Genode OS

[PineFone]

The clouds are lifting now.

Good to hear. I was leaning towards operator error and/or faulty PinePhone.

I will give this latest version a try tomorrow and report back.

And no, I don't have the debugger cable you linked to.

[PineFone]

I have published a new image for you (version 2023-07-14) with the following changes:

REBOOT WORKS!
Thanks for centering the storage options making it easier to press the [1] box. After clicking EXPAND and going through the next steps, Sculpt now reboots fine. It also comes back with Storage updates in tact after choosing Power Down.


FLICKERING FIXED
Flickering subsides quickly as mentioned


CENTERING PRESETS
Hitting presets to bring up the menu options like morph browser is still a bit tricky similar to previous issue with the [1] box on the far left of the screen. Hitting presets often triggers the preset screen. If it's an issue to center the presets button like you did with the [1] box, is it possible to swap the positing of the presets button with a lesser used button on that horizontal string of buttons.

Swap "update" with "preset"? Update won't get used that often and it brings up a centered button that doesn't get interferred with by the far left preset trigger


PHONE DIAL BUTTONS EXPAND
The phone pad displays the 0-9 plus * and # signs. When you enter the standard 10 digit number, everything looks fine. When you start typing more like with a four or five digit PIN plus the # sign, the input expands to accommodate the extra numbers, but in the process the dial pad numbers also widen where some leave the view screen.

The solution would be to allow only the most recent 10 numbers displayed in the input. For example, if I typed in (555) 555-5555 5555# [55555555555555#] then only "555555555#" [55555555555555#] is displayed keeping the dial pad buttons displayed the same size without shifting off screen.


PROLONG SCREEN SAVER TIME
The screen saver seems to work fine, so it might be a good idea to expand the time it takes to trigger the screener saver from 10 seconds to 60 seconds to make testing the other things simpler without the distraction of constantly reloading the screen when it goes dark.


SCREEN SAVER POWER BUTTON ONLY
It looks like you fixed whatever glitch that allowed for turning off the screen saver by pressing the volume up and down buttons in addition to the power button. Power Buttons is all that works now.


BROWSER WHITE SCREEN?
I was using the morph browser a bit and then suddenly the screen went all white and didn't go away by hitting the far left screen trigger. Had to manually restart and tried to replicate the issue, but couldn't so maybe it's a fluke. Will report back if I run into it again.

[nfeske]

Thanks for the excellent feedback, which you can find incorporated in a new image published under nfeske (version 2023-07-28).

The idea to slightly shuffle the software tabs is very sensible. I have just moved the status button in front, so the presets button becomes easier to reach.

Agreeing that the 10s blank timeout is somewhat annoying during testing, I have (temporarily?) increased the time to 1 minute. In a later version, it would be nice to make this aspect interactively configurable.

Your remarks about dialing large numbers are spot on. I took them as inspiration for a few changes. When the number grows larger, I let the "Dial" label disappear to make more room for the number. At this point, the user does not need this clue any more. If the number grows still larger, the digits change to a smaller font so that the full number remains visible. If the number grows even larger, I do the capping you suggested. The maximum number of digits is currently restricted to 30.

Since I'm not used to using # and *, I would appreciate learning a bit more about the practical usage patterns. Are these characters part of the dialed number or only used during an active call (for producing dial tones)? When pressing the dialpad buttons during a call, I guess that we should produce dial tones. Do we also need to display the new entered digits at this point, or can we just keep displaying the dialed number as is?

Have fun with trying out the new image. BTW, I'm taking a break for a few weeks. Please don't worry about my lack of forum activity. I'll be back.

[Kevin Kofler]

Some carriers' special numbers can contain * and #. E.g., * + some numbers + # to send some command to the carrier, such as enabling/disabling the mailbox.

[PineFone]

Thanks for the excellent feedback, which you can find incorporated in a new image published under nfeske (version 2023-07-28).isplaying the dialed number as is?

- Button position moves have made things easier to navigate
- Adjustable blank timeout screen sounds good
- Dial pad updates work great
- I only use the "#" & "*" symbols during active calls like dialing the number and then PIN plus # to access voicemail. However, there are numbers you can dial to start a call. Not sure if it's still in use, but there was *69 to auto call back the number that just dialed you. See the movie "Fight Club" for a practical reference - TYLER: "I *69'd you, I never answer phone calls"

ISSUE: When going over the usual check down of presets noticed that the keyboard does not appear in the browser or in the command shell rendering both unuseable. I'm sure an import library link accidentally got deleted in the latest update or something trivial like that.

POST LAUNCH SUGGESTION: I've mentioned this before, but there is a decent chance that in the near future some or all phone carriers drop support of PinePhone. This happened a year or two ago with AT&T subsidiary Cingular I believe.

