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  Pinecil arrived
Posted by: VaZso - 12-28-2020, 10:36 AM - Forum: General - No Replies

Hi,

My Pinecil has just arrived today.
So far I like it - I have not used it extensively but soldered the break out board using it which arrived together with the soldering iron.
It worked well.

I have tried to supply it using different power supplies.
Using a 100W PD capable power supply, it could go up to 20V and its heating was very fast.
I have also tried other Baseus QC chargers and it could go up to 12V which is a limit of the charger.
I also have a Baseus power bank which theoretically supports up to 12V but it could go up to 9V for some reasons, however, it has also worked.

So it even worked at 12V using the cheapest Baseus QC charger I have - as far as I know, these are not PD chargers but QC, however, I may be wrong.

I am satisfied how it is working and also with its functions.
I feel the handling of menu system is also good considering the two buttons.
The boost function is also an interesting function.

I always wanted a good pocket soldering iron which I can have in my bag in case I need it.
I plan to also buy a USB PD 20V compatible power bank so I may use its full capabilities even far from a power outlet.

So far I think it is perfect for me and it worth the money.
I recommend it. Smile


  Why the 12/15/2020 build is no where near a daily driver yet
Posted by: TheLastDon - 12-28-2020, 10:17 AM - Forum: Mobian on PinePhone - Replies (24)

Update 2: Convergence does work. A user pointed out to me that I need to drag the application onto my screen. I was under the assumption that I would see the main interface on the screen. There is one small problem with it though. It doesn't handle anything outside the main browser window very well. For example, on Firefox if you click a menu button the mouse pointer does not line up with the actual menu. You may have to go  a few pixels down to highlight the option you want. Another example, if you download an extension a dialog pops up asking you to give it permission to add the extension and you can't see the Add button on the dialog. You might be able to see the very top of it only. 

Firefox browsing: I think this had to do with the 12/15 build, but in the 12/28 build it's much faster.

Chatty App: This has to do with the phone waking up from a deep sleep if you have WiFi turned on. It doesn't wake up properly and disables texting. If you turn off the WiFi, I have noticed it wakes up more gracefully for me and the texting works. 

Update 1: Issue 1 is no longer an issue. I flashed the Pine Phone with the 12/28 nightly build and the software app now updates the packages under the "Updates" tab. However, if you go to the "Explore" tab in the software app and press any of the categories the software app crashes. 

Back in the summer when I received my new Pine Phone I had high hopes that it could be a daily driver so I could break free from Samsung/Apple. Of course, this was a pipe dream as none of the Linux OS's for Pine Phone were even close to being acceptable as a daily driver. So I came back just now in December to see the progress of Mobian over the last 3 or 4 months. 

Unfortunately, I think Mobian has gotten worse over the last 3 to 4 months as an overall product with the December 15th build with the exception of the battery life. I think they've done great work there as I can now go a day with normal use on one charge. That is great improvement over what it used to be 3 or 4 months ago. 

Here is a list of major things I noticed without even looking.

1. The software app is a disaster. You go to updates and let it find new updates for your phone and then you try to update it and you get an error about some package that isn't installed. What makes it worse is that the package name is in black and can't be read so I don't even know which package it's talking about.

2. The chat app, which is how you send/receive texts, is a disaster.
     a. I received a text that wasn't in my address book. I then tried to add the contact from the chat app, but that option did nothing.  
     b.I then went to the command line and updated this app to the latest version to see if they fixed functionality to add a contact and it erased all my texts and then  
        it wouldn't even let me create a new text!

3. The web browsing experience is beyond terrible. I'm sure everyone knows about this already, but browsing the web with either the included Gnome browser or Firefox ESR takes FOREVER. This would have to improve by 50% to even be usable on a daily basis.

4. Convergence still doesn't work for me. I have read that it works for some people, but when I plug in my monitor all I see is a blank screen with only the wall paper of my phone showing. There are no apps for me to click. This is actually an improvement from 4 months ago because 4 months ago I didn't even see anything from my phone. My monitor wouldn't even get a signal. This is very disappointing because I dream of one day using my phone for almost all day to day tasks which include some development and creating docs.


This is not a comprehensive list, as there are many smaller bugs that aren't even worth talking about yet. If the people developing Mobian can focus on items 1 thru 3 first, I think it will be in a state where people can start using it as a daily driver. Until then, the state of the OS is not very good. 

I don't mean to be harsh and I really do appreciate all the work being put into this project. I know this is a very difficult project to undertake. I'll be back in 3 months to see how things are going and give another review at the end of March. 

