Manjaro Alpha 4 for PinePhone
#1
Information 
Just a note that Alpha 4 is now out and it is advised instead of updating alpha 3 to  use alpha 4 instead.

Link to Official Alpha 4 Thread

Changes since Alpha3:
  • Phonebook app can now save contacts
  • Power button now locks the screen.
  • Added Manjaro ARM wallpaper.
  • Added a couple of new apps.
  • Favorites bar now shows.
  • Brightness control now works.
  • New Plasma Mobile interface.
  • The Alpha images are now using Unstable branch.
  • New 2 partition layout with extlinux.conf file.
  • Password changed for default user to
    1234
#2
Couple of points here to be clarified to a dummy like me:
1. Is there any other WM to use with this release? I found plasma very-very slow and not responsive to my inputs. eg: I tap add widgets, nothing happens
- Also sometimes the screen gets brightened up and then goes back to normal.
- Sometimes some of the window elements loses resolution, then comes back to life again.
2. Please enlighten me: if I start the phone without a battery, supplied only via the USB-C cable I have no wifi, no radio working, nothing. Why is that?
3. I can't install stuff: unable to unlock the database. (I wanted to install the libofono-qt package to try a call)
4. I am using a Kingston Canvas class10 SD card: is that good enough?

The system is great, looks to be a really nice effort. Manjaro is always leading the way in everything Linux, right? Big Grin No wonder, I am using Manjaro too on my 12 year old laptop. Smile Thank you for this great work guys.
#3
An update for myself and for other dummies trying this:
1. Shortly they will come I guess, the official link contains only the Plasma version of the Alpha4 image.
- When brightens up --> starts to freeze, better wait a second.
- This did not happen since.

2. Still no answer to this point.
No battery, no wifi, no GSM antenna...

3. I can now. The solution was that I reformatted my SD card to ext4, now it is a little bit faster and I could remove the db.lck file, so could install packages and update one. DD is a powerful tool... Big Grin

4. I guess it is good enough. Not sure an ultra would be faster, I'll buy one and test it.
#4
(03-05-2020, 05:58 AM)cefre00 Wrote: 2. Still no answer to this point.
No battery, no wifi, no GSM antenna...

The modem and the wifi chip is powered directly from the battery, and will 
Get no power, if you remove it.

This is a hw limitation.
#5
(03-05-2020, 03:20 AM)cefre00 Wrote: Couple of points here to be clarified to a dummy like me:
1. Is there any other WM to use with this release? I found plasma very-very slow and not responsive to my inputs. eg: I tap add widgets, nothing happens
- Also sometimes the screen gets brightened up and then goes back to normal.
- Sometimes some of the window elements loses resolution, then comes back to life again.
2. Please enlighten me: if I start the phone without a battery, supplied only via the USB-C cable I have no wifi, no radio working, nothing. Why is that?
3. I can't install stuff: unable to unlock the database. (I wanted to install the libofono-qt package to try a call)
4. I am using a Kingston Canvas class10 SD card: is that good enough?

The system is great, looks to be a really nice effort. Manjaro is always leading the way in everything Linux, right? Big Grin No wonder, I am using Manjaro too on my 12 year old laptop. Smile Thank you for this great work guys.

no 2 , is the design of the phone
#6
Thanks both for letting me know. I guess I should have read the HW part of wiki page more thoroughly. Big Grin
#7
(03-05-2020, 03:20 AM)cefre00 Wrote: Couple of points here to be clarified to a dummy like me:
1. Is there any other WM to use with this release? I found plasma very-very slow and not responsive to my inputs. eg: I tap add widgets, nothing happens
- Also sometimes the screen gets brightened up and then goes back to normal.
- Sometimes some of the window elements loses resolution, then comes back to life again.
2. Please enlighten me: if I start the phone without a battery, supplied only via the USB-C cable I have no wifi, no radio working, nothing. Why is that?
3. I can't install stuff: unable to unlock the database. (I wanted to install the libofono-qt package to try a call)
4. I am using a Kingston Canvas class10 SD card: is that good enough?

The system is great, looks to be a really nice effort. Manjaro is always leading the way in everything Linux, right? Big Grin No wonder, I am using Manjaro too on my 12 year old laptop. Smile Thank you for this great work guys.

#1 There has been no mention from the Devs that a new DM is on the cards for now.   that being said, KDE plasma in Alpha 4 is updated and there is a significant leap forward in design.   and that makes alot of sense   there is very limited resources at this stage of alpha  so trying to support a  second DM would slow overall progress significantly. 

#2 hardware design,  and as this is a mobile phone, it was never intended to be used without a battery...  its not a landlline or usb sip-phone....

#3 that might be due to discover or some other app trying to update  use the arch wiki for how to unlock  pacman db etc...

#4 class 10 is perfectly fine,  if at a later date performance becomes an issue due to overall load from the OS,  then flashing to MMC onboard memory will be advised by the Team as part of there install documentation etc.

Its important to understand that early alpha's for an OS one that the team is relying on other third parties to do there part in order to bring it all together, requires a lot of patients and to also set reasonable expectations.    sadly at this time  Arch based OS on Mobile Phone hardware is  very behind,  but that will change in time...
#8
(03-06-2020, 07:28 PM)hockleyj Wrote: ...
Its important to understand that early alpha's for an OS one that the team is relying on other third parties to do there part in order to bring it all together, requires a lot of patients and to also set reasonable expectations.    sadly at this time  Arch based OS on Mobile Phone hardware is  very behind,  but that will change in time...

Thank you for the detailed answers you spent time on. Please, don't get me wrong, I am not unthankful, I am waiting for this phone for like 6 months at least. I don't mind if it takes many more months or even years to have a complete Linux system to work on it. To be honest knowing how Linux distros are getting developed it is a never ending story.
I plan to buy more SD cards to have some systems, like Manjaro to get updated continuously. Its exciting to see how things are shaping up for the pinephone.

Moreover, and that is the main reason I did my comments earlier, there are some girls/guys like me, who are enthousiasts, can't contribute the usual way to these efforts, but giving a perpesctive from a different angle might help the developments. Well, not at this early stage I understand but maybe later even more. I hope. Smile
#9
Thank you for that image! My problem is that I cannot connect to WIFI because while I am typing my WIFI password the sequence of available WIFI networks changes and I in consequence am typing the password for the wrong WIFI network. Copy-pasting the password does not work.


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