PinePhone OS & Malfunction

[tommaso]

Hi,

I received my PinePhone with a preinstalled version of Manjaro.
I do not like this OS, I' used to work on Debian.

The received phone does not work correctly: I changed the user and it is impossible to set the date and time correctly and this does not sync with the internet time.

Main failures:

- The pacman grafic software the 2/3 of the times installs not working software
- Terminal: impossible to use a lot of normal terminal sofwtares, impossible to use different installers than pacman
- Manjaro is a very low compatibility with other linux softwares 
- Manjaro offers very few softwtares, often they do not work properly
- Manjaro offers very few way of setting and personalizations
- Difficult to adapt windows to the screen
- Battery runs out of energy very quickly
- System is very slow
- It bugs

Conclusions: Manjaro is very bad, I would not suggest it at all!

Do any of you have any suggestion?
Is it possible to solve any of the problems listed?

Thanks!

[rocket2nfinity]

Hi,

I received my PinePhone with a preinstalled version of Manjaro.
I do not like this OS, I' used to work on Debian.

The received phone does not work correctly: I changed the user and it is impossible to set the date and time correctly and this does not sync with the internet time.

Main failures:

- The pacman grafic software the 2/3 of the times installs not working software
- Terminal: impossible to use a lot of normal terminal sofwtares, impossible to use different installers than pacman
- Manjaro is a very low compatibility with other linux softwares 
- Manjaro offers very few softwtares, often they do not work properly
- Manjaro offers very few way of setting and personalizations
- Difficult to adapt windows to the screen
- Battery runs out of energy very quickly
- System is very slow
- It bugs

Conclusions: Manjaro is very bad, I would not suggest it at all!

Do any of you have any suggestion?
Is it possible to solve any of the problems listed?

Thanks!

In terminal....     sudo pacman -Syyu

Or install Mobian

[ryo]

- The pacman grafic software the 2/3 of the times installs not working software
- Terminal: impossible to use a lot of normal terminal sofwtares, impossible to use different installers than pacman
- Manjaro is a very low compatibility with other linux softwares 
- Manjaro offers very few softwtares, often they do not work properly
- Manjaro offers very few way of setting and personalizations
- Difficult to adapt windows to the screen
- Battery runs out of energy very quickly
- System is very slow
- It bugs

In the same order:
- I'm not sure how many Manjaro users even use Pamac or Octopi, most of us are using the terminal anyway.
- What do you mean by "normal terminal softwares"? Sounds cute though. And of course you'll use pacman in Arch-based distributions. Debian/Mobian/Raspbian, *Ubuntu, Mint, etc. will use aptitude or apt. It has been like that since the 1990's even.
- ヽ(´ｴ`)ﾉ
- Yes, Manjaro's software repository isn't as extensive as what Debian and derivitives have. You can enable AUR and gain instant access to an enormous community maintained software library, almost all of which are being compiled from source, so they should work. However, AUR should not be used by beginners, so use at your own risk.
- That is a desktop environment specific issue (I guess).
- Isn't that done by default on Phosh and Plasma Mobile?
- Close apps you don't use at the time. It's not an iPhone that will freeze inactive apps for you.
- That's a very broad problem, specific please?
- Please specify?

[hiimtye]

there's no shame in using an Android phone if you're not willing to learn how Linux works

[tommaso]

there's no shame in using an Android phone if you're not willing to learn how Linux works

Thanks, actually I'm using Debian on my PC without problems. As concerning the mobile phone I feel quite uncomfortable and some softwares seems to be very poor. I do not like Google and C., actually I returned to NOKIA G2 without internet, this is the point.

Regards

By the way see my last post:

 Dear Sirs,
 
One of the usual and more useful things of smartphones is the possibility to save the numbers of the received/made calls from dial application to memory & contacts application as well as to dial numbers from the contacts application. It seems that this is not possible from the manjaro’s applications of my new device.
Without this possibility I think that it has no sense to use a device differently from an interesting play, my simple G2 old NOKIA can do this and, since it has no access to internet at the moment is a good privacy solution.
 
Any suggestions?
 
Best regards

[ryo]

As concerning the mobile phone I feel quite uncomfortable and some softwares seems to be very poor.

Well of course, think of how Android was back in 2008 compared to the iPhone.
Most Android apps were either very poor, or just didn't exist while they did on the iPhone.
It takes time to bring at least some of the software to Linux, and most likely you can already forget about software from big tech (Google/ThemTube, Fakebook/Insta/Whatsapp, Twitter, LINE/Naver, WeChat/Tencent, Discord, etc).

