Hello everybody,
I think that I might have found a clue on why does so many linux applications does not work correctly, or sometimes not at all on PinePhone with Manjaro-arm (and possibly other PinePhone linux distros).
It might not have anything to do with how the developer of the software have developed the application, but a lot to do with the certain libs that were used - which are sometimes compiled differently for different linux distributions.
The clue came from a comment left by a creator of a certain linux application, to a bug report that was targeted at a PinePhone:
https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate/issues/635
I quote the developer:
"The file chooser dialog is not part of Foliate. It's provided by whatever xdg-desktop-portal backend you're using, or else it will use the default GTK dialog.
For the GTK bug, see https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/2194.
On the Librem5, I believe they're shipping a patched version of GTK, the result of which can be seen in this screenshot."
(the discussed screenshot can be seen here: https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2020/...-11-15.png)
The developer of the Foliate application points out to the guy who have opened a bug report, that the bug has nothing to do with the software it self, and that he is using some type of component of GTK in his application, so what people will see on the screen depends on what is supplied with their operating system.
So probably certain application which fail to work, or are unable to adjust their UI to a mobile device, is because certain GUI libraries that are supplied / compiled together with the said linux distro needs to be tweaked for a mobile screen.
If anybody from the Manjaro-arm team get to see this thread, please let us know, what can be done? could the GTK version that ships with Manjaro can be tweaked / patched to have applications built using GTK (many) to display correctly on the PinePhone' screen?
EDIT: just had a look on this source code: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/debs/gtk
This is gtk tweaked to work with a phone interface
kern707
I think that I might have found a clue on why does so many linux applications does not work correctly, or sometimes not at all on PinePhone with Manjaro-arm (and possibly other PinePhone linux distros).
It might not have anything to do with how the developer of the software have developed the application, but a lot to do with the certain libs that were used - which are sometimes compiled differently for different linux distributions.
The clue came from a comment left by a creator of a certain linux application, to a bug report that was targeted at a PinePhone:
https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate/issues/635
I quote the developer:
"The file chooser dialog is not part of Foliate. It's provided by whatever xdg-desktop-portal backend you're using, or else it will use the default GTK dialog.
For the GTK bug, see https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/2194.
On the Librem5, I believe they're shipping a patched version of GTK, the result of which can be seen in this screenshot."
(the discussed screenshot can be seen here: https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2020/...-11-15.png)
The developer of the Foliate application points out to the guy who have opened a bug report, that the bug has nothing to do with the software it self, and that he is using some type of component of GTK in his application, so what people will see on the screen depends on what is supplied with their operating system.
So probably certain application which fail to work, or are unable to adjust their UI to a mobile device, is because certain GUI libraries that are supplied / compiled together with the said linux distro needs to be tweaked for a mobile screen.
If anybody from the Manjaro-arm team get to see this thread, please let us know, what can be done? could the GTK version that ships with Manjaro can be tweaked / patched to have applications built using GTK (many) to display correctly on the PinePhone' screen?
EDIT: just had a look on this source code: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/debs/gtk
This is gtk tweaked to work with a phone interface
kern707
