Plasma Mobile stability

[ragreenburg]

Last night I flashed a microSD with the plasma mobile beta 7 to see how things have progressed and it looked really good for about 20 minutes then the screen faded to white and after locking the screen it became unresponsive. Is this normal stability for plasma mobile? And if so, why is Pine64 having it as their default when Phosh is way more stable?

[acrux]

...about 20 minutes then the screen faded to white and after locking the screen it became unresponsive.

Hmm, can't confirm here. I have been had Plasma Mobile installed to emmc for some months already and it has been stable for me. Just to test, I  made today  a fresh flash of beta7 again to emmc and it has came through all configurations, application removal and installation so far. There are glitches here and there, but overall it is stable.
Phosh could be more stable, but to me it seems less friendly to user. I can't even import my contacts vcf file to phonebook. Why is the screen populated with application icons? etc...

[ragreenburg]

...about 20 minutes then the screen faded to white and after locking the screen it became unresponsive.

Hmm, can't confirm here. I have been had Plasma Mobile installed to emmc for some months already and it has been stable for me. Just to test, I  made today  a fresh flash of beta7 again to emmc and it has came through all configurations, application removal and installation so far. There are glitches here and there, but overall it is stable.
Phosh could be more stable, but to me it seems less friendly to user. I can't even import my contacts vcf file to phonebook. Why is the screen populated with application icons? etc...

Lucky you, I've had this issue every time I've flashed Plasma Mobile (4 different times over the last year). Don't get me wrong, Plasma Mobile looks WAAAYY better than Phosh but also the instability I've had with PM had been crazy bad and required restarts on a several occasions even though I've used it for maybe 5 hours in total. I've been using Mobian with Phosh as a daily driver for just over 2 months and it certainly isn't amazing but I've only had to restart due to issues 3-4 times over 2 months as daily driver.

[gamerminstrel]

I think Manjaro+Plasma Mobile is the default chosen by Pine64 to show solidarity. The default for the Pinebook Pro is also Manjaro+KDE, so they wanted to be consistent across the board. Since no matter what option they choose right now it's going to be very beta, I think it was the better choice. (In theory at least) If more people use it and file bug reports, hopefully the bugs get addressed more quickly, allowing it to actually compete with phosh.

IMO Plasma Mobile has more potential than phosh, but I also think it's going to mature more slowly.

[grump_fiddle_reinstall]

Last night I flashed a microSD with the plasma mobile beta 7 to see how things have progressed and it looked really good for about 20 minutes then the screen faded to white and after locking the screen it became unresponsive. Is this normal stability for plasma mobile? And if so, why is Pine64 having it as their default when Phosh is way more stable?

Ah, so it is not just me. I should have read this post before posting a new thread.

...about 20 minutes then the screen faded to white and after locking the screen it became unresponsive.

<snipped>
Phosh could be more stable, but to me it seems less friendly to user. I can't even import my contacts vcf file to phonebook. Why is the screen populated with application icons? etc...

Interesting. I found I had a very steep learning curve using Manjaro/Plasma for the first time. I think it was mainly due to the fact that I had zero familiarity with KDE app names (no way of guessing sometimes what an app does other than starting it) and apart from knowing that Manjaro uses a different packaging and update system than Debian I had no experience of it. So it was very disorientating being there and trying to get things set up plus I experienced stability problems which didn't help.

My smartphone experience before getting my PinePhone was less than month using a new budget Android phone. Part of the reason to get the Andoid phone was to see how much I could do without installing Android apps. Which has turned out to be a useful exercise in itself. Anyway, for some reason Phosh feels to me more like Android than Plasma does. I am not sure why.

[ragreenburg]

I think Manjaro+Plasma Mobile is the default chosen by Pine64 to show solidarity. The default for the Pinebook Pro is also Manjaro+KDE, so they wanted to be consistent across the board. Since no matter what option they choose right now it's going to be very beta, I think it was the better choice. (In theory at least) If more people use it and file bug reports, hopefully the bugs get addressed more quickly, allowing it to actually compete with phosh.

IMO Plasma Mobile has more potential than phosh, but I also think it's going to mature more slowly.

