Like I did when receiving the Cosmo Communicator, I want to share the first impressions while unboxing the brand new Astro Slide, I have received yesterday. About two and a half years ago I have backed Planet Computers Astro Slide Indiegogo campaign. Again Planet Computers has promised a device that is different from anything else, that is available for purchase. The Astro Slide is a slider class device with a fully integrated keyboard and touchscreen and full phone usability that is designed for Android, but will also be capable of running Linux or Sailfish OS. No need to go through the full specs here, everything interesting regarding these can be read on Planet Computers web page. Originally Planet Computers was planning the device in March 2021, then Covid-19 appeared… Yesterday, after a long time of waiting the parcel with the Astro Slide finally arrived. When receiving the parcel I had to pay an additional 33€ import fees.

Inside the parcel has been a single box.

Before opening the box has to be fold out.

After Opening the box one can see the well packed Astro in there.

The full content of the box can be seen below. One can see the Cosmo wrapped well in foil as well as an envelope containing a quick start manual and the Sim card tool. Still in the box are two smaller boxes containing the charger and the USB cable.

After some further unboxing we can see charger and user manual.

After removing the foil we can see the Astros full beauty.

From the back side we can see camera and rubber feet.

With the opened device we can see the display and the German QWERTZ keyboard. The keyboard again feels more solid as with the Cosmo.

When opened we can see the sliding mechanism from the back. The sliding mechanism is a bit clumpsy as others described before. It will take some time to get the feel for it.

After completing the initial setup process the Astro shows the Android desktop.

Below we can see the desktop in landscape while the keyboard is slided out and its backlit is turned on. Unfortunately the display corners are far rounder than with the Cosmo.

I am hoping you have enjoyed the photo series and some first impressions of the Cosmo. Further articles regarding testing some aspects of the device, and hopefully some solutions will follow. Stay tuned for updates.

Jürgen

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Unfortunately the Cosmo Communicator, like many other Android phones, does not support the exFAT filesystem. Most vendors do so due to exFAT being covered by software patents in the USA, which is a problem for companies selling to the USA. exFAT might not be the most sophisticated filesystem available, but is needed for interoperability with other devices and to get rid of the 4GB file size limit of fat32. This article shows how to enable exFAT support for the Cosmo. Since it is not much effort to also get NTFS support this is done by the way.

Setup the kernel sources

To get exfat support, first of all we need a kernel module providing exfat support. Fortunately some time ago Samsung has released their exfat driver under the GPL license. The derivate of this driver can be found on github¹ This module has to be built against the kernel used on the device. The kernel source for the Cosmo has also been made available on github². The two source trees can be combined, as described in the documentation for the exfat module by editing the relevant Makefile an Kconfig. Furthermore CONFIG_EXFAT_FS for exFAT support CONFIG_NTFS_FS for NTFS have to be enabled as modules in kernel configuration. The resulting kernel source tree with the included exfat submodule has been placed on github.

Setup the build environment

To build the kernel modules on better uses a compiler that is as near as possible to the one that has been originally for building the kernel. We can easily find this out via procfs on the target device.

When compiling on an arm64 system the build environment can easily be installed. I.e. by executing apt install llvm clang on an Ubuntu arm64 system. When using a different architecture for compiling, the appropriate cross toolchain has to be installed.

Build the kernel modules

Once all is set up the kernel modules can be built.

make O=../KERNEL_OUT -C cosmo-linux-kernel-4.4 ARCH=arm64 k71v1_64_bsp_defconfig

make -j4 O=../KERNEL_OUT ARCH=arm64  CC=clang  CLANG_TRIPLE=aarch64-linux-gnu- CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- modules

As result we get the two kernel modules ntfs.ko and exfat.ko

Creating a magisk module

The resulted kernel modules have to get loaded on Android startup. Starting with Android Pie it is not possible any more to mount the system partition for writing. One possibility would be to create an own system image containing the kernel modules and necessary scripts. Since Magisk is the recommended way for rooting the Cosmo Communicator anyways, we can take a different approach. Fortunately Magisk gives the possibility to create on overlay filesystem which gets injected into the android system partition, so we can get the same result with less effort.

To create the Magisk module containing the filesystem support we start with the Magisk Module Template⁴ and copy the two kernel modules to system/lib/modules/. Furthermore we need some additional binaries for filesystem checking and mounting. So we add the filesystem support binaries and volume daemon built for the Pixel 2 from fsbinaries.zip and Magisk-v18.1-extrafs.zip³. Next we need a service.sh script which loads the kernel modules on startup an restarts vold once the user is present. With an earlier restart the volumes do not get added.

