12-19-2019, 07:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2019, 07:56 AM by hns.)
Yes,
I have just received a Samsung EB-BJ700CBE battery which is said to be compatible.
It has a + at the pad closest to the edge, then one unmarked and then a - and a fourth also unmarked.
This is not only consistent withyour analysis but also with what I did measure with the Ohmmeter at the PinePhone battery (except that it is dead).
Basically the Samsung battery could fit - but the dimensions of the battery bay are not precises enough and ca. 100µm are missing. Or some plastic parts for mechanically encoding battery type are not exactly the same. So I can only press the battery to make contact but no longer close the back cover.
Initially I had no better success than before, but suddenly I got display backlight, the 4 Tux penguins, some Linux boot console messages and Ubunto Touch did start from my µSD. Even after removing the battery and only leaving the cable connected. Now it is running for 7 minutes in 1. January 1970  It is getting noticeably warm (not hot) and display has a slightly noticeable flicker. I played a little but got into unresponsive screens and when trying to reboot, I just got a "ubuntu-phablet login:" text console...
Soat least I know that the hardware is working.
2 hours later the battery indicator is showing that it is charging and I can unplug the USB cable without interrupting operation
So it means that Ubuntu touch is charging the battery even if it is fully depleted. Fine.
(12-19-2019, 10:00 AM)hns Wrote: 2 hours later the battery indicator is showing that it is charging and I can unplug the USB cable without interrupting operation
So it means that Ubuntu touch is charging the battery even if it is fully depleted. Fine. Just to make sure I've understood correctly for whenever mine arrives in January:
- Original unmarked white battery arrived in low voltage cutoff state, fits correctly and back closes
- Samsung EB-BJ700CBE battery (genuine, or 3rd party 'compatible'?) is electrically compatible but not quite the same size, and the back doesn't go on properly. Arrives with some voltage, not in low volt cutoff state.
- Phone won't boot with battery in low volt cutoff state, even with USB power. Unclear whether it trickle charges (do you have a meter to measure test this? Would be good to document it)
- Phone boots with usb power and battery that's not entirely flat, and charges battery.
- Removing the battery once booted and on USB power, and putting the 'low volt cutoff' one charges it.
12-26-2019, 09:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-26-2019, 10:58 PM by malvcr.)
Today arrived my white (no marks) battery from Pine Microsystems.
The battery was depleted (0% charge). I put it inside the phone and, obviously, nothing happened. Then I connected the USB cable with the power supply that I know works and it was charged to 100% without any issue. The phone works continuously as if it was connected to the power supply.
For those having trouble, I really think that this is a problem with your power supply and/or USB cables. This phone is really sensitive to what are you using to charge the battery.
The one I am using has this description "USB Wall Charger [Quick Charge 3.0] Universal 15W Travel Adapter with USB C Cable 6.6ft (2M) Braided Cable for USB Type-C Devices Including Chromebook Pixel, Nexus 5X, 6P, Samsung, iPhone, iPad & More".
The problem is that the device is no longer sold from Amazon (sorry).
About Ubuntu Touch and the PinePhone ... the USB-C port is configured as a USB-Serial device. It really doesn't accept, neither recognizes any USB-C Hub or any other type of devices connected to it. So ... switching to AftermarketOS ... I am now fighting with WIFI and with the demo password on the USB cable (this is a development version, I don't know why they make things so complicated for people testing their OS).
Ahhhhhhhh .... these virtual keyboards ....
No way to write ESC or CTRL on the PinePhone ... any ideas? I was trying to use the volume keys as happen with other machines without any luck.
My only working method is to turn off the phone, to extract the SD card and to mount in a PC with Linux to edit the configuration files. This waste a lot of time and force me to open/close the phone constantly. And I still have no external keyboard that work on this machine.
12-28-2019, 08:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-28-2019, 08:30 PM by malvcr.)
After fighting for a while with AftermarketOS.
1) WIFI works, although unstable. Sometimes I need to run the nmcli command because the GUI messes it time to time ( to be sincere, I am not a big fan or NetworkManager ). Oh yes, it didn't work without a battery. Oh, I was able to connect after tweaking a lot of options for sshd; I know today it is not secure enough, but I am just trying to understand the phone by now. Anyway, I have no idea what is the "demo" password and what is the screen block code (no data is written in any PostmarketOS web page) ... I forced my way erasing the password by hand.
