LINux on MOBile - UnboxingLINMOB.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.Zola2021-01-28T22:12:00+00:00https://linmob.net/tags/unboxing/feed.xmlPurism Librem 5: First impressions2021-01-28T22:12:00+00:002021-01-28T22:12:00+00:00https://linmob.net/purism-librem5-first-impressions/<p><em>These were intended to be some rough notes accompanying my Unboxing video, which you can watch at <a href="https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/66ea3360-2b2a-4e3e-8796-de7ae271ac1b">DevTube</a>, <a href="https://lbry.tv/@linmob:3/unboxing-the-purism-librem-5-evergreen:e">LBRY</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WdnPw537nU">YouTube</a>. It got a bit longer and thorough.</em></p>
<span id="continue-reading"></span>
<p>Yesterday I finally received a Librem 5. It’s not the one I ordered in October 2017 — I purchased it from a not too happy backer.</p>
<p>The box is fairly large, it contains a charger, a USB-C to C cable, nice wired headphones and an instruction manual.</p>
<h3 id="hardware">Hardware</h3>
<p>The phone also is fairly large and thick (153 x 75 x 15.5mm), and not only that, it‘s quite heavy.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup> A portion of the weight can be attributed to the 17.1 Wh battery that Purism decided to include to deliver all day battery life (I can’t say whether that worked yet and will report back), and another contributor is the metal frame that makes the device feel sturdy. The backplate is made of plastic and wiggles a little bit, negatively affecting the solid overall impression of the device. A nanoSIM card and a microSDXC card can be put into the device using a tray on the right side of the device, which is easy to open thanks to a nice pin that’s also in the box.</p>
<p>On the left side of the device we find the three kill switches for the LTE modem, WiFi and Bluetooth and the microphone/cameras respectively. They are easy to use and still feel like they won’t be triggered accidentally while the phone is in the pocket.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup></p>
<p>If you want to read the specs, head over to <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/phones/purism-librem-5-specs/">LinuxSmartphones.com</a> or the <a href="https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-phones/6827">comparison in the Purism forums</a>.</p>
<h3 id="software">Software</h3>
<p>Turning the phone on is an easy and fast process, PureOS is a fast booter. The welcome wizard is fast and simple, the Librem 5 generally feels quite snappy. The setup is sane: SSH is disabled by default, which makes perfect sense for a phone that targets <em>"normal people"</em> and wants to be secure.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#7">3</a></sup></p>
<p>The number of preinstalled apps is small: Calls, Chatty (SMS+XMPP), Contacts, GNOME Web (which is surprisingly fast on the Librem 5) are joined by Calculator, Chess (why?),Clocks, Geary (for email), PureOS Store (for Updates and additional Software), Settings, Terminal, Text Editor, Usage and Weather.</p>
<p>Immediately notable omissions are a media and/or music player, a calendar, a Maps app, and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20170831231354/https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/">considering the promises of the 2017 crowdfunder</a> any Matrix support.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#3">4</a></sup> As the hardware enablement for the Librem 5’s cameras is yet to happen, the omission of a camera app makes perfect sense. </p>
<p>PureOS Store is a fork of the GNOME Software app, and while it does not fit the screen perfectly yet, Purism do a good job in recommending apps and games (e.g. Password Safe, Lollypop, Animatch) that are useful and work nicely on the Librem 5.
But it is not perfect: A search for Firefox leads to nothing, <code>sudo apt install firefox-esr</code> gets that job done though. It's the same for Cawbird, the twitter client.</p>
<p>Also, as an <a href="https://linmobapps.frama.io">App List maintainer</a> I must say that Purism really should go a ahead and package some more GTK/Libhandy apps: <code>apt search</code> on PureOS Amber returns nothing for </p>
<ul>
<li>giara,</li>
<li>notorious, or</li>
<li><del>tootle</del> gnome-podcasts,<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#6">5</a></sup></li>
</ul>
<p>and for other apps <a href="https://linmob.net/2021/01/09/my-setup-with-danctnix-archlinuxarm.html">that I use on my PinePhone</a>, like eog, gnome-todo and gnome-maps, it's similar: Only outdated, or non phone-optimized versions of these programs are in the repositories. <em>I really suggest the Purism team to package up all libhandy/GTK apps that are beyond a "WIP" state and add them to the <code>amber-phone</code> repo. Maybe the community can help out here with a few instructions.</em><sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#6">5</a></sup></p>
<p>While many of these apps are available as Flatpaks on Flathub (which has to be enabled manually), the unpatched<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#4">6</a></sup> Flathub GTK runtime makes these apps work worse than if they were packaged for PureOS.</p>
<p>Regarding PureOS, it's worth noting that PureOS Amber is essentially a FSF-endorsed libre Debian 10 Buster. I look forward to the day when PureOS switches the Librem 5 over to "Byzantium", which is their adaption of Debian 11 Bullseye — the idea of using old software on a nascent platform just feels very foreign to me. Currently, running Byzantium is not recommended, but I am certainly going to try <a href="https://www.mobian-project.org">Mobian</a> on the Librem 5 once I get to it.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#5">7</a></sup></p>
<h3 id="usage">Usage</h3>
<p>While I managed to add my Nextcloud in Settings > Online Accounts, the contacts would not show up in contacts, which is something that worked fine on multiple PinePhone distributions for me. So I had to call my Mum who's number I still recall from memory, and that worked fine — the call quality is okay. SMS work too, but this is just early testing and I can't say whether it is truly reliable yet.</p>
<p>The smaller 5.7" 18:9 screen makes me more convinced that <a href="https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/squeekboard">Squeekboard</a>, the virtual keyboard, could use some 5 to 10 percent extra height to be easier to type on with my relatively large fingers. </p>
<p>The Librem 5 also gets a bit warm once the CPU is in use or during phone calls, but not uncomfortably hot. It feels quite similar to how the PinePhone used to feel in that way. The only hardware issue I have experienced is that the Wifi/Bluetooth chip does not always work, but toggling it using the kill switches usually gets it to life fairly quickly. BTW: Did I mention the Librem 5 supports 5 GHz Wifi networks?</p>
<h3 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h3>
<p>All in all, the Librem 5 is a nice phone, and I look forward to using it more and to see how Purism manage to develop this product further — there's still a lot of work to be done on the software side as I wrote above.</p>
<p>The hardware, while thick and heavy, is definitely faster than the PinePhone. It looks like that I'll actually need to get into benchmarking, because it's not just the CPU and the 300MHz higher clockspeed from what it feels like.</p>
<p>I guess that most people would like an answer to the question "Should I get this instead of the PinePhone?", but I can't really give that just yet, sorry.</p>
<p><em>If you want to see what this phone looks like, check out "<a href="https://linmob.net/2021/01/30/purism-librem5-visual-impressions.html">Purism Librem 5: Visual Impressions</a>".</em></p>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup>
<p>Purism say it weighs 268 grams, and that feels true. Unfortunately, I don’t own a pair of scales, so I can’t offer exact measurements.
