gemini-setup/README.md

# FLASHING GEMINI

## INSTALL DEBIAN ONLY (only one partition, no other os)

## Prepare firmware

So as planet no provide Linux only firmware you have to do it by yourself.

First of all you need to get a firmware with only one linux partition:

1. Go here :  http://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool.html
1. Select gemini version (4G or wifi)
1. Boot 1 : select Sailfish (no this is not an error)
1. Reserve all partition to linux
1. Download scatter file
1. Download base firmware

Next we need a standard Debian image:

1. Boot 1 : select android standard
1. Boot 2 : select debian
1. Reserve partition for debian & android (exact sizes doesn't matter)
1. Download aditional debian firmware

At this you have 3 files :
* Scatter file for Sailfish OS
* Base firmware
* Debian firmware

Create a folder:
* Unzip base firmware inside
* Unzip debian inside
* Copy scatter file inside

Now you have to replace all sailfishos_boot.img to debian_boot.img in the scatter file. 
There is a simple perl oneliner to do it:

    perl -p -i -e "s/sailfishos_boot/debian_boot/g" Gemini_x25_x27_LinuxOnly.txt

## Install and configure FlashTool

- Download FlashTool 
```
    wget http://support.planetcom.co.uk/download/FlashToolLinux.tgz
```
- Install dependecies
```
    sudo apt install libjpeg62 libaudio2
```
- Setup Udev rules

```
    sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/20-mm-blacklist-mtk.rules
```
```
    ATTRS{idVendor}=="0e8d", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"
    ATTRS{idVendor}=="6000", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"
```
- Restart Udev
```
    sudo service udev restart
```
- Unpack and run FlashTool
```
    tar -zxvf FlashToolLinux.tgz
    cd FlashToolLinux
    sudo ./flash_tool.sh
```

- Go to "Download" tab
 * Download-Agent : should be set to the file MTK_AllInOne_DA.bin (which is located in the FlashToolWindows or FlashToolLinux folder).
 * Scatter loading file : choose the scatter file that you have modifyed just before

All the files in colums must be checked and location not empty

## BACKUP NVRAM
- Go to Readback tab
- Click "Add" button. A row will appear in the table under.
- Click "Read Back" button
connect your PC to the left end USB-C port on your Gemini and restart the Gemini. Once booted, the flash tool will detect the unit and will write the NVRAM partition on a file on your hard disk called NVRAM0. Ithink it's a good idea to keep this file as a backup, together with the customised Scatter file.

## FLASHING FIRMWARE
- Select "Download" tab.
- In the drop-down list select "Firmware Upgrade" option
- Click big "Download"  button
- Connect your PC to the left end USB-C port on your Gemini and restart the Gemini. Once booting, the flash tool will detect the unit and will start flashing the device with the selected firmware.
- Wait the end of flashing
- Disconnect the Gemini from the PC


## LAUNCH DEBIAN
- Press esc button a long time, and wainting for the login page
- On login screen enter password gemini under the username


## UPDATE

VERY important -> do not make apt update & upgrade before THIS. If not, you will break all the file system.

* Add the repository key

	wget http://gemian.thinkglobally.org/archive-key.asc
	sudo apt-key add archive-key.asc


* Disable SSL check for gemian.thinkglobally.org
In case the Let's Encrypt certificate has expired on 30 September and very old version on OpenSSL in the Stetch apt can't validate the repo certifcate. So you need to disable certificate checking for the repo.


	sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99disablesslcheck 

	Acquire::https::gemian.thinkglobally.org::Verify-Host "false";
	Acquire::https::gemian.thinkglobally.org::Verify-Peer "false";

* Upgrade the system

	sudo apt update
	sudo apt install apt-transport-https
	sudo apt upgrade

## DEBIAN 9 Security updates and backports

- Edit the apt config :

	$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/multistrap-debian.list

- Add following to the end:

	deb [arch=arm64] http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free
	deb [arch=arm64] http://http.debian.net/debian stretch-backports main contrib non-free

## Disable Wifi MAC generation

Since Android is generating a new mac address for your wifi interface at every reboot and Connman is storing the mac address in its services you would need to enter your wifi passwords every time you reboot.

Fortunately there is a way to lock the mac address.

    install hexedit: sudo apt install hexedit
    sudo hexedit /nvdata/APCFG/APRDEB/WIFI and set a mac address in bytes 04-09 (mind that the base is 0, so it starts at the 5th byte) of the first row (0)
    set the i attr on the file: sudo chattr +i /nvdata/APCFG/APRDEB/WIFI

This will lock down the mac address.

## WiFi eats battery whilst sleeping

You need to install connman-plugin-suspend-wmtwifi to avoid this:

	sudo apt install connman-plugin-suspend-wmtwifi

Turns out this plugin just stops the repeated re-connection's to wifi. It still eats lots of battery.

## Libreoffice

Due to some peculiarity in the system image creation by multistrap our libreoffice installs get their diverts muddled, if you get an issue on upgrading with it complaining about libreoffice do the following:

    cd /var/cache/apt/archives
    sudo dpkg --force-all -i libreoffice*.deb

This basically forces a reinstall of all the libreoffice debian packages.

## i3

    sudo apt install i3

## Non-latin characters and meta mapped keys

For keyboard that have both Latin and native characters you pick your language variant, eg for Gemini Russia (Cyrillic):

    setxkbmap -model planetgemini -layout ru

But there is a bug in symbols mapping, so you need to fix it manually (but maybe fix already in the image):

    sudo vim /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/planet_vndr/gemini

Replace word `backslash` to `slash` in lines 377 and 388 with: 
```
    -    key <AC09> { symbols[Group1] = [     Cyrillic_de,      Cyrillic_DE,      backslash,         Lstroke ] };
    +    key <AC09> { symbols[Group1] = [     Cyrillic_de,      Cyrillic_DE,          slash,         Lstroke ] };


    -    key <AC09> { symbols[Group2] = [          l,          L,      backslash,         Lstroke ] };
    +    key <AC09> { symbols[Group2] = [          l,          L,          slash,         Lstroke ] };
```


You then have two groups working with simultaneous pressing of both left and right shift keys being how you swap between which is the active group.


## Used sources

* https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=36209.0
* https://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Linux_Flashing_Guide
* https://github.com/gemian/gemian/wiki/DebianTP3#connman