Sailfish OS ‑ No app required

Table of Contents

Preliminaries
Limit Charging Current
Remove any icon from app menu and/or customise it
Wrapper that will mount a remote location
Disable Sailjail for File Managers or similar crucial apps
PodQast
Notification function
Caveat

A collection of things you can accomplish with Sailfish OS without the need to install an app. Scripts & configs available here and here (where they might be more up-to-date than here).

Preliminaries ∆

Most tips require command line access (via SSH), i.e. you have

enabled Developer mode (and remote connection)
chosen a password

in Settings => Developer tools.

If e.g. your phone is connected to the same WiFi router as your computer and got the IP 192.0.0.99, then you can

$> ssh defaultuser@192.0.0.99

You will be asked to enter your SFOS developer password. However, we strongly recommend to make ssh more secure.

If SSH seems too daunting, developer mode will automatically install the terminal app on your phone and you can do everything there.

You will also need a CLI text edtor. vi is preinstalled, but I like nano more:

$> devel-su pkcon install nano

Limit Charging Current ∆

Lithium-Ion batteries do not like heat. It's a good idea to limit the charging current. An app exists for that: Battery Buddy and it's great, but by now SFOS incorporates most of its functionality - except for limiting the charging current.

My device defaults to 2400mA, but I would lke to reduce it to 1000mA (PC-USB slow charge is 500mA) - which is still fast enough to be usable for me.

The script:

sh
#!/bin/sh

dir=/sys/class/power_supply/battery
# could also be /sys/class/power_supply/axp20x-battery
file1=constant_charge_current_max
file2=input_current_limited
# maximum current in mA from file, or default value:
currmax=1000

# this file is sourced and can override any of the vars above
conf=/home/defaultuser/.config/chargecurrent.env
[ -r $conf ] && . $conf

[ "$currmax" -gt 0 ] && [ "$currmax" -le 2400 ] || exit 1
cd "$dir" || exit 1

printf 'Current value %s:\t' $file1
cat $file1 || exit 1
printf 'Current value %s:    \t' $file2
cat $file2 || exit 1
chmod +w $file1 $file2 || exit 1

echo $(($currmax * 1000)) > $file1 && echo 1 > $file2

printf '    New value %s:\t' $file1
cat $file1
printf '    New value %s:    \t' $file2
cat $file2

But it needs to be executed after every reboot.

Save this file as /etc/systemd/system/chargecurrent.service:

ini
[Unit]
Description=Limit Charging Current
After=home.mount

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/defaultuser/.local/share/git/sfos/battery/chargecurrent.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=basic.target

and enable the service:

systemctl enable chargecurrent

This script will mark a chosen Desktop entry as hidden and give you the opportunity to clone it to your home, and customise it. It will ask for your password (Settings => Developer tools).

sh
#!/bin/bash

str="NoDisplay=true"
dst="$HOME/.local/share/applications"
src="/usr/share/applications"

printf "%s\n" "Hide app menu items (.desktop files in $src)" "(and customise them)"

cd "$src" || exit 1

PS3="
Choice: "
select file in $(for i in *.desktop; do printf "%s " "${i%.*}"; done)
do

    file="$file.desktop"
    echo "File: $src/$file"

    read -rp "Do you want to copy it to ~${dst#$HOME}? " x
    [ "$x" = y ] && cp "$file" "$dst/"

    grep -qi "^[[:blank:]]*$str[[:space:]]*" "$file" ||\
    devel-su sed -i "s/\[[Dd]esktop [Ee]ntry\]/\[Desktop Entry\]\n$str/" "$src/$file"
    echo "Original menu item is now hidden"

    [ -r "$dst/$file" ] || continue

    read -rp "Do you want to edit it in ~${dst#$HOME}? " x
    [ "$x" = y ] && nano "$dst/$file"
    # Sth like this is necessary to force lipstick to use the edited version:
    mv "$dst/$file" "$dst/${file%.desktop}.$(date +%s).desktop"

done

select does not appear to exist in Busybox' shell, hence I marked the scribt as bash. I honestly do not remember if bash comes preinstalled; if not: devel-su pkcon install gnu-bash.

Wrapper that will mount a remote location ∆

...via sshfs before starting the app. Or make sure it is mounted. sshfs is in Chum.

sh
#!/bin/bash

# $1 mount basedir relative to home,e.g. "Music"
# $2 ssh host to look up, also final mountdir
# => mountdir=$HOME/$1/$2
# $3 remote directory to mount
# the rest will be exec'd after mounting is done

me="${0##*/}"
#exec > /tmp/$me.log 2>&1

(( $# < 4 )) && { echo "Please provide mountbase, host, remote dir and command to execute"; exit 1; }

for var in mountbase host remotedir; do
    declare "$var"="$1"
    echo "$var"="$1"
    shift
done

mountdir="$HOME/$mountbase/$host" # will be expanded with name of host

. ~/.config/bash/notify

date

text="mounted on $mountdir with"
text="$(grep "$text" /proc/self/mountstats)"
if [[ "$text" != "" ]]
then
    notify "" "" "" "" "" "~${mountdir#$HOME} already mounted"
else

