SIMPLE instructions to update to latest version of iodéOS on Brax3, please

BraX3 iodéOS
1

Hello,

I just received my long-awaited Brax3, so I was so excited to take off running with it! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: . . . Until I discovered that it can’t connect to my wifi (Cisco Linksys E4200). :frowning: Then when I try to “google” the issue, I discover that this is actually a big issue (as in: not just me), and I came upon this website. I read quite a few of the questions and comments, but it’s quite lengthy, so I couldn’t read them all. So please forgive me if I missed the place where this might have already been discussed/explained. But I have a couple of questions:

  1. I saw lots of talk about updating to the latest version of iodéOS (v. 6.9–my new phone came with 6.3). [It also said: “Last checked: December 31, 1969” . . . Huh??] So I definitely need to update, but the instructions given both here and on the iodé website were a little too vague for my skill level. [After soaking up all of Rob’s teachings on the importance of privacy and the lack thereof, etc., I was always scared to death to use my Samsung Google phone . . . so I always left it behind, and just did all my computer doings on my Linux laptop. Consequently, I am not very savvy in the mobile phone operating realm–I got left behind in the dust of antiquity.] But it was mentioned multiple times to just download the latest version to fix the the wifi problem, but how? Or use the Updater . . . OK, but how can that work if I don’t have access to wifi to begin with?!

  2. Then, on the iodé website, I found a video (a big screen with a few words and tiny letters, even in full-screen mode–I had to use a magnifying glass to read it), showing a link for further instruction that couldn’t be clicked on within the video, trying to explain how to install the update by downloading it first to my computer, then transferring it to the phone via a usb cable, which I can understand, but I got lost among the updater/beta updater files, and just where exactly it would be put on my computer and how do I access it and how will it be transferred (supposedly automatically? but didn’t seem to do anything) . . . ugh! :face_with_peeking_eye: Plus, the caution about being careful to do it right or face the consequences of bricking the phone! Aack! :fearful: Could someone please explain, as if explaining to a child, step by step, how to go about updating the phone via a usb cable.

  3. There was also talk about changing the WPAs–I have no idea what those are or where to find them or even how to go about changing them (no simple explanation that I could find). So I decided it’s probably better if I just wait till that will be taken care of in a version update, hopefully. . . . Well, the good news is, that that seems to have just happened–YIPPEE! If I could just get my phone to communicate with my wifi!

    So I’m anxious to learn how to get into this new world of mobile computing (anxiously awaiting/curious to see what becomes of UbuntuTouch on the Brax3, as well!) :grinning_face:

    Despite the long wait for the delivery, and now the wifi issue, I have great hope for the Brax phone! Much thanks to both the Brax Team and the iodé Team for all their hard work, for caring to make a truly private, trustworthy phone for the public (since the “big guys” never will, but, in fact, will do all they can to abstruct it)! Again, thank you!!! And have a nice day (hopefully, not too stressful!)!

P.S. On a side note . . . does this phone also mean that I will no longer need to use my Mic-Lock and camera cover?

P.S.S. Sorry this message got so long! Thank you for bearing with me!

1 Like
2

@Beginner Welcome to the forum. You may not need to follow the complicated process of downloading the software to your computer and then programming your Brax3 via USB.

First, I get that you cannot connect to wifi, but can you get a good mobile data connection? What speed do see at fast.com from your Brax3?

If you get at least 5 Mbps consistently, you should be able to go to Settings→System→System Updates. There you should seen an option to update to Iode OS v6.9.

This is what is called an “Over the Air” or OTA update, and should be all you need.

1 Like
3

OH! Wow! That was a fast response! Thank you!

Sorry, but what is meant by “mobile data connection”? And what is/how do I see “fast.com”? Sorry, I’m feeling really lame here!

When I go to the System Updates (and thank you for the exact steps to get there!), it says “No new updates found” and that the update check failed, that I need to check my internet connection. (And this is where I see that it was “last checked: Dec. 31, 1969”!?)

Thank you for helping!

4

@Beginner I meant that in your Brax3 you do have a SIM card or an eSIM from a service provider, correct? So you can make phone calls, correct? If so, my question amounts to this: can you connect to the Internet from your Barx3, even though you don’t have wifi?