The big purpose big tech serves is to know everything about you and control you.
So a privacy focussed phone is completely out of the question with these companies and pretty much all governments/banks.

I do not like Google and C.

Android itself isn't necessarily Google, the Google apps is what makes it Google.
You can install a custom ROM like /e/ which gives you Android, except Google has been stripped away from it completely.

As for C, so not sure what the C programming language has to do with Android other than the Linux kernel being made with C.

[tommaso]

Hi,

I received my PinePhone with a preinstalled version of Manjaro.
I do not like this OS, I' used to work on Debian.

The received phone does not work correctly: I changed the user and it is impossible to set the date and time correctly and this does not sync with the internet time.

Main failures:

- The pacman grafic software the 2/3 of the times installs not working software
- Terminal: impossible to use a lot of normal terminal sofwtares, impossible to use different installers than pacman
- Manjaro is a very low compatibility with other linux softwares 
- Manjaro offers very few softwtares, often they do not work properly
- Manjaro offers very few way of setting and personalizations
- Difficult to adapt windows to the screen
- Battery runs out of energy very quickly
- System is very slow
- It bugs

Conclusions: Manjaro is very bad, I would not suggest it at all!

Do any of you have any suggestion?
Is it possible to solve any of the problems listed?

Thanks!

In terminal....     sudo pacman -Syyu

Or install Mobian

Yes thanks, I definitely use the terminal and I already have done as you suggested.
I solved some of the problems but the OS is not efficient.
On the PC I use Debian and it works very well.
How is this Mobian? Did you had any experience?
As concerning Manjaro the really bad thing when I solved all the different problems is the following (with correct function of the system):
One of the usual and more useful things of smartphones is the possibility to save the numbers of the received/made calls from dial application to memory & contacts application as well as to dial numbers from the contacts application. It seems that this is not possible from the manjaro’s applications of my new device.
Without this possibility I think that it has no sense to use a device differently from an interesting play, my simple G2 old NOKIA can do this and, since it has no access to internet at the moment is a good privacy solution.
 
Any suggestions?

---

- The pacman grafic software the 2/3 of the times installs not working software
- Terminal: impossible to use a lot of normal terminal sofwtares, impossible to use different installers than pacman
- Manjaro is a very low compatibility with other linux softwares 
- Manjaro offers very few softwtares, often they do not work properly
- Manjaro offers very few way of setting and personalizations
- Difficult to adapt windows to the screen
- Battery runs out of energy very quickly
- System is very slow
- It bugs

In the same order:
- I'm not sure how many Manjaro users even use Pamac or Octopi, most of us are using the terminal anyway.
- What do you mean by "normal terminal softwares"? Sounds cute though. And of course you'll use pacman in Arch-based distributions. Debian/Mobian/Raspbian, *Ubuntu, Mint, etc. will use aptitude or apt. It has been like that since the 1990's even.
- ヽ(´ｴ`)ﾉ
- Yes, Manjaro's software repository isn't as extensive as what Debian and derivitives have. You can enable AUR and gain instant access to an enormous community maintained software library, almost all of which are being compiled from source, so they should work. However, AUR should not be used by beginners, so use at your own risk.
- That is a desktop environment specific issue (I guess).
- Isn't that done by default on Phosh and Plasma Mobile?
- Close apps you don't use at the time. It's not an iPhone that will freeze inactive apps for you.
- That's a very broad problem, specific please?
- Please specify?

Thanks!
For instance apt command on terminal does not work at all but I experienced that also other software is not installed.
I always close applications I do not use.
As concerning speed it is often necessary to wait a lot of time since the phone opens the requested application.
It is not "fluid".
It "bugs" in the sense that there are often a lot of failures, vibration start to work without any reason and to stop it it is necessary to restart the telephone, it is necessary to set the time and date manually, no chance that the date is syncronised automatically through internet, date and time menu does not work correctly and when installing a new application it is often necessary to reset it manually.
more: 

I definitely use the terminal and this has been the only solution.
I solved some of the problems but the OS is not efficient.
On my PCs I use Debian with different graphic solutions and it works very well!
How is this Mobian? Did you had any experience?
As concerning Manjaro the really bad thing when I managed in someway all the different problems is the following:
One of the usual and more useful things of smartphones is the possibility to save the phone numbers of the received/made calls from dial application to memory & contacts application as well as to dial numbers from the contacts application. It seems that this is not possible from the manjaro’s applications of my new device. Contact application and dial application are very very poor interfaced.
Without this possibility I think that it has no sense to use a device differently from an interesting play, my simple G2 old NOKIA can do this and, since it has no access to internet at the moment is a good privacy solution.
If the phone is also intended to be used as a phone you have to face with the everyday quick use maybe when you are in harry in the street, dial from che contact list is really a must!
 
