Plaintext
Quick Start Guide
for the Librem laptops
Welcome!
Thank you for purchasing this Librem computer and supporting Purism’s goal, bringing
security, privacy, and software freedom to everyone. We aim to provide these benefits in a
convenient, compelling offering modern, powerful and easy to use, while respecting your
fundamental rights as a user. A pleasant personal computer system should not require you to
give up your rights in the name of convenience!
Being in our early stages of growth, we know we’re not necessarily perfect everywhere and
everywhen (nobody is!) but we try our very best to aim towards that ideal.
We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us, your patronage is
an investment for the greater good, helping us gain leverage in the manufacturing supply
chain to make better products and ensure your rights (and those of people around you) are
upheld and protected.
Please take a few minutes to read through this leaflet for important information on your
Librem. Should you have any comments or questions not answered here, feel free to contact
feedback@puri.sm or info@puri.sm
Sincerely,
The Purism team
1
Getting started with your Librem
1. Plug the power supply
During the installation of your Librem’s operating system, it is highly recommended to leave
the power supply plugged in.
2. Switch on your Librem
Locate and press the Power button on your Librem. After a few seconds, your Librem’s screen
will turn on and the Purism logo should appear.
3. Follow the installation procedure
⚠ If your device is configured with PureBoot, make sure to check PureBoot getting started guide
before you start your device (or have a look at our online documentation here:
https://docs.puri.sm/PureBoot/GettingStarted.html).
If you chose the PureOS option when buying your Librem, your Librem will now automatically
start the installation process.
The installation procedure will present you several steps. Make sure to follow instructions
carefully, choose your passwords carefully so that you do not forget them later.
Step 1
Choose language. Click the 3-dot icon if you don’t see your language on the list.
2
Step 2
Setup keyboard. Click the 3-dot icon for more keyboard layouts.
Step 3
Connect to wifi (optional, you can freely skip this step).
3
Step 4
Enable location services (optional, you can freely skip this step).
Step 5
Select your timezone.
4
Step 6
Assign a name to your device.
Step 7
Set up disk encryption password. Make sure to remember it or to write it down, else you won’t
be able to access your operating system later! Have in mind that the password prompt at the
system start only supports US English keyboard layout! Check out our advice for choosing
good password: https://tracker.pureos.net/w/recommendations/passwords/.
5
Step 8
Type your name and username. Make sure to write it down or remember it! Username must be
one word, small caps, else the system setup won’t be able to complete properly. You can also
click on the placeholder image to select image for your user account.
Step 9
Set up user password. Make sure to remember it or to write it down, else you won’t be able to
login to your user account later!
6
Step 10
Congratulations, you are all set up. Wait until settings are applied...
Step 11
...and click the button to start using brand new PureOS:
7
4. Your Librem is ready to use
After the installation has completed, you can restart your Librem laptop into a clean session.
Click the arrow icon in the upper right corner and then click the power button:
and then click Restart. After reboot the system will ask your data encryption password:
Following this, you just need to select your user name and sign in with your account’s
password, and you can begin using your new computer and operating system!
8
Getting started with the desktop environment
PureOS uses the GNOME desktop environment in order to handle your files and applications.
If you are new to GNOME, you can launch the interactive user manual.
Press the Purism key on your keyboard to access the activity mode. This mode is
your starting point. From there, you can see your running applications and launch
others.
Click on the “Help” icon on the left side of the screen.
Tip: You can begin typing immediately after pressing the Purism key and press the Enter/Return key to
open the first selected search result—a quick and efficient way to launch or access software
applications, frequently used files, and more!
Using the keyboard shortcuts
Your Librem laptop supports some actions using keyboard shortcuts. Below is a list of
keyboard Fn+F-key shortcuts:
Sleep Touchpad
Fn+ Put device into stand- Fn+ Toggle touchpad
by on/off
Fn+ WiFi Fn+ Mute sound
Toggle wifi on/off Toggle sound on/off
Brightness down Brightness up
Fn+ Decrease screen Fn+ Increase screen
brightness brightness
External monitor Screen
Fn+ Toggle ext. monitor Fn+ Toggle the screen
mode on/off
Keyboard backlight Bluetooth
Fn+ Toggle keyboard Fn+ Toggle bluetooth
illumination level on/off
Volume down
Fn+ Volume up Fn+ Decrease sound
Increase sound volume
volume
9
Using the multi-touch trackpad
Your Librem laptop features a touchpad capable of handling complex gestures. Basic gestures
are supported throughout PureOS, while more complex gestures require individual
applications to support them. For example the “Eye of GNOME” image viewer supports pinch
zoom and rotation, whereas “GNOME Maps” does not yet support these.
Here are the gestures supported by your trackpad hardware, with GNOME/PureOS:
One-finger tap One-finger double-tap
Single-click Double-click
Two-fingers tap Three-fingers tap
Right-click Middle-click
Two-fingers scrolling Two-fingers rotation
Vertical scrolling Rotate
Two-fingers swiping Four-fingers swiping
Horizontal scrolling Switch virtual workspace
Two-fingers pinch/stretch Three fingers pinch
Zoom in/out Show the applications overview
Power management and power saving
When not actively using the laptop, it is recommended to put it to sleep (suspend mode). This
mode will allow the greatest power savings and will allow you to carry your laptop for longer
periods of time on the go. You can do this by closing the screen’s lid, when there are no
external screens or keyboards connected (in PureOS, if there are external monitors and keyboards
connected, the laptop will not enter sleep mode when closing the lid, to cater to those wishing to use it
as a compact desktop workstation).