5

@beginner You can open the Iode browser on your Brax3, and type fast.com for the address and see if takes you the fast.com webiste

6

Yes, I do have a physical SIM card, and yes, I can make/receive phone calls, and same with sending/receiving texts, too. But unfortunately, no, I cannot access the internet from my phone. The iodé browser says: it looks like there’s a problem with your internet connection.

7

@beginner ah, ok. Who is your service provider?

8

Tello (through T-Mobile).

9

@Beginner Great. That is what I have too. I had a similar issue at first. I posted the solution which worked for me here:

Please check that and see if that fixes your problem. Otherwise go down to the very last post in that thread by a user named ChinPerfe. He has more steps and I am not sure why he ended up needing those extra steps when I did not. But if my solution does not work for you, you may as well try what he did.

Let me know if you have questions about any of the steps

1 Like
10

OK, I will read through that post and try out their suggestions. I’ll post again if I am still having problems. Thank you so much, inverdell, for your help!

1 Like
11

(By the way, how do you do that highlight thing (?) with a poster’s username? I obviously didn’t do it right.)

12

You type the @ symbol followed immediately by the username (no space)

13

OK, so it’s not a cut-and-paste or double-click (or whatever) type of thing then?

14

No but I suppose you could type @ followed by cutting pasting the username.

But if you type @ and then the first few letters of the username, the system will offer autocomplete options for the username. That is way faster than cutting and pasting.

15

Okey-dokey . . . thanks for the tip! :slight_smile:

1 Like
16

OK, so I was needing a little more specifics, I wasn’t understanding what wardee was referring to. So I proceeded on to ChinPerfe’s post. So far, I have made it to step #7 regarding ensuring my phone has the correct APN settings. Unfortunately, I’m seeing neither “fast.t-mobile.com” (for LTE phones) nor “Tello” (for 5G phones) as the default APN. Instead, my phone is only saying: “Access Point Name settings are not available for this user.” (Because of the resets in step #6?) Selecting “Reset to default” by tapping the three dots in the top-right corner made no change in the screen message. So now what? Can I just continue on to step #8 to add a new APN manually? This is where I now see what wardee was referring to.

Also, when ChinPerfe mentions in several steps, after performing the various procedures, to test the service . . . what exactly does that consist of? Just trying to connect to the wifi again?

(By the way, if a phone becomes “bricked,” can it be resurrected? I’m a little nervous.)

17

@Beginner Is there anything (apps, data, messages, call logs etc.) that you cannot afford to lose? I ask because it may be necessary to do a factory reset on your phone. It is not normal to see that message you mentioned "Access Point Name settings are not available for this user” if you have a working SIM card in your phone.

18

Good morning @inverdell !

No, there’s nothing on my phone yet–it’s brand new, I just received it two days ago. The only thing I did to it was the initial set up–although some of the screens were a little different/out of order/missing/extra compared to the ones on the iodé website that I was following along with as I was going through the process. I was a little confused by that, but as I discovered after further perusal of the various Settings pages, that this phone was only on version 6.3 (compared to the version 6.9 that they were talking about online, that is supposed to be the final fix to the problem), so I figured that might be a reason for the differences in the set-up screens.

After that, of course, I immediately tried to check out a few of the pre-installed apps and realized that the ones that were wifi dependent weren’t working. For example:

The weather app tells me that the “network (is) unavailable”

F-droid presents me with basically blank screens on every tab, other than saying: “No recent apps found. Once your list of apps has been updated, the latest apps should show here,” “No categories to display,” and “Congratulations! Your apps are up to date.” I don’t even see where I could download any apps. Oh, and it says “No internet” at the very top of the screens.

The iodé app says “No new updates found. To manually check for new updates, use the Refresh button” (to which the response is “The update check failed. Please check your internet connection”)

And the iodé browser says “Looks like there’s a problem with your internet connection. . . . Check your modem or router. Disconnect and reconnect to Wi-Fi. Error Code: NS_ERROR_OFFLINE”

[And Magic Earth I haven’t played around with enough to figure out how it works yet, because I’m not getting much of anything on it as far as I can see. I might have tried to install the Organic Maps app from F-droid (which was one app that I did use on my old cell phone), because I’d be curious to see how that worked, since that map is capable of working offline; but then I’m guessing that I probably wouldn’t have been able to download any new apps to the Brax3 anyhow . . . because that would rely on F-droid, which doesn’t look like it’s working.]