<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>: Unlike the PinePhone they feel useful on the Librem 5.
<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#3">4</a></sup>: For text-based conversations, https://hydrogen.element.io works fine in GNOME Web. I installed it as a web application immediately.
<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#4">6</a></sup>: Purism patched GTK3 to make it work better with the phone.
<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#5">7</a></sup>: I would love to run DanctNIX mobile on this device, but I doubt that I'll be able to pull that off.
<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#6">5</a></sup>: <em>Added January 29, 2021, 7:04 am UTC:</em> As Purism developer <a href="https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/66ea3360-2b2a-4e3e-8796-de7ae271ac1b;threadId=9392">Sebastian Kryzszkowiak points out in the DevTube comments</a>, <em>Tootle</em> has been added in the hours between writing and publication of this article, and <em>Giara</em> apparently has been in <code>amber-phone-staging</code> for a while (by 3pm UTC the same day it now has made it to <code>amber-phone</code>. So Purism developers are definitely actively packaging; which is laudable especially given the size of their team. That said: As a user, I always wish for more packaged software, which is why I inserted Gnome Podcasts.
<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#7">3</a></sup>: This sentence contained the term SSL instead of SSH in a previous version, which obviously was a typo. The process of setting up SSH for now requires using the terminal, which could be made easier in the future.</p>
</div>
LinBits 20: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 47)2020-11-22T20:28:00+00:002020-11-22T20:28:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits20-weekly-linux-phone-news-week47/<p><em>It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?</em></p>
<p>Phosh updates, Librem 5 Shipping, PinePhone KDE Community Edition and 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://source.puri.sm/Librem5/phosh/-/releases/v0.6.0">Phosh 0.6.0</a> was released last sunday, delivering what I think is a massive improvement to multitasking.</li>
<li><a href="https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/phoc/-/releases">Phoc has seen two releases</a>, bumping up the version to 0.5.1, delivering numerous improvements.</li>
<li><a href="https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/squeekboard/-/commit/5aa73347877d1a716d9e668533ae96123d50bf56">Squeekboard 1.11.0</a> is a relatively minor release.</li>
<li><a href="https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/chatty/-/blob/master/debian/changelog">Chatty 0.2.0</a> improves the SMS and chat app quite a bit.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth reading</h3>
<ul>
<li>PINE64: <a href="https://www.pine64.org/2020/11/15/november-update-kde-pinephone-ce-and-a-peek-into-the-future/">November Update: KDE PinePhone CE And A Peek Into The Future</a>. <em>I published LinBits way to early last sunday and missed a lot, including this announcement. I already wrote down my thoughts on this in a <a href="https://linmob.net/2020/11/16/pinephone-kde-community-announcement.html">previous blog post</a>.</em>
<ul>
<li>ZDnet: <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/pinephone-kde-linux-phone-is-getting-ready-for-pre-orders/">PinePhone KDE Linux phone is getting ready for pre-orders</a>. <em>Nice to see more reporting on the PinePhone by outlets focused on general tech.</em></li>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/pinephone-kde-community-edition-up-for-preorder-in-december/">PinePhone KDE Community Edition up for preorder in December</a>. <em>Brad's take, nice as always.</em></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/hacker-adds-a-working-fingerprint-sensor-to-the-pinephone/">Hacker adds a working fingerprint sensor to the PinePhone</a></li>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-mass-production-phone-has-begun-shipping/">Librem 5 Mass Production Phone Has Begun Shipping</a>. <em>This reddit thread cleared up some <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/jy9axf/when_will_you_ship_librem_5_to_europe/">questions for me</a>. And if you need evidence that they are really shipping phones out now, see this <a href="https://forums.puri.sm/t/received-my-librem-5-evergreen/10877">thread in the Purism forums</a>.</em>
<ul>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/purisms-librem-5-linux-smartphone-is-now-shipping/">Purism’s Librem 5 Linux smartphone is now shipping</a>. </li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>PINE64: <a href="https://lbry.tv/$/download/november-community-update-kde-pinephone/75535c5fc0b9b38e01a1d7d0fa82348758ac7b8f">November Community Update: KDE PinePhone Community Edition & a peek into the future</a>. <em>Great work by PizzaLovingNerd.</em></li>
<li>r/pinephone: <a href="https://reddit.com/r/pinephone/comments/jxbds1/ill_just_leave_this_here/">I'll just leave this here</a> <em>Diablo on the PinePhone.</em></li>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAUNrY_qPCg">Librem 5 Visual Walkthrough</a>. <em>Watch this before starting to use your Librem 5. BTW: It looks really smooth. Also: That phone is a beast, in a good way!</em></li>
<li>Geotech Land: [KDE Plasma Mobile On Pinephone](https://peertube.social/videos/watch/514887ba-568f-446b-ba96-ea29 6977db39). <em>Nice video.</em></li>
<li>IzaicNix: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZdOqEg44Go">Pinephone Lomiri with 60hz refresh</a>. <em>I hope Manjaro (or another distribution) picks up Lomiri. It has so much potential.</em></li>
<li>Jaquen hgar: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ3Gv3W7Dro">PinePhone Hands On - Arch Linux</a>. <em>German language, but maybe still interesting.</em></li>
