Status update 2020-10-05

[a-wai]

Hi!

Again, a lot has happened under the hood, but there were also quite a few user-visible changes this time

• The kernel was upgraded to version 5.8 and HDMI output was re-enabled
  
• Mobian metapackages have been reworked to use "softer" dependency relationships; this way, users can choose to uninstall most bundled apps without removing the metapackages, and therefore, without risking losing essential packages later
  
• Some important apps have been updated:
  • Firefox ESR is now version 78, and it now uses the mobile config tweaks from our friends at pmOS
    
  • GNOME Maps 3.38 has been released and now has a (mostly) adaptive UI
    
  • GTK, the underlying foundation to every GNOME software, has been updated to version 3.24.22
    
• We also added a couple apps in the default build:
  • GNOME Weather is patched for adaptive UI, and therefore finally usable on the PinePhone
    
  • Thanks to Martijn Braam's fantastic work, Megapixels is the new default camera app. We still hold great hopes for Pinhole, but it just isn't the best option for now.
    

We also went through a bunch of upgrades that didn't went that well (the famous "yoyo" episode, as well as the switch to 5.8 kernel), and are working towards preventing such issues. In the short term, more breaking changes are unfortunately to be expected while we get rid of old hacks and questionable choices made in the early stage of development.
Within a few weeks however, we should have a much reliable upgrade path for the kernel, and dropping a few more custom/patched packages will help us achieve this goal. In the end, we expect we'll be able to release our first stable version within a month, if everything goes well

The other big development topic is audio routing: while we have a (almost) perfectly working solution, it relies on heavily patched versions of both wys and calls (which both landed in Debian's main archive, BTW), and our patches are PinePhone-only. As we plan to support more devices in the future, this is clearly not an acceptable solution.
This is why we started working on a call audio router with the goal that it will be used by all phosh-based distributions. This should soon allow us to drop all device-specific code from calls, even drop our custom wys from the PinePhone images, and overall improve the telephony software stack.

Work on the on-device installer images and full disk encryption support is still ongoing and is seeing encouraging progress, though it's not ready for testing yet.

As usual, today's image is now the reference release, and contains all the latest and greatest improvements 

Enjoy!

[natasha]

many thanks!

[LazLong]

Much appreciated!

[ergo owl]

Thank you all so much!

[LinAdmin2]

With an old PC monitor attached via HDMI to the USB-dock I once had with the 13 distro image some visible video, but did not succeed to get it usable.

Now, with the version announced it is said to work, but I still get no output and the monitor after some time reverts to sleep mode.

What can I do?

[a-wai]

With an old PC monitor attached via HDMI to the USB-dock I once had with the 13 distro image some visible video, but did not succeed to get it usable.

Now, with the version announced it is said to work, but I still get no output and the monitor after some time reverts to sleep mode.

What can I do?

Hum, I should have been more specific there: as I said, we re-enabled HDMI output. It's still highly experimental though, and may or may not work (and based on general feedback, it's quite random)

[LazLong]

Possibly not a problem for enough people so will happily not bring it up again if this suggestion is not well received.

I too often over time have had file corruption problems either in the initial internet download or in the transfer of files from device to device.

I really appreciate having checksum values available to check downloaded files of all types immediately after download/transfer and they are particularly useful with
relatively large OS image files to detect problems before attempting to use.

i like most of us really appreciate all the good work done by the developers and do not want to generate extra time and trouble for them but I would like to
make the humble request that checksum results be posted along with new images whenever practical.

[LinAdmin2]

With an old PC monitor attached via HDMI to the USB-dock I once had with the 13 distro image some visible video, but did not succeed to get it usable.

Now, with the version announced it is said to work, but I still get no output and the monitor after some time reverts to sleep mode.

What can I do?

Hum, I should have been more specific there: as I said, we re-enabled HDMI output. It's still highly experimental though, and may or may not work (and based on general feedback, it's quite random)

Many thanks for your work and your reply!
Have you been aware that newest image 20201005 is not as stable as the previous one?
I think it would now be time to establish some more testing (I would be prepared to help) before declaring a nightly build as next release.

[dukla2000]

...

We also went through a bunch of upgrades that didn't went that well (the famous "yoyo" episode, as well as the switch to 5.8 kernel), and are working towards preventing such issues. In the short term, more breaking changes are unfortunately to be expected while we get rid of old hacks and questionable choices made in the early stage of development.
...

My thanks again to all involved - I am enjoying the trip even if at times it is rocky! As frustrating as the hitches may be, I just remind myself this is bleeding edge, I am grateful for 5.8 kernel versus 4.x etc.