    # dependency checks
    for dep in sshfs ssh fusermount; do
        command -V $dep >/dev/null || exit 1
    done

    hostname=''
    port=''
    user=''
    identityfile=''
    serveraliveinterval=''
    identitiesonly=''
    compression=''

    while read option value; do
        option="${option,,}"
        case "$option" in
        hostname|port|user|serveraliveinterval|identitiesonly|identityfile|compression)
            declare "$option"="$value"
            echo "$option"="$value"
        ;;
        esac
    done <<<"$(ssh -G "$host")"


    sshfs_options="follow_symlinks,ServerAliveInterval=$serveraliveinterval,reconnect,port=$port,IdentitiesOnly=$identitiesonly,IdentityFile=$identityfile,Compression=$compression"

    mkdir -p "$mountdir" || exit 1
    location="${user}@$hostname:$remotedir"
    if sshfs -C -o "$sshfs_options" "$location" "$mountdir"
    then
        notify "" "" "" "" "" "Mounted $location on ~${mountdir#$HOME}"
    else
        notify "" "icon-lock-warning" "" "" "" "Failed: mounting $location"
        fusermount -u -z "$mountdir"
    fi
fi

"$@"

grep "mounted on $mountdir with" /proc/self/mountstats && fusermount -u "$mountdir"
sleep 10
grep "mounted on $mountdir with" /proc/self/mountstats && fusermount -u -z "$mountdir"

exit 0

It will use whatever is configured in ~/.ssh/config for a (named) host, e.g.:

Host myserver
  HostName dt.iki.fi
  Port 22222
  User me
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/some_key

It can be used as a wrapper around apps, but will require modifying the launcher (see previous chapter). Example:

ini
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
X-Nemo-Application-Type=generic # <--- !!!
Icon=harbour-unplayer
Exec=/home/defaultuser/.local/bin/mountwrapper Music myserver /home/me/music harbour-unplayer %F
Name=Unplayer on Server
MimeType=audio/flac;audio/x-flac;audio/aac;audio/x-aac;audio/mp4;audio/x-m4a;audio/x-m4b;audio/mpeg;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpeg;audio/mp3;application/ogg;audio/ogg;audio
/x-ogg;audio/x-vorbis+ogg;audio/vorbis;audio/x-vorbis;audio/x-flac+ogg;audio/x-oggflac;audio/x-ape;audio/x-matroska;audio/x-wav;audio/wav;audio/vnd.wave;audio/x-scpls
;audio/x-mpegurl;application/vnd.apple.mpegurl;

[X-Sailjail]
Sandboxing=Disabled

Note that you have to change the X-Nemo-Application-Type to generic.

Disable Sailjail for File Managers or similar crucial apps ∆

Disclaimer: it makes sense to have strict per-app permissions. Don't just do this whenever you think it might fix a problem!

But a filemanager is a powerful tool and should be able to see, copy and modify all files where appropriate (Linux file permissions still apply, this is not some sort of root mode).

Example for File Browser from the Jolla store:

install the app, but do not start it
execute devel-su nano /usr/share/applications/harbour-file-manager.desktop

edit the [X-Sailjail] section to look like this:

ini
[X-Sailjail]
#Permissions=Audio;MediaIndexing;RemovableMedia;UserDirs;PublicDir
#OrganizationName=harbour-file-browser
#ApplicationName=harbour-file-browser
Sandboxing=Disabled

i.e. the old permissions are commented out and Sailjail is disabled.

Now you can start the app and it will see all files & folders.

PodQast ∆

It seems the PodQast application also requires this, otherwise it forgets all settings after a restart. Do it manually as above or use the Openrepos version.

Notification function ∆

As sourced in a few of my scripts:

sh
notify() {

app="$1"
icon="$2"
summary="$3"
text="$4"
popup_summary="$5"
popup_text="$6"

[ "$icon" = "" ] && icon="icon-lock-information"
[ "$app" = "" ] && app="${0##*/}"
[ "$app" != "${app#-}" ] && app="\\$app" # esacpe leading dash

# Why 42?
gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.Notifications --object-path /org/freedesktop/Notifications --method org.freedesktop.Notifications.Notify\
 "$app" 42 "$icon" "$summary" "$text" "[]" "{'x-nemo-preview-summary':<'$popup_summary'>, 'x-nemo-preview-body':<'$popup_text'>}" 0

}

Usage examples:

notify "" "" "" "" "A very short reminder" will display a narrow notification popup across the top for a few seconds
notify "" "" "" "" "A very short reminder" "with additional explain" will display a normal notification popup near the top
notify "" "" "A reminder" "with more text or not" "A very short reminder" "with additional explain" will display a normal notification popup near the top and a persistent one in the notification area
notify "" "" "A reminder" "with more text or not" "A very short reminder" the same with a thin notification popup
notify "" "" "A reminder" "with more text or not" notification area only
notify "My new app" "icon-lock-warning" "A reminder" "with more text or not" "A very short reminder" the same with a different icon and app name

If you prefer a proper command line utility, install lipstick-qt5-tools which will give you notificationtool.

Caveat ∆

It's possible that some edits will not survive an OS or app update. In the end, modifying system files would be best achieved with patches for Patchmanager.