Consider adding some kind of mesh network option to Genode using Reticulum/Sideband, Meshtastic, or Qortal(maybe?) to allow for the creation of at least a back up messaging service.

Reticulum's completed API is designed to carry tiny data pack signals over wifi, internet, radio/ham-radio signal, and via LilyGO/ESP32 RNodes while Meshtastic is Android only last I checked, and Qortal is an IP2 locked Mesh network for now.

[nfeske]

ISSUE: When going over the usual check down of presets noticed that the keyboard does not appear in the browser or in the command shell rendering both unuseable. I'm sure an import library link accidentally got deleted in the latest update or something trivial like that.

Thanks for reporting. I indeed missed to publish the matching version of the touch keyboard. This should be fixed by now.

Consider adding some kind of mesh network option to Genode using Reticulum/Sideband, Meshtastic, or Qortal(maybe?) to allow for the creation of at least a back up messaging service.

Personally, I'll definitely keep this idea in the back of my head. As of today, however, I think it is most sensible to wrap up the work on the basic phone features first (SMS, QR-scan, GPS, contacts, calendar, alarm timer, notes, camera app, ...). Once those basics are settled, we can branch out to new topics.

[PineFone]

[quote pid="119386" dateline="1692870303"]

Consider adding some kind of mesh network option to Genode using Reticulum/Sideband, Meshtastic, or Qortal(maybe?) to allow for the creation of at least a back up messaging service.

Personally, I'll definitely keep this idea in the back of my head. As of today, however, I think it is most sensible to wrap up the work on the basic phone features first (SMS, QR-scan, GPS, contacts, calendar, alarm timer, notes, camera app, ...). Once those basics are settled, we can branch out to new topics.
[/quote]

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Hence "POST LAUNCH SUGGESTION:" having the basics in place obviously comes first.

NomadNet/Sideband is a micro size program that works on raspberry pi's or standard laptop/PC's running linux as the main OS or as the side partition. Sideband has been put on Androids with some effort and their is an effort to put it on iPhone as well.

Given Genode's microkernel status on both phone and PC, seems like it would be easier for adoption for people to load up a ~20MB Genode OS instead of a ~1GB Ubuntu OS onto their device as a partition or main operating system.

Trying to figure out the optimal way to setup a local mesh network of phones (likely involving Androids & iPhones to get the coverage area larger), laptops, etc. and Genode seems like it would make that effort easier, but I don't have the technical knowledge to know for sure.

Assuming Genode OS is not in a rush for Android or iPhone adoption, Genode OS on laptops, raspberry pi's and the few PinePhones in a given area seems like the best route to getting a mesh network built as a fallback network for PinePhones should carrier acceptance suddenly become an issue.

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I'll keep an eye out for the next update, especially if it's one that enables text messaging so I can give Genode daily driving a shot.

[PineFone]

Personally, I'll definitely keep this idea in the back of my head. As of today, however, I think it is most sensible to wrap up the work on the basic phone features first (SMS, QR-scan, GPS, contacts, calendar, alarm timer, notes, camera app, ...). Once those basics are settled, we can branch out to new topics.

There may be a simpler way to get a text messenger (and possibly VOIP) backup for PinePhone should phone carrier issues arise.

https://bastyon.com fits the bill pretty well with a node network that has been proven to get around DNS take downs although it still relies on TCP which is one big advantage of Reticulum with its own TCP alternative. Bastyon's big advantage over Reticulum is 25 developers and steady funding.

Bastyon has apps for iPhone and Android, in addition to the big 3 desktop OS's so it may be as simple as developing a Bastyon App for Sculpt OS.

I assume Bastyon would have to develop the app for Sculpt OS although you mentioned relying on the existing App infrastructure used by PinePhone so it may be a case of Bastyon making the app for PinePhone in general and that's how it gets to Sculpt.

Just an update on the post launch topic, looking forward to the next Sculpt/Genode update.

[PineFone]

There's discussion on two different threads: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18791 and https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18799 about discontinuing/winding down "megi's kernel" for regular PP which serves as the foundation that all* regular PP OS's are built on.

*Since Sculpt OS is being built from the ground up separate from traditional Linux distros, I was wondering if this issue will also affect Sculpt OS?

[diederik]

There's discussion on two different threads: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18791 and https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18799 about discontinuing/winding down "megi's kernel" for regular PP which serves as the foundation that all* regular PP OS's are built on.

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...#pid120212 'indicates' that "megi's kernel" is NOT being discontinued.
(There being a "megi's kernel" (instead of a community/upstream kernel) is seen as problematic by some)