A year to 2 years ago, I was heavily involved in trying to get PPP usable through software tests and mods. I provided about 150 comments to the forum in this effort. I tried so many SD card, SIM card changes during this testing that I physically broke the SIM card holder in the PPP phone making it not functional as a cell phone. I never received the free replacement SIM card holder that was promised by Pinephone even after providing all of their required data. For more than a year, my PPP (and the earlier PP) has been shelved and I have dropped out of PPP efforts.
I am still a believer in linux phone technology, particularly for privacy reasons, after I see reports of the newest gimmicks by the major phone manufacturers. I am also a 20 year exclusively linux user on my PCs.
I am trying to get an assessment of where PPP stands as to functionality currently to be a "daily driver" cell phone. I am retired, i.e., heavyweight business needs are over; my needs are moderate. I would put money into repairing my PPP if things currently look better.
Here is what I would need in order to justify an investment into getting my PPP repaired.
At least 12 hour battery life w/o charger
Functional recharging capability
Reliable/repeatable boots
Good capability to send and receive phone calls where one could hear and be heard by a connecting party
Ability to reliably send SMS messages over cell network. I use Consumer Cellular which did allow calls on PPP with it's SIM card on some OS a while ago.
Ability to send MMS messages (attachments)
Some auxiliary app functions, i.e., navigation, cameras would be nice if progress has been made on that.
Would appreciate any info on your success in meeting these needs. Include OS and desktop name and versions. Also any mods made to the phone to achieve.
thanks all. tom kosvic
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: A year to 2 years ago, I was heavily involved in trying to get PPP usable through software tests and mods. I provided about 150 comments to the forum in this effort. I tried so many SD card, SIM card changes during this testing that I physically broke the SIM card holder in the PPP phone making it not functional as a cell phone. I never received the free replacement SIM card holder that was promised by Pinephone even after providing all of their required data. For more than a year, my PPP (and the earlier PP) has been shelved and I have dropped out of PPP efforts.
I am still a believer in linux phone technology, particularly for privacy reasons, after I see reports of the newest gimmicks by the major phone manufacturers. I am also a 20 year exclusively linux user on my PCs.
I am trying to get an assessment of where PPP stands as to functionality currently to be a "daily driver" cell phone. I am retired, i.e., heavyweight business needs are over; my needs are moderate. I would put money into repairing my PPP if things currently look better.
Here is what I would need in order to justify an investment into getting my PPP repaired.
At least 12 hour battery life w/o charger
Functional recharging capability
Reliable/repeatable boots
Good capability to send and receive phone calls where one could hear and be heard by a connecting party
Ability to reliably send SMS messages over cell network. I use Consumer Cellular which did allow calls on PPP with it's SIM card on some OS a while ago.
Ability to send MMS messages (attachments)
Some auxiliary app functions, i.e., navigation, cameras would be nice if progress has been made on that.
Would appreciate any info on your success in meeting these needs. Include OS and desktop name and versions. Also any mods made to the phone to achieve.
thanks all. tom kosvic
assuming pp pro, most will not be fulfilled. similar argument for pp regular. although i don't know all the details.
i mostly use mobian/testing/trixie.
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: At least 12 hour battery life w/o charger
no, with suspend maybe yes. i don't use suspend, but suspend is unreliable in some cases.
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Functional recharging capability
this works for me. is the problem if battery is totally drained?! if that, then some special procedures are required.
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Reliable/repeatable boots
works for me. is the problem borked updates or bad suspend ?!
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Good capability to send and receive phone calls where one could hear and be heard by a connecting party
varies. updates may change the situation.
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Ability to reliably send SMS messages over cell network.
i think this works, but may have some issues.
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Ability to send MMS messages (attachments)
this is something, i don't use that much.
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Some auxiliary app functions, i.e., navigation, cameras would be nice if progress has been made on that.
i tested gps antenna on pp pro recently, and it seems to be better than pp regular. but how that gps info is relayed into apps is complicated. gpsd is one option.
(05-25-2024, 08:32 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Here is what I would need in order to justify an investment into getting my PPP repaired.
At least 12 hour battery life w/o charger - Not yet. I would say 10% drop per hour with light use.
Functional recharging capability - Yes, No issues here
Reliable/repeatable boots - Yes, always boots
Good capability to send and receive phone calls where one could hear and be heard by a connecting party - Other person hears an echo of their voice.
Ability to reliably send SMS messages over cell network. - Yes
Ability to send MMS messages (attachments) - Yes for about a year now
Some auxiliary app functions, i.e., navigation, cameras would be nice if progress has been made on that. - Use osmin, Camera app will start then crash. See my link below for more apps I use.
See this post for a complete install and setup.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18192
See this post for my experience on functionally
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...#pid118783
Device: PinePhonePro (Daily driver)
OS: DanctNIX Arch with Phosh
Carrier: USA - Patriot Mobile (T-Mobile SIM)
EG25 Firmware: Biktorgj 0.7.2
ADSP Version: 01.003
At present I am waiting for Juno phone to be released. Might be August or so. As I have Juno tablet and laptop I've got a good feeling about the phone and high quality. It will use Droidian strictly. This might be of some interest to the Mobian users.
If it will use Droidian exclusively, it is not a real GNU/Linux phone. Droidian is a Halium-based distribution, unlike Mobian. That's why it has "Droid" in the name. It uses Android kernels and binary driver blobs. And software like Plasma Mobile, ModemManager, etc. does not support Halium.
Programs like Libreoffice and Evolution will work. The "Droid" aspect is a good thing I think. The calls should actually work. Certainly we will see.
LibreOffice and Evolution are not usable at all on a phone, no matter the distribution. The UI elements just do not fit at all on the screen, unless the mobile "desktop" environment has a zoom-to-fit functionality, which for those applications will shrink everything so much that it is basically impossible to use with finger touches.
Calls actually work on real GNU/Linux phones (PinePhone, PinePhone Pro, Librem 5, Liberty Phone – those are the only current ones I know of) as well. No need to use a fake GNU/Linux phone relying on the Halium hack and binary blobs.
The proprietary drivers are also a security risk, see, e.g., the 2 recent critical and actively exploited vulnerabilities (one from last year, one from just a few days ago) in the proprietary Mali family GPU drivers by the Arm corporation. Devices using Free Software drivers such as lima or panfrost are not vulnerable.
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