03-08-2020, 03:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-08-2020, 03:39 PM by Zweitaktmotor.)
I think one of the main problems with all the distributions I have seen so far is screen resolution. Many dialogue boxes and other screens are just too big to be displayed and operated properly.
If we want to run standard Linux applications, then it seems imperative that we first try to do so in a standard screen size, rather than trying to adapt each singe application to a smaller space such as a phone display.
The Pinephone is very well capable of displaying a higher resolution than what we have seen so far. Look at the boot up messages in Maemo Leste or Debian Phosh. The displayed messages are tiny but still shown very clearly.
As a sort of "proof of concept", I was able to install Gnome over Postmarket OS Phosh (Gnome needs to be started in Terminal here) and ended up with an almost computer-like screen layout and ample space for the keyboard at the bottom in portrait mode. Surpirisingly, this was rather responsive and accurate to touch-operate. Please see my thread here:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9309
There also seemed to be a way to move a cursor over an area to be tapped and then tap the screen anywhere to emulate a mouse click. It would perhaps even be possible to have a loupe-style magnification, if necessary.
To me, the reason seems to be that my installation somehow used the Mali400 graphics driver that is specific to the Pinephone's graphic chip. It was explained to me that Mali400 is non-free and therefore should not be used and in any case the physical screen resolution should have nothing to do with Gnome scaling.
But on the other hand, I have not seen any other high resolution distro yet.
How can we get something like this, please:
OpenTTDsm.png (Size: 453.57 KB / Downloads: 495)
(Screenshot resolution reduced, due to upload limitations. In the original, you can read everything very clearly.)
If we want to run standard Linux applications, then it seems imperative that we first try to do so in a standard screen size, rather than trying to adapt each singe application to a smaller space such as a phone display.
The Pinephone is very well capable of displaying a higher resolution than what we have seen so far. Look at the boot up messages in Maemo Leste or Debian Phosh. The displayed messages are tiny but still shown very clearly.
As a sort of "proof of concept", I was able to install Gnome over Postmarket OS Phosh (Gnome needs to be started in Terminal here) and ended up with an almost computer-like screen layout and ample space for the keyboard at the bottom in portrait mode. Surpirisingly, this was rather responsive and accurate to touch-operate. Please see my thread here:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9309
There also seemed to be a way to move a cursor over an area to be tapped and then tap the screen anywhere to emulate a mouse click. It would perhaps even be possible to have a loupe-style magnification, if necessary.
To me, the reason seems to be that my installation somehow used the Mali400 graphics driver that is specific to the Pinephone's graphic chip. It was explained to me that Mali400 is non-free and therefore should not be used and in any case the physical screen resolution should have nothing to do with Gnome scaling.
But on the other hand, I have not seen any other high resolution distro yet.
How can we get something like this, please:
OpenTTDsm.png (Size: 453.57 KB / Downloads: 495)
(Screenshot resolution reduced, due to upload limitations. In the original, you can read everything very clearly.)