+- PINE64 (https://forum.pine64.org)
+-- Forum: PinePhone (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=120)
+--- Forum: General Discussion on PinePhone (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=127)
+--- Thread: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? (/showthread.php?tid=13861)
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - marcih - 05-12-2021
- Do you use the Pinephone as your daily driver?
Yes, I use my Manjaro CE PinePhone as a daily driver.
- If yes: What distribution do you use?
Manjaro
- Which desktop environment/interface do you use?
Phosh
- Does the interface offer the basic functionality you need or is something missing?
I'm not very picky when it comes to functionality, all I need is a feature phone with a music player, Web browser and email, RSS and YouTube client. All of these are available on Manjaro; lollypop, firefox, geary, gfeeds and freetube-bin (from AUR). The only thing I am missing is a fully-functional Signal client, and USB tethering (missing on Manjaro, present on Mobian)
- Have you been able to add the missing functionality through third party applications or customisations?
Neither axolotl nor Signal on Anbox are sufficient for my needs, however I was able to use files from Mobian to get tethering working on Manjaro too.
- Which customisations did you apply to make the pinephone meet your expectations towards a daily driver?
Scripts and systemd services from here.
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - pjsf - 05-12-2021
1. Yes I've been daily driving it for 15 months, initially on Mozzwald's Pureos adaptation, then mobian and now Manjaro phosh since last July.
2. Manjaro phosh usually on unstable branch.
3. Phosh
4. Yes, it doesn't have the 'flash' of other environments, but lets me run more of the applications I need.
5. Yes, tho most of the things I've been adding seem to be included as default in the newer betas, only things missing for me at the moment are mms and gps, but I can get by without them.
6. Really only changing to unstable branch, to get the latest developments. It's generally quite reliable, tho I keep a stable branch on sd to load in case of breakage, and I'm just in the process of downgrading to testing(first time in about four months) due to a breakage in anbox (damn you, Protobuf!).
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - RRman - 05-13-2021
I too use it as a daily driver with Manjaro Phosh stable on eMMC and works fine for calls and sms. I've tryed almost all other builds and this is the one that works the best for me. The screen comes up quickly and the modem does not give a busy signal like most of other distros. I use shaw mobile as a provider and this works fine. As the other guys mentioned above you can add many apps.
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - Kraotacen - 05-13-2021
1) Yes I do
2) Currently Mobian, but I would prefer Manjaro or Ubuntu
3) Phosh, but it’s my least favorite by far.
4) Mobian Phosh has everything I NEED when I add Anbox to it. There are a few quality of life things it is missing and I really do not like the look and feel. Unfortunately the OS/Environment combos that I love the look and feel for are not currently working with GSM cards or do not play well with Anbox, and Anbox is something I need due to three work critical apps.
5) a third party alarm app kind of works for my daily alarm but it is very basic, and adding Anbox in allowed me to get the android apps I had to have for work.
6) After trying several OS I installed Mobian to the system and installed Anbox, after that I check the forum a couple times a day hoping for a Manjaro Plasma update that gets ofono working with GSM properly.
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - john_doe - 05-16-2021
(05-09-2021, 03:00 PM)jro Wrote: 1. Do you use the Pinephone as your daily driver?
yes, I have even made a factory-reset of my old android device months ago and haven't touched it since then
(05-09-2021, 03:00 PM)jro Wrote: 2. If yes: What distribution do you use?
Arch Linux ARM, because I use Arch Linux on my desktop and I just love pacman and bleeding edge ...
(05-09-2021, 03:00 PM)jro Wrote: 3. Which desktop environment/interface do you use?
phosh
(05-09-2021, 03:00 PM)jro Wrote: 4. Does the interface offer the basic functionality you need or is something missing?
Support for alphanummeric passwords is missing. Tiling support would be great to have in the future. Notifications are not displayed, when the screen is locked. Messenger apps like telegram won't work when the phone is in deep sleep (I guess this will never get fixed), therefore I use deep sleep only, if I don't have the possibility to charge my phone within the next 2 or 3 hours. Alarm clock won't wake me, if I fall asleep with my bluetooth head phones.
(05-09-2021, 03:00 PM)jro Wrote: 5. Have you been able to add the missing functionality through third party applications or customisations?
I use some basic helper scripts until missing functionality is implemented like recording video by recording the screen through wl-recorder, when megapixels is running.
(05-09-2021, 03:00 PM)jro Wrote: 6. Which customisations did you apply to make the pinephone meet your expectations towards a daily driver?
A popular messenger app was important for me, because some people refuse to use SMS nowadays. Telegram seems to be widely accepted by the "mainstream" and luckily telegram-desktop seems to work quite well on the pinephone (telegram-purple is buggy and missing features like receiving and sending pictures). To get notifications, when telegram-desktop is closed I'm using a systemd service (borrowed from the mobian wiki) to restart telegram-desktop in tray everytime I'm closing it (because closing it through phosh will completely close it without running in the background). And to the people which insist to use whatsapp: scr** them (I refuse to use anbox on my pinephone like I refuse to use wine on the desktop).