Any suggestions?

Thanks and Best regards

[ryo]

- The pacman grafic software the 2/3 of the times installs not working software
- Terminal: impossible to use a lot of normal terminal sofwtares, impossible to use different installers than pacman
- Manjaro is a very low compatibility with other linux softwares 
- Manjaro offers very few softwtares, often they do not work properly
- Manjaro offers very few way of setting and personalizations
- Difficult to adapt windows to the screen
- Battery runs out of energy very quickly
- System is very slow
- It bugs

In the same order:
- I'm not sure how many Manjaro users even use Pamac or Octopi, most of us are using the terminal anyway.
- What do you mean by "normal terminal softwares"? Sounds cute though. And of course you'll use pacman in Arch-based distributions. Debian/Mobian/Raspbian, *Ubuntu, Mint, etc. will use aptitude or apt. It has been like that since the 1990's even.
- ヽ(´ｴ`)ﾉ
- Yes, Manjaro's software repository isn't as extensive as what Debian and derivitives have. You can enable AUR and gain instant access to an enormous community maintained software library, almost all of which are being compiled from source, so they should work. However, AUR should not be used by beginners, so use at your own risk.
- That is a desktop environment specific issue (I guess).
- Isn't that done by default on Phosh and Plasma Mobile?
- Close apps you don't use at the time. It's not an iPhone that will freeze inactive apps for you.
- That's a very broad problem, specific please?
- Please specify?

Thanks!
For instance apt command on terminal does not work at all but I experienced that also other software is not installed.
I always close applications I do not use.
As concerning speed it is often necessary to wait a lot of time since the phone opens the requested application.
It is not "fluid".
It "bugs" in the sense that there are often a lot of failures, vibration start to work without any reason and to stop it it is necessary to restart the telephone, it is necessary to set the time and date manually, no chance that the date is syncronised automatically through internet, date and time menu does not work correctly and when installing a new application it is often necessary to reset it manually.
more: 

I definitely use the terminal and this has been the only solution.
I solved some of the problems but the OS is not efficient.
On my PCs I use Debian with different graphic solutions and it works very well!
How is this Mobian? Did you had any experience?
As concerning Manjaro the really bad thing when I managed in someway all the different problems is the following:
One of the usual and more useful things of smartphones is the possibility to save the phone numbers of the received/made calls from dial application to memory & contacts application as well as to dial numbers from the contacts application. It seems that this is not possible from the manjaro’s applications of my new device. Contact application and dial application are very very poor interfaced.
Without this possibility I think that it has no sense to use a device differently from an interesting play, my simple G2 old NOKIA can do this and, since it has no access to internet at the moment is a good privacy solution.
If the phone is also intended to be used as a phone you have to face with the everyday quick use maybe when you are in harry in the street, dial from che contact list is really a must!
 
Any suggestions?

Thanks and Best regards
[/quote]
My Pinephone Manjaro Edition will arrive tomorrow, they started shipping their Asian (and apparently Australian too) batches about 4 days ago, so I can't tell how any of the mobile Linux OS work, and all of my suggestions are based off my experiences with Linux on PC and servers, and Ubuntu Touch on my old Nexus 5.

The "apt" command is specific for Debian-based distro, Manjaro is Arch-based so it uses "pacman" instead.
If you want to make it yourself easier, paste this into your ~/.bashrc file on your Manjaro phone:

Code:

alias installapp="pacman -S"
alias refreshapp="pacman -Sy"
alias updateapp="pacman -Syyu"
alias searchapp="pacman -Ss"
alias removeapp="pacman -R"

And on your Debian PC:

Code:

alias installapp="apt install"
alias refreshapp="apt update"
alias updateapp="apt upgrade"
alias searchapp="apt search"
alias removeapp="apt remove"

Or change the aliases in whatever language is your native (mine is an east Asian language, and most of the terms are English loan words too, so not possible in my case), or just whatever is convenient to you.
But that way you'll have the same commands on both machines.

