(Fraction("-1/2")) Fraction(1, 2) >>> abs(Fraction("1/2")) Fraction(1, 2) >>> abs(Decimal("-0.5")) Decimal('0.5') >>> abs(Decimal("0.5")) Decimal('0.5') Copied!

In these examples, you compute the absolute value of different numeric types using the abs() function. First, you use integer numbers, then floating-point and complex numbers, and finally, fractional and decimal numbers. In all cases, when you call the function with a negative value, the final result removes the sign.

For a practical example, say that you need to compute the total profits and losses of your company from a month’s transactions:

Python >>> transactions = [-200, 300, -100, 500] >>> incomes = sum(income for income in transactions if income > 0) >>> expenses = abs( ... sum(expense for expense in transactions if expense < 0) ... ) >>> print(f"Total incomes: ${incomes}") Total incomes: $800 >>> print(f"Total expenses: ${expenses}") Total expenses: $300 >>> print(f"Total profit: ${incomes - expenses}") Total profit: $500 Copied!

In this example, to compute the expenses, you use the abs() function to get the absolute value of the expenses, which results in a positive value.

Finding the Quotient and Remainder in Division: divmod()

Python provides a built-in function called divmod() that takes two numbers as arguments and returns a tuple with the quotient and remainder that result from the integer division of the input numbers:

Read the full article at https://realpython.com/python-built-in-functions/ »

[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

The Drop is Always Moving: Today DrupalCI and patch testing is turned off on https://drupal.org for good. While it is the end of an era, DrupalCI helped propel us into a strong culture of automated testing. Onwards with the faster and more versatile ...

Planet Drupal - Mon, 2024-07-01 08:01

Today DrupalCI and patch testing is turned off on https://drupal.org for good. While it is the end of an era, DrupalCI helped propel us into a strong culture of automated testing. Onwards with the faster and more versatile @gitlab CI! https://www.drupal.org/about/core/blog/drupalci-and-all-patch-testing-will-be-turned-off-on-july-1-2024

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Russell Coker: VoLTE in Australia

Planet Debian - Mon, 2024-07-01 06:20
Introduction

In Australia the 3G mobile frequencies are to be reused so they are in the process of shutting down the 3G service. That means that everyone has to use VoLTE (Voice Over LTE) for phone calls (including emergency calls). The shutdown time varies by telco, Kogan Mobile (one of the better services which has good value for money and generally works well) shut down their 3G service in January. Aldi Mobile (another one of the good services which is slightly more expensive but has included free calls to most first-world countries and uses the largest phone network) will shut theirs down at the end of August.

For background there’s a Fosdem talk about OpenSIPS with VoLTE and VoNR [1], it’s more complex than you want to know. Also VoNR (Voice over New Radio) is the standard for 5G voice and it’s different from VoLTE and has a fallback to VoLTE. Another good lecture for background information is the Fosdem talk on VoLTE at the handset end [2].

The PinePhonePro

In October 2023 I tried using my PinePhonePro as my main phone but that only lasted a few days due to problems with calls and poor battery life [3]. Since then I went back to the Huawei Mate 10 Pro that I bought refurbished in June 2019 for $389. So that has been my main phone for 5 years now, giving a cost of $1.50 per week. I had tried using a Huawei Nova 7i running Android without Google Play as an experiment but that had failed, I do many things that need Android apps [4].

I followed the PinePhone wiki to get my PinePhonePro working with VoLTE [5]. That worked fine for me, the only difference from the instructions is that I had to use device /dev/ttyUSB3 and that the modem kept resetting itself during the process and when that happened I had to kill minicom and start again. After changing the setting and saving it the PinePhonePro seemed to work well with VoLTE on a Kogan Mobile SIM (so definitely not using 3G).

One issue I have found is that Plasma Mobile (my preferred FOSS phone GUI) appears to have a library issue that results in polling every 14ms even when the screen is locked [6]. If you have a few processes doing that (which means the most lightly used Plasma system) it really hurts battery use. The maintainer has quite reasonably deferred action on this bug report given the KDE 6 transition. Later on in the Trixie development cycle I hope to get this issue resolved, I don’t expect it to suddenly make battery life good. But it might make battery life acceptable.

