Manjaro phosh annoying problems and a bit of usage experience

[Nick_dnepr]

Hi there, i have encountered a couple of annoying things about using manjaro phosh after the latest update:
1) Sometimes modem goes down completely. I don't know how to reproduce that, but sometimes modem module shuts down completely, and calls application says that there is no calling device at all. Naturally, internet also goes down. Rebooting does fix it, but a couple of times it caught me when i had to give a call or quickly search for something on the internet.
2) Audio is kinda glitchy now. Sometimes audio just stops coming out through both speaker and earphones jack. For example, when i listen to music with Audacious player it stops playing after some time (3-5 minutes). Most curious, this time depends on the track i listen to (and moon phase, i suppose). This issue is also related to alarm, which is much worse. Thankfully, i did not have anything urgent when i overslept because of the alarm problem. Sound returns right after i press unlock button (just have to turn on the screen, even without entering the passcode). Technically it keeps playing music/sound, but into nowhere. However, not all applicatins have that problem: freetube works nicely when i listen to any videos in podcast mode with locked screen.
Please write if you have encountered similar problems and if you have solved them.

A bit of usage experience:
In spite of technical problems (like mentioned above) i love that phone. Unfortunately, i can't use it as my primary phone yet, but it is always my number 2. 
What it can:
1. Browse internet. Firefox works nice here. Unfortunately, ui of extensions is broken, but the rest is fine
2. Watch youtube. I use freetube application with legacy video format, which gives me acceptable ~480p video.
3. Use messangers. Telegram works fine, fractal and NeoChat launch and look good, but did not use them yet. Pretty sure it will run any messanger you would like to install.
4. Listen to music. Mentioned above problem is annoying, but is not fatal. Furthermore, there must be player that can avoid that problem.
5. Call. Calling is allright, both incoming and outcoming (if modem did not go down, but this is temporary, i hope)
6. Use navigtion. Standart maps application works normally.
7. Programming. I wrote a couple of python scripts using vim and launched a couple of self-written java console utilities. Did not find a proper IDE yet, but it has jdk, gcc, python and tons of other development tools. When a physical keyboard finally comes out it would be excellent development tool to use "on a go"
What it can't:
1. Run android apps. I've seen messages on forum that anbox is working, but mine doesn't. Probably because i use beta5 and update it with pacman -Syu. I will try to fix that later, but now i have to write diploma.
2. Take photo and record video. Technically, megapixels app can take photos, but preview is much worse than the actual photo. It also works very slow, which is critical if you want to catch a moment.

[kqlnut]

Hi there, i have encountered a couple of annoying things about using manjaro phosh after the latest update:
1) Sometimes modem goes down completely. I don't know how to reproduce that, but sometimes modem module shuts down completely, and calls application says that there is no calling device at all. Naturally, internet also goes down. Rebooting does fix it, but a couple of times it caught me when i had to give a call or quickly search for something on the internet.
2) Audio is kinda glitchy now. Sometimes audio just stops coming out through both speaker and earphones jack. For example, when i listen to music with Audacious player it stops playing after some time (3-5 minutes). Most curious, this time depends on the track i listen to (and moon phase, i suppose). This issue is also related to alarm, which is much worse. Thankfully, i did not have anything urgent when i overslept because of the alarm problem. Sound returns right after i press unlock button (just have to turn on the screen, even without entering the passcode). Technically it keeps playing music/sound, but into nowhere. However, not all applicatins have that problem: freetube works nicely when i listen to any videos in podcast mode with locked screen.
Please write if you have encountered similar problems and if you have solved them.

A bit of usage experience:
In spite of technical problems (like mentioned above) i love that phone. Unfortunately, i can't use it as my primary phone yet, but it is always my number 2. 
What it can:
1. Browse internet. Firefox works nice here. Unfortunately, ui of extensions is broken, but the rest is fine
2. Watch youtube. I use freetube application with legacy video format, which gives me acceptable ~480p video.
3. Use messangers. Telegram works fine, fractal and NeoChat launch and look good, but did not use them yet. Pretty sure it will run any messanger you would like to install.
4. Listen to music. Mentioned above problem is annoying, but is not fatal. Furthermore, there must be player that can avoid that problem.
5. Call. Calling is allright, both incoming and outcoming (if modem did not go down, but this is temporary, i hope)
6. Use navigtion. Standart maps application works normally.
7. Programming. I wrote a couple of python scripts using vim and launched a couple of self-written java console utilities. Did not find a proper IDE yet, but it has jdk, gcc, python and tons of other development tools. When a physical keyboard finally comes out it would be excellent development tool to use "on a go"
What it can't:
1. Run android apps. I've seen messages on forum that anbox is working, but mine doesn't. Probably because i use beta5 and update it with pacman -Syu. I will try to fix that later, but now i have to write diploma.
2. Take photo and record video. Technically, megapixels app can take photos, but preview is much worse than the actual photo. It also works very slow, which is critical if you want to catch a moment.