<li>Camden Bruce: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUspXeRa6bQ">Evolution of Ubuntu Touch for the Pinephone (school project)</a>. <em>I think I would give this a B+, given that UBports definitely still work on improving PinePhone support. It just takes a long time because doing it properly is hard.</em></li>
<li>UBports: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQQOdOisPtw">Ubuntu Touch Q&A 89</a> <em>Highlights: OTA 15 planning changes: Volla Phone support leads to no Qt 5.12 migration in OTA 15, it will be delayed to OTA 16. Around minute 19, they talk about the PinePhone.</em></li>
<li>BitBooger: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et9IQt6uxkg">How to install (flash) Mobian on (to) your PinePhone!</a> <em>Nice! See also my video below.</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="manjaro-pinephone-unboxings">Manjaro PinePhone Unboxings</h4>
<ul>
<li>Manjaro Linux: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdI2s133KMo">Developer does an unboxing of the PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition</a>. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="non-linux-phone-content">Non-Linux Phone content</h4>
<ul>
<li>Louis Rossmann: <a href="https://lbry.tv/@rossmanngroup:a/an-important-message-from-louis-2:6">An important message from Louis Rossmann</a>. <em>Right of ownership and right to repair matter. Not just for users, for independent repair – but also for the planet as a whole.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<h4 id="content">Content</h4>
<ul>
<li>I wrote a blog post on <a href="https://linmob.net/2020/11/16/pinephone-kde-community-announcement.html">Pine64's announcement</a>.</li>
<li>I streamed for the first time on YouTube. It was fun, and I am going to repeat this once I have worked on my setup. If you want to watch a part of this first stream, <a href="https://youtu.be/4TghCp4UE8w">you can do so on YouTube</a>. Maybe it can help you out with understanding Jumpdrive — it's unlisted because I had audio issues in the beginning. If you have ideas for topics to discuss on LINMOB live, please get in touch!</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="linmobapps">LINMOBapps</h4>
<p>Not much happened here, <a href="https://framagit.org/linmobapps/linmobapps.frama.io/-/commits/master">just some maintenance</a>. I have another commit almost ready, and I hope to be able to do the game-split next week, so stay tuned. </p>
LinBits 19: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 46)2020-11-15T10:30:00+00:002020-11-15T10:30:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits19-weekly-linux-phone-news-week46/<p><em>It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?</em></p>
<p>New distribution releases, JumpDrive 0.6, a bigger battery for the Librem 5, Linux App Summit talks, Plasma Mobile's October Update and 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">Arch Linux ARM/DanctNIX Mobile has seen another release</a>. Most notable is that they clock the RAM lower now by default, so if you have had crashes previously while trying this distribution, you can now try it again.</li>
<li><a href="https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-beta2-with-phosh-pinephone/36766">Manjaro have released Phosh beta 2</a>, <a href="https://osdn.net/projects/manjaro-arm/storage/pinephone/phosh/">downloads</a>. </li>
<li>Also, if you have not been updating your <a href="https://www.mobian-project.org/">Mobian</a> install in a while, because you <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@mobian/105148135200374744">read about possible breakage</a>: [You can apparently upgrade it now again(https://social.librem.one/@chrichri/105204574174115135). If you broke your install, current builds should be fine for starting over.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="hardware-announcements">Hardware announcements</h3>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth reading</h3>
<ul>
<li>FOSSphones: <a href="https://fossphones.com/why-are-linux-phones-so-important/">Why Are Linux Phones So Important</a>. <em>Nice read!</em></li>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/pine64-flashing-tool-jumpdrive-adds-support-for-pinetab-and-3gb-pinephone/">JumpDrive OS flashing tool now supports PineTab and 3GB PinePhone</a>. <em>It kind of did before, but now there is a new release.</em></li>
<li>Plasma Mobile: <a href="https://www.plasma-mobile.org/2020/11/12/plasma-mobile-update-october.html">Plasma Mobile update: October 2020</a>. <em>Impressive update. I am really looking forward to all this to stabilize.</em>
<ul>
<li>Tux Phones: <a href="https://tuxphones.com/plasma-mobile-linux-mobile-desktop-status-end-2020/">⚡ Plasma Mobile gets major UI improvements, several bugfixes</a>. <em>Raffaele's summary of the above.</em></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-4500mah-battery-upgrade/">Librem 5 4500mAh Battery Upgrade</a>. <em>This is great news. The phone can allegedly now last a work day in idle, not in suspend, which solves all these “Does it wake up fast enough when a call comes in” <a href="https://twitter.com/ManjaroLinux/status/1327614609826648066#m">problems that exist with suspend on the PinePhone</a>. Sure, in a way it’s a hack, but it’s a good one in my opinion.</em>
<ul>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/purism-upgrades-the-librem-5-linux-phone-battery-to-4500-mah-ahead-of-shipping/">Purism upgrades the Librem 5 Linux phone battery to 4,500 mAh ahead of shipping</a>. <em>Brad's take on the topic mentioned above.</em></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Gamey: <a href="https://lbry.tv/@gamey:c/Pinephone-Liri-Apps:c">Pinephone: Liri App Collection. Browser, Text, Terminal, Files / ArchLinux ARM PhoshPinephone: Liri App Collection. Browser, Text, Terminal, Files / ArchLinux ARM Phosh</a>. <em>Interesting post if you ever wondered about using Liri apps on your PinePhone.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>Avisando: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of2I3cRY3VI">PinePhone "Desktop mode" Phosh Manjaro</a>. <em>Awesome video!</em></li>
