LINux on MOBile - Android 11LINMOB.net is a blog about LINux on MOBile devices. With the PinePhone (Pro) and Librem 5 shipping it is back to report on GNU+Linux on mobile devices.Zola2020-09-27T13:00:00+00:00https://linmob.net/tags/android-11/feed.xmlLinBits 12: Weekly PinePhone news / media roundup (week 39)2020-09-27T13:00:00+00:002020-09-27T13:00:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits12-weekly-pinephone-news-week39/<p><em>It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?</em></p>
<p>A new release of #HuongTramLinux, GloDroid 0.5.1, Camera Adventures and much more. <em>Commentary in italics.</em></p>
<span id="continue-reading"></span><h3 id="software-releases-and-improvements">Software releases and improvements</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases/tag/20200927">Arch Linux ARM/Huong Tram Linux</a> has had a new release, replacing Pinhole with Megapixels (which is now in version 0.9.0 and working better than ever) and fixing the GNOME Software app listings among other things. If you already have this distribution installed, a full upgrade should bring you all these new features without reinstalling. Also, <a href="https://twitter.com/RealDanct12/status/1307718376354054146">danct12 played a bit with Nemo Mobile's Glacier UX</a> this week.</li>
<li><a href="https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-developer-release-with-plasma-mobile-pinephone/26733">Manjaro Phosh Alpha 4 has been released</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.plasma-mobile.org/">Plasma Mobile</a> have rebased on Ubuntu 20.04, at least initially causing some regressions. Work on <a href="https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/thumbnail/kde.modular.im/037c9b106f933a229f8220f544650205dbb84958?width=800&height=600">working keyboard input in GTK apps</a> is also progressing, which is great news!</li>
<li><a href="https://social.librem.one/@agx/104901905763931217">Phosh 0.4.4 has been released</a> with minor improvements.</li>
<li>GloDroid, the Android <del>10</del><ins>11</ins> distribution for the PinePhone and several ARM single board computers, have <a href="https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases/tag/v0.5.1">released version 0.5.1</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth reading</h3>
<ul>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/ubuntu-touch-ota-13-released-with-browser-improvements-new-features-support-for-more-phones/">Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 released with browser improvements, new features, support for more phones</a>. <em>Great write up by Brad.</em></li>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/pinephone-news-roundup-9-25-2020/">PinePhone news roundup (9-25-2020)</a>. <em>If I should get hit by a bus or loose interest, here is a more than capable backup ...</em></li>
<li>TuxPhones: <a href="https://tuxphones.com/google-nexus-5-as-linux-phone-2020-ubports-postmarketos/">Using a Google Nexus 5 as a Linux phone, in 2020</a>. <em>An excellent post on using the Nexus 5 with "true Linux" distributions.</em></li>
<li>BrixIT Blog: <a href="https://blog.brixit.nl/pinephone-camera-adventures-part-3/">PinePhone camera adventures, part 3</a>. <em>Martijn Braam, developer of <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels">megapixels</a> has written his third post on the PinePhone cameras. If you want to learn about the difficulties of camera stuff, this is a must read!</em></li>
<li>xnux.eu log: <a href="https://xnux.eu/log/#018">Some ways to improve Pinephone safety</a> and <a href="https://xnux.eu/log/#017">Let's talk about safety of Pinephone</a> (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24596248">hacker news comments</a>. <em>The second post is older and is decidedly inflamatory – as if there is not enough hardship. That said, safety matters, although I am not aware of any house burning down because of badly configured PinePhone kernels. Also, if you look at the world as a whole, you'll find much larger health/life risks that no one seems to care about enough to effect change.</em></li>
<li>David Field: <a href="https://tech.davidfield.co.uk/the-pinephone-is-a-world-of-possibility-thats-not-ready-for-you-just-yet/">The PinePhone is a world of possibility thats not ready for you just yet</a>. <em>If you are not sure whether to get a PinePhone or not, this post might help making a decision.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>Avisando: [PinePhone - run without battery])(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Urbu1Wb9CU). <em>A new channel that makes videos that are very much to my liking (as they focus on the device and not a talking head). I managed to become the second subscriber!</em></li>
<li>PineTime: <a href="https://video.codingfield.com/videos/watch/2989c888-6c3c-4e0a-8428-4d5af3e03f21">BLE HID mouse with the Pinephone running Mobian</a>. <em>I was not going to buy a PineTime, but projects like this one...</em></li>
<li>Fabrixxm's things: <a href="https://peertube.uno/videos/watch/032cc2f4-8afd-46c7-aa74-91fdcf03fa6f">PinePhone + BangleJS Experiment</a>.</li>
<li>Howto: Privacy & Security:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDP1-D8Ys4">Megapixel: Dramatic Pinephone Camera Software Improvements</a>. <em>Megapixels is making impressive progress.</em></li>
<li>GeoTechLand: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2HQwoE8N7U">What’s New In Ubuntu Touch OTA-13</a>.</li>
<li>UBports: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3kRM_8Wvjs">Ubuntu Touch Q&A 85</a>. <em>I like watching these sessions, although I never made it live, yet.</em></li>