#!/system/bin/sh

# load kernel modules
insmod /system/lib/modules/exfat.ko

# kernel ntfs support is ro
# comment this line to use fuse ntfs (rw)
insmod /system/lib/modules/ntfs.ko

_SLEEP_INTERVAL=2

# wait for startup
while [ "$(getprop sys.boot_completed)" != "1" ]; do
    sleep ${_SLEEP_INTERVAL}
done

# wait user to unlock
while dumpsys trust | grep -c "deviceLocked=1"; do
    sleep ${_SLEEP_INTERVAL}
    echo "device locked"
    echo $(dumpsys trust | grep -c "deviceLocked=1")
done

#kill vold to restart
killall vold
echo "vold restarted"

One can comment the line loading the ntfs module to decide whether ntfs kernel support, which is read only or fuse ntfs, which is read/write shall be used. For this a simple wrapper script replacing mount.ntfs has been added.

#!/system/bin/sh
# call mount for in kernel ntfs and mount.ntfs3g without
if cat /proc/filesystems | grep "ntfs" &> /dev/null ; then
  echo "using kernel ntfs (ro)"
  params=$(echo "$@" | sed 's/,shortname=mixed//')
  params=$(echo "$params" | sed 's/,dirsync//')
  mount $params
  echo no ntfs.ko
  mount.ntfs3g $@
else
  echo "using fuse ntfs (rw)"
  mount.ntfs3g $@
fi

Finally LATESTARTSERVICE=true has to be set config.sh to execute the service.sh script on startup and some Selinux policies have to be added to avoid the need of running in permissive mode.

The final result can be found on github. For those who do not want to perform the procedure or parts of it themselves, the installable Magisk module can be downloaded from here:

It can be installed using the Magisk Manager App. Best for all users would be if Planet Computes could include this in the stock ROM. This would give exFAT/NTFS support also for non-rooted devices. Assuming they are fearing software patents, they might consider joining the Open Invention Network to get access to the relevant Microsoft patents in the future.

Jürgen

References:
1. exfat kernel module
2. cosmo communicator kernel source
3. filesystem support binaries
4. Magisk Module Template
5. Magisk module developers guide

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Like I did when receiving the Gemini PDA, I want to share the first impressions while unboxing the brand new Cosmo Communicator, I have received today. About one year ago I have backed Planet Computers Cosmo Communicator Indiegogo campaign. Planet Computers has promised a device that is different from anything else, that is available for purchase. The Cosmo Communicator is a clamp-shell class device with a fully integrated keyboard and touchscreen and full phone usability that is designed for Android, but will also be capable of running Linux or Sailfish OS. Major improvements compared to the Gemini PDA, beside better specs, are the outside cover display and the backlit keyboard. No need to go through the full specs here, everything interesting regarding these can be read on Planet Computers web page. Yesterday, after a long time of waiting the parcel with the Cosmo finally arrived.

Inside the parcel has been a single box

Before opening the box has to be fold out.

After Opening the box one can see the well packed Cosmo in there.

The full content of the box can be seen below. One can see the Cosmo wrapped well in foil as well as an envelope containing a quick start manual and the Sim card tool. Still in the box are two smaller boxes containing the charger and the USB cable.

After removing the foil we can see the Cosmos full beauty.

With the opened device we can see the display and the German QWERTZ keyboard. Keyboard and hinge even feel more solid as with the Gemini PDA.

After booting the Cosmo shows the initial welcome screen. With a press to the start button one could start the initial setup process.

The outer cover touch display, which shows the caller id and allows to accept calls can be seen below.

For the Cosmo Communicator I also ordered a third party belt case which can be seen below with the Cosmo inside and a Adonit Dash2 stylus attached.

I am hoping you have enjoyed the photo series and some first impressions of the Cosmo. Further articles regarding testing some aspects of the device, and hopefully some solutions will follow. Stay tuned for updates.

Jürgen

(4 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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Recently Adam Boardman and I have managed to integrate the modular kernel for the Gemini PDA into the gemian kernel repository. So, from now on, whenever the kernel gets improved, the modular kernel gets built and the update is available for Debian via apt.

Installing the modular kernel

From now on, the modular kernel for the Gemini PDA can be installed easily using apt:

sudo apt install gemian-modular-kernel

When using the new bootloader the kernel gets flashed to the boot partition automatically. This works because the new bootloader passes the current boot partition’s name to the kernel using the kernel cmdline. The cmdline can be examined with:

cat /proc/cmdline

When using the old bootloader with the Gemini PDA this information is not available to the kernel and consecutively to the operating system, thus one still has to flash the kernel image manually after installing or updating the kernel package. For this one has to carefully decide which boot partition the Linux system is being booted from. Using the wrong partition name can render other installed operating systems unbootable. To recover, flashing the wrongly overwritten boot partition using the flash tool might be necessary. When knowing the boot partition the new kernel can be flashed using dd (the X in bootX has to be replaced with the number of the boot partition) as shown below.

sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/bootX

After flashing the kernel the either or the other way a reboot is necessary. The boot partition number can be determined from the scatter file that has been used initially to flash the Gemini. Alternatively it can be found out from the key combination that has been used to boot the Gemini. Detailed information on this can be found in the Gemini bootloader documentation.