For 1) This happens for me sometimes too, but not very often (I'm on the unstable branch though). Instead of rebooting you could also restart eg25-manager.service and ModemManager.service. After about 20 seconds the modem should come back up. Lately I noticed that I have to do this twice to get it back up, no idea why that is, but I also haven't looked into it more closely.

For 2) This might be related to automatic suspend which by default kicks in after 5 minutes of inactivity on Phosh. It's strange if the music stops after different intervals, but maybe that's because you do something else on the phone after starting the music? Unfortunately not every app that is supposed to deliver constant audio or video output inhibits suspend. I noticed this for the podcast app too. You could inhibit suspend manually though (either in the settings or with a script, maybe even tie it to the app you are using).
Alarms need to make use of system timers to wake the phone from deep sleep and last I read about this was that this isn't implemented in Gnome Clocks yet because root privileges are needed for that. You could use wake-mobile for that, a simple alarm app that implements this. I think it's even in the Manjaro repos now.

[Nick_dnepr]

Hi there, i have encountered a couple of annoying things about using manjaro phosh after the latest update:
1) Sometimes modem goes down completely. I don't know how to reproduce that, but sometimes modem module shuts down completely, and calls application says that there is no calling device at all. Naturally, internet also goes down. Rebooting does fix it, but a couple of times it caught me when i had to give a call or quickly search for something on the internet.
2) Audio is kinda glitchy now. Sometimes audio just stops coming out through both speaker and earphones jack. For example, when i listen to music with Audacious player it stops playing after some time (3-5 minutes). Most curious, this time depends on the track i listen to (and moon phase, i suppose). This issue is also related to alarm, which is much worse. Thankfully, i did not have anything urgent when i overslept because of the alarm problem. Sound returns right after i press unlock button (just have to turn on the screen, even without entering the passcode). Technically it keeps playing music/sound, but into nowhere. However, not all applicatins have that problem: freetube works nicely when i listen to any videos in podcast mode with locked screen.
Please write if you have encountered similar problems and if you have solved them.

A bit of usage experience:
In spite of technical problems (like mentioned above) i love that phone. Unfortunately, i can't use it as my primary phone yet, but it is always my number 2. 
What it can:
1. Browse internet. Firefox works nice here. Unfortunately, ui of extensions is broken, but the rest is fine
2. Watch youtube. I use freetube application with legacy video format, which gives me acceptable ~480p video.
3. Use messangers. Telegram works fine, fractal and NeoChat launch and look good, but did not use them yet. Pretty sure it will run any messanger you would like to install.
4. Listen to music. Mentioned above problem is annoying, but is not fatal. Furthermore, there must be player that can avoid that problem.
5. Call. Calling is allright, both incoming and outcoming (if modem did not go down, but this is temporary, i hope)
6. Use navigtion. Standart maps application works normally.
7. Programming. I wrote a couple of python scripts using vim and launched a couple of self-written java console utilities. Did not find a proper IDE yet, but it has jdk, gcc, python and tons of other development tools. When a physical keyboard finally comes out it would be excellent development tool to use "on a go"
What it can't:
1. Run android apps. I've seen messages on forum that anbox is working, but mine doesn't. Probably because i use beta5 and update it with pacman -Syu. I will try to fix that later, but now i have to write diploma.
2. Take photo and record video. Technically, megapixels app can take photos, but preview is much worse than the actual photo. It also works very slow, which is critical if you want to catch a moment.

For 1) This happens for me sometimes too, but not very often (I'm on the unstable branch though). Instead of rebooting you could also restart eg25-manager.service and ModemManager.service. After about 20 seconds the modem should come back up. Lately I noticed that I have to do this twice to get it back up, no idea why that is, but I also haven't looked into it more closely.

For 2) This might be related to automatic suspend which by default kicks in after 5 minutes of inactivity on Phosh. It's strange if the music stops after different intervals, but maybe that's because you do something else on the phone after starting the music? Unfortunately not every app that is supposed to deliver constant audio or video output inhibits suspend. I noticed this for the podcast app too. You could inhibit suspend manually though (either in the settings or with a script, maybe even tie it to the app you are using).
Alarms need to make use of system timers to wake the phone from deep sleep and last I read about this was that this isn't implemented in Gnome Clocks yet because root privileges are needed for that. You could use wake-mobile for that, a simple alarm app that implements this. I think it's even in the Manjaro repos now.

Thanks, i will give it a try. Probably would be a good idea to write a modem restart script and add a desktop shortcut. I don't really do anything after switching music on, i just put it into my pocket. However, it could be just my imagination, did not really measure the shutdown time

[AwHereWeGoAgain]

You might try the latest nightly release. They said a lot of that got fixed as of the release yesterday. They even added wake-mobile. Still waiting for my phone but im planning on running this distro. Does it seem that things that get fixed frequently get unfixed with bleeding edge?