When the WIFI was locked (no idea why), I made it to work again erasing the SSID from NetworkManager:
sudo nmcli con delete ---mySSID---
sudo nmcli d wifi connect ---mySSID--- password ---myPassword---
2) I can take pictures and videos by hand (no one camera software works). For that I use ffmpeg ... something like this:
ffmpeg -s 640x480 -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video1 -vframes 1000 selfie.mp4
No way to increase the resolution, but it must be me, not the phone.
3) Sound, no way ... something is still missing and I don't know what.
4) Now I have a better virtual keyboard after updating the OS (still have no ESC or CTRL).
sudo apk update
sudo apk upgrade
then I added some software (I need the compiler for some tasks)
sudo apk add g++
sudo apk add geany
sudo apk add mc
sudo apk fix pix
sudo apk fix postmarketos-ui-plasma-mobile
sudo apk fix postmarketos-ui-plasma-mobile-extras
sudo apk add ffmpeg
sudo apk add kinit kde-cli-tools
sudo apk add v4l-utils ( this is for media-ctl )
Not everything work. Really, the AftermarketOS image for pinephone has a not of broken programs. Some are more or less fixed with these commands but I won't say that it is a stable platform. At least the better virtual keyboard is installed, but I really prefer to work by ssh on a more powerful machine.
Oh yes ... I have it with some plastic flexible cover for an iPhone 6sx (I think so) ... holes don't match but to protect the machine is OK. And another iPhone screen protector, for a smaller screen (looks a little weird by now). Temporary solutions.
Don't use iPhone hard covers because you won't be able to put the phone inside. The flexible transparent rubber one can change the shape enough for such purpose.
(12-28-2019, 08:26 PM)malvcr Wrote: 4) Now I have a better virtual keyboard after updating the OS (still have no ESC or CTRL).
I don't have my brave heart (no one has as it delays to 202001) yet so I am not sure. But you may try to install other linux on screen keyboard with function keys like florence. Just install it and in the setting option you may choose to add function keys. It works in other arm soc debian based distro I just don't know if it works in postmarketOS, after all it is based on apline.
By the way if postmarketOS is not ready then you may want to try other OS first and switch back later.
(12-29-2019, 12:49 AM)I don\t have my brave heart (no one has as it delays to 202001) yet so I am not sure. But you may try to install other linux on screen keyboard with function keys like florence. Just install it and in the setting option you may choose to add function keys. It works in other arm soc debian based distro I just don't know if it works in postmarketOS, after all it is based on apline. Wrote: By the way if postmarketOS is not ready then you may want to try other OS first and switch back later.
I will try other keyboards ... thanks for the tip.
About other distributions, I was testing also Ubuntu Touch but, for me, postmarketOS is the most functional by now (others than these two are by far behind). In fact, Touch has an ugly bug that make applications to go black after a while.
I am still not making calls as I am working the phone more as a remote terminal. I will wait for them to work a little more on that part.
... in general think about the general level about arriving to alpha state (not yet there) ...
And Linux (the kernel) by itself works really well as the OS has been very stable on ARM platform for several years by now.
I am not sure of somebody else is working on that, but could be very interesting to have a minimalistic Linux for the pinephone. For example, without any GUI, just a black screen, a good virtual keyboard and a set of useful but powerful commands.
1) Make a call.
2) Receive a call.
3) Send a message.
4) Check messages.
5) Take a picture.
6) Take a video.
7) Check media (pictures and videos)
And, of course, run a browser. Oh yes, Firefox has a problem with postmarketOS (maybe also with Ubuntu Touch) ... the virtual keyboard is not activated when you are in a text field.
It is not necessary to look similar to iOS or Android. There are many different metaphors to follow, and not to have icons is one of them.
(12-31-2019, 02:52 PM)malvc Wrote: It is not necessary to look similar to iOS or Android. There are many different metaphors to follow, and not to have icons is one of them.
The problem is for me that virtual keyboard is less confortable that normal one, so textual interface on a phone is not really immediate.
But if you want to try someting like this on android, in the meantimes, you can try an opensource launcher called "t-ui", you can find it on f-droid.
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