<li>QtCon Brasil 2020: <a href="https://youtu.be/l7Rrx74W1fA">Convergence with Qt</a>. <em>If you want to know more about <a href="https://mauikit.org/">MauiKit</a>, this is a must watch!</em></li>
<li>Bits inside by René Rebe: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSY7N3jIB8E">The USB-C complexities: But I found a Pinephone USB dock charging workaround!</a> <em>René's streams are quite informative and technical.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<ul>
<li>I published two videos that cover <a href="https://forum.manjaro.org/tag/pinephone">Manjaro ARM</a> on the PinePhone with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOinLw0xP3c">Lomiri</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VefFyTF3c-I">Phosh</a>, and a <a href="https://linmob.net/2020/09/25/gnome-3.38-and-linux-smartphones.html">blog post on the new features GNOME 3.38 brings</a>. Also, I started uploading my videos to <a href="https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/0c0929a2-ed18-4aa4-bfbe-2b13a1ea6d5b">a platform that is not YouTube</a>, adjusting loudness on the way. This process can hopefully be finished in the next week.</li>
<li>Back to Manjaro Lomiri: After making that video, I managed to get Plasma Mobile apps to work by installing breeze and editing their .desktop files (in /usr/share/applications): Adding <code>env QT_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTORS=2 QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE=breeze</code> between <code>Exec=</code> and the command to execute the app <a href="https://twitter.com/linmobblog/status/1309377856972165121#m">made them work just fine</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/linmobblog/status/1308073587534946304#m">short video</a>). Also, the terminal can be fixed by just choosing the <code>monospace</code> font in the settings of the app.</li>
<li>Another thing that can hopefully be (initially) finished next week is a new "How to …" page that explains basic stuff for the PinePhone by linking to helpful content on this blog and elsewhere. </li>
<li>Back to last week: On Tuesday I listened live to <a href="https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases/tag/20200927">Linux Unplugged</a> and took part in the Mumble room before and after the show. I did so on my PinePhone (running Arch Linux ARM by danct12) using the "convergence dongle", my Thinkpad USB keyboard and my USB audio interface. Phosh is not really great at convergence yet and there is at least <a href="https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/phosh/-/issues/365">one known issue</a> that is being worked on. I hope I can find the time to write about how to get to "convergence" and also try <a href="https://swaywm.org/">sway</a> instead of phosh for convergence soon. Other people have had good results with GNOME shell, but that might be a bit heavy for the limited hardware.</li>
<li>Three apps have been added to the <a href="https://linmobapps.frama.io">LINMOBapps list</a>: Social, Workflow and hackgregator.</li>
</ul>
LinBits 11: Weekly PinePhone news / media roundup (week 38)2020-09-20T13:10:00+00:002020-09-20T13:10:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits11-weekly-pinephone-news-week38/<p><em>It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?</em></p>
<p>Manjaro Lomiri Alpha 1, GloDroid 0.4.0, more camera improvements and a ton of videos. <em>Commentary in italics.</em></p>
<span id="continue-reading"></span><h3 id="software-releases-and-improvements">Software releases and improvements</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases/tag/v0.4.0">GloDroid 0.4.0</a>. The Android port is progressing. <em>They have also released an <a href="https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/issues/58#issuecomment-670354906">early build of Android 11</a>, and <a href="https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=10613&pid=78278#pid78278">bauner in the Pine64 forums</a> is working on enabling GSM and GPS.</em></li>
<li><a href="https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels">megapixels</a> has seen a lot of progress and now has a really fast viewfinder, takes pictures at 5 megapixels, rendering the PinePhone back camera a lot more usable. <em>The front camera also works in postmarketOS now, but it is very dim currently and only usable in daylight.</em></li>
<li>Manjaro <a href="https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-alpha1-with-lomiri-pinephone/26454">Lomiri Alpha 1</a> has been released. <em>I have made a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOinLw0xP3c">little video</a> demoing the release.</em> <sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="other-hardware">Other Hardware <sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></h3>
<ul>
<li>bunnie:studios, run by the famous bunny who created awesome hardware like the open source <a href="https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3657">Novena laptop</a>, have announced a new <a href="https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=5921">handheld device</a>. It's called "Precursor" and is going to be sold on <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/precursor">Crowdsupply</a>. <em>If you are looking for a faster device than the PinePhone, this FPGA-based device likely is not for you. But it should be more secure.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth reading</h3>
<ul>
<li>CNX-Software: <a href="https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/09/16/pinephone-multiboot-image-boots-13-different-linux-distributions/">Pinephone Multiboot Image Boots 13 Different Linux Distributions</a>. <em>This image is really something. I managed to break it though...</em></li>
