A host named regret

[1111]

I just received my new Pinephone, after a week-long struggle with DHL. I purchased the Pinephone in order to have a device for which I can source replacement parts, but the debacle with DHL makes me think that idea is impractical.

At best, the phone is unusably slow at nearly all tasks except making and receiving calls. With the factory image running, no updates could be installed (first for unspecified unresolved dependencies, and then because PackageKit kept crashing).  "Discover" app takes >1m to start.

With PostmarketOS installed to sdcard, the phone sort-of works, and was able to make and receive phone calls, which is almost all I care about (apart from replacement parts, and the nice-to-have of other basic phone operations). It still takes "Software" app takes <20sec to start, "Shattered Pixel Dungeon" took about 40min to install and about 15sec to start.

Everything is clunky, stuttery and slow. The phone eats battery and gets warm for no apparent reason; the case does not fit well; the speaker makes constant snapping, popping noises. It is expensive junk. I cannot afford another phone, and time taken to fix this one's constant breakage (assuming I can get it "working" from the current state) takes away time I need for other things.

Apps don't work well on Pinephone, none of the repositories have phone apps. Apps don't sleep when the screen locks. I was exited to install Shattered Pixed Dungeon, because I thought it was the Android version. Silly me, thinking a Linux device could run Android apps!

The phone is not currently at its best: I tried to install TowBoot and messed up: now TowBoot Installer is installed to the eMMC and will not leave. I tried the instructions at https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephoneA64.html to remove the boot partition data, but the installer still comes up when I boot the phone, sdcard or no sdcard. I will write another card and fix this, but it's not great.

I don't know what to think. Nothing I read on these forums prepared me for how crap this phone is, at this late date.

I guess I'm not looking for advice, just venting. I wouldn't know what to ask.

[KC9UDX]

Perhaps ask yourself why you spent all the money you could afford for a phone on a phone described as "Beta Edition PinePhones are aimed solely at early adopters. More specifically, only intend for these units to find their way into the hands of users with extensive Linux experience."

[1111]

Perhaps ask yourself why you spent all the money you could afford for a phone on a phone described as "Beta Edition PinePhones are aimed solely at early adopters. More specifically, only intend for these units to find their way into the hands of users with extensive Linux experience."

Maybe ask yourself why you felt the need to passive-agressively assume things about me.


I explained in OP why I bought the phone. Did you read it? 

Do you have a reason to think I lack "extensive Linux experience"? No. You do not.

Can someone be an "early adopter" of a device that's been out for 6 years?



Nobody asked you to recite the words of the wiki. We've all read them.

Similarly, there is no call for you to make excuses for the poor state of the software. A lot of people have done a lot of work, much of it uncompensated, to make this device hum as designed and intended. No one intended that it would be a hot paperweight. This stuff is hard. 



Both my other pine64 machines improved over time (even if it never learned to sleep correctly) and I expected the pinephone to be in a state more nearly usable. I had hoped it would be at least as usable as people here on the forums had described- because, you see, I had read PAST that first page you quoth.



If you find that unreasonable, I invite you to ignore the rest of my posts, as you will likely find them unreasonable too. If I could find a way to block you, I would do that. I don't have time for smarmy, time-wasting jerk behavior.

---

In the meanwhilst, I have flashed "edge" postmarketOS to the sdcard, and the phone is now unbricked. Yay! It even makes calls again. I think.

I will say that the fact that the phone started making calls ALMOST without fuss (there was some initial fuss, the SIM holder that came with the phone seemed to prevent the card working & also didn't fit flush, I had a spare to use) is the one area where the reality of pinephone has exceeded my expectations. I expected a much harder fight getting cell service to work.

---

marking "solved" because there isn't actually a specific issue with the phone here, I'm just sad that a mad tv clown made it so i cant get parts

[KC9UDX]

I wonder if you even read what you wrote. It's self-contradictory. I mean, you expected Android apps to work. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to insult you, and I understand you wrote it in great frustration. And I'm glad you got it working satisfactorily. But saying that a mad TV clown made it; I remember Mad TV. I don't get the reference.