Thanks


  Hot when charging
Posted by: ADGW - 12-28-2020, 09:35 AM - Forum: General Discussion on PinePhone - Replies (16)

I received my PinePhone and was super happy.  Then I went to charge it up and it gets super hot.  Not warm, but hot.  This is just within a couple of minutes or so.  I have never charged it all the way or even put my sim card in as I don't know if it can be used getting so incredibility hot.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I don't know it I need to send back for an exchange or there is a reason for this intense heating up.  Thankyou


  Booting to sdcard stopped working after emmc flash
Posted by: techiedog - 12-28-2020, 05:30 AM - Forum: General Discussion on Pinebook Pro - Replies (3)

Hi, after reimaging my emmc with the new December updated Manjaro XFCE, I lost the ability to boot from my sdcard with Debian MrFixIt on it. It now just boots straight to emmc disregarding the sdcard. Could the reimaging of the emmc have messed up the booting of the sdcard?  How do I restore boot priority to the micro sdcard?  Thanks for youir help. Undecided


  Wifi doesn't work correctly
Posted by: Fredric92 - 12-28-2020, 04:56 AM - Forum: Linux on Pinebook - Replies (1)

I use the default Linux image, and everything's updated.
After using it for a while, the wifi stopped working properly, requiring me to 'ifconfig wlan0 up', and if that doesn't work, reboot the machine. I am using employee monitoring systems, but even if I disable it, it doesn't help. If I have it plugged into AC power with the power supply adapter, I'll only get 10 minutes to watch fullscreen 720p Youtube before the wifi goes out. I checked the Syslog, and I see a bunch of wifi-related errors when this happens - lots of assert failures, a note saying the chip has hanged, and it shuts off the wifi.
Does this happen to anyone else? Is this normal, or did I get a faulty one?


  How to test digitizer
Posted by: InFerNo - 12-28-2020, 03:50 AM - Forum: PinePhone Hardware - Replies (3)

I have a problem with my PinePhone and I would like to test the digitizer.

I am using Phosh on Arch Linux ARM.

It began 2 weeks ago, when the number 6 in the top row wouldn't always register as touched, but 5 and 7 did. Now I feel like I can't touch a column from top to bottom roughly in the center. Also the "send" button in the messaging app doesn't always register, right now I can't get it to work at all while it worked 30 minutes ago.

I notice it on the lockscreen when I have to enter my PIN, when I switch/close apps in the overview, etc.

Is there a way to troubleshoot dead zones in the digitizer, and in worst case scenario, is there a replacement available?


  unusabel sd card --> mmcblk0
Posted by: tommaso - 12-28-2020, 03:07 AM - Forum: Arch Linux on PinePhone - Replies (3)

The 64GB SD card in the system is a mmcblk0, for this reason it is not mounted as a useful storage device.
How it is possible to solve this item?

Thanks, Regards


  "Unable to download updates: The following packages have unmet dependencies:"
Posted by: bitnick - 12-28-2020, 02:45 AM - Forum: Mobian on PinePhone - Replies (13)

Since a couple of weeks I cannot update Mobian on my Pinephone UBports edition.

Software -> Updates -> Download fails with "Unable to download updates: The following packages have unmet dependencies:" shown in a dark pop-up.

Any idea how to troubleshoot this? Should I do a console update + upgrade instead?


  Can't start zram
Posted by: 3x5co - 12-27-2020, 11:45 PM - Forum: Mobian on PinePhone - Replies (2)

I followed the instructions on the Tweaks page of the Mobian wiki, to install zram. However, when I run 'sudo zramswap start' I get these responses:

```
Dec 27 23:28:39 mobian: Starting Zram
/usr/sbin/zramswap: line 53: echo: write error: Device or resource busy
Dec 27 23:28:39 mobian: Error: setting compression algo to lz4


```

How do I resolve this?


  Whatsapp in Anbox
Posted by: scott_VYuCAbn3k1NFK - 12-27-2020, 09:59 PM - Forum: Mobian on PinePhone - Replies (7)

Hi,



I know this topic has come up a few times. I have been experimenting with Anbox - I've followed these instructions https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=anbox. I then downloaded the whatsapp APK from the whatsapp website.



It installs fine using adb, but then whenever I run it I just get this:


[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FIiPV...f=1&nofb=1]


Has anyone been able to get this working?



I'm also finding battery life to be (anecdotally) generally poorer with anbox services running - it seems to interfere with the phone deep sleeping.