SailfishOS on OnePlus One
Since I documented my journey with PostmarketOS on Nexus 5 – here. I briefly mentioned I neglected to document my journey of SailfishOS (OnePlus One.)
I can at the very least provide all of the resources I stumbled upon, or used to help me get it running.
Please note: Like I mentioned with the Nexus 5, my OnePlus One was already unlocked. It used to run Ubuntu Touch, but that quickly became deprecated. I only saw DivestOS supporting bacon with what is essentially LineageOS 13/14. However DivestOS is also deprecated. PostmarketOS seemed like a good choice but as I already have a few devices with it, I wanted to try something else. So I settled with SailfishOS.
SailfishOS is extremely tricky as the official website is very corporate forwarded. Requiring licenses and subscriptions for the OS, and an extremely limited amount of supported devices.
As usual there is a small community that makes an effort to port to other devices, and that's where my journey begins.
Getting Started: The most helpful resource for the fastest results getting SailfishOS running quickly was this website here somebody else shares a similar passion for the bacon device, and saw some potential with SailfishOS so here we go!
From the installation section the first step is flashing a version of CyanogenMod 12.1 and then immediately flashing SailfishOS. Both downloads are provided on the website. There is a bonus installation method using MultiROM but I was not interested in this, so I moved on.
Almost eveything is available on that website from installing packages (especially newer ones) to getting your terminal running, SSH, etc. The only time I deviated was when I ran into an error installing warehouse – source which was related to a missing package or dependency because this version of SailfishOS is quite old. In the source for warehouse, there is a newer package – here by the same developer Olf. I was able to get warehouse installed but that's it. Nothing else appears to load, refreshing, and rebooting doesn't do anything.
A quick look into the store front doesn't appear to have many apps to really use. It's closer to what was in the Ubuntu Touch store but even less.
Another resource:
There was additional information on the Mer Wiki – here which points back to the previous website and also confirms the build: The current version is 3.4.0.24 (Pallas-Yllästunturi), released on 2020-11-26.
It's installed, now what? That's it. I only tested the stock apps, and a few of the Jolla apps recommended from – here but that's as far as this goes currently. Camera works, gestures work. Battery life is to be desired but that's expected on very old hardware.
I don't see this as a daily driver or anything, but it is very fun to see a sort of alternative timeline if somehow SailfishOS was able to compete back when the OnePlus was still on the market alongside Ubuntu Touch. Or maybe that's just me that finds that fascinating?