Manjaro ARM Beta 17 with Phosh (PinePhone)

ARM Releases
, , ,
1

Manjaro ARM Beta17 of Phosh for PinePhone!

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

image

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 Beta16

  • Kernel is now at 5.14.12
  • eg25-manager is now at 0.4.1
  • pipewire got updated to 0.3.38
  • Phosh-Antispam got added, which is disabled by default. You may want to take a look at ~/.config/gnome_calls_spam_options
  • most Gnome applications got updated to 40.5
  • Mesa is now at 21.2.3
  • postmarketos-tweaks-app 0.8.0 gained more features
  • manjaro-tweaks got a workaround for a packagekit issue added and we removed some unneeded scripts
  • vvmplayer got fixed, so a profile switching on startup wonā€™t happen
  • Calls got more SIP enhancements
  • Chatty has another set of polish for MMS
  • Firefox is now at 93.0
  • Numberstation got added, a Gnome Authenticator clone. This generates 2fa tokens based on secrets installed. It registers as uri-handler for otpauth:// urls so they can be added from Megapixels.
  • Gnome-Calendar is now adaptive
  • uboot got updated to 2021.10-1 and restructured and simplified
  • regular upstream package updates and cleanups

A detailed list of package changes can be found here.

Currently broken:

  • GPS may not work as it should

Known issues

  • Chatty may crash with experimental features like MMS enabled. You may disable them via gsettings set sm.puri.Chatty experimental-features false if that is the case
  • 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 Beta17
PinePhone Nightly

About the device:
PinePhone:
Perhaps youā€™re in a line of work where security is a must, or a hard-core Linux enthusiast, or perhaps youā€™ve just got enough of Android and iOS and youā€™re ready for something else ā€“ 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 youā€™ll get it to run.

The purpose of the PinePhone isnā€™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 OSā€™, 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 Beta18 here

  • Beta17 (2021-10-16) Download
    • based on stable branch
  • Dev (2021-10-25) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • Calls got more SIP enhancements
    • Chatty got more enhanced with MMS support
    • feedbackd is now more flexible to load custom sound patterns
    • Kernel is now at 5.14.14, which also reduces itā€™s install size
    • Mesa is now at 21.2.4
    • mmsd-tng and vvm saw new stable releases
    • Pamac 10.2.2 adds some needed AUR fixes
    • Phosh and Phoc are close to another stable release and bring some much wanted enhancements
    • Phosh-Antispam 2.0-beta provides now a nice UI to manage it more effective
    • Powersupply and PostmarketOS Tweaks had some updates
    • Systemd is now at 249.5
  • Dev (2021-11-01) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • pipewire got updated to 0.3.39
    • Calls and Chatty got some improvements
    • Gnome-Control-Center got updated to 41.0
    • Gnome-Calendar got some more adaptive patches added
    • Kernel is now at 5.14.15. we are reusing the regular kernel configuration we had before, so there is again a slight size increase.
    • Pamac got some fixes added
    • Phosh is now at 0.14.0
    • Phoc got updated to 0.9.0. If you use scale-to-fit you may need to update your configs as the app-id handling had changed.
    • Phosh-Antispam is now at 2.0 and provides a nice UI
    • regular package updates
3 Likes
2

Hmm, Iā€™m unsure what to doā€¦ so Iā€™m laying out what I found and some options in case this is an opportunity to assist with some troubleshooting.

I updated a bug Iā€™d previously logged @ Issue with Software/PackageKit installing new beta updates (#208) Ā· Issues Ā· manjaro-arm / issues / Pinephone / Phosh Ā· GitLab yesterday, after I successfully installed updatesā€¦ which Iā€™m assuming arenā€™t the ones released today, unless I somehow caught them early. So I figured ā€œThis is great! I get to retest my bug with a new updateā€ā€¦ well, maybe not so great.

When I loaded/refreshed Software, it tells me everything is up to date (no update to install)ā€¦ even after a sudo pacman -Syy hoping to force an update of the repositoriesā€¦ doesnā€™t seem to be an option to do that in Software.

Yet, when I sudo pacman -Syyu, it instantly prompts me (after updating the repos) whether or not I want to install the ā€œmegi kernelā€ā€¦ so it looks like pacman is seeing todayā€™s updateā€¦ or at least the kernel change anyway (I ctrl-c aborted the terminal command), whereas Software reports nothing to update.