<li>Avisando: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geQf_CUlZzI">PinePhone - Pogo Pins</a>. <em>If you ever wondered about the Pogo Pins, maybe this video helps.</em></li>
<li>BitBooger: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H-AIH0i1qY">How to install (flash) Mobian on (to) your PinePhone!</a>. <em>Great video, glad that someone takes on the "How to" business for everyday PinePhone chores. Unfortunately, there are few mistakes made, but I tried to point those out in the comments.</em></li>
<li>GeoTech Land: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nETF1jrxOP4">Ubuntu Touch OTA-14 & Pinephone Update</a>. <em>Nice update!</em></li>
<li>Liliputing/Linux Smartphones: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBtYVE6k_-s">PinePhone: KDE Neon with Plasma UI</a>. <em>It's rough.</em></li>
<li>Jaquen hgar: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccnaPEokZUg">PinePhone Ubuntu Touch - Hands On</a>. <em>This a german video detailing the current state of Ubuntu Touch on the PinePhone.</em></li>
<li>Pako St: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT6eL1_RBqk">OBS on Manjaro ARM from Pinebook Pro test capture of PinePhone</a>. <em>ARM Linux in action!</em></li>
<li>Prawnboy SG: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ja9LGd3X4">Running Arch Phosh on Pinephone</a>. <em>I am glad that ArchLinuxARM comes with less apps preinstalled. Still, nice to see how well it performs if you really decide install everything you can think of.</em></li>
<li>Privacy & Tech Tips: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf64kPxs2Tk">Pinephone Signal Messenger Clone: Axolotl- What Works + Screenshots</a>. <em>A follow up to last weeks video, sadly without video of Axolotl running.</em></li>
<li>Tech Show MX: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuLV6JiJjGg">Manjaro ARM Beta 2 con Phosh en PinePhone</a>. <em>If you speak spanish, you are going to enjoy this one.</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="manjaro-pinephone-unboxings">Manjaro PinePhone Unboxings</h4>
<ul>
<li>Elatronion: <a href="https://lbry.tv/@Elatronion:a/pinephone-manjaro:2">Pinephone Manjaro Edition: The Perfect Phone for Nerds</a>. <em>This is a really nice video, watch it, even if you usually don't care about unboxings.</em></li>
<li>Bitbooger: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2zBBbjdxRY">Unboxing the Pinephone Manjaro CE and checking out basic things</a>.</li>
<li>MTS: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yvn0sHH1co">PinePhone64 smartphone - unboxing and first thoughts (aka Part 1)</a>.</li>
<li>Terminal_Heat_Sink: <a href="https://youtu.be/YbEI2hvzCKk">Unboxing and First Look at PinePhone Manjaro Convergence Package Limited Edition Linux Smartphone</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="linux-app-summit">Linux App Summit</h4>
<ul>
<li>Umang Jain: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm66MPVwec4">Libcamera: Making complex cameras easy!</a>, <a href="https://conf.linuxappsummit.org/event/1/contributions/6/attachments/1/2/Libcamera-umang-jain.pdf">Slides</a>. <em>If you care about reducing camera complexity on Linux systems, you are going to like this.</em></li>
<li>Dalton Durst: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1U677h5kY">Brickless battery saving with Ubuntu Touch</a>, <a href="https://daltondur.st/las2020/">blog post</a>. <em>Great talk by Dalton that really <strong>everyone</strong> who cares about Linux Phones should watch!</em></li>
<li>Also check their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSsbz2TDxIxBEarbDzNQ4w">YouTube channel</a> many more videos on App Stream, Flatpak and Flutter that may be interesting.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<p>I made three videos:</p>
<ul>
<li>Manjaro Plasma Mobile on the PinePhone: Convergence (Dev build 201107): <a href="https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/1d7249d4-e577-4c8c-9f64-74855792f019">PeerTube</a>, <a href="https://lbry.tv/@linmob:3/manjaro-plasma-mobile-on-the-pinephone:e">LBRY</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgEnSd5w4cQ">YouTube</a>. I am going to make a similar video with Plasma Mobile running on postmarketOS Edge next week.</li>
<li>Sxmo: Simple X Mobile on PinePhone: <a href="https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/91c96859-0a65-401a-bc11-8aa0645ea676">PeerTube</a>, <a href="https://lbry.tv/@linmob:3/sxmo-simple-x-mobile-on-pinephone:5">LBRY</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0-JatWCDuo">YouTube</a>. </li>
<li>slem.os: OpenSUSE on the PinePhone: <a href="https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/ee924f40-b82e-435d-ac4a-70dd7e6bdfc2">PeerTube</a>, <a href="https://lbry.tv/@linmob:3/slem-os-opensuse-on-the-pinephone:a">LBRY</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8mR52ulDvw">YouTube</a>. Bad timing here, I will definitely follow up once more works.</li>
</ul>
<p>Unfortunately, that was basically all I managed to do.</p>
LinBits 15: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 42)2020-10-18T10:43:00+00:002020-10-18T10:43:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits15-weekly-linux-phone-news-week42/<p><em>It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?</em></p>
<p>Distribution updates, #bleedingtooth, new PINE64 accessories, a new Sailfish release and 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/20201015">DanctNIX Mobile/Huong Tram Linux/Arch Linux ARM by danct12 has seen a new release</a>. <em>The biggest feature here is the new kernel, which even brings better phone call quality and might improve battery life because of Megi's modem driver. Please <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@danct12/105040705058664430">run an upgrade after installing</a> to make sure you are save and the "#bleedingtooth" vulnerability can't be used against you.</em></li>