I kinda disagree that it is the better decision when it means the user is going to have a worse experience. I do agree that Plasma Mobile has more potential than Phosh though, Phosh is basically just an app drawer so that only has so much appeal but Plasma Mobile looks way more modern as a phone OS. Also though, I think it is way off of being a complete DE whereas Phosh is way closer. I would say Plasma Mobile is closer to late stage Alpha and Phosh is closer to mid stage beta.

---

Last night I flashed a microSD with the plasma mobile beta 7 to see how things have progressed and it looked really good for about 20 minutes then the screen faded to white and after locking the screen it became unresponsive. Is this normal stability for plasma mobile? And if so, why is Pine64 having it as their default when Phosh is way more stable?

Ah, so it is not just me. I should have read this post before posting a new thread.

...about 20 minutes then the screen faded to white and after locking the screen it became unresponsive.

<snipped>
Phosh could be more stable, but to me it seems less friendly to user. I can't even import my contacts vcf file to phonebook. Why is the screen populated with application icons? etc...

Interesting. I found I had a very steep learning curve using Manjaro/Plasma for the first time. I think it was mainly due to the fact that I had zero familiarity with KDE app names (no way of guessing sometimes what an app does other than starting it) and apart from knowing that Manjaro uses a different packaging and update system than Debian I had no experience of it. So it was very disorientating being there and trying to get things set up plus I experienced stability problems which didn't help.

My smartphone experience before getting my PinePhone was less than month using a new budget Android phone. Part of the reason to get the Andoid phone was to see how much I could do without installing Android apps. Which has turned out to be a useful exercise in itself. Anyway, for some reason Phosh feels to me more like Android than Plasma does. I am not sure why.

The Plasma Mobile apps definitely need a renaming. When I booted in I wasn't exactly sure what most of the apps did but also I don't see that happening.That's interesting about Phosh looking like Android because I am exactly the opposite whereas I feel like PM looked more similar to Android. I really like the look of PM but that stability is unreal and the naming convention for apps kinda sucks. For me, your preinstalled apps should have very basic names rather than non-descriptive one, like Alligator being a Feed Reader, you couldn't guess that from looking at the icon or reading the name. Though I really can't wait to see where the project goes this time next year.

I booted my phone into PM again last night and within 5 minutes the keyboard wouldn't go down and I was having a really hard time sending a text (which I honestly don't think ever went through) so it can't be just me.

[dachalife]

I’ve hit that white out screen freeze too; Reboot & okay.

With mine, seems to happen mainly when you have notifications (wifi disconnect/message/modem error) and also swipe down from the top for the settings menu.

Also had a dependency error on the first update, but that was easily cured. Other than that, calls and messaging are working, so I’m happy. Waiting for the weekend to get some time off to tinker with it.

[ragreenburg]

I’ve hit that white out screen freeze too; Reboot & okay.

With mine, seems to happen mainly when you have notifications (wifi disconnect/message/modem error) and also swipe down from the top for the settings menu.

Also had a dependency error on the first update, but that was easily cured. Other than that, calls and messaging are working, so I’m happy. Waiting for the weekend to get some time off to tinker with it.

I would love to tinker with it more but even when rebooting into it last night I got issues responding to a text and it took me probably 5 minutes just to write a text after the keyboard glitch out, sadly. Though I do think this has a lot of potential, I don't think it is there yet. Maybe in another 6 months it will be as stable as Phosh is now and I can try and switch over.

[acrux]

... I got issues responding to a text and it took me probably 5 minutes just to write a text after the keyboard glitch out, sadly.

I wonder what are you doing there to get such results? Does "write a text" mean "write & send SMS"? Just out of curiosity tried to send a message and it succeeded right away. Sure - the "send" button is somewhat tiny, but I hit it in a third try

[ragreenburg]

... I got issues responding to a text and it took me probably 5 minutes just to write a text after the keyboard glitch out, sadly.

I wonder what are you doing there to get such results? Does "write a text" mean "write & send SMS"? Just out of curiosity tried to send a message and it succeeded right away. Sure - the "send" button is somewhat tiny, but I hit it in a third try

I had just booted into the device and wait a minute for it to settle then opened Spacebar and went to write a text and that's when the keyboard went haywire. I say I don't think the text went through because it was a text to someone who usually responds quickly and it has been 1.5 days. So it said it went through but I also wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. I do agree though, the send button could be a few pixels bigger.