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - rmblror - 05-22-2021
(05-10-2021, 08:10 AM)kat22 Wrote: I also am not on facebook/whatsapp/twitter... elementz(old riot.im) works well on Arch Phosh...Are you using element as a web app, or did you build it for the pinephone?
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - treebuilder - 05-27-2021
- Do you use the Pinephone as your daily driver?
- If yes: What distribution do you use?
Mobian phosh on an SD card at the moment, on T-Mobile in the US. 3GB KDE Plasma community (not beta) version.
- Which desktop environment/interface do you use?
- Does the interface offer the basic functionality you need or is something missing?
Functionality as it stands today:
Receiving calls: Appears to work most of the time, though occasionally calls will not ring and phone will not wake, even when plugged in, and I miss calls.
Placing outgoing calls: Seems to work, though I have occasionally run into situations where the call is misrouted. Calls sometimes drop unexpectedly. This appears to happen when the cellular modem switches from 4G to 3G or even 2G. Also happens when receiving calls.
for both receiving and placing calls, I have the following nits to pick UI-wise:
1) sometimes I have to use another phone app while on a call. Sometimes, when I pull the phone away from my head, the thing's gone to sleep, and the phone UI is overlaying the lock screen UI, and I can't unlock the phone.
2) many times, when I either place or receive a call and my headset is already plugged into the phone, the audio out is correctly routed through the headset, but the mic will not work, even though it tests fine in settings. I end up having to unplug my headset and put the phone up to my ear. This also happens if I try to connect the headset during an ongoing call.
3) when I hit "speaker", audio is instead routed through the internal earpiece and thus the speakerphone functionality isn't usable as it is too quiet to hear.
4) many people on the other end complain of high background noise, even though I am in a silent room.
Streaming music from Pandora: Works fine with Pithos, after I added a script that constantly checks whether audio is streaming and prevents the phone from sleeping.
Occasional map/GPS use: map is very slow to locate me. GPS drains the battery (from 90%+ to <20% within minutes).
Wireless hotspot: works fine.
Loading webpage in a browser: both firefox and the default web browser in Mobian phosh are unacceptably slow, particularly when the page has a more modern design, or horizontal scrolling is necessary.
SMS: no usable notification, to the point that my family cannot reliably contact me via SMS, as I cannot tell I've received a text if I'm not looking at a turned-on phone at the time it arrives. Also, clicking links often fails, and cut and paste similarly fails. The ability to follow links in email or SMS is effectively dead; I cannot use the phone for this purpose.
email: works well with geary, though notifications are slow, folder sync is slow, and cut and paste don't work.
reddit: app load and initial authentication times make giara unusable.
- Have you been able to add the missing functionality through third party applications or customisations?
- Which customisations did you apply to make the pinephone meet your expectations towards a daily driver?
Additionally, the file browser keeps launching almost any time I wake the phone from sleep. This is annoying.
Notifications in phosh cannot be swiped away; they obstruct the top of the screen, and you must wait for them to disappear. Likewise, in the top pull-down, they can't be swiped away. The only way to dismiss them is to click on them, which launches whatever app they're from. This is an annoyance.
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - nelstomlinson - 05-27-2021
I recently got a Beta Edition, and put a sim in it. I really only need reliable calls and SMS to make this my daily driver. So far it receives and makes calls. It receives SMS, but I have yet to be able to send a text from it. It's very close to usable, but it's not quite there yet.
The camera is pretty sorry, but megapixels works and it does take photos. Still hunting for a photo viewer.
Battery life stinks, but carrying a spare battery will make that tolerable.
Manjaro is apparently based on Arch? It works, I guess, but I'm used to Debian and this is pretty different.
Between the new-to-me distro and the beta everything, it's going to be a while before I'm comfortable relying on this.
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - dukla2000 - 05-28-2021
(05-27-2021, 03:16 PM)nelstomlinson Wrote: I recently got a Beta Edition, ...Welcome to the party!
(05-27-2021, 03:16 PM)nelstomlinson Wrote: ... but I have yet to be able to send a text from it. ...Should work OK - make sure you use a full MSISDN prefixed by a + for your numbers.
(05-27-2021, 03:16 PM)nelstomlinson Wrote: ... but I'm used to Debian and this is pretty different.Try Mobian on an SDcard.
...
RE: Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? - vortex - 05-28-2021
(05-27-2021, 07:26 AM)treebuilder Wrote: 4) many people on the other end complain of high background noise, even though I am in a silent room.
I wonder if you might be having the same issue as me. You can see my adventures with trying to figure it out at https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=13922.