<li><a href="https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-beta1-with-phosh-pinephone/32307">Manjaro have released their first beta release for the PinePhone</a>, which is featuring Phosh. <em>This indicates that their Community Edition is not shipping with Lomiri, as originally planned, but with Phosh, which arguably is more mature on the PinePhone. Even though this "beta release" may sound more mature than Arch Linux ARM above, a look at their <a href="https://gitlab.manjaro.org/manjaro-arm/issues/pinephone/phosh/-/issues">bug tracker</a> indicates that this is likely not the case.</em> </li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/hadrianweb/status/1316413354861359107">OpenSUSE has seen a new release, too</a>. <em>I really need to try OpenSUSE.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth Reading</h3>
<ul>
<li>Phoronix: <a href="https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.9.1-Released">Linux 5.9.1 + 6 Other Stable Kernels Out For Addressing "Bleeding Tooth" Vulnerability</a>. <em>This vulnerability affects PinePhone distributions, and so far only Arch Linux ARM (see above) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanctNIX/status/1316817237215383552#m">have announced they fixed it</a>. If unsure, do bother your distribution maintainers about this, so that it gets fixed on your favourite PinePhone distribution, too.</em></li>
<li>xnux.eu log: <a href="https://xnux.eu/log/#022">Backlight changes when switching between USB-C power mode</a>. <em>Apparently, the Manjaro Community Edition is going to feature a small hardware change, which is going to fix a small bug again. And this might be another one of these that can be done at home.</em></li>
<li>Adrian Plazas: <a href="https://aplazas.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/blog/blog/2020/10/15/specify-form-factors-in-your-librem-5-apps.html">Specify Form-Factors in Your Librem 5 Apps</a>. <em>While this is not the official FreeDesktop.org standard one would like to have, it is a good temporary fix for now.</em><sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li>
<li>PINE64 Blog: <a href="https://www.pine64.org/2020/10/15/update-new-hacktober-gear/">Update: new hacktober gear</a>. <em>This update is very long and contains a lot, which is why I decided to link to derivative posts that break out parts of this massive announcement.</em>
<ul>
<li>LinuxSmartphones.com: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/swappable-pinephone-back-covers-will-bring-wireless-charging-nfc-and-a-keyboard/">Swappable PinePhone back covers will bring wireless charging, NFC, and a keyboard</a> and TuxPhones.com: <a href="https://tuxphones.com/pinephone-cover-qwerty-external-keyboard-wireless-qi-charging-nfc-5000mah-battery/">⚡ Official PinePhone back cover will add hardware keyboard, wireless charging, NFC and more</a>. <em>This is cool. I have seen quite a few people in my time watching the keyword "PinePhone" on the birdsite that missed NFC, wireless charging or a hardware keyboard on the PinePhone. Unfortunately, there is no ETA yet. I would have preferred a slide out keyboard.</em></li>
<li>LinuxSmartphones.com: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/upgrade-your-pinephone-3gb-32gb-mainboards-coming-in-november/">Upgrade your PinePhone: 3GB/32GB mainboards coming in November</a>. <em>This is great for everybody with buyers remorse who bought into the Braveheart or the UBports Community Edition.</em> </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Jolla Blog: <a href="https://blog.jolla.com/sailfish-os-pallas-yllastunturi-is-now-available/">Sailfish OS Pallas-Yllästunturi is now available</a>. <em>Make sure to read <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/sailfish-os-3-4-brings-multi-user-support-browser-improvements-and-more/">Brad's post on this</a>, too. There are no 3.4.0.24 images released for the PinePhone yet, but I managed to upgrade thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/adampigg/status/1317511321840193537#m">Adam Pigg's instructions</a>. That aside, this is a great release and I am glad that they are beginning to tackle ARM64 support — also I am amazed that the Jolla Phone, released in 2013, is still supported after seven years.</em></li>
<li>Phoronix: <a href="https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.10-F2FS">F2FS With Linux 5.10 Brings Many Improvements And A Few More Features</a>. <em>If you have A/B-tested <a href="https://www.mobian-project.org/">Mobian's</a> F2FS image vs. the standard ext4 image, you will know which difference in speed and usability this filesystem can make. Great to see further improvements to this filesystem.</em></li>
<li>Gamey: <a href="https://lbry.tv/@gamey:c/Feed-reader-for-the-Pinephone:7">Feed readers on the PinePhone</a>. <em>If you look at the post, you will surely realize why I just had to put this in.</em> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth Watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>The Linux Experiment: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tAGOjwx0M">Software Ecosystems are bad, but Linux needs one</a>. <em>I do agree – sort of. I would rather see a web page that has good self-hosting tutorials and shows a nice collection of local companies offering services based on open source software for those that don't feel up to self-hosting infrastructure.</em></li>
<li>PizzaLovingNerd: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2tw7BGdzsg">PineTab Unboxing and First Impressions</a>. <em>Nice first PineTab impressions by Pizza here.</em></li>
<li>PizzaLovingNerd: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiyfHHZkIx8">FOSS Spot: Plasma 5.20, Plasma Mobile, Fund Your App, Kernel 5.9, Enso OS, Pitivi</a>. <em>Not PinePhone centric, but it is a nice collection of news and I share the opinions on PlasmaMobile and "Fund Your App".</em></li>
<li>Дмитрий Власенко: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLm0nczjyPvEjqC1xVIg3RQ">Возвращение PinePhone или ложка меда в бочке кода</a>. <em>This is a russian video. I did not understand a thing, but if you do, it should be interesting.</em></li>
