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Table of Contents
Librem 5
Specifications
- NXP i.MX8M Quad core Cortex-A53 CPU
- Vivante GC7000Lite GPU
- 3GB LPDDR4-3200 RAM
- 32 GB eMMC internal storage
- Micro SD (up to 2TB) Slot
- 5.7″ IPS TFT 720×1440 capacitive touchscreen
- BroadMobi BM818 or Gemalto PLS8 LTE modem
- Redpine Signals RS9116 WiFi/BT adapter or SparkLAN WNFB-266AXI(BT) WiFi Module
- 13 MP back camera + 5 MP front camera
- TESEO LIV3 multiconstellation GNSS receiver
- 3.5mm headphones/headset jack
- 3,500mAh user-replaceable battery
- USB 3.0 Type C port with PD (Power Delivery) and DisplayPort video output
- 3 kill-switches: Cellular, WiFi, Microphone/Cameras
- 3FF format smart card reader
source: Purism's website
What is working
| What | State | Comment |
| audio | works | |
| battery | works | |
| calls | works | tested with BM818 modem only |
| mobile data | works | tested with BM818 modem only |
| wifi | works | module for redpine tagged orphan in kernel 6.1 |
| bluetooth | works | Tested with sparkLAN wifi card |
| display | works | |
| touchscreen | works | |
| volume switches | works | |
| usb networking | works | |
| usb otg | works | |
| camera | works |
How to install
With a recent u-boot (including that shipped by current Mobian images) the librem5 is able to boot from SD card. To do this, hold the Volume-Down button while powering the device on.
To install Mobian to the eMMC there are 2 options, both requiring that you install NXP's uuu utility. On Debian systems, you can simply apt install uuu.
Alternatively (e.g. if your distribution doesn't package uuu), you can download the latest release from Github (you can either build from source, or directly download the uuu binary for Linux/x86_64).
Using Jumpdrive (preferred)
Jumpdrive is a minimal system exposing the device's storages (eMMC and SD card, if any) as USB mass storage devices. Download the latest release Jumpdrive available for the Librem 5 (purism-librem5.tar.xz), uncompress the archive and cdinto it.
Then put your Librem 5 in USB download mode by following the instructions provided by Purism, and execute:
./boot-purism-librem5.sh
Your Librem 5's eMMC should now appear as a USB drive on your computer and can be flashed using bmaptool, dd or Etcher the usual way.
Using Purism scripts
First, download the librem5-devkit-tools repo:
git clone https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/librem5-devkit-tools.git
Then, navigate to the librem5-devkit-tools directory, and create a mobian sub-folder containing the (uncompressed) Mobian image, renaming it librem5r4.img.
Next, download the latest u-boot-librem5.imx file from Purism's CI, and move it to the mobian folder too.
Finally, put your Librem 5 in USB download mode by following the instructions provided by Purism, and execute the following command:
./scripts/flash-image --board librem5r4 --dir mobian
(Replace librem5r4 with librem5r3 if you have an Dogwood Librem 5, librem5r2 if you have an Aspen/Birch/Chestnut, or devkit if you have the Librem 5 development kit)