<li>Pine64: <a href="https://www.pine64.org/2020/09/15/september-update-let-it-sink-in/">September Update: Let it sink in…</a>. _</li>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/adventures-of-porting-postmarketos-to-the-librem-5/">Adventures of porting postmarketOS to the Librem 5</a>. <em>A great read!</em></li>
<li>Koen Vervloesem: <a href="https://koen.vervloesem.eu/blog/exploring-the-pinephone-with-the-multi-distro-demo-image/">Exploring the PinePhone with the multi-distro demo image</a>. <em>This is a little review of Megi's p_boot image, which takes a very different perspective than I would have taken: E.g. I like it when there is not too much software pre-installed, because I know how to install software on pretty much every one of these distros. PSA: Don't report bugs experienced with this image to the respective distro maintainers, as this image uses a very different kernel. Also: Screenshots on Phosh based distros can be created via a little command line utilty called 'grim'.</em> <sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>Matthew Higgins: <a href="https://youtu.be/tEU0y-BDi5w">Running OpenSUSE Linux on the Pinephone (Braveheart)</a>. <em>I still did not try OpenSUSE myself, but it does not seem to bad.</em></li>
<li>Howto: Digital Privacy & Infosec: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdx-vp1doB0">Pinephone (Mobian Linux) Video/Audio Proof Phone Calls Do Work Both Incoming/Outgoing</a>. <em>This video may seem strange, but maybe it helps some people believing me that this stuff is incredibly hard to demo while maintaining privacy.</em></li>
<li>Howto: Digital Privacy & Infosec: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgQk6wYYeg">Pinephone Mobian Inkscape + Camera + Firefox, Gpodder, SMS/Phone/Cell Data/Wifi/Hotspot All Working</a></li>
<li>sadwesv: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P76lQX70iI">Accelerated video decoding on Pinephone using gstreamer 0.18 and cedrus</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyRm8kccyG4">Pinephone playing 1440p h264 encoded video to external display</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHOgVmxH_dA">Pinephone: 1080p@60 video playback scaled to 1440p@60 display</a>. <em>Megi published a couple of video showing promising progress with regard to video acceleration on the PinePhone. Looks great!</em></li>
<li>Josh Moore: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ewLsIjqao">Pine64 PinePhone: Linux Users Remain a Persecuted Minority (For Now)</a>. <em>The video title is weird, this is just a negative review.</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="android-corner">Android Corner</h4>
<ul>
<li>HomebrewXS: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbqzMXsnEEA">How to install Android 11 on PinePhone</a></li>
<li>HomebrewXS: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Oqlwb2iLo">Android 11 on PinePhone, customizing and installing apps</a></li>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAk72UnwU4E">Anbox on the Librem 5</a>. <em>This is a great demo of Anbox, not showing all the pain I showed in my videos. Please note that they are usinghttps://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-alpha1-with-lomiri-pinephone/26454 virtboard here, which is a terrible method of text input even on the slightly larger PinePhone.</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="dev-streaming-corner">Dev streaming corner</h4>
<ul>
<li>Marius Gripsgård: <a href="https://youtu.be/SJ_K6XFRk84">Hacking on Lomiri: Overview</a>. <em>A longer stream for people who want to help the development of Lomiri (a.k.a. Unity 8)</em></li>
<li>Bits inside by René Rebe: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AneXavrp8MA">t2 ARM64 Linux on a Pine64 Pinephone</a>. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="gaming-corner">Gaming corner</h4>
<ul>
<li>Doctor Cranium: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUS3bg3l6XU">Quake on Pinephone</a></li>
<li>Iron Oxidizer: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nICNyCosbCU">PinePhone playing Super Mario 64 natively at 30fps</a></li>
<li>Danct12: <a href="https://twitter.com/RealDanct12/status/1306988588773515264">Undertale on the PinePhone</a></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="privacy-corner">Privacy corner</h4>
<ul>
<li>Rob Braxman Tech: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTC28AWnCyk">Privacy. That's LinuxPhone. True? False?</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<ul>
<li>I finally migrated my blog over to different hosting. It still uses Jekyll, but should be GDPR compliant now. Sadly, this will negatively impact my GitHub activity statistics. ;-)</li>
<li>On friday I received my postmarketOS CE convergence package PinePhone and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2w0p_gzpds">made an unboxing video</a>.</li>
<li>I tried to build some more software. <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Social">Social</a> took long to build, but I could not authorize it to use it with my Mastodon account. Also, I build GNOME Maps 3.38, which <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@linmob/104888229662272223">works a lot better on the PinePhone than the previous version</a>. What's notable: The new PinePhone ran a lot cooler than my UBports CE while building these apps.</li>
</ul>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup>
<p>The link to my Lomiri video, the Other Hardware section and last Worth Reading link were added after initial publication on Monday, September 21st at 8:14 AM CEST.</p>
</div>