<li>Sakari Castrén: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRtHcdWWowc">Pinephone; cellular, wifi etc working</a>. <em>A video showing postmarketOS onboarding.</em></li>
<li>Avisando: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQgqfGtWrDU">PinePhone - SD Card - USB C - Jack</a>. <em>This is a short video that may help new PinePhone users with onboarding.</em></li>
<li>Alex_Davis: <a href="https://lbry.tv/@Alex_Davis:8/(RaaA)-Rockbox-as-an-application-on-Pinephone:b">(RaaA) Rockbox as an application on Pinephone</a>. <em>You may remember Rockbox as an alternative software for MP3 players, but you can run it on the PinePhone as an application, too. Unfortunately, the video seems to have no sound, so we can only guess whether audio playback works.</em></li>
<li>DanctNIX: <a href="https://twitter.com/DanctNIX/status/1317614986651267072#m">Arch Linux ARM booting on Redmi Note with Phosh UI</a>. <em>This is using Halium and not a mainline kernel, but it is still impressive and nice to see.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<p>Not much:</p>
<ul>
<li>Most notably, <a href="https://framagit.org/linmobapps/linmobapps.frama.io/-/commit/f7a8a72baeb644be1ae5127c6350d02d3caed223">I was able to merge the first addition to LINMOBapps</a> that reached me via E-Mail. If there is any app you tried on your PinePhone which somewhat worked and is not on the list yet, <em>please mail in and help me get this list up to the 200 apps mark!</em></li>
<li>I played around with SailfishOS: I upgraded my PinePhone to 3.4.0.24, <a href="https://twitter.com/linmobblog/status/1317482767811301376#m">installed Sailfish X on a SONY Xperia X</a> to have a point of comparison and will finish my Sailfish video right after publishing this.</li>
<li>I installed UBports on a new device using the excellent UBports installer. I might mention it as a point of comparisonm excited to see those projects progress in the mobile space and hope you enjoyed todays post. As a end note check out LinMob he runs a amazing feed in case you want to stay in the loop on the Pinephone and mobile Linux in general. I also made extensive use of his mobile Linux App list which you can find here to make this blog post in in a future video on UBports' progress on the PinePhone (which is not going to happen before November). </li>
<li>I <a href="https://twitter.com/linmobblog/status/1316403709249818625#m">updated</a> the <a href="https://leste.maemo.org">MaemoLeste install</a> on my Motorola Droid 4, and while they still lack apps for communication (<a href="https://twitter.com/linmobblog/status/1316779362067329024#m">it is going to happen though</a>), screen rotation and a calendar app have been added, and the OS is running a lot smoother overall.</li>
</ul>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup>
<p>I forgot this to include this story initially. It has been added at 21:30 CEST on October 18th, 2020.</p>
</div>
LinBits 14: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 41)2020-10-11T00:25:00+00:002020-10-11T00:25:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits14-weekly-linux-phone-news-week41/<p><em>It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?</em></p>
<p>Phoc and Plasma Mobile updates, Fedora Mobility, "Fund Your App" and 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://source.puri.sm/Librem5/phoc/-/releases/v0.4.3">phoc 0.4.3</a>. <em>A new release of the compositor with lots of xwayland improvements, which is likely going to help with convergence (as apps like GIMP or Krita still require xwayland) and other software (e.g. Anbox).</em></li>
<li><a href="https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/phosh/-/releases/v0.4.5">phosh 0.4.5</a>. <em>This release adds a torch/flashlight quick setting, improves support for external screens and many fixes.</em><sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li>
<li><a href="https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels/refs/0.11.1">megapixels 0.11.1</a> brings further improvements, see blog post and commentary below.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth Reading</h3>
<ul>
<li>BrixIT Blog: <a href="https://blog.brixit.nl/pinephone-camera-pt4/">PinePhone Camera pt4</a> <em>The progress with PinePhone camera support in the past week has been amazing. What's still missing is camera support in other apps, e.g. <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Authenticator">Authenticator</a> or in the browser for video conferencing and other purposes.</em></li>
<li>LinuxSmartphones: <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/fedora-mobility-wants-to-bring-the-linux-distro-to-smartphones/">Fedora Mobility wants to bring the Linux distro to smartphones</a>. <em>It's nice that this happens, let's hope it leads to more activity and a better mobile Fedora. Make sure to also read the <a href="https://www.mail-archive.com/devel-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/msg02379.html">original Mailing List announcement</a> and their <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mobility">Wiki page</a>, as it mentions the Librem 5 and to my surprise the <a href="https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/OnePlus_5_(oneplus-cheeseburger)">OnePlus 5(T)</a> as further target devices.</em></li>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/fund-your-app-to-vote-for-the-future/">Fund Your App to Vote for the Future</a>. <em>Purism have made a new website](https://puri.sm/fund-your-app/) to get a better idea of which apps are needed by their customers and to gain the funding to develop these. At first I mistook this for a project to distribute money to developers and wondered about the developer story, but given <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/j687kb/purism_hires_gnome_developer_alexander/">recent</a> and <a href="https://puri.sm/job/pureos-gtk-application-development/">future hirings</a> by Purism this looks more like a 'give us money, and we will develop them' approach than something like a 'Bountysource for mobile Linux'. BTW: I decided to vote and do so with a small donation. Let's see how this develops!</em></li>