As politely as I know how, I'm going to ask you (for your own sake) to please have a little patience especially when dealing with a new experience which is still on the cutting edge, (even after 5 years), and especially when making your first posts in a forum. Again I'm not saying this just to rag on you. I'm saying to you help you.

At least you weren't like the others who just come here to tell us they recycled the phone.

[Kevin Kofler]

Addressing your complaints one by one, from my experience as a daily PinePhone user:

• Power consumption: Yes, it is high. Keep your phone plugged in overnight until you leave home and always carry a powerbank in case you need it, then you should be fine. Do not worry about your battery breaking with so many charging cycles. Mine has been lasting for years that way, and worst case, it can be replaced (and compatible replacements are also available from third parties, due to electrical compatibility with a specific Samsung battery model). Also do not worry about the phone overheating from the charging. Yes, it gets hot (and not only from charging!), but that does not seem to be a problem in practice.
  
• Performance: This device has an Allwinner A64 SoC, introduced to the market in 2015. PINE64 says in the FAQ that the performance is comparable to a Raspberry Pi 3 (introduced in 2016). What kind of performance did you expect from it? Yes, it is slow. It should not be expected to be fast.
  
• Android apps: Those are not expected to work out of the box indeed. Nowhere was it claimed that they would. If you want to run them, try Waydroid and/or the Android Translation Layer. Both are available in postmarketOS. Apps may or may not work with them, with currently a much higher success probability for Waydroid.
  

[biketool]

I just received my new Pinephone, after a week-long struggle with DHL. I purchased the Pinephone in order to have a device for which I can source replacement parts, but the debacle with DHL makes me think that idea is impractical.

At best, the phone is unusably slow at nearly all tasks except making and receiving calls. With the factory image running, no updates could be installed (first for unspecified unresolved dependencies, and then because PackageKit kept crashing).  "Discover" app takes >1m to start.

With PostmarketOS installed to sdcard, the phone sort-of works, and was able to make and receive phone calls, which is almost all I care about (apart from replacement parts, and the nice-to-have of other basic phone operations). It still takes "Software" app takes <20sec to start, "Shattered Pixel Dungeon" took about 40min to install and about 15sec to start.

Everything is clunky, stuttery and slow. The phone eats battery and gets warm for no apparent reason; the case does not fit well; the speaker makes constant snapping, popping noises. It is expensive junk. I cannot afford another phone, and time taken to fix this one's constant breakage (assuming I can get it "working" from the current state) takes away time I need for other things.

Apps don't work well on Pinephone, none of the repositories have phone apps. Apps don't sleep when the screen locks. I was exited to install Shattered Pixed Dungeon, because I thought it was the Android version. Silly me, thinking a Linux device could run Android apps!

The phone is not currently at its best: I tried to install TowBoot and messed up: now TowBoot Installer is installed to the eMMC and will not leave. I tried the instructions at https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephoneA64.html to remove the boot partition data, but the installer still comes up when I boot the phone, sdcard or no sdcard. I will write another card and fix this, but it's not great.

I don't know what to think. Nothing I read on these forums prepared me for how crap this phone is, at this late date.

I guess I'm not looking for advice, just venting. I wouldn't know what to ask.

The Allwinner CPU Pinephone is better to consider a testbed minimal 'cheap' phone but I used one for several years before upgrading.  The Pinephone Pro does everything better and as long as you dont use the phone too much for web scrolling and too much I mean no more than 30 min and minimal phonecalls.  With mobian trixie I can go all day and can also use it as long as plug in at every opportunity when eating out, bus, car, train, etc.  The Pinephone Pro and Pinephone are amazing, this is partly ego as they took some of my techno-paranoia ideas from the failed Neo900, but there is no device available except the LibreM that gives you a fully user serving design.

*Modem is modular(with paranoia hardware power cut switch) not integrated into chipset
*FOSS drivers
*paranoia hardware power cutoff switches (camera front/back, modem, wifi, mic, serial console/headset)
*I2C hacker interface for addons like keyboard, charger, LoRa, etc
*replacement parts
*removeable battery
*3.5mm TRRS headphone/serial I/O jack
*Cellbrite immune verified running towboot and encrypted / partition

The battery optimization still needs to be done, the user experience needs work, but this is a special and unique piece of user and not commercial hardware which can't be replicated by putting LineageOS