I looked for help online and saw a few suggestions, but none were clear enough for me to feel comfortable with attempting to try them. [To me, a “g*n-shy,” literal “beginner” in the cell phone world (hard as that may be to believe in today’s everything-centers-around-the-cell-phone life), I felt that the explanations were more geared to intermediate level users (or at least advanced beginners), ones with past cell phone experience, albeit, perhaps not necessarily with a Brax phone specifically. (I’m fine on my Linux computer–I’ve been using that for years . . . after years of hating Windows.) It’s just that I was so paranoid of my old “spy phone,” that I much preferred to go phone-less, thus I have no experience with the “wonders” of cell phones. I missed my old flip phone. But I’m excited about my new Brax3 phone! :grinning_face: . . . once I get it working.]

Other than that, I did test to see if I could make and receive a phone call, and I also tested sending and receiving a text message–these all worked fine. That pretty much sums up all that I’ve done so far with the phone, so, no, there is nothing to lose (other than the phone itself, if I ruin it :anxious_face_with_sweat: ). And like I mentioned earlier, I do have a physical SIM card in this phone, switched over from my previous dreaded phone. (That’s OK to do, right? It won’t be bringing over any malware, or whatever bad, “un-private” stuff with it, will it?)

P.S. Sorry, again, for the lengthy descriptions/explanation, I just wanted to give a clear picture of what I’m dealing with here. Thanks, again, for all your help.

P.P.S. Which reminds me, you seem to know a bit (or more) about this phone . . . are you just an avid fellow user, a tech-savvy person, or are you actually on the Brax or iodé consulting teams?

19

I have had the Brax3 since this summer. I know it is not perfect but I really want this project to succeed. I do appreciate privacy concerns but that was not my primary motivation for getting the Brax3. By previous phone was an LG V20 with Android and it was great but getting a little old and not able to run newer apps. I just couldn’t find a phone I wanted to replace it with. My requirements were: flagship-hardware-build-quality, a replaceable battery, and a mid-tier (or lower) price, unlocked bootloader, and support for 5G service. And Brax3 was the only thing that ticked all these boxes, plus it has a headhone jack which is also a bonus.

I am just sharing what I have come to learn about getting it to work for me. I am new to Iode OS but am used to Android.

@Beginner Good to know that you are open to factory resetting your phone. I will send you some more detailed instructions after lunch, that I hope will help you.

20

@Beginner ChinPerfe’s solution involved turning off 5G, which is unfortunate and may have had something to do with 5G coverage in his area, but I am not sure. I would only recommend that path if mine and wardee’s solution does not work. Here are the steps to this solution, sufficiently elaborated for a beginner ( I hope), but if during the process, any step below is not clear, then just shoot me a message:

  1. Switch back to 5G mode: Go to Settings > Network & internet > Internet and select the gear icon to get to Preferred Network Type. Deselect LTE by selecting 5G instead.
  2. Perform a factory reset: Go to Settings > System > Reset options. Then select the “Erase all data (factory reset)” option. It might ask you to confirm, so go ahead and confirm. (By the way you can leave your SIM card in the phone.)
  3. After the phone restarts, it will begin the Iode OS setup process. During this process it will prompt you start setting up your wifi. There should be an option to skip wifi setup and you should choose that option. We don’t want wifi initially, and it wouldn’t work for you anyway. [I don’t care what else you do during setup; just let me know if you have any questions]
  4. Go to Settings>Network & Internet>Internet. Then click the gear symbol next to T-Mobile. Then scroll to the bottom of the T-Mobile page, and click on “Access Point Names”.

Hopefully, you no longer see the “Access Point Name settings are not available for this user” message. Please confirm and tell me what you see on this screen. The rest of the instructions will depend on what you see here. So I will wait to see your message.

1 Like