<li>Plasma Mobile: <a href="https://www.plasma-mobile.org/2020/10/09/plasma-mobile-update-september.html">Plasma Mobile update: September 2020</a>. <em>Great read! The most notable change in my book is the switch to the maliit2 keyboard, which supports GTK 3 apps. This means that (as long as there are no show stopping issues in other components, e.g. KWin) Plasma Mobile can now be used with a much larger app selection than before, which is great, as also Plasma Mobiles own apps are being improved bit by bit.</em></li>
<li>TuxPhones: <a href="https://tuxphones.com/pine64-pinecom-launch-cheaper-linux-pda/">PINE64 to launch PineCom, a cheaper, modem-free PinePhone-like PDA</a>. <em>One more product by PINE64. I am not really sure, what to make of this yet – but if you are looking for a truly private device, this might be pretty interesting. <a href="https://linuxsmartphones.com/pine64s-pinecom-will-be-like-a-smaller-cheaper-pinephone-but-not-a-phone/">Brad's article</a> is worth a read, too, and you should not miss the <a href="https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=11772">forum thread</a>.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-listening">Worth Listening</h3>
<ul>
<li>The Linux Cast: <a href="https://anchor.fm/thelinuxcast/episodes/Why-Linux-on-Mobile-Might-be-Doomed-ekg17s">Why Linux on Mobile Might be Doomed</a>. <em>This episode is 9 days old (and thus technically to old for inclusion), but I listened to it in the past week and it made me so angry, that I had to include it. Many facts are wrong, Anbox seems to be an unknown, and, and, and... It's worth a listen, because he makes some valid points. My position is: Who cares about market share, as long as Linux on Mobile can be a solution that works for you individually?</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth Watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>Liliputing: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNOWJOuaesg">PinePhone: How to install apps in postmarketOS (using a terminal)</a>. <em>I bet I demoed that too, months ago, but videos like this are truly helpful for new users.</em></li>
<li>Avisando: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK1LfZf5FtI">PinePhone "p-boot"</a>. <em>Unfortunately, this video does not show more of the 13 distributions than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqyuKysK6ag">Megi's original video</a>.</em></li>
<li>Avisando: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxYwUNeglPk">PinePhone - Samsung battery [DIY]</a>. <em>Don't try this at home. I mean it.</em></li>
<li>Switched to Linux: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zisqhlUrXI">PineTab Unboxing</a>. <em>In case you care about the PineTab, here is a video!</em></li>
<li>Privacy & Security Tips: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1t4njImIXI">Installing SailfishOS On Sdcard On Pinephone + Call/SMS Demo + Cam Attempt</a>. <em>If you want to try Sailfish OS on your PinePhone or are just curious on its current state, this video is for you.</em></li>
<li>UBports: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4ef2HWVmQs">Ubuntu Touch Q&A 86</a>. <em>Installer news, Halium 9 support, and more.</em><sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<ul>
<li>I wanted to make a video on SailfishOS, but lacked the time and energy (I mispoke even more often and lost my train of thought than usual) – also the video linked above had curbed my enthusiasm. </li>
<li>Instead, I invested quite some time in <a href="https://linmobapps.frama.io">LINMOBapps</a>: I searched hard for AppStreamIDs, a search I <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@linmob/105012771765704577">managed to finish</a> earlier today. Also, the list keeps growing – for now. My next task (after making a merge request to get my changes into MGLapps) is to remove apps that don't work or can't be build – e.g. the source for <code>choqok-kirigami</code> is unavailable as the developer deleted their GitHub account – and to put all the games on a different list. If you have an idea on how to improve the list, know an app that is missing, please get in touch.</li>
<li>Also, I wrote a blog post on <a href="https://linmob.net/2020/10/06/reddit-clients-for-mobile-linux.html">Reddit clients</a> and updated/amended <a href="https://linmob.net/2020/09/05/pinephone-building-plasma-mobile-apps-from-the-aur.html">two</a> <a href="https://linmob.net/2020/08/15/anbox-on-the-pinephone.html">older</a> posts.</li>
</ul>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup>
<p>This item was added after initial publication on October 11th, 2020.</p>
</div>
LinBits 13: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 40)2020-10-04T00:15:00+00:002020-10-04T00:15:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits13-weekly-linux-phone-news-week40/<p><em>It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?</em></p>
<p>Autofocus support, further Lomiri images and 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://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels">megapixels 0.10.2 landed</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/braam_martijn/status/1312036122248306689">autofocus support</a>. <em>You are going to need a proprietary firmware and kernel support to be able to take advantage of this. Danct12 made this work on Arch Linux ARM, but I am too bad at using darktable to judge the results. Still: This progress is amazing!</em></li>
