# November 2020 round-up

DevFeed: [November 2020 round-up](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/november-2020-round-up-32467.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://mobile.nixos.org/news/2020-12-01-november-2020-round-up.html>)

Author: Samuel Dionne-Riel

Published: 2020-12-01T00:00:00Z

Content type: news

Language: en

Sources: [Mobile NixOS news](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/mobile-nixos-news.md>)

Topics: [Boot Process](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/boot-process.md>), [Filesystems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/filesystems.md>), [Kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kernel.md>), [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>)

Tags: [boot](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/boot.md>), [boot-process](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/boot-process.md>), [feature](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/feature.md>), [filesystems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/filesystems.md>), [kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kernel.md>), [keyboard](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/keyboard.md>)

## AI overview

The November 2020 Mobile NixOS project roundup describes merged improvements to the stage-1 boot process, including boot progress reporting, clearer and interactive error handling, reboot and power-off controls, and support for decrypting LUKS-encrypted root filesystems. The on-screen and physical keyboard interface is limited to the US QWERTY layout.

## Source excerpt

This update is the twelfth in a series of regular updates on the state of the project. Only changes that have been accepted and merged in Mobile NixOS are chronicled here. There's always more work currently in-progress. Notable changes During the month 13 pull requests were merged. Some major improvements landed, let's take a peek. Progress in stage-1 The boot splash utility now shows the progress of the boot. This is done with a simple progress bar shows how much of the tasks have been handled. Long-running tasks can provide a message to show so the user knows things aren't necessarily hung. Speaking of hung tasks. Our init now detects when no tasks resolved in a given amount of time. When this happens, the boot is being failed with, hopefully enough context in the error message to help the user. Speaking of error messages. Error messages are now less of a dead-end for our users. The interface has been reviewed to put the text message front and center. Previously we were showing a big image because we didn't even have text rendering at this state. Now that we do, let's use it. In addition to that, the error applet is now somewhat interactive. There is now a cancellable countdown; when the time is elapsed the kernel is crashed, which allows the platform to do its default action (generally reboot). When canceled, the user can select different options, either through the touch screen, using a mouse, a keyboard or using volume-keys navigation. The user can select to power off their device, which default action (so mashing the power key will power off the device). Depending on whether the platform supports it, the usual different reboot options are given. Encrypted root filesystem support Thought we were done with stage-1 updates? No! What if it was now able to decrypt LUKS encrypted filesystems? Well it can! For now, this is mainly the plumbing to make it all work. Getting a LUKS encrypted filesystem on your device is left as an exercise to the reader. Our stage-1 can