Building out of tree modules

For building out of tree modules with the Gemini (in example for using USB devices that are not supported with the kernel), in addition to the kernel, the kernel-headers package has to be installed:

sudo apt install gemian-modular-kernel-headers

With the kernel headers and the appropriate build toolchain (gcc, etc.) additional kernel modules can be compiled on the Gemini. Instructions on how to do this can usually be found with the module source.

Some prebuilt modules (iptables mirror target, frandom, 88XXau) for the kernel can be downloaded below:

gemini-modules-extra-3.18.41.tar.gz (5759 downloads )

To use the modules, the downloaded archive has be extracted to the root directory. Afterwards depmod has to be executed:

cd /; sudo tar -xzf /path/to/gemini-modules-extra-3.18.41.tar.gz; sudo depmod

With high probability these modules should still be usable after upgrading the modular kernel to a newer build.

regards
Jürgen

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Using Debian with the Gemini PDA one can use cut and paste, for example in QTerminal, using the key combinations [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[c] and [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[v]. Unfortunately this did not work using the left Shift key. There is no need to fiddle with the keyboard configuration to fix this, since it is a kernel issue.

Again Adam Boardman has fixed one of the most annoying issues within the Gemini’s Linux kernel. His fix priorizes the mentioned useful keyboard combinations over the ghosted¹ versions. Again this fix is worth another kernel build. As usual, I want to share my kernel build below:

The kernel configuration is unchanged (with respect to the previous article), but included for completeness: gemini-3.18.41+-config.gz (3611 downloads )

For the build, again the updated kernel source the from https://github.com/gemian/gemini-linux-kernel-3.18 has been used.

Again the kernel modules for the iptables MIRROR target (will not be usable with the default iptables version on the Gemini) and frandom are included. This time also the module for the awus1900 and similar usb wifi dongles (88XXau.ko) has been added.

Those who do not want to go through the build themselves can download my prebuild kernel from here:

Kernel Image: linux_boot-gemini-3.18.41+.img (568 downloads )
Modules: modules_firmware-gemini-3.18.41+.tar.gz (1381 downloads )
(the kernel modules in the previous article should still work, however, the new build is included for completeness)

Instructions for flashing the image can be found on: support.planetcom.co.uk. Make sure to use a proper scatter file, in example the one that has been used for the initial flashing. Using the Download only mode of the flash tool is sufficient. Uncheck all partitions but boot (or boot1 or boot2, depending on your boot order). For the boot partition respectively the boot1 or boot2 partition select the downloaded kernel image.

Alternatively you can flash the kernel using dd:

dd if=linux_boot-gemini-3.18.41+.img of=/dev/block/disk/by-partlabel/boot

If Linux is not your primary operating system on the Gemini use boot1 or boot2 instead, depending on your partition layout.

After flashing, copy the modules archive onto your Gemini and extract it in your root directory:

cd /
tar -xzf /path_to/modules_firmware-gemini-3.18.41+.tar.gz

After rebooting the device, cut and paste using the keyboard combinations should work in QTerminal. Currently I am working on getting the modular kernel configuration into the main Gemini kernel. Hopefully we manage to get this done soon. If so, this might have been the last Gemini modular kernel post.

Jürgen

References:
1. oesf.org: keyboard ghosting

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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A few days ago I have been asked if it is possible to build a driver for the awus1900 Wifi stick for the Gemini PDA. To be honest, I did not know, so I gave it a try.

The awus1900 uses Realtek’s rtl8814au chipset. The Linux driver for this chipset is available at many locations around the net. Most ones, I have tried, have not been compilable against the Gemini’s kernel. The driver at https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au has been compilable with some minor modifications against the kernel source used for the kernel in Modular Linux kernel for the Gemini PDA with lid close fix.