[tommaso]

- The pacman grafic software the 2/3 of the times installs not working software
- Terminal: impossible to use a lot of normal terminal sofwtares, impossible to use different installers than pacman
- Manjaro is a very low compatibility with other linux softwares 
- Manjaro offers very few softwtares, often they do not work properly
- Manjaro offers very few way of setting and personalizations
- Difficult to adapt windows to the screen
- Battery runs out of energy very quickly
- System is very slow
- It bugs

In the same order:
- I'm not sure how many Manjaro users even use Pamac or Octopi, most of us are using the terminal anyway.
- What do you mean by "normal terminal softwares"? Sounds cute though. And of course you'll use pacman in Arch-based distributions. Debian/Mobian/Raspbian, *Ubuntu, Mint, etc. will use aptitude or apt. It has been like that since the 1990's even.
- ヽ(´ｴ`)ﾉ
- Yes, Manjaro's software repository isn't as extensive as what Debian and derivitives have. You can enable AUR and gain instant access to an enormous community maintained software library, almost all of which are being compiled from source, so they should work. However, AUR should not be used by beginners, so use at your own risk.
- That is a desktop environment specific issue (I guess).
- Isn't that done by default on Phosh and Plasma Mobile?
- Close apps you don't use at the time. It's not an iPhone that will freeze inactive apps for you.
- That's a very broad problem, specific please?
- Please specify?

Thanks!
For instance apt command on terminal does not work at all but I experienced that also other software is not installed.
I always close applications I do not use.
As concerning speed it is often necessary to wait a lot of time since the phone opens the requested application.
It is not "fluid".
It "bugs" in the sense that there are often a lot of failures, vibration start to work without any reason and to stop it it is necessary to restart the telephone, it is necessary to set the time and date manually, no chance that the date is syncronised automatically through internet, date and time menu does not work correctly and when installing a new application it is often necessary to reset it manually.
more: 

I definitely use the terminal and this has been the only solution.
I solved some of the problems but the OS is not efficient.
On my PCs I use Debian with different graphic solutions and it works very well!
How is this Mobian? Did you had any experience?
As concerning Manjaro the really bad thing when I managed in someway all the different problems is the following:
One of the usual and more useful things of smartphones is the possibility to save the phone numbers of the received/made calls from dial application to memory & contacts application as well as to dial numbers from the contacts application. It seems that this is not possible from the manjaro’s applications of my new device. Contact application and dial application are very very poor interfaced.
Without this possibility I think that it has no sense to use a device differently from an interesting play, my simple G2 old NOKIA can do this and, since it has no access to internet at the moment is a good privacy solution.
If the phone is also intended to be used as a phone you have to face with the everyday quick use maybe when you are in harry in the street, dial from che contact list is really a must!
 
Any suggestions?

Thanks and Best regards

My Pinephone Manjaro Edition will arrive tomorrow, they started shipping their Asian (and apparently Australian too) batches about 4 days ago, so I can't tell how any of the mobile Linux OS work, and all of my suggestions are based off my experiences with Linux on PC and servers, and Ubuntu Touch on my old Nexus 5.

The "apt" command is specific for Debian-based distro, Manjaro is Arch-based so it uses "pacman" instead.
If you want to make it yourself easier, paste this into your ~/.bashrc file on your Manjaro phone:

Code:

alias installapp="pacman -S"
alias refreshapp="pacman -Sy"
alias updateapp="pacman -Syyu"
alias searchapp="pacman -Ss"
alias removeapp="pacman -R"

And on your Debian PC:

Code:

alias installapp="apt install"
alias refreshapp="apt update"
alias updateapp="apt upgrade"
alias searchapp="apt search"
alias removeapp="apt remove"

Or change the aliases in whatever language is your native (mine is an east Asian language, and most of the terms are English loan words too, so not possible in my case), or just whatever is convenient to you.
But that way you'll have the same commands on both machines.
[/quote]

Thanks indeed!

Have you got any idea in which way it would be possible to make so that contacts and dial software work together? Are there any other software for dialing and contacts? More precisely: Once dialed or received a phone number it is not possible to save in in the contacts and when you save a contact or when you find a contact in the contact application it is impossible to start directly a phone call. This is really uncomfortable especially if you are not sitting at a desk.

Thanks again, Best Regards

[ryo]

Thanks indeed!

Have you got any idea in which way it would be possible to make so that contacts and dial software work together? Are there any other software for dialing and contacts? More precisely: Once dialed or received a phone number it is not possible to save in in the contacts and when you save a contact or when you find a contact in the contact application it is impossible to start directly a phone call. This is really uncomfortable especially if you are not sitting at a desk.

Thanks again, Best Regards

I didn't get a phone independent USIM yet, neither I made my current USIM switch to the Pinephone (and I won't until it's usable enough for every day use).
And even then, most of my calling goes via LINE, and all the occasional normal phone calls are just 1 time calls I make to for example hospitals, restaurants, electronic stores, game centers, etc, so I never need to store contacts on my phone.