I am now idly considering carrying around my PinePhonePro in a powered off state for situations where I might need to do high security operations (root logins to servers or online banking) but for which carrying a laptop isn’t convenient. It will do well for the turn on, do 30 mins of work that needs security, and then turn off scenario.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro and Redmi 9A

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro has been my main phone for 5 years and it has worked well, so it would be ideal if it could do VoLTE as the PinePhonePro isn’t ready yet.

All the web pages I’ve seen about the Mate 10 Pro say that it will either allow upgrading to a VoLTE configuration if run with the right SIM or only support it with the right SIM. I did a test with a Chinese SIM which gave an option of turning on VoLTE but didn’t allow any firmware updates and the VoLTE option went away when I put an Australian SIM in. Some forum comments had led me to believe that it would either permanently enable VoLTE or allow upgrading the firmware to one that enables VoLTE if I used a Chinese SIM but that is not the case. I didn’t expect a high probability of success but I had to give it a go as it’s a nice phone.

I did some tests on a Redmi 9A (a terrible phone that has really bad latency on the UI in spite of having reasonably good hardware). The one I tested on didn’t have VoLTE enabled when I got it, to test that I used the code *#*#4636#*#* in the dialler to get the menu of SIM information and it showed that VoLTE was not provisioned. I then had to update to the latest release of Android for that phone and enter *#*#86583#*#* in the dialler to enable VoLTE, the message displayed after entering that magic number must end in “DISABLE”. I get the impression that the code in question makes the phone not check certain aspects of whether the carrier is good for VoLTE and just do it. So apparently Kogan Mobile somehow gives the Redmi 9A the impression that VoLTE isn’t supported but if the phone just goes ahead and connects it will work. I don’t plan to use a Redmi 9A myself as it’s too slow, but I added it to my collection to offer to anyone else I know who needs a phone with VoLTE and doesn’t use the phone seriously or to someone who needs a known good phone for testing things.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

I got some Samsung Galaxy Note 9 phones to run Droidian as an experiment [7]. But Droidian dropped support for the Note 9 and I couldn’t figure out how to enable VoLTE via Droidian, which was very annoying after I had spent $109 on a test phone and $215 on a phone for real use (I have no plans to try Droidian again at this time). I tried installing LineageOS on one Note 9 [8] which was much easier than expected (especially after previously installing Droidian). But VoLTE wasn’t an option. According to Reddit LineageOS doesn’t support VoLTE on Samsung devices and you can use a “magisk” module or a VoLTE enabler module but those aren’t supported by LineageOS either [9].

I downloaded an original image for the Note 9 from SamsMobile.com [10]. That image booted past the “orange stage” (where if you have problems then your phone is probably permanently useless) but didn’t boot into the OS. A friend helped me out with that and it turned out that the Heimdal flash tool on Linux didn’t do something it needed to do and that Odin on Windows was required. After using Odin everything was fine and I have a Note 9 with VoLTE running the latest Samsung firmware – which is security patch level 1st July 2022!!!

So I have a choice between using a Note 9 for data and SMS while running a current version of Lineage OS with all security fixes or running a Samsung image with no security updates for 2 years which supports phone calls. So based on this I have to recommend Pixel as the phone of choice, it has a decent level of support from Google and long term support from LineageOS. According to the LineageOS web site you can run the current version of Lineage on the original Pixel phone from 2016! Of course getting VoLTE to work on it might be another saga, but it would probably be easier to do with LineageOS on a Pixel than on a Samsung phone.

Conclusion

The operation of the Note 9 for me is decent now apart from the potential security issues. The same goes for selling one of the phones. The PinePhonePro still has potential to become my daily driver at some future time if I and others can optimise power use. Also a complicating factor is that I want to have both Jabber and Matrix be actually instant IM systems not IM with a 5 minute delay, so suspend mode isn’t a good option.

Pixel phones will be a much higher priority when looking at phones to buy in future. The older Pixel phones go for as little as $100 on eBay and can still run the latest LineageOS.

VoLTE seems needlessly complicated.

Related posts:

  1. Android vs FOSS Phones To achieve my aims regarding Convergence of mobile phone and...
  2. Is Lebara the Cheapest Mobile Phone company in Australia? My parents have just got a mobile phone with a...
  3. Changing Phone Prices in Australia 18 months ago when I signed up with Virgin Mobile...
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

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