Fairphone Open Source OS 16.04.0 Released
Today we release a user installable version of the Fairphone Open Source OS, which will make it possible for users who do not have the time or ability to make their own build to install the Open Source version of Fairphone OS on their Fairphone 2.
If you want to get started right away check out the installation instructions.
Fairphone Open Source OS incorporates three major differences to the stock Fairphone OS:
- No Google Mobile Services:
Fairphone Open Source OS comes without Google Apps. This means that you have to install apps either by hand or install alternative app stores, for example F-Droid.
- TWRP recovery image:
This recovery image allows you to turn off signature verification (if you want) and like that makes it easy to install 3rd party application packages.
- Optional Root Access:
Fairphone Open Source OS allows you to activate super user access for the ADB shell and/or for applications in the developer settings. You can further configure root access for applications in the Application settings. (Settings⟶Apps)
Release Schedule and Version Numbering
We plan on releasing monthly updates for the Fairphone Open Source OS, which will be made available through the Fairphone updater. This means that we gradually shift from a feature driven release policy to a date driven release policy. For this reason we are also going to switch to a date based versioning scheme. The version number will be constructed in the following way: ${YEAR}.${MONTH}.${MINOR_NUMBER}, where the minor number will be incremented for every version we release in the given month.
Known Issues
- Time is off on first boot:
This version of Fairphone Open Source OS does not come with a first start wizard which sets up the WiFi connection. As a result the time is off during the first boot. This causes for example that applications are marked as idle once the Phone acquires the correct time over WiFi. We are working on a solution for this issue.
- Location provider is missing:
There are problems acquiring your geo-location on the device. We aim to fix this problem also in next month’s release.
Thank You!
We would like to thank all members of our great community who gave us positive, but also critical feedback. Special thanks go to Alexander Lochmann for giving us tips on dealing with the binary blobs, and community member Max_s for his initial efforts on getting TWRP running on the Fairphone!