Replicant

Hello,

I have been playing with Replicant 4.0 on a galaxy s3 for a month now. One major problem for me was that sofar I never used a smart phone so I don't know what to expect. So I did a lot of trying and searching. I think things would be easier if I already had been using an Android phone before so I knew where to look for.

Before I started I had a small list of things I definitely want to function before I could decide to use the phone as my daily phone:
- openvpn
- voip
- filesyncing between device and pc
- calendar, contacts, tasks, notes and syncing with pc
- pc and internet connection via usb
- camera
- password manager

Two of the above (filesyncing and camera) I did not get working. I think it can not been done with replicant 4.0
Also had difficulties getting openvpn and voip working in a foolproof way, but that probably is because I did not find the right settings yet.
So for the time being I am a bit ready with testing replicant. I probably will continue testing later and come back here. But first I want to test cyanomogenmod for a while, so I at least start to understand how things should work, before I can try next time on replicant how to get things work.
I leave my notes on my testing underneath, I probably leave replicant on my phone for another week. So if you have any comments please let me know.

Thanks, Rick

sim: working
Connection is made. Bit strange I have to put both sim credentials and phone credentials twice add startup. If I do it to quickly sim connection is failing. But as soon as connection is made, it stays fine.
usb connect: working
I install replicant-sdk with this manual:
http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/SDK
I organise usb connect with this manual:
http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/ReplicantUSBNetworking
- on pc I do 'adb shell' en get into replicant shell
- I execute run_dev.sh but get errors. If I execute this in front it helps
'ADB shell "setprop sys.usb.config rndis,adb"'
But then you have to restart the device shell with 'adb shell'
- on device run 'sh /data/run_dev.sh start' en on pc run 'sudo sh run_pc.sh start'. Check if you can ping from device to pc (check 'netcfg') en then from device to the internet.
- sometimes your network applet is interfering, disconnect any usb connections which are made there
files and synchronisation: not (really) working
I am using owncloud. In the final situation I should have an instance of owncloud on my own home server. But for the testing I took a free account on a owncloud provider. I am using f-droid app owncloud-client. After installing go to settings/accounts+sync/add account. Add owncloud and fill in the right credentials of your owncloud server. Syncing works only one way, from server->device not from device->server. I red somewhere you can use a webdav client and then syncing should both ways. But there is no free/open source webdav client available.
Conclusion: not usable
contacts and synchronisation: working
I am using the contacts app which is default available. I was able to sync it with owncloud server. I thought I used davdroid for that. settings / accounts+sync/add account. add davdroid, fill in credentials and the url:
https://myserver/remote.php/carddav
I did some testing with evolution and thunderbird contacts. It did work kind of, but did not test deeply. I had to fill in one of these lines anywhere, can't find where anymore:
https://myserver/remote.php/caldav/calendars/username/defaultcalendar
https://myserver/apps/contacts/carddav.php/addressbooks/username/default/
https://myserver/owncloud/remote.php/carddav/addressbooks/username/contacts/
https://myserver/owncloud/remote.php/carddav/addressbooks/username/
https://myserver/remote.php/carddav/addressbooks/waterbug/contacts/
https://my.owndrive.com/remote.php/carddav/addressbooks/username/contacts/
calendar and synchronisation: working
I am using app acal. Go to settings/account+sync/add account. Add acal, and fill in anywhere your login credentials of you owncloud server and this url:
http://myserver/remote.php/caldav
acal works fine, it syncs both sides via owncloudserver
tasks and synchronisation: partly working
app alcaltasks. I am not sure anymore, but I thougth you did not have to fill any credentials. It just becomes part of your instance of acal. acaltastks works, it syncs both sides via owncloudserver. But this is only true when you don't fill in any dates. The moment you fill in any dates, the tasks are not available for editing anymore on the device.
notes: not working
app acalnotes. Works same as acaltasks. But they don't sync. So cannot use them.
password manager: working but not two way syncing
app keepassdroid. Works out of the box. Tested it with owncloud sync and it worked, but only one way (server->device). To get it sync with keepass on ubuntu the kdb file was not recognized by Keepass2, but it was by KeepassX. So I used KeepassX and keepassdroid to exchange passwords which worked fine.
http://warrensutton.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/keepass-on-android-ubuntu-and-windows/
http://www.tomaz.me/2013/10/24/my-password-manager-setup-keepassx-keepassdroid-yubikey-spideroak.html
camera: not working
Both (front and back) are not working, no reaction at all. This is not in line with the specs on replicant wiki. If I use the barcode scanner I can see the camera working, so something strange is going on.
barcode scanner: not working
It does not working in replicant. Has something to do with .. which is not as free/open source available
openvpn for Android: working
Works quite straitforward. Did quite some testing, but could not find out how to get it foolproof take care it will always be taken over connections. Especially when you cold start the phone, but often also after a long break, vpn is lost and all connections are all in the open. Probably missed something in the settings.
Sipdroid: not working
Did not work. registration went fine, it showed 'registration completed'. But making a phone call, connections where dropped at once.
Linphone: working?
Works. Registration went fine and I could make phone calls. I only could not found out how to get microphone working, so the other side did not here me. Probably misss something.
File associations
I could not find out how to get certain files associated with a certain application. I think it should been done by 'settings/appss/choose app/launch by default'. But this setting can not be activated, tapping on it gives no result. Same is the case with most of the menuitems in 'settings/apps/choose app/...', they can not been activated by tapping on it. And I don't know what to do about it.