First of all some parameters in the Makefile had to be changed to match the Gemini:

• CONFIG_PLATFORM_I386_PC = n (disable x86 build)
• CONFIG_PLATFORM_ARM64_RPI = y (enable arm64 build)

Some more parameters have been enabled for features in the hope that these do not cause problems:

• CONFIG_POWER_SAVING = y
• CONFIG_USB_AUTOSUSPEND = y
• CONFIG_80211W = y

With all these changes the build fails complaining about STATION_INFO_SIGNAL and many more being undeclared. The module’s source expects these defines to be present in the kernel source for kernels below version 4.0. Most probably the Gemini kernel tree is different than other 3.x trees. So the line 23

#if (CFG80211_API_LEVEL >= KERNEL_VERSION(4, 0, 0))

in os_dep/linux/ioctl_cfg80211.c has been replaced with

#ifndef STATION_INFO_SIGNAL

to get the module source build against the Gemini’s kernel. Afterwards it has been possible to cross compile the kernel module by running make:

make ARCH=arm64 KSRC=/path_to_lib_modules_dir/3.18.41+/build

After building the module it can be copied to /lib/modules/3.18.41+/extra/ (or any other proper directory) on the Gemini and used afterwards. For those who do not want to build the module themselves, the binary modules for the kernel shared in the article Modular Linux kernel for the Gemini PDA with lid close fix can be downloaded from here: rtl88XX.zip (3224 downloads )

Regards
Jürgen

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Today, when updating the Debian OS on my Gemini PDA, the upgrade for libreoffice failed complaining about the file dialog.xlc being present in multiple packages. A similar issue already has occurred with the Gemini PDA half a year ago¹. It is quite probable, that the same problem occurs with other Debian based distributions, as well. But let us have a look into the details first.

The usual update process (apt-get update;apt-get upgrade) resulted in apt complaining about the file dialog.tlc being present in both packages, libreoffice-base and libreoffice-common and failed:

Unpacking libreoffice-base (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) over (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-Y89hUD/03-libreoffice-base_1%3a5.2.7-1+deb9u5_arm64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc', which is also in package libreoffice-common 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4
...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-Y89hUD/03-libreoffice-base_1%3a5.2.7-1+deb9u5_arm64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Every subsequent attempt to upgrade the system fails. The system now is in broken state, that prevents upgrades. In example a second try to run apt upgrade only resulted in the hint to try apt –fix-broken install:

root@gemini:/home/gemini# apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libreoffice-base : Depends: libreoffice-base-core (= 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4) but 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5 is installed
                    Depends: libreoffice-base-drivers (= 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4) but 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5 is installed
                    Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4) but 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5 is installed
 libreoffice-core : Breaks: libreoffice-base (< 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) but 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4 is installed
                    Recommends: libpaper-utils but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Unfortunately, running apt –fix-broken install did not solve the problem:

root@gemini:/home/gemini# apt --fix-broken install  
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
...
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libreoffice-base
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
22 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/1.344 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
(Reading database ... 125897 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libreoffice-base_1%3a5.2.7-1+deb9u5_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking libreoffice-base (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) over (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-base_1%3a5.2.7-1+deb9u5_arm64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc', which is also in package libreoffice-common 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)<br>

Since the error indicates clearly, that dpkg fails to overwrite the file dialog.xlc, I tried the solution I have used to fix the issue with the libreoffice update half a year ago. So I “instructed” apt-get to overwrite the conflicting files:

apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::=”–force-overwrite” -f install

This finally solved the issue and allowed the libreoffice upgrade to complete:

root@gemini:/home/gemini# apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
...
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libreoffice-base
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
21 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/1.344 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
(Reading database ... 125897 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libreoffice-base_1%3a5.2.7-1+deb9u5_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking libreoffice-base (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) over (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u4) ...
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
dpkg: warning: trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc', which is also in package libreoffice-common 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
dpkg: warning: trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc', which is also in package libreoffice-common 1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u3) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.8-1+deb9u1) ...
Unknown media type in type 'all/all'
Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles'
Setting up fonts-opensymbol (2:102.7+LibO5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up uno-libs3 (5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.15-1) ...
Setting up ure (5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.11.0-6.7+b1) ...
Setting up libreoffice-style-galaxy (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-common (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-core (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-gtk2 (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up python3-uno (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-base-drivers (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-draw (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-java-common (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-script-provider-python (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-impress (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-math (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-base-core (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-calc (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-writer (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-base (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-librelogo (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice-report-builder-bin (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Setting up libreoffice (1:5.2.7-1+deb9u5) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u3) ...

The referenced thread¹ on oesf.org, regarding the past libreoffice upgrade issue, indicates there are quite some more possibilities that might fix the problem, but this one seems to be the easiest. So if this solution does not work for you, you might want to try one of the other solutions being shown there.

The libreoffice upgrade issue seems to be a reoccurring problem, thus a long term solution should be to fix the debian packages for libreoffice to not inlcude the same file in multiple packages. For the time being, the solution presented here solves the problem and gets the system back into a operational and upgradeable state.

Jürgen

References:
1. oesf.org: apt-get upgrade broke libreoffice

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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