[kqlnut]

You might try the latest nightly release.  They said a lot of that got fixed as of the release yesterday.  They even added wake-mobile.  Still waiting for my phone but im planning on running this distro.  Does it seem that things that get fixed frequently get unfixed with bleeding edge?

I've been running the unstable branch for a couple of months now and had a very good experience with it. Major regressions are very rare (the only real annoyance was a problem with calls for a couple of days, happened only once) and for me don't outweigh the frequent fixes and development. I can recommend it.

[Nick_dnepr]

You might try the latest nightly release.  They said a lot of that got fixed as of the release yesterday.  They even added wake-mobile.  Still waiting for my phone but im planning on running this distro.  Does it seem that things that get fixed frequently get unfixed with bleeding edge?

I've been running the unstable branch for a couple of months now and had a very good experience with it. Major regressions are very rare (the only real annoyance was a problem with calls for a couple of days, happened only once) and for me don't outweigh the frequent fixes and development. I can recommend it.

How can i switch between stable and unstable? Changing some kind of repository config?

[kqlnut]

You might try the latest nightly release.  They said a lot of that got fixed as of the release yesterday.  They even added wake-mobile.  Still waiting for my phone but im planning on running this distro.  Does it seem that things that get fixed frequently get unfixed with bleeding edge?

I've been running the unstable branch for a couple of months now and had a very good experience with it. Major regressions are very rare (the only real annoyance was a problem with calls for a couple of days, happened only once) and for me don't outweigh the frequent fixes and development. I can recommend it.

How can i switch between stable and unstable? Changing some kind of repository config?

You can do it with these commands:

Code:

sudo pacman-mirrors --api --set-branch arm-unstable
sudo pacman-mirrors -f5 && sudo pacman -Syyu

Instead of running the first command you could also directly change the entry in /etc/pacman-mirrors.conf. To switch back, just change the branch back to arm-stable (and allow package downgrades with sudo pacman -Syyuu).
More details can be found here.

[ryo]

Hi there, i have encountered a couple of annoying things about using manjaro phosh after the latest update:
1) Sometimes modem goes down completely. I don't know how to reproduce that, but sometimes modem module shuts down completely, and calls application says that there is no calling device at all. Naturally, internet also goes down. Rebooting does fix it, but a couple of times it caught me when i had to give a call or quickly search for something on the internet.

This has been the case for a long time.
Especially when traveling by train when getting near Maihama station (which is where Tokyo Disney and Disney Sea are).
Not specific to Manjaro or Phosh, probably kernel related, or even modem firmware related.

1. Browse internet. Firefox works nice here. Unfortunately, ui of extensions is broken, but the rest is fine

Try Qutebrowser.
It's more lightweight compared to Firefox and Chromium, and technically has no UI, and therefore it can't be broken.

2. Watch youtube. I use freetube application with legacy video format, which gives me acceptable ~480p video.

I'm watching videos exclusively on PC myself, so I don't have a solution to that.

3. Use messangers. Telegram works fine, fractal and NeoChat launch and look good, but did not use them yet. Pretty sure it will run any messanger you would like to install.

Not any.
Both Skype and Discord are closed source for example, so neither will work unless the developers release an ARM version.
Or otherwise run them in a browser at a lowered scale (I recommend Qutebrowser at 67% scaling, so you can use the "F" key to prevent from touching the wrong buttons).
On top of that, both Skype and Discord have banned the use of 3rd party clients, even though Discord provides APIs that allows you to create a 3rd party client.
Which is why I'm trying to get most people on Discord I talk to regularly to move to Matrix, but so far there's little to no progress sadly.

4. Listen to music. Mentioned above problem is annoying, but is not fatal. Furthermore, there must be player that can avoid that problem.

VLC?
I didn't encounter any issues with VLC myself, neither on Phosh nor PlaMo.

5. Call. Calling is allright, both incoming and outcoming (if modem did not go down, but this is temporary, i hope)

yup.

6. Use navigtion. Standart maps application works normally.

Not working at the moment I believe.
I barely use navigation myself, so I don't really care.

7. Programming. I wrote a couple of python scripts using vim and launched a couple of self-written java console utilities. Did not find a proper IDE yet, but it has jdk, gcc, python and tons of other development tools. When a physical keyboard finally comes out it would be excellent development tool to use "on a go"

Vim is probably going to be your best friend for the time being.
Once you get used to it, you might probably love it so much, it might easily become your default IDE in the end.

1. Run android apps. I've seen messages on forum that anbox is working, but mine doesn't. Probably because i use beta5 and update it with pacman -Syu. I will try to fix that later, but now i have to write diploma.

Probably not a good idea to use Anbox on a phone that already has a super short battery life without it.
But perhaps it would work in the future.

2. Take photo and record video. Technically, megapixels app can take photos, but preview is much worse than the actual photo. It also works very slow, which is critical if you want to catch a moment.

For taking a photo, you'll need to open → close → reopen for it to work.
For recording a video, I don't think you can do that yet.