<li><a href="https://osdn.net/projects/manjaro-arm/storage/pinephone/lomiri/">Manjaro released further Alpha 1 builds of their Lomiri spin for the PinePhone</a>. These include a different variant of the maliit keyboard, which supports GTK apps. <em>This change broke my install, and on the new install my fix to remove the shadow that pushes GTK apps down and to the right refuses to work. Also,</em> <code>GDK_SCALE=2</code> <em>still has no effect. Plasma Mobile apps still need individual launcher-file adjustment, because setting the Qt environment variables globally messes up the Lomiri parts which apparently work different – I wonder whether good Unity 8/Lomiri documentation regarding scaling exists somewhere.</em> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth reading</h3>
<ul>
<li>xnux.eu/log: <a href="https://xnux.eu/log/#020">New codec driver in my 5.9 kernel</a>. <em>Too many abbrevations for me, but: Progress is always great!</em></li>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/software-development-progress-july-and-august-2020/">Software Development Progress July and August 2020</a>. <em>If you have a PinePhone and use a distribution that uses Phosh, you should have received all these features a while ago. Also, Purism announced a privacy-focused US-only <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/announcing-librem-awesim-a-privacy-focused-cellular-service-for-the-librem-5/">"Librem AweSIM service"</a>, but I don't know the US cellular market well enough to write anything meaningful.</em></li>
<li>redfennec.dev: <a href="https://redfennec.dev/posts/hpp-exploration-1/">Exploring, Part 1: Firmware</a>. <em>Now that's really diving in.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>PizzaLovingNerd: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t84uF4n0xQ4">The PinePhone Camera is ALMOST Usable!</a>. <em>Great video summing up camera progress across distributions.</em></li>
<li>Privacy & Security Tips: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK2hlRQT_b0">Howto: USB-C Functionality Fix Pinephone Modification</a>. <em>Long time no USB-C mod video.</em></li>
<li>Privacy & Security Tips: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7sstzeeUxQ">Zoom/Skype Alternatives? Try True E2E Encrypted Video Chat: QTox Pinephone/Desktop), Jitsi And Why</a>. <em>Nice video which shows QTox on the Pinephone.</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="unboxing-corner">Unboxing corner</h4>
<ul>
<li>Liliputing: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5AGEujqrVw">Unboxing & First Look: PinePhone postmarketOS Community Edition (Convergence Pack)</a>.</li>
<li>LearnLinuxTV: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlZFG070R5E">Unboxing the Pine64 Pinephone (postmarketOS Edition)</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="convergence-corner">Convergence Corner</h4>
<ul>
<li>Purism: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1CF3qFavw">Desktop and Phone Convergence</a>. <em>Librem 5 flexing its GPU again.</em></li>
<li>Avisando: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD_UNwRGFsU">PinePhone "Desktop Mode"</a>. <em>I did not even know Plasma Mobile could do that.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<p>I had a lot on my list and did not get much done, aside from a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sha3R4PKSs">video on Anbox on Manjaro Phosh</a>. This drought in creativity and content creation may continue throughout the next two weeks. </p>
LinBits 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>
Unboxing the PinePhone UBports Community Edition2020-06-11T18:10:18+00:002020-06-11T18:10:18+00:00https://linmob.net/unboxing-the-pinephone-ubports-edition/<p>Two days ago I unboxed my Pine64 PinePhone:</p>
<ul>
<li>watch on <a href="https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/9154dc88-3d5d-468c-a640-cad19f68cea4">PeerTube</a>,</li>
<li>watch on <a href="https://lbry.tv/@linmob:3/pinephone-ubports-community-edition:1">LBRY</a>,</li>
<li>watch on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhx7XelZuZk">YouTube</a>.</li>
</ul>
<span id="continue-reading"></span><h3 id="some-notes">Some notes</h3>
<p>Since unboxing the PinePhone, I played around with a few of the many <a href="https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=PinePhone_Software_Releases">software projects</a> that already support the device by booting them from microSDHC/microSDXC cards, which, when bootable, are being used instead on the internal eMMC.</p>
<p>Generally, it seems, that this is still very much a device aimed at developers and enthusiasts—none of the software products I tried felt quite ready to be used as a daily driver.</p>
<p>As the UBports community edition has some <a href="https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=PinePhone#Hardware_Revisions">slight differences in hardware to the earlier iterations</a> of the PinePhone (namely the Developer batch and the Braveheart edition), this may have led to some of the issues that i experienced—it always takes some time to adjust in software to the improvements in revised hardware.</p>
<p>Therefore I will just note down what I really liked:</p>
<ul>
<li>Sailfish OS feels quite responsive,</li>
<li>Phosh (developed by Purism) is pretty great already,</li>
<li>PostmarketOS (with phosh) is quite a bit quicker than Debian based Mobian,</li>
<li>UBports has certainly matured since I last tested it on a Nexus 4.</li>
</ul>
Samsung Galaxy SII arrived: First two stupid videos.2011-06-14T13:09:00+00:002011-06-14T13:09:00+00:00https://linmob.net/samsung-galaxy-sii-arrived-first-two-stupid-videos/<p>This morning my SGS2 that I received from trnd.com for testing arrived. I immidiately shot two videos, but they are both quite bad. However, I feel like sharing, so enjoy!</p>
<p>Unboxing w/ size comparison to Acer Stream:</p>
<ul>
<li>LINMOBnet: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvnBjghMJA4">Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-i9100) unboxing, size comparison with Acer Stream</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Second video - a walkthrough</p>
<ul>
<li>LINMOBnet: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFCrweiy-xg">Samsung Galaxy S2 - Quick walkthrough</a></li>
</ul>