LinBits 32: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 6)
Table of Contents
It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?
Phosh 0.8.1, Calls 0.3.0, Sxmo 1.3.0 and more! Commentary in italics.
Software development and releases
Apps
- Phosh 0.8.1 is out, as the number indicates it's mostly a bug fix release. Head over to the full release notes for the details.
- Calls 0.3.0 has been released, adding a few features, translations and bug fixes. Go read the full changelog.
- Portfolio 0.9.9 has been released, adding support for the org.freedesktop.FileManager1 interface among other things.
- A new version of Authenticator, powered by Rust and GTK4 is out. Sadly it did not work for me when I tried the Flatpak on postmarketOS.
Distributions
- Arch Linux ARM/DanctNIX mobile has seen a new release, incorporating almost all the new releases mentioned above and more.
- Sxmo 1.3.0 has been released, delivering improvements to dmenu, which now reacts on release of touch and more. Read the full release notes.
Worth noting
- Dylan Van Assche announces great news coming to the postmarketOS on the PinePhone: Ringing immideately, even when in suspend. This should be the relevant merge request.
- Manjaro are preparing something that looks interesting!
Worth reading
- Mobian Blog: Issues and hurdles when performing the initial upgrade. If you ordered a Mobian CE, make sure to read this post! (I was going to make a video about this, but I did not keep the screen alive. Turns out, even if the phone locks up; when you just wait a long time, rebooting the hard way can be safe too.)
- Phoronix: Sailfish OS 4.0.1 No Longer Support The Jolla Phone But Has Many Other Improvements. Nice new features coming to Sailfish OS.
- Linux Smartphones: Sxmo 1.3.0 brings usability, performance improvements to this simple, geeky Linux phone UI. Nice write-up by Brad on the the new Sxmo release. Make sure to watch his video, which is linked below, too.
- Purism: OpenPGP in Your Pocket. Guess I need to get this firmware on to my Librem 5.
- Lup Yuen Lee: PineCone BL602 talks SPI too!. Turns out: You can connect a display to that Risc-V WiFi-thingy!
Worth listening
- PineTalk 002: New Accessories and UBports with Dalton Durst. Creating this episode was a lot of fun, I hope you like it!
Worth watching
- Glitchy Soup: Pinephone (Mobian community edition) GUI and camera test. Nice video.
- AntonMadness: Soldering with the PinePhone. Yes, this is the PinePhone serving as a power source for a USB-C powered soldering iron. I don't think that this is something you should too, but apparently this works at least once.
- paralin: KDE and GentooLTO on Pinephone. This is the KDE Plasma Desktop, running on a PinePhone. Interesting!
- The Linux Experiment: Is GNOME ready to tackle the SMARTPHONE ? A tour of Phosh on the PinePhone. Interesting user interface critique.
- Liliputing: PinePhone running Sxmo 1.3.0 (Simple X Mobile). I am so happy that Brad did this video so I don't.
- Linux Lounge: A Look At LuneOS On The PinePhone. Nice video on LuneOS, although I sadly did not see much progress to way back when I tried it.
- Privacy & Tech Tips: Howto: Put BlackArch Pentesting Linux On Pinephone!. Great video!
- Privacy & Tech Tips: Pine64 Pinetab (Linux Tablet) First Impressions- Nice!. If you're curious about the PineTab...
- Privacy & Tech Tips: Dear Newbz: Are You Ready For A Pinephone? Depends.. This is an important video for everybody who is not really sure, whether PinePhone is for them.
- Leszek Lesner: SailfishOS 4.0 EA - What's new?. Informative video!
- Linux Lounge: How To Install Replicant (A Fully FOSS Android Distribution). If you want to try the variant of Android that is the most FLOSS, this video is a good starting point.
- UBports: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 94. Highlights include: OTA 16 upcoming, Debian packaging progress (slow!).
Unboxing corner
- TalkNTech: Pine64 Pinephone Manjaro KDE CE (linuxphone) unboxing + overview, part 2.
- Nephitejnf: Pinephone Unboxing and First Impressions
- Jolla-Devices: Pinephone unboxing and magnets // J-D inbox February. Another late Manjaro CE unboxing.
Stuff I did
Content
I made no video. I published one blog post about scaling in Phosh, and it's not really ready yet.
Random
I installed postmarketOS Edge with Phosh on my Librem 5 Evergreen last week, and reported on the battery life I experienced during the past week:
I have nuked that install today and tried PureOS Byzantium tonight (it's really not ready yet), and might go Mobian next. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, my Fedora on PinePhone video (the Odysee upload) went sort of viral on "Hacker News".
I also published my first APKBUILD.
LINMOBapps
This week I added just one app to LINMOBapps, and some maintenance happened. I also added some more PKGBUILDs. Please do contribute!