PinePhone Postmarket OS UK users

[LinuxNew]

Hi all hope everyone is doing ok?

So I have a few questions about the PinePhone Postmarket OS.

Does anyone here own or have used the PinePhone Postmarket OS in the UK?

And if so hows that going?

Also the hardware kill switchs?

Do they work the same as the Librem 5 kill switchs that directly cut power to the circuit?

Or are some of the HKS on the PinePhone software based, meaning they ask the software
to stop working rather that physically cut a circuit?

Thanks in advance

LinuxNew

[daniel]

Hi all hope everyone is doing ok?

So I have a few questions about the PinePhone Postmarket OS.

Does anyone here own or have used the PinePhone Postmarket OS in the UK?

And if so hows that going?

Also the hardware kill switchs?

Do they work the same as the Librem 5 kill switchs that directly cut power to the circuit?

Or are some of the HKS on the PinePhone software based, meaning they ask the software
to stop working rather that physically cut a circuit?

Thanks in advance

LinuxNew

There are 3 PinePhone editions.
After the first PinePhone was released (BraveHEart) users tested the phone, identifying hardware problems and many of these were corrected.
The second release was Community Edition. That came with Ubuntu Touch installed.
There are many Linux distributions can be installed in the PinePhone: Ubuntu, Debian [Mobian], Postmarket, etc
None of them is 100% functional. Actually, none of them can use the camera, phone calls are in progress, etc This is not ready to use as a main phone.
Moreover, many proprietary Linux software is made for AMD and will not work on pinephone (arm). The other will work, but software is not ready for a small screen. The community is working on software but it will take time.

The Third release will be Postmarket OS. Some hardware will be modified, but I do not think about major changes.

The kill switches are not for daily use. You have to remove the back cover and use a magnifier and a pointy stick to move them. I guess they are useful if you need to inactivate for a long period of time, not for on/off as daily use. I understand they are hardware-based.

[wibble]

The kill switches are not for daily use. You have to remove the back cover and use a magnifier and a pointy stick to move them. I guess they are useful if you need to inactivate for a long period of time, not for on/off as daily use. I understand they are hardware-based.

Details of the what the switches do are in the wiki, as are the schematics which show exactly what's connected to what. It's operating either on power supply or on the chip's power control pin. The modem needs to be shut down correctly to avoid the risk of filesystem corruption according to Quectel's docs - the os does this during shutdown - so it's safest to switch the modem one when the phone is powered off.

https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...figuration
https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...ifications

[LinuxNew]

Hi thanks for all the info thats great.

So you're saying that the PinePhone thats just been released with Postmarket OS is not 100% functional?

Do calls work? I would very much like a PinePhone or other Linux phone.

However until someone independant does some at length reviews which include calls and all the other
features, then It's a waiting game.

[linmob]

Hi,
not a UK user, but the Postmarket OS edition is supposed to fix the annoying USB-bug the UBports CE (which I have) suffers from.
Phone calls do work, although they do not work on every distribution for everyone. It is early days, but my problems with receiving calls (which I had since power management had been improved) were fixed in Arch Linux ARM (outgoing calls worked all the time). Call audio quality is however not exactly "high definition audio" and feels more like "the bad old days".
If you can afford to switch back to another Phone in case of "broken PinePhone" and are generally enthusiastic about this Linux phone thing, then please get one. If you're not willing to tinker and can't live with something being broken every once in a while, you might better wait.
Cheers,
Peter

[bcnaz]

August 23, 2020 Update :

Many of the operating systems are 'working' at least for the basic voice phone calls, and sms text at this point.

Occasionally an update may 'break' a system until they release a fix.... (from hours to days)

The best working OS today, could be a different OS tomorrow.!

Some are very "usable" now, BUT the polish may take months or even years.