Retain Your Control and Customize Everything with Modular Software

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David Hamner

Latest posts by David Hamner (see all)

• Easy App Development: Text Forwarding - January 22, 2024
• Retain Your Control and Customize Everything with Modular Software - January 22, 2024
• Nasty Software - December 18, 2023

It’s not just the Librem 5’s or The Liberty Phone hardware that’s modular. The OS itself is incredibly modular and fully editable to your will. Our defaults and preinstalled apps are well thought out and secure, but it’s just our suggestion of software to use, not a requirement by any means.

Software Smorgasbord Gives the Product Owner Full Control of the Device

A good example of software modularity is the onscreen keyboard. Our default keyboard does the job, but there are other options. You can swap it out for OSK to take advantage of its advanced features that still need to be brought to our default. Using OSK you can get cool features like word correction, character popovers, and cursor movement via long press on space. To get it installed, just follow the steps here.

Control by Design- The Product Owner has Control Over Default Apps

Default apps can all be edited, removed, or replaced. For example, our text messaging client Chatty works with the mmcli backend and is well-documented. Once you stop the default messaging client, you can make your own texting system with these basics.

# Stop Chattty
for i in 1 2 3; do killall chatty; done

# Get avalable messages, this shows SMS with ID of 0
mmcli -m any --messaging-list-sms
    /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/SMS/0 (received)

# Read a message
mmcli -s  --output-keyvalue
# Read message with ID 0
mmcli -s 0 --output-keyvalue
sms.dbus-path                      : /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/SMS/0
sms.content.number                 : +1111111111
sms.content.text                   : Test
sms.content.data                   : --
sms.properties.pdu-type            : deliver
sms.properties.state               : received
sms.properties.validity            : --
sms.properties.storage             : me
sms.properties.smsc                : +140500000
sms.properties.class               : --
sms.properties.teleservice-id      : --
sms.properties.service-category    : --
sms.properties.delivery-report     : --
sms.properties.message-reference   : --
sms.properties.timestamp           : 2024-01-12T10:18:52-08
sms.properties.delivery-state      : --
sms.properties.discharge-timestamp : --

# Remove message from modem
sudo mmcli -m any --messaging-delete-sms=

# Remove message with ID 0
sudo mmcli -m any --messaging-delete-sms=0
[sudo] password for purism: 
successfully deleted SMS from modem

# Sending a Text
text="Example Text"
phone="+12223334444"
message_values="text='$text',number='$phone'"
# Send text to modem
output=$(sudo mmcli -m any --messaging-create-sms="$message_values")
# Send SMS
message_id=$(echo $output | rev | cut -d '/' -f1 | rev)
sudo mmcli -s $message_id --send
# Remove sent message from the modem
sudo mmcli -m any --messaging-delete-sms=$message_id

A more complete example of a text to email forwarding system can be found here.

OS Flexibility puts the Product Owner in Full Control of The OS & Apps

Small components like the keyboard and messaging are editable because our users have the right to administrative access by default, with no jailbreaking or rooting required. To go further, our bootloader is fully unlocked and well-documented, allowing users to replace the complete OS. Two good examples of alternative software you can run on the Librem 5 are PostmarketOS and Mobian.

Summary

From small components like the keyboard to the whole kit and caboodle (The OS), you can swap out anything! We don’t lock down user freedoms and call it protection; we give you reasonable defaults and hand you the controls to manage your device.

Purism Products and Availability Chart

	Model	Status	Lead Time
	Librem Key (Made in USA)	In Stock ($59+)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5	In Stock ($699+) 3GB/32GB	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 COMSEC Bundle	In Stock ($1299+) Qty 2; 3GB/32GB	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Liberty Phone (Made in USA Electronics)	Backorder ($1,999+) 4GB/128GB	Estimated fulfillment February	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 + SIMple (3 GB Data)	In Stock ($99/mo)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 + SIMple Plus (5 GB Data)	In Stock ($129/mo)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 + AweSIM (Unlimited Data)	In Stock ($169/mo)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 11	In Stock ($999+) 8GB/1TB	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 14	Backorder ($1,370+)	Estimated fulfillment December	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem Mini	Backorder ($799+)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem Server	In Stock ($2,999+)	45 business days	Learn More Buy Now