💾 Archived View for tsqrl.xyz › gemlog › 2022-06-14_calyxos-rockpi-koreader.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 02:38:54. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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beep bop boop
The pinephone has lost most of its appeal, mainly because the keyboard case doesn't charge (itself or the phone) consistently.
This wouldn't be a problem if the phone could be in the keyboard case and be powered off. But since the keyboard case is a power supply, the phone will immediately boot up again.
I'm sure all of this will get worked out, but I don't have the time or skill to help make this happen.
For now, I've set it aside.
I learned a little about CalyxOS...then promptly got a Pixel 6 to run it.
Breifly, CalyxOS is a privacy-oriented build of LineageOS.
Some of my favorite features include:
Why is that useful? For example, I like the Google Camera app and the Google Photos app. But, I don't like that they send who-knows-what back to the motheship. So, I blocked their network access. They don't need to talk to anyone. Ever. (I backup my photos via syncthing to a server at my house.)
There's a lot more, but those alone make my battery very happy. Being able to install apps anonymously from the Play Store (via Aurora) and "freeze" some apps (with Shelter) are a huge plus.
CalyxOS is produced/supported by the Calyx Institute. They have funding and a business plan. I like what they do and I will give them my money.
BTW, the Pixel 6 hardware is great, but that camera assembly is awkwardly chonky. I got a case that evens out the back.
If you've ever installed OpenBSD, you know it should take 15 minutes, tops.
It took me most of a weekend to install it on my Rock Pi 4A.
I started by following the excellent "SBC Bootcamp" from Exotic Silicon because I wanted to better understand how the boot process works at a lower level.
But show-stopping problems soon arose, preventing me from even getting to the OpenBSD installer. When I powered board on, it would forget how to talk to the emmc after running the first stage bootloader from it.
What?! (I know.)
How?! (I have no idea.)
I found a similar (and very good) guide on tomscii.sig7.se, but for the Pinebook Pro. The results were no different, unfortunately.
The complete idiot's guide to OpenBSD on the Pinebook Pro
I even compiled my own version of u-boot for the rk3399, but that didn't help.
Then I tried copying the dtb (device tree blobs) and u-boot from a working image (the pre-built FreeBSD one linked on the radxa wiki), but that made no difference.
Finally (many hours later) I decided to flash Tow-boot to the SPI and just skip the u-boot steps from the guide.
Aaaaaaand it worked immediately. Perfectly. Flawlessly.
(BTW: Tow-boot is the same bootloader that turned my Pinephone into something that was easy/enjoyable to experiment with.)
The moral of the story is to use Tow-boot, always, every time, and immediately.
I discovered this ebook reader software after searching for something that would run on my ancient (first-gen) Kindle Fire. At first, I found the interface a little too minimal. 10 minutes later, I was in love.
I installed it on my other devices that I use regularly: my Pixel 6, my primary OpenBSD laptop, my "desktop" Linux machine (which is an old macbook pro whose battery exploded).
On the desktop linux machine (which is basically a server, since I never power it off), I run the koreader-sync-server, which syncs the "last read" location pushed from each device, for each book.
Oh, and I sync the actual ebooks using syncthing (of course).
I get the best/useful aspects of the Kindle experience, but without Amazon up in my business.
Huzzah!