I am also aware from my Manjaro KDE PC perspective, weā€™ve been getting some pretty aggressive updates/syncing around pamacā€¦ and so I am wondering the following:

  1. Is Software under Posh experiencing the same ā€œpainsā€ as pamac under desktop KDE? If so, should I just complete the sudo pacman -Syyu to complete todayā€™s update and wait for similar Software fixes to come down the pipe afterwards?
  2. Should I be updating my current bug report with this experience, or opening a new one? If opening a new bug, how should I scope it?
  3. I checked the ā€œGnome Versionā€ in the Settings tool, and it indicated Iā€™m on ā€œ40.4ā€, so I feel fairly certain what I downloaded yesterday was not Beta 17. Are there any commands I should be running to confirm Iā€™m on Beta 16? or is Gnome Version 40.4 a clincher?
3

Gnome Software is currently broken. That is why we use Pamac Gnome Integration as an graphical replacement. Make also sure you had Pamac Mobile Integration installed. If you download the new image, that is already set that way. By just updating the installed system you might not get all the new features we add per release.

1 Like
4

I ran through a sudo pacman -Syyu to update what it could (which also required dealing with /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.pacnew)ā€¦ but post reboot when I pacman -Ss pamac-gnome-integration I get ā€œerror: target not foundā€ on the pinephone (whereas on my PC the command finds ā€œextra/pamac-gnome-integration 10.2.2-5ā€)

I took a look through the changed package list and the only related ā€œpamacā€ entries I found were pamac-gtk 10.2.0-1 and pamac-mobile-integration 20210918-1; however, when I try install either of these packages with pacman I get ā€œerror: target not foundā€.

Do I need to do something more with my mirrors, or is there something I am doing incorrectly?

EDIT: Well, considering the last phosh SD image was written under Windows by Rufusā€¦ I figured maybe the learning opportunity here is to install etcher and practice writing images under Linux.

5

For my use one feature missing but not very important is the support for usb drives recognition on portfolio app, instead of having to open it with gnome disks. I know the mobian team were able to fix it, maybe they can help with it.

6

Etcher is pretty slick! Not sure how I feel about ā€œproject adsā€ yet, but it was super easy to use and worked well. And expanding the ext4 partition with KDE partition manager saved lots of time.

Taking the new image was the best ideaā€¦ I am blown away by how much has changed and the expanding app listā€¦ wonderful progress and looks amazing!

I seem to be having an issue around WiFi though (Note: I donā€™t have a SIM card in the phone)ā€¦ here is what Iā€™ve seen/tried:

  1. The ā€œtop menuā€ wifi icon is unresponsive
  2. When I launch the ā€œAdvanced Network Connectionsā€ app, I can initiate the process of adding a wifi network, but the wifi settings screen appears cut off on the right, and my clicks donā€™t seem to registerā€¦ like unable to toggle a checkbox
  3. When I enter the Settings app and select Network, it indicates ā€œOops, something has gone wrong. Please contact your software vendor. NetworkManager needs to be running.ā€

Issues 1 and 2 I bet are related to 3ā€¦ what command(s) do I need to run in order to enable (now and on reboot) the Network Manager?

EDIT: Thinking this might be a systemctl thing, I executed $ sudo systemctl list-unitsā€¦ I didnā€™t see (or missed seeing) an entry for Network Manager (although I noticed ā€œModem Managerā€)ā€¦ but I thought it was interesting I saw two entries that were red with a bullet (not sure what that means or if is related):

  • pinephone-post-install.service
  • pinephone-setup-usb-network.service

EDIT 2: I rebooted the phone and now $ sudo systemctl list-units lists NetworkManager.service right under ModemManager.service, and there are no more red/bulleted entries.

Settings/Network no longer errors, and now the Settings app listed Wifi as an option which I was able to successfully connect to my wifi network as before, and toggle it on/off in the top menu!

7

Updated from beta 16, everything looks working just fine (I had to replace gnome-calendar by gnome-calendar-mobile but it was a visible change from the package list diff)
Pinephone Beta + Manjaro is my daily driver, thank you for all the efforts @philm :clap:

2 Likes
8

Within the Pamac GUI ā€œoptionsā€ (3 dots), there are two options (Preferences & About) that leave the child modal window open without a way to close it (that I can see) other than to hit the chevron and swipe to force-close.

Is that the designed flow? I might be bringing a bias to the table where ā€œcrashingā€ the Preferences modal window feels like doing something where my selections/changes might not get saved.

Edit: Iā€™m seeing this behaviour in more places (like Settings), so chevron/swipe-to-close appears to be the only wayā€¦ but do let me know if I am missing something.

9

Iā€™d be interested to hear what the Manjaro mobile community think would help them to make the transition over to the PinePhone.

Would it be Manjaro specific, or Linux mobile in general changes/implementations that would make you consider the switch to Manjaro mobile as your daily driver mobile OS?

Iā€™ve said before that a navigation app with support for public transport would be of most importance to me personally, but for others, is it stuff like importing contacts, calendars and other daily used functions, or would you want a way to do something like flash your OS to the internal storage and keep your ā€˜/homeā€™ and general software/device configuration settings on an SD card?

