Most functional distro, as of now

[Conjada]

Is there any consensus as to which distro is, at present, the most functional in terms of using the Pinephone Pro as a phone? 

All opinions welcome.

[bcnaz]

I have had very good experiences with Mobian on my current Pinephones, So that will be my first attempt on the Pinephone Pro.

My new Pinephone Pro is hopefully going to arrive tomorrow (Jan.28, 2022)

I will also try Arch/Dremurs/Phosh and PMOS/Phosh of course, and share that experience.

[Conjada]

Thanks for that, @bcnaz . I’ve d/l’d Mobian and Arch to evaluate. I’ll probably look into others. But, those two look the most promising from what ive read on the project pages. Looking forward to things gathering momentum as shipments arrive and experience increases.

[brb78]

I've DD'd DanctNix ArchArm since PPP arrived early December

[bcnaz]

PMOS and Dremur's/Arch are both able to work "Out of the Box" just install and run, but they do both take more "Linux skills" to use and care for.

While Mobian also works "Out of the Box" ---> but, it is possible to use with just basic user skills and easier to add software.

As an "Out of the Box" operating system, UBPorts is 'almost' there.

If you have developer skills there are dozens of operating systems that can be "Made to work"

My opinions are my own, from trying the systems myself. Your opinions will probably differ.

[Ulfnic]

I've had a really good experience with Mobian although picking full disk encryption from the installer image breaks boot (both on sdcard and emmc) and the camera doesn't seem to be ready yet.

[bcnaz]

On the original Pine phone --- Mobian bookworm is doing excellent !

On the new Pro series, Mobian is having some unattractive problems.
On my new Pro, ===>
Bookworm is booting without the boot LED showing..
and the OS freezes when it goes into suspend.

Other-wise it is nice....

[lllsondowlll]

My personal experience with distro hopping over the past couple of days.

Mobian's stable release is bugged and thinks the phone is always charging, seems to be the most behind the curve in favor of stability over functionality and looks. App store interface and included gnome apps are somewhat outdated and lacking. Mobian unstable does better but seems to still be a little out dated by a week or so. Plus I wasn't thrilled how the phone would not indicate whether or not Mobian is booting which no other distro has issues with addressing via led or vibration indicators, not Mobian though. Seems to be bugged with haptic feedback as well. Either too aggressive or nonexistent. Mobian is a "safe" distro with lots of documentation but definitely not the "best".

Arch (unofficial) Phosh is just Arch with stable Mobian Phosh packages pulled in. Seems to be behind Manjaro stable in a lot of ways when it comes to Gnome apps and interface. Seems to be more compatible with PPP than Mobian. App store interface is lacking. Suspend works out of the box unless kernel is upgraded. It's more or less Mobian with Arch underneath. Doesn't really bring much else to the table that would impress or really set it apart from Mobian for me personally.

Arch (unofficial) Plasma is just Arch with Plasma, similar to the above notes.

Manjaro Phosh Stable has a lot more gnome packages shipped by default, improved out of box functionality (such as charging states and haptic handling), and a pretty fleshed out app store functionality that sets the rest of the above distros apart. The stable Phosh apps are more up to date than Mobian. The interface theme, icons, and App store that functions exactly like the desktop package manager really gives this distro shine over the previous two.

Manjaro Phosh Unstable is the closest to true Arch Linux bleeding edge you can get and is what I use as my daily driver. Lots of added functionality and stability fixes with the latest kernels and app updates as soon as they are available. Suspend is broken but this is a known issue for most distros running recent software. It's an issue with U-boot that should be resolved soon from what I hear.

Manjaro Plasma - This is what ships with the phone, I liked it but it feels a little too unstable for me and has issues with app scaling when translating desktop apps to mobile. Phosh seems to handle this very well.

In conclusion: Really the most complete distro will depend on your needs and I recommend you do some distro hoping on an SD card for yourself to see which one meets your needs the best.

[nristen]

I tried Postmarket OS with sway on the PPP.  The phone is very responsive.

The problems I have noted so far:

• I can't recover from suspend
  
• audio menu commands do not seem to respond/work
  

I have not yet tried inserting a SIM card to test calls or sms messages.

[kaida]

I tried Manjaro (plasma and phosh) , Arch (plasma and phosh and sxmo) and postmarketos phosh

I must say for now that definitely phosh feels more stable than plasma to me and Arch seems to also feel like the most stable so for me it's arch phosh for now

I had some weird bug in manjaro , and no phone audio on postmarket and sms were hit and miss

reinstalled arch phosh and received all my missed sms , and audio works in calls, although on arch plasma the setting appears all blank to me , so thats why I stick to phosh