Hello Guys,

right now im thinking about buying a Pinephone for only one special usecase:
Secure Text messaging with end to end encryption. I would prefer a decentral system (like briar) with selfdestructing messages.

Is there any stable OS out there for pinephone with an application for my requirement?

Greez

Has anyone tried out F2FS for filesystems on the internal eMMC, and if so, how did it go?  I'm curious about both performance and reliability.

I'm using the stable 20.10 release of Manjaro-ARM right now, but I might wind up switching again now the hardware support has been mainstreamed, so reports from any environment are welcome.

Hello!

Saying that the past few weeks have been a bit chaotic would be an understatement, but this is finally coming to an end! So, what happened?

First of all, we transitioned the kernel from 5.8 to 5.9. While this should normally be a minor upgrade, it turned into a nasty transition period, as we took the opportunity to get rid of some technical debt and make the whole system more future-proof:

• We replaced our home-cooked boot process and kernel upgrade system with 'u-boot-menu': this widely used, well-tested debian package generates a boot menu file (in extlinux format) that can be used directly by u-boot, and makes sure to do so everytime a kernel image is (un)installed. This will avoid future issues with kernel upgrades (as we encountered during the 5.7 -> 5.8 upgrade, where the new kernel would be installed, but still boot on the old one) and allows persistent command-line customization
  
• Our metapackages and tweaks were almost completely refactored in order to build upon a few new debian packages (meta-phosh & mobile-tweaks), and make future evolutions easier and more stable, and prepare for inclusion in Debian
  
• The build recipes were also fully reworked to get rid of code duplications, and ease adding support for other devices and, over time, desktop environments
  

• Improved audio quality during calls
  
• Fixed the display clocks, making USB-C video output more reliable
  
• Fixed the internal display refresh rate
  
• And obviously, a number of upstream kernel fixes and improvements
  

• Automatic recognition of "docked" mode with the optional keybard attached
  
• Better sizing of squeekboard, the on-screen keyboard, in both portrait and landscape mode
  
• Default phosh orientation is now landscape mode
  

• Upload mobian metapackages and tweaks into Debian; this requires also packaging a few extra dependencies for Debian, but once this is all done, this will further reduce the number of packages maintained in a separate repo, and allow us to benefit from the automatic unstable->testing transitions (with the ability to block the transition if a bug is detected)
  
• Implement a userspace power management daemon, based on megi's modem power driver
  
• Work on the on-device installer and full disk encryption
  

Where do I find support forums for Mobian I clicked on "SEARCH" then had to start scrolling my window Searching for the SEARCH box because the page never loaded with my cursor blinking waiting for me to type in my SEARCH query like all other internet sites, once I found and entered Mobian in the SEARCH BOX hit enter waited for the page to load, I discovered SEARCH is anything but SEARCH I found nothing about Mobian I had hoped a simple search for Mobian would point me to the way where I could ask my Mobian .

How do you REBOOT a Pinephone running Mobian nothing is intuitive in Mobian like figuring out how to reboot the operating system, I had to pry the back cover off the Pinephone and pull the battery, I wonder how many more times I can pull the back cover off the Pinephone before the cover no longer works, seems I spend most my time pulling the batter out than actually using the Pinephone, I've had my Pinephone

I typed sudo reboot in the command prompt thingie (forget the name most people, most operating systems call it TERMINAL) hit enter and it did NOTHING the command prompt thingie would respond to every key on the keyboard except for the RETURN key.

I've had my Pinephone since 07-19-2020 and yet been able to take a picture worth saving the quality of the pictures are 10x worse than the worse digital camera I have ever owned.

I have tried 5 different operating systems none can receive or make a successful phone call or take a picture worth saving what is everyone else doing to make the Pinephone a functional cell PHONE?

WHY is anybody wasting time installing apps like a calculator, Chess, Clocks, Calendar, Firefox, document viewer, Fractal, Geary etc. when the phone and camera does not work?

Thanks in advance

While I ordered a Pine Phone with Manjaro, I received one with PostmarketOS. Since this is the first time that I am using the Pine Phone and I am indifferent to which particular flavor of linux I am using, I was wondering if someone could give me a brief summary of the differences between the two operating systems to help me decide whether I should flash the device or keep playing with PostmarketOS.

Thanks!

I'm looking for the cad file for the rear case so I can 3d print and give the phone a huge battery.

Also, how would I go about adding a new battery? Could I get a polymer battery, but how would I wire in the thermistor and protection and what part would that be? would be better to wire into the Vbus pongo pin?

I tried a few different stands for my PinePhone but they all seemed to be designed to be used only for display and/or charging and made the phone difficult to use.  So I decided to design a stand specifically for use during development and test.  The stand is strong and stable with a comfortable angle and allows you to use the touchscreen and buttons with one hand.  The design is in OpenSCAD and is GPLv3 - so feel free to use it an adapt as required.



https://github.com/simoninns/PinePhone-Dev-Stand



Here's a picture:

From what I have read so far the 16gb eMMC  read speed is a bit faster,   than the 32gb eMMC read speed

1) Will this give noticeable difference to performance in normal phone use ?
     is the eMMC speed listed the maximum for that device     
         or a product of its interaction with the phone hardware.?

2) I also read the phones board firmware can possibly be tweaked in the future to give the board the ability to to give faster 'read' speeds.
     Is this likely to happen soon...?    
       Will 'users' notice a big difference at that time..?

Hi,

I just received my PinePhone and I'm very excited to try it out! But after removing the tap between the battery and connector and booting up for the first time, I was taken to a lock screen. Swiping up takes me to a screen for entering a passcode. I was not taken through a first-run setup to create a user and I don't know what passcode I'm supposed to use.

Did I miss some communication about the phones being preset up and having a default code or do I need to reset the phone somehow? If so, any advice on how to do that would be appreciated.

Has anyone installed wireguard on the Pine Phone with Manjaro (I am new to both Pine Phone and Manjaro). Thanks!