I certainly would like the idea of the SD card almost becoming like a user account ā€˜/homeā€™ device that could quickly be switched out, so in theory you could have an SD card for your work life and one for your private life (and even one for devs to develop on without any compromise on their primary accounts) that you can switch out during the day, or just simply so that you can update your OS by flashing the internal storage, safe in the knowledge that you wont lose all of your installed apps and device configurations.
Things like Wi-Fi login details, display scaling settings, installed apps with login details (for those that require it) and possibly even the ability to have no SD card in and run in ā€œTor modeā€.
Technically this would be something that no other mainstream mobile OS offers and would be a unique selling point for Linux mobile, so Iā€™m not sure if the Linux mobile community cares all that much about USPā€™s like that right now given that Linux mobile is still in itā€™s infancy (if you exclude Android as a Linux mobile OS of course given how closed and anti-Linux many elements of Android are these days).

Most of the things that I would like to see implemented are probably more ā€œLinux mobile generalā€ things and so they may not be Manjaro specific, as Manjaro is specifically my first choice because of Pamac and AUR rather than any other feature that other Linux mobile distroā€™s may offer.

11

Iā€™m waiting for the last of MMS support to be added and Iā€™m switching. (Iā€™ll even switch providers! MMS is too standard in the USA.) Itā€™s pretty much just group messaging left to be coded. Otherwise, Iā€™d like to see an even more stable modem and calls/audio and a UI less prone to crashing and freezing.

The PinePhone Pro is interesting, but as long as the original works, I donā€™t have much need for the upgrade. I do have some work that would appreciate the extra power, but thatā€™s ultimately what my laptop is for. If I were to venture down this route, Iā€™d love to see LibreOffice with a mobile UI.

12

Although definitely an interesting question, I think itā€™s very off-topic here :slight_smile: This is the thread to specifically discuss Phosh release 17 (and all dev-iterations until release 18 has gone live I suppose) and itā€™s quirks/shortcomings, or to praise it of course :wink: I think itā€™s ill-suited as a place for a general Pinephone discussion; in particular users of other mobile DEā€™s such as Plasma-mobile that donā€™t read this thread might miss the discussion, which would be a shame!

13

The phone quality got a lot better, and itā€™s not necessary to change to speaker sometimes in order to make it work, however, I received a call this morning that the person could not hear me, i called back same problem, rebooting fixed itā€¦only a bit unstable but overall everything is going so good! Thanks to Herr Philip Muller and the manjaro team!

14

Same here. Sometime have problem with a muted mic but reboot usually work. Text message do get delayed sometime. I switched from Plasma-Mobile to Phosh because Ofonoo was just letting the phone down all the time and I would miss to much call.Altough text message where more reliable in Plasma-Mobile, I decided to switch. This is my dayli driver.
Canā€™t wait to try the antispam filter
Some feature like importing contact from a list would be great (not getting around through evolution or other).
Getting the phone to work 100% of the time with no glitch would be amazing.
Great work and accomplishment over the last year.

15

Just copy and paste the file inside home/.local

My phone just got black one hour ago, I had for force reboot, it happened a lot on arch when I was testing it last week.

16

Thanks for the great work! It seems I cannot change anymore the default 123456 password of the manjaro user from the UI: itā€™s not possible to switch to the Confirm Password textbox. Works with the passwd command though.

17

Has anyone found a way to inhibit suspend when playing audio, through gnome podcasts or lollypop? Ideally a ā€˜set it and forget itā€™ solution. I do not want to run ā€˜gnome-session-inhibit gnome-podcastsā€™ from the terminal, since that will prevent suspend even when the app is open, and not playing audio. I just want to prevent suspend when playing audio.

18

music with lollypop will work without stop, gnome podcasts is being fixed, check here:

version 0.5-0 beta fixes that, it will probably rollout soon, with fixes for also return playing where you stopped an episode.

19

Thanks for the tip, issue specifically is here podcasts issue 232
Hereā€™s to hoping the stable release comes soon.

20

No problem, I am listening podcasts the whole day and i got used to press the power button to weak it up every 5 minutes lol.

Anyone else having the phone dead every now and then and have to force a reboot to bring it back to life? It happens one time yesterday for me, today twiceā€¦

21

I found this in the mobian wiki: prevent sleep during mediaplayback
TL;DR:
$ git clone https://src.jayvii.de/pub/pinephone-scripts.git
$ cd pinephone-scripts/sguard
$ make install
$ systemctl enable --user sguard --now
Prevents suspend during mediaplayback. Nice. Pretty hacky shell script but it works.