Manjaro ARM Beta 15 with Phosh (PinePhone)

ARM Releases
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Manjaro ARM Beta15 of Phosh for PinePhone!

The Manjaro ARM project is proud to announce our fifteenth BETA release for the PinePhone running Phosh!

Pine_phosh_beta15

This image is running the 5.14 kernel from Megi, which is designed for the PinePhone.

Features:

  • Firefox uses a dedicated configuration and plays videos on Youtube pretty well
  • Camera app with access to back and front camera, including autofocus
  • Auto-Rotate function and manual rotate
  • Welcome wizard for easy setup of the device
  • We have now a working Torch in the quick-access-menu
  • Prime phone functions working, including resume from deep-sleep and free speaking
  • Recording of audio works
  • Most applications got added to scale-to-fit
  • Haptic feedback functions are given
  • Optimized keyboard layout for terminal
  • Maps working with geolocate
  • Volume buttons working
  • Sensors fully functional
  • Easy access to Bluetooth, Wlan, Rotate and Mobile functions via quick settings
  • Default branch is arm-stable. This can be changed by editing /etc/pacman-mirrors.conf
  • usage of callaudiod for better audio experience with calls
  • This image uses a Crust enabled uboot

Changes since Beta14

  • Kernel got updated to 5.14.3. It includes a regression fix for v4l2, which prevented the cameras to be detected by Megapixels
  • updated alsa-ucm-pinephone to support 5.14 kernel series
  • calls got updated to 41rc1
  • adding fixes for stock firmware to modemmanager and libqmi
  • added initial MMS support, UI settings to chatty, which are not yet connected to mmsd-tng
  • updated pacman to 6.0.1
  • properly add PostmarketOS Tweaks to the profile
  • added gnss: properly clean temporary file before downloading assistance data to eg25-manager
  • eg25-manager, modemmanager, libqmi got some more fixes to support stock firmware
  • Firefox is now at 92.0
  • Pipewire got updated to 0.3.35
  • libhandy is now at 1.4.0
  • manjaro-tweaks-pinephone has workaround for camera breakage removed
  • chatty gained more fixes and MMS releated improvements
  • contacts got updated to 40.0
  • ModemManager is now at 1.18.0 which includes all the needed fixes to improve modem stability on the Pinephone
  • Megapixels got updated to 1.3.0
  • Siglo was renewed to 0.9.4
  • Chatty got updated to 0.4.0 including additional MMS patches
  • We are using a mobile version of calculator
  • mmsd-tng got updated to 1.2
  • pamac got updated to 10.2.0
  • pinephone-manjaro-tweaks got pamac adjustments changed
  • We added vvmplayer to play your voicemails
  • appstream-data got updated by Arch
  • eg25-manager got some more gnss fixes
  • kwayland got updated to 5.86.0
  • regular package updates

A detailed list of package changes can be found here.

Currently broken:

  • GPS may not work as it should

How to get MMS working

On first run, mmsd-tng will write a settings file at $HOME/.mms/modemmanager/mms. Follow the next section on how to set it up for your carrier:

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you change any settings through the file,
                mmsd-tng MUST BE RESTARTED for the changes to take effect!

                You can change CarrierMMSC, CarrierMMSProxy, or MMS_APN via
                dbus and they will take effect right away, but any
	            messages sent to the mmsd-tng queue need to be processed
	            again. The easiest way to do this is to reset mmsd-tng.
	            But it can be done with the dbus proxy call ProcessMessageQueue().

This settings file needs to be changed before mmsd-tng will connect! The settings
are as follows:

CarrierMMSC
        Get this from your carrier.

        Carrier MMSC Format: "http://mms.example.com"

CarrierMMSProxy
        Get this from your carrier.

        MMS Proxy Format: "proxy.example.com:80", "proxy.example.com", or "NULL"
            In the example, the proxy hostname is "proxy.example.com" and the
            proxy port is "80"
            If you do not set the proxy port (e.g. use "proxy.example.com" ),
            mmsd will default to port 80.
            If you do NOT have a proxy, set this to "NULL"

DefaultModemNumber
	If you have multiple modems, this will allow you to only choose which
	modem to connect to by reading its number. The number MUST be set to
	E.164 Setting this to NULL means mmsd-tng will connect to the first modem
	it finds.

	Unless you have multiple modems (not common), you can leave this set to
	"NULL"

MMS_APN
        Note that at this point, this plugin can only support one bearer at
        a time (this works fine for carriers with a combined Internet/MMS APN
        but will not function with carriers that have two APNS seperating
        the two)

        MMS APN Format: "apn.example.com"

AutoProcessOnConnection
        Tell mmsd-tng to automatically send and recieve messages when the modem
        is connected. This will also allow mmsd-tng to auto send/recieve if the
        modem is disconnected and reconnects, suspends and unsuspends, etc.

        AutoProcessOnConnection Options: "true" or "false"

AutoProcessSMSWAP
        Tell mmsd-tng to automatically check and process SMS WAPs. This can be
        useful if you do not have a chat application that manages MMS or if
        a higher level chat application does not process SMS WAPs to send to
        mmsd-tng.

