Status update 2020-07-16

[a-wai]

Hi all,

Things continue to move on quite quickly, so I guess it's time for a new status/progress update (I'll try to post those on a monthly basis).

Over the past month we added or improved a whole bunch of exciting features:

• Thermal management is now working, decreasing the CPU frequency under intensive load so your phone doesn't get too hot (and the "Usage" app now properly reports temperature)
  
• Latest crust build greatly improves battery life (now ~20hrs idle with the modem on)
  
• Updated phoc & phosh which bring in lots of improvements, including automatic scaling for apps which would otherwise overflow the display (enabled by default for Calendar, Maps & Geary)
  
• Camera and flashlight are supported out of the box
  
• Driver for the ANX7688 USB-C controller is now included in the kernel build (requires a HW fix to be able to actually use USB-C peripherals)
  
• More mobile-friendly software have been packaged for Mobian (not all are installed by default, but they're just an "apt install" away):
  • Cawbird (Twitter client)
    
  • Flashlight
    
  • GNOME Metronome
    
  • Pinhole (Camera app)
    
  • Tootle (Mastodon client)
    

All of these features are available in today's image, which has been promoted to a new "reference" release (I dare not say "stable" at this stage, even though I happily use my PinePhone as a daily driver).

The community has done a great job at improving the project's wiki, and things keep getting better.
Many thanks to everyone involved!

You can also follow Mobian on Twitter now, where we'll share news of software development as well as other news related to the larger PinePhone community.

Finally, we're always looking for contributors and developers as the team is still quite small and we're not short of items on our TODO-list! Please reach out to me if you'd be willing to help out

As always, the latest image can be downloaded from our server.

Enjoy!

[livanti21]

I wanted to say thank you to start off with. I think the progress made on Mobian is absolutely incredible.

I am using it on an SD card currently and have using the nightly build and updating through OTA everyday. Are all the improvements listed included in the nightly build or do I need to flash the 7/16/20 image?

I appreciate everything you do!

[a-wai]

Thanks for the kind words!

No, as long as your system is up-to-date, you can stick with it, we usually don't add anything that can't be upgraded/installed using apt (and maybe an additional manual command sometimes, but that's really rare)

[livanti21]

Thank you for the reply.

I really do love what you guys are doing. I love Ubuntu Touch as well but Mobian is so far ahead on the pinephone (at least to me) that I use it as a daily driver right now. I'm going to flash to emmc this weekend and place Ubuntu Touch on an SD card so I can track their progress.

It seems to me that the approach you guys are taking is bringing a true linux desktop to a mobile device and I can only imagine where this project will be in 6 months, 12 months. You have a real opportunity to be the prime Linux mobile solution. It's already beautiful and it's just the beginning.

Thanks again for all you do for the community!

[Luke]

Blown away as always

[edit] I assume that if I am on an earlier installation then running ...

Code:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

... will get me up on par with this installation?

[wibble]

Usually that'll get you on par with installation. Occasionally manual intervention is needed - for me when the kernel went from 5.6 to 5.7, and when some packages were held back.

[Ersatz]

I have been extremely thrilled with the progress of Mobian. To everyone involved with development, thank you.

[bcnaz]

Many Thanks a-wai  !
 

Almost everything works fantastic on my Brave Heart edition

However,  when I wake up the phone from sleep,  I can place voice calls,  but I cannot open the text app ?

I am using the July 15 nightly,   flashed on to an SD card.

[gizmuth]

Everyday I leave my house with my pixel 2 and my pine phone and in the few weeks I have been using mobian I have yet to have to take the sim card out or even use my pixel at all, well done to the Mobian team you brought Debian to my phone and I couldn't be happier

[wi_badger]

It's hard to find words to express the quiet joy I feel every time I type "sudo apt upgrade" into a terminal window instead of getting an arbitrary software change forced down the pipe to my phone. Getting visible, measurable improvements to functionality instead of more bloat and spyware is icing on the cake.

Still early, but the latest upgrade seems reasonably stable, and the addition of a functioning camera is going to be a lot of fun !
(and as I type that, I look at the phone and auto time&date has reset itself to September 8, 2115, lol ... not a big problem, I still wear a watch)

As always, my profound thanks to everyone on the Mobian project !