During active use, the biggest sources of power consumption will typically be:
1. Applications that keep the CPU and GPU active. Web browsers, as well as video or music
players, are particularly adept at consuming energy. If you are using your laptop on the go,
without needing to access the Internet, we strongly recommend you close any running web
browsing applications (such as Tor Browser, Firefox, Chromium/Chrome, etc.) to maximize the
duration during which you can use your Librem. Avoiding such software applications that
constantly “wake” the CPU and GPU (sometimes multiple hundreds of times per second) allows
the chips in your computer to stay in “low power” states 99% of the time, yielding significant
energy savings and creating less heat (in turn requiring little to no ventilation from the fans).
10
2. Backlighting. A Librem 13’s screen will consume roughly 2 watts at minimum brightness and
6 watts at full brightness. Using the keyboard’s Fn shortcut keys or the system menu (in the
top-right corner of the screen in PureOS), adjust the screen brightness to the minimum usable
and comfortable brightness appropriate for your ambient lighting conditions (your eyes will
thank you as well). Turning off the keyboard’s backlighting will also save up to one watt. Librem
15’s 4K screen consumes even more power, so reducing brightness will benefit even more.
3. Wireless connectivity devices (WiFi, BlueTooth). You can turn them off using the
appropriate hardware killswitch on your Librem.
Battery care
While your Librem is a mobile device intended for empowering you to do work on the go,
consider bringing the battery down to 50% charge and disconnecting the battery if you decide
to use the laptop exclusively as a fixed “desktop” workstation or if you store it unused for a
month or more. Also a good practice is to never leave it charging over night—unplugging
charger when battery is full will help your battery last longer.
Case and screen care
We make our laptops to be thin, light, and robust. There are, however, some precautions to
keep in mind if you wish to keep it in great shape:
• Do not drop it on the floor (aluminium is strong, but it might dent)
• Do not apply excessive force onto the back of the screen
• Do not carry it around with just one hand
• Carry your Librem in a padded bag compartment, or enclose the laptop in a soft padded
sleeve to prevent scratches from other rigid objects in your bag
• Place a thin piece of cloth (1-2 mm thick) between the screen and keyboard to protect
the screen against potential dirt, dust, or “wear and tear” from physical pressure
applied while carrying the laptop in a bag.
Please take note that Purism laptops have not been tested on a spaceship or in a nuclear
power-plant, and are not meant to be used in the water or as riot shields.
Disassembly
⚠ Fully power down the laptop and disconnect the laptop’s power supply and battery before doing
maintenance work on its internals.
To access the internals of the computer, carefully remove all screws holding the backplate
underneath the main body and lift the backplate. To avoid losing the screws, you may stick
them on the backplate near their original location, using some light adhesive tape.
11
⚠ Be very gentle with the screws when using a screwdriver, they can be damaged easily. Use the
exact screwdriver head type and size appropriate for the screw heads. Using an incorrect screwdriver
size will damage the screw heads. Do NOT over-tighten the screws; doing so can damage the screw
heads or the screw thread slots on the mainboard and chassis.
Cleaning
Consider cleaning your Librem’s cooling system two or three times a year to facilitate cooling
and reduce operation noise. To do so, follow the tips above for case disassembly and use
either a medium-power air compressor with a dusting tip or a can of compressed air to blow
out the fine dust from the cooling fan blades and vent grills. The use of a vacuum cleaner may
work but will usually not be as effective and may carry some risks (electrostatic discharge,
damage caused by too much suction, etc.), and is generally not recommended.
To clean your Librem’s display, use a soft humid tissue (with water only) and wipe the surface
gently with circular motions. As soon as you have wiped the surface with the damp tissue, use
a dry tissue to wipe the remaining water (letting it dry by itself would leave drying marks).
Warranty and return policy
By purchasing anything from Purism you had to read, agree to and accept hardware warranty,
return and privacy policies found at https://puri.sm/policies/. Contact support if you have any
questions regarding this.
Support
Check our contact page to see all email addresses and our Matrix chat room locations you can
reach us at: https://puri.sm/contact/.
Official support is provided through support@puri.sm, or our Matrix chat rooms.
Documentation is available at https://docs.puri.sm.
General FAQ is available at https://puri.sm/faq/.
Should you encounter any software defects with the pre-installed PureOS (if applicable),
please report them at https://tracker.pureos.net.
PureOS wiki is located at the same domain: https://tracker.pureos.net/w/.
You can also ask questions and discuss with other users at https://forums.puri.sm.
Compliance
Your Librem devices ships with Free software where the source code is openly available under
various freedom-respecting licenses. You are allowed (and encouraged!) to inspect, improve
and redistribute it. You can obtain the source code for all the freed components of the system
at https://source.puri.sm
12
© Purism SPC.
Quick Start Guide for the Librem laptops is licensed Purism SPC
under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 5670 El Camino Real, Suite E
4.0 Unported License. Carlsbad, CA 92008
USA
See
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ https://puri.sm
13