        AutoProcessSMSWAP Options: "true" or "false"

An example of what you are looking for is here:
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/devices/not-sold-by-t-mobile/byod-t-mobile-data-and-apn-settings

From this:

CarrierMMSC=http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
MMS_APN=fast.t-mobile.com
CarrierMMSProxy=NULL

Known issues

  • UI becomes unresponsive after a while.
  • Doing a recording may result in noisy audio savings
  • Lots of apps are still missing or are not mobile friendly yet.

Download:

Device Phosh
PinePhone Beta15
PinePhone Nightly

About the device:
PinePhone:
Perhaps you’re in a line of work where security is a must, or a hard-core Linux enthusiast, or perhaps you’ve just got enough of Android and iOS and you’re ready for something else – the PinePhone may be the next Phone for you. Powered by the same Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit SOC used in our popular PINE A64 Single Board Computer, the PinePhone runs mainline Linux as well as anything else you’ll get it to run.

The purpose of the PinePhone isn’t only to deliver a functioning Linux phone to end-users, but also to actively create a market for such a device, as well as to support existing and well established Linux-on-Phone projects. All major Linux Phone-oriented projects, as well as other FOSS OS’, are represented on the PinePhone and developers work together on our platform to bring support this this community driven device.

Order

Pinephones Beta Edition are still on stock. Visit the Pine64 Store

How to install:

Download the image/xz file from the download location. Verify that the download completed successfully.

After that, install Etcher (sudo pacman -S etcher if on Manjaro) and burn the to an SD card (8 GB or larger).

The PinePhone should recognize the SD card as a bootable device and boot from it.

The premade users are:
User: manjaro
Password: 123456

User: root
password: root

Donate!

Please consider supporting Manjaro ARM directly via Patreon, Ko-Fi or Open Collective.
You can also donate to our upstream, which is Arch Linux ARM.

Bugtracker

If you face issues with this editon, please open a new issue on our bug-tracker

Development Changelog

We will list our progress to Beta15 here

  • Beta15 (2021-09-15) Download
    • based on stable branch
  • Dev (2021-09-18) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • pipewire got updated to 0.3.36
    • gstreamer got renewed to 1.18.5
    • gnome-initial-setup is now at 41.0
    • kwayland got updated to 5.86.0
    • Kernel got updated to 5.14.5
    • eg25-manager, modemmanager and callaudiod got renewed
  • Dev (2021-09-20) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • added initial Waydroid support. You may need to run sudo setup-waydroid and check the Mobian Wiki for some tips. Also running sudo waydroid shell followed by /system/bin/setprop http://persist.waydroid.no_suspend true might help to avoid freezes within Waydroid when Android goes to sleep.
    • Gnome-Software got updated to 40.4. We are still checking why updating with it is not possible
    • Kernel got updated to 5.14.6
    • Chatty got some updates
  • Dev (2021-09-23) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • readded Anbox to be preinstalled instead of Waydroid. The later is not yet runable out of the box
    • Chatty gained the connection to control mmsd-tng from the UI
    • Control-Center got updated to 40.4
    • Gnome-Software got removed and replaced by Pamac Gnome Integration
    • Kernel got updated to 5.14.7
    • Mesa is now at 21.2.2
    • Phosh shows now clearly when you use your Wifi as Hotspot
  • Dev (2021-09-24) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • Anbox pre-installation removed (will shrink the image from 1.36 GB to 1.09 GB)
    • PipeWire is now at 0.3.37
    • regular upstream package updates and cleanups
  • Dev (2021-09-25) Download
  • Dev (2021-09-28) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • Chatty got more updates to MMS UI
    • mmsd-tng now updates also his config file in home-dir
    • eg25-manager merged more patches we already shipped
    • Kernel is now at 5.14.8
    • Firefox mobile config got renewed
    • More tweaks to the app launch splash support in Phosh
    • uboot firmware uses now a config file to save selected MHz settings
4 Likes
2

I’ve just updated to Beta 15 (via pacman)

And in call audio is not working anymore.

Not sure why

3

Do you use pipewire or pulseaudio?

4

I have the same problem.

philm: i installed beta12 and have just updated normally since then, but the problem actually started on one of the the last updates of beta14 stable branch about a week ago.

edit: fresh install using beta15 fixed the problem and calls work normally again.

5

You both may want to switch back to pulseaudio as with pipewire 0.3.34
automatic profile switching doesn’t work anymore.

6

Here is an example of GDM running on the latest build for those who are curious of what may be possible. (Please forgive the choice of icons) :confused:

GDM obviously is designed for the desktop, so there are obvious quirks, but it’s interesting to see what it’s capable of on mobile.
This example uses Dash to Panel and Arc Menu rather than Dash to Dock and the standard app drawer/overview due to some scaling issues on the latter.

