Ubuntu Touch on Pine64

[Rondarius]

Hi
I will try to sum up the things that Oren & Co over at

https://t.me/utonpine

is doing and the things you need to do to have the best exprience on your pine64 device.
The focus at the moment will be on Pinephone, Pinephone Pro, Pinetab and Pinetab 2.
This post will be updated when new things gets developed.

PINEPHONE & PINEPHONE PRO
You need Tow-boot on the emmc to install Ubuntu touch on your phone:

https://tow-boot.org

These procedures is still valid to install UT on your phone:

https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/...stall-3889

Here you will find the latest version to install:

https://ci.ubports.com/job/focal-hybris-...ob/master/

From Oren on Telegram channel:
These are our images, ready for your usage, building daily. I’m still figuring out how we will have these distributed. I’ll be updating my gitlab page, the pine64 wiki, and the ubports wiki in the next few days pointing to here, most likely.

You can select last successful artifacts or click on the “+View” button, then click to download the .raw.xz file of your respective device. then flash it in the same way as our downstream images.

Please note: these are still r/w and still have to be upgraded through apt. However, you should notice multiple improvements with ContentHub, the modem, and even GPS support.

For the moment apt is working on these devices.
To update your phone, run this in the terminal on your phone:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y
Enter your password and press enter

This is done between the releases that Oren makes on his Gitlab page.
To have the latest version of UT, always make a new, fresh install of the latest version from Orens Gitlab page.
These are not pushed through apt. This will persist as long as we don’t have OTA on the phones.

It is recommended to update the modem(SDK) and its firmware(ADSP).
You need to have ADB and Fastboot installed on your PINEPHONE to install these:

https://github.com/the-modem-distro/pine.../tag/0.7.2

https://github.com/the-modem-distro/pine...ARRIERS.md

The Modem-SDK release version 0.7.4 is more buggy/instable than 0.7.2.

The modem is like a computer and it talks adb and fastboot, that is why you need adb and fastboot installed on your phone.

If your carrier is not listed in the table on the ADSP-page, you’ll have to check which firmware that works best for your carrier. I don’t know when the table over the carriers was last updated, newer versions of the firmware could be a better experience.
If your carrier isn’t listed and you install a firmware that works with your carrier, please make a pr so it gets on the table.
On this Github there is a lot of help to get things set up in the right/best way, Such as Flashing, Settings, How to, etc. Please read it.

Oren have made a Help guide to help you along the way of tinkering with your phone/tablet:

https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-d...Help-Guide

PINETAB & PINETAB 2
According to the 0.8 release, both the Pinetab and Pinetab 2 have U-boot preloaded, they don’t use Tow-boot to boot.

Here is the latest version of UT, 0.10 in the writing:

https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-d...ases/v0.10

Please leave a comment if there is something missing ?

[Rondarius]

• Hi
  A word from Oren & CO:
  Use Modem-sdk release version 0.7.2 instead of 0.7.4
  Release 0.7.4 is more buggy/instable.
  I have changed the info and link in the first post.
  

[stefan_hdb]

Just to update the information above. There is a new image version, that includes a wifi-driver. I tested that successfully: the pinetab has wifi-access with the internal modem. Very nice!

[Rondarius]

Thanks for the info. It is great to hear that the Pinetab comes along too with the updates.

[Rondarius]

Hi again
There is a new modem firmware ADSP and it is only listed under the latest modem-sdk release 0.7.4. I don't know why it is only listed here.
Here is the link to download it:

https://github.com/Biktorgj/quectel_eg25...N-HLOS.ubi

And here is the Github page:

https://github.com/Biktorgj/quectel_eg25...007.30.007

[Rondarius]

Hi
I have been tinkering with my Pinephone CE Ubports edition and realized that I have written that you needed adb and fastboot on your pc. This is wrong, you need to install it on your PINEPHONE. This is because of the modem is like a computer and it talks adb and fastboot. I have changed the first post and added/changed the info regarding this. Sorry if this caused any headaches.

[Rondarius]

Hi
there is a new version for the pine64 devices you can find them here:

https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-d...eases/v0.9

And the first post is updated too.

---

Here comes an answer on why we won't see a Risc-V version from Oren & Co any time soon:
oklopfer — 08/21/2023 11:39 PM
Luigi311 cant find you on the UT telegram but how has your PTV experience been? do you think its in a state where we could consider a port yet?

Pine64 Protocol Droid — 08/21/2023 11:41 PM
[M] <luigi311> It’s been pretty good. The only things that I would say are show stoppers are suspend and especially for UT is the qt web browser issue.
[M] <luigi311> Might be fine to do a rhino port though

oklopfer — 08/21/2023 11:43 PM
lol morph is based on qtweb so thats definitely an issue xD is it a code issue that can be fixed or a full hardware issue?
dont know why it would be hardware but who knows, the bes2600 is crazy
yeah i would love to do a rhino port but then i would have to pay for it if its for UT first then it can be covered

Pine64 Protocol Droid — 08/21/2023 11:52 PM
[M] <luigi311> It should be a code issue since riscv wasn’t adding into chromium until Jan this year and qt web is nowhere near that version. Suse has a potential patch but doesn’t seem to be working but fishwaldo mentioned trying to look into it.
[M] <luigi311> If he does get the patch working though I’m not sure if UT will accept the patch any time soon though since that could potentially affect every device and might cause issue with their only browser lol

oklopfer — 08/22/2023 12:18 AM
and so we wait…

Fishwaldo — 08/22/2023 12:46 AM
Yah. It’s a very intrusive patch that will never get accepted by upstream. You might have better luck with qt6 but other areas it breaks on riscv currently
It also requires a ton of patches to things like Mesa, and fffmeg etc. (of which all patches are based on old versions). If you have no problem using older releases of Mesa then it should be ok to do a port. If you have to stick to a particular version, it’s going to be a big porting effort especially for Mesa.

[mattpenn]

Just reading this GitHub issue on FDE for UBPorts in general:
https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/178

Doesn't sound hopeful of implementation anytime soon.

Is anyone likely to work on a Pine64 specific approach to LUKS? I feel the current lack of LUKS support rules out this distro for many.

[Rondarius]

Just reading this GitHub issue on FDE for UBPorts in general:
https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/178

Doesn't sound hopeful of implementation anytime soon.

Is anyone likely to work on a Pine64 specific approach to LUKS? I feel the current lack of LUKS support rules out this distro for many.

Hi @mattpenn
What I could read on the GitHub page, it is possible to have LUKS on the pine64 devices. But there is still to much work just to get the devices functional with Focal. They mentioned something that maybe the pine64 devices could have full encryption while android devices does not. But there have to be someone who implements it and we are not there yet, what I know of, I am not a member of Ubports, just an enthusiastic, tech-savvy user.

[Rondarius]

Hi
Here is little something from Oren & CO on telegram:

Oren, [2023-09-19 16:41]
Everything except the externaldisplay stuff has been merged

Oren, [2023-09-19 16:45]
That means that in theory, ppl can update their devices with apt and it will install rotation )) pinetab2 will have to delete its .yaml.dpkg-old, but other than that, it’s all upstream

will probably make a new release today, next one can be camera/gps/OTA upstreaming DDD