Manjaro ARM Beta2 with Phosh (PinePhone)

ARM Releases
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Manjaro ARM Beta2 of Phosh for PinePhone!

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

https://pine64.com/product-category/pinephone
https://pine64.com/product-category/pinephone1920×1080 218 KB

This image is running the 5.9 kernel from Samuel Holland / linux · GitLab, 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 we had to remove
  • 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 with working GPS
  • 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
  • This image uses a Crust enabled uboot

Changes since Beta1

  • based on stable branch
  • updated kernel to 5.9.1 with better sound-stack
  • updated ALSA-UCM profiles for kernel 5.9 series
  • Gnome 3.38.1 updates
  • updated Network- and ModemManager
  • updated Phosh, Phoc and Squeekboard
  • updated packages: alsa, firefox, freetype, mesa, phosh, phoc, squeekboard, gstreamer, chatty
  • geary-mobile removed
  • enable 60 FPS
  • fix HDMI output
  • torch works now with upower
  • usage of callaudiod for better audio experience with calls

Security notice:

  • update your system to the latest kernel to fix bluetooth bleeding tooth issue

Currently broken:

  • N/A

Known issues

  • it may take longer to wake up from deep-sleep mode when a call is incoming. Most of the time that call will vibrate only.
  • UI becomes unresponsive after a while.
  • Lots of apps are still missing or are not mobile friendly yet.

Download:

Device Phosh
PinePhone Beta2

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

You can now order the Manjaro CE Edition and the Manjaro CE Convergence Package of the Pinephone!

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.

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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 Beta3 here

  • Beta2 (2020-11-09) Download
    • based on stable branch
  • Beta2 (2020-11-10) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • updated Firefox to 82.0.3
    • update phosh, calls
    • we use now latest Megi-Kernel of 5.9 series
    • Known issue: To fix Bluetooth please install rtl8723bt-firmware-megi
  • Beta2 (2020-11-11) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • Kernel got updated to 5.9.8
    • modem-scripts got streamlined, to work also for Plasma-Mobile and Lomiri
    • Known issue: To fix Bluetooth please install rtl8723bt-firmware-megi
  • Beta2 (2020-11-12) Download
    • based on testing branch
    • we use now 8 kHz for call playback, which improves the quality much better
    • mesa got updated to 20.2.2
    • Phosh supports now swiping to close applications
    • Phoc uses now a bundled wlroots
    • we use now rtl8723bt-firmware-megi to fix Bluetooth issues
    • uboot-pinephone 2020.07rc4-2 supports now several RAM clock-speeds. We higher it from 552 to 592 MHz; check /boot for other options
  • Beta2 (2020-11-14) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • fixed issue with lockscreen and landscape mode crash in phosh
    • phosh uses now swipe to close applications
    • chatty got additional fixes
    • megapixels is at 0.12.0
    • removal of wys
    • squeekboard and phoc got small fixes added
  • Beta2 (2020-11-17) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • chatty, feedbackd, phoc, phosh, squeekboard got updated
    • firefox is at 83.0
  • Beta2 (2020-11-19) Download
    • based on unstable branch
    • Kernel got updated to 5.9.9
    • chatty, phoc, phosh got updated
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HI and thanks for the great work on the OS. Am I correct under the assumption, that to get from Beta 1 to Beta 2 a pacman -Syyu will do the trick? Or do I have to download the new image and flash the device?

Greetings
Wuji

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4

I also have this question.

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A regular update should do the trick. There might be some questions for replace some stuff.

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6

How does this work? Do I need an account on the Manjaro GitLab server?

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Is this update on the stable branch? Sorry just got my pinephone, fairly new to the Manjaro ARM scene.

Running beta1 and attempted -Syyu and it doesn’t look like there’s any updates available to me. Easy enough to just flash another SD card but I was just curious.

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For the issues, it took my GitLab acc without any problems.

When it comes to adding a new package, making PRs or something similar (actual changes to the repos) - those require Manjaro Gitlab acc

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I would think fixing the ui going unresponsive and the slow wakeup to incoming calls would have been fixed by Beta 2 as they seem to be the most important. Anyway, still good work. Please get Lomiri up to speed! Its way better than phosh.

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Is this the version that shipped with the Pinephone?

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Good work !

What I notice (I have