11-05-2020, 07:22 AM
Hello everybody,
This is my first post, I am new on the forum.
I am a years long linux user on a daily basis, but I have not yet tried a real linux-based phone, that is why I have ordered the latest CE of the PinePhone (ships with Manjaro pre-installed, I have chosen the 3GB version), I am in Europe and I hope that soon I will be getting a shipping notification :-)
One question that I could not find a reliable (or more precisely "recent" answer) on the forum:
Is the latest PinePhone CE with the latest version of Manjaro (incl. Posh), can be described as a release of a relatively stable device at least for calls, SMS, and wifi / LTE connectivity ?
I mean, I am capable of fiddling with software configuration, research some issues to find solutions etc.. but how about a semi-solid hardware + software combi? something that we could say that ok Voice calls, SMS and connectivity works seamlessly out of the box, and the rest is in constant development.
if not, what are the current open issues, and what further efforts needs to be made to get the device into such positioning?
I would love to drop my iPhone and use the PinePhone as my one and only mobile phone.
Any input will be much appreciated, I am a PinePhone Starter :-)
If you're interested in the state of Manjaro on the PinePhone, I'd suggest digging into their ARM forum, as that's where the most conversation occurs concerning its progress on the phone.
@ kern707 Unfortunately IMHO none of the current software releases will meet your requirements.
(11-05-2020, 08:12 AM)LinAdmin2 Wrote: @kern707 Unfortunately IMHO none of the current software releases will meet your requirements.
YEPP, no known build I tested satisfied my needs. Mostly a problem with not functioning calls and SMS and partially a horrible energy consumption. Incoming calls are missed, no notification about. And no perspective ATM for solving this problem
11-05-2020, 11:59 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-06-2020, 04:02 AM by bcnaz.
Edit Reason: Add-on, mistake
)
As far as hardware goes, the Manjaro edition phone is likely good 'nuf.
The operating systems are works in progress.
It seems some people have more success than others, when it comes to using the current operating systems.
Talk, (sms)text, and wifi work in varying degrees on the leading Distro's, though they are sometimes broken with the updates.
Carriers sometimes seem to make or break the phones usability.
My 'old' Brave Heart phone seems to run fairly dependable, it is running Debian October 05 nightly release on an sd card, using AT&T Prepaid.
I do occasionally need to do a 'restart' when a fault occurs.
I also have three Post Market Convergence phones and one Manjaro Convergent phone I use these for testing newer releases.
I DO use a Linux computer exclusively for flashing my sd cards.
An older laptop, running Linux Mint/Debian Edition.
I format first using 'Disks' > then Flash, with Balena Etcher > then use Disks again to 'resize' to the full size of the sd cards.
LINUX = CHOICES
**BCnAZ**
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To expand on the other comments, the heart of the problem is the modem not behaving as was expected based on the supplier's documentation. There are particular problems when waking the cpu on incoming call. People are working on it, but it's a whole pile of unknowns so nobody's going to make any predictions. Until the hardware can be made to behave itself all the distros are in the same boat. I _think_ they're all using either oFono or ModemManager for modem abstraction, so if there's a breakthrough it'll probably hit most of the distros quite quickly.
This is one of the bug reports, containing a link to some of the other bits of work.
https://gitlab.com/mobian1/issues/-/issues/69
I'm still waiting for a shipment notification for my order (apparently they ship from China, and it's really just a small boat ride away from my country).
But based on what I've seen and read over the past few months, all operating systems and desktop environments are in a kind of a "stability war", not that they try to kill each other off for more stability, rather what was considered "most stable" 3 days ago might possibly no longer be "most stable" today.
That's the art of development I guess.
(11-05-2020, 07:19 PM)ryo Wrote: I'm still waiting for a shipment notification for my order (apparently they ship from China, and it's really just a small boat ride away from my country).
But based on what I've seen and read over the past few months, all operating systems and desktop environments are in a kind of a "stability war", not that they try to kill each other off for more stability, rather what was considered "most stable" 3 days ago might possibly no longer be "most stable" today.
That's the art of development I guess.
The wait time has improved a whole lot, over the wait times on the original PBP's and the Brave Heart phones.
But they will send you a notice when they hand your product to the shipper... I know that can feel like 'forever'...
UBPorts was the first operating system that worked on my Brave Heart very early this year, not sure what happened to them since then.
They seem to be going . . . ?
Currently I think there are about three front runners, but eventually I do think the gaps between them will narrow a bit.
Being open source, they can, and do, share their advances, so their momentum should continue to improve all of them.
LINUX = CHOICES
**BCnAZ**
Donate to $upport
your favorite OS Team
(11-05-2020, 07:19 PM)ryo Wrote: But based on what I've seen and read over the past few months, all operating systems and desktop environments are in a kind of a "stability war", not that they try to kill each other off for more stability, rather what was considered "most stable" 3 days ago might possibly no longer be "most stable" today.
That's the art of development I guess. No, that's not art of development but kind of a bad joke:
Most distributions are derived from major unstable repositories where the development for all kind of hardware happens. If in these higher level repositories a change is done for some reason not at all related to the PinePhone, the phone software does get that patch without any specific testing.
IMHO we won't see any stabilization unless a phone distribution does break that dire dependency.
(11-06-2020, 02:41 AM)LinAdmin2 Wrote: (11-05-2020, 07:19 PM)ryo Wrote: But based on what I've seen and read over the past few months, all operating systems and desktop environments are in a kind of a "stability war", not that they try to kill each other off for more stability, rather what was considered "most stable" 3 days ago might possibly no longer be "most stable" today.
That's the art of development I guess. No, that's not art of development but kind of a bad joke:
Most distributions are derived from major unstable repositories where the development for all kind of hardware happens. If in these higher level repositories a change is done for some reason not at all related to the PinePhone, the phone software does get that patch without any specific testing.
IMHO we won't see any stabilization unless a phone distribution does break that dire dependency.
Yepp, and thus seems to be not in the foreseeable future.
ATM the Pinephone is a nice Linux gadget but not usable as a daily and reliable driver. On the modem sid since 2 months there is absolutely no progress. If someone wants to have a small gadget the PinePhone is absoluely nice. For any kind of serious use it is not.
I have her a UBports Edition. Not usable with Manjaro, Arch, UB-T, Debian, Postmarketos, Lomiri, Plasma :-(
Next week i bring it to sale....
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