Would I recommend anybody to give GDM a try on the PinePhone?
Not if you want a daily driver, although if you’re looking to explore ways to make the mobile and convergence desktop experience feel as close to using Gnome on the desktop, then you could possibly try it and develop a few modifications to overcome some of the limitations, although as GDM desktop apps are not designed for mobile, of course you will often find that many apps will have their GUI cut off the screen and in turn, unusable, but Gnome is evolving to better support mobilefriendly designs in the upcoming releases such as Gnome 41 which is due for release in a couple of days, although, I’m sure that it will still not be usable in many cases.
The GDM on screen keyboard is not perfect and Phosh’s OSK is far superior on mobile presently.

Overall, it’s interesting for those of us who are nerdy enough to want to explore the possibilities, but it’s not for those that want something to be usable like Phosh.

I can’t wait to see the future possibilities as I hope that the evolution of Manjaro ARM and Gnome will eventually enable something that is far superior whilst simple enough to replace any common mobile platforms that clog up the market today.

gdm3 pinephone
gdm3 pinephone640×1280 25.7 KB

7

GDM is a display manager to select desktop environments like Gnome. I assume you’re talking about the Gnome desktop environment here. Phosh is the shell based on Gnome technology to accomplish a mobile UI for phones and tablets, which also works as a full desktop if wanted. However, pure Gnome Shell might be usable at some point also.

8

just did a fresh install (stable) to emmc. free hand does not appear to work. the internal earpiece is fine but speakers do not work. ive gone into settings to test them and not working there either. how do you configure them? anyone else have this issue?

9

Is there a minimal ISO, like the desktop minimal ISO? I am using mobian now, but would like to come back to manjaro when it’s more stable, mainly the modem, my last manjaro install was beta 13, how’s the modem performing on beta15?

10

After a week with the latest updates I have no missed calls or SMS. And it is really increadible.
:sunglasses:

4 Likes
11

Is MMS actually working yet in manjaro stable. The options are there and followed the set up but for the life of me it won’t work. It does say in the beta 15 notes it’s not connected yet? Does that mean not functional just yet?

12

Just fresh installed beta 15, is it safe to delete the anbox partition? I don’t use anbox and never will…
I am amazed of how good the battery life is with manjaro phosh…had a mdem drop today, when it gets over will be perfect for a dd.

13

Tested version ‘Dev (2021-09-25)’ earlier today, I’m glad to see the Phosh build showing the splash screens as it did annoy me often to click on an app and to have no clue if it was attempting to launch it or it just failed to launch, at least this new splash screen feature provides some user feedback and lets me know that it is responding to my request to launch an app.

Thanks to those responsible for adding it to the latest Manjaro Dev build! :slight_smile:

1 Like
14

In order to make Manjaro (phone) more practical (at least whilst it is still a development project and not yet ready for some granny who already struggles with iOS alone), do you think that it would be welcome to enable (at least the PinePhone edition) to save the /home and config directories to the SD card in the hope that in theory, users could flash nightly builds to the internal storage and simply connect their “Home SD card” to restore their essentials like their contacts and installed apps with their respective account logins already configured?

I’m not sure if implementing this would be practical, but I think that as a user, it would certainly make me want to spend more time tinkering with it as I’d want to try to install several daily apps and have them setup from the get go with my user credentials and never worry about the re-installation of them on every flash of the OS and having to go through the pain of logging in to all of them time and time again.

15

If we just do that with timeshift like on the pc, will it not work on the pp?

16

Admittedly I haven’t looked into Timeshift on the PinePhone.

I tried BTRFS & Timeshift on my Manjaro PC but the recent 21.1.13 update broke my install and Timeshift proved to be useless when trying to repair my install.
I tried reinstalling the previous build from a USB installation drive and updating the system again from a fresh install, and the same issues would arise with those system updates. So I just had to update my USB to the latest build and flash manually and start a new install from scratch and reinstall all of my software.

I tried multiple ways to use Timeshift and it never was able to restore my important resources without causing system problems no matter whether I used the latest backup or one from a week before when I know it was stable, so I gradually just gave up on Timeshift and decided to keep a separate partition that I clone my installation to in order to restore essentials again in the future.

17

At this stage the OS for the Pinephone is in heavy development state. To make it working great a new update system needs to be established, which separates the packages and the user data. We might work on that in 2022 since we are trying to get the Pinephone and Linux on Mobile to mainstream anyway.

3 Likes
18

is it just install pulseaudio and uninstall pipewire?

19

One of the biggest advantages of the established phone platforms is also one of its biggest downfalls, which is cloud backup, so I’d love to see the end result of a way to either update the core OS through a partition without losing any things like contact lists on a secondary partition, or a way to use an SD card to separate your data like contact lists from the main storage.

In theory this could also simplify device hardware upgrades as you could just move your data over to the new device via an SD card and get the benefits of new hardware without the pain of spending two weeks setting it up the way you set up your old device or carrying over contacts and other data.

One of my goals when I switched to Linux desktop was to remove any dependability on cloud data storage, whether that just be basic storing personal files, or services that upload private data that I could technically just keep stored on a backup drive/external storage device.

20

Bug Report

When setting the display settings to scale the GUI to 150%, I find that it makes some legacy apps more usable so I typically select 150% scaling.
But upon reboot, the UI always returns to 200% scaling.

P.S:
Sorry for the double post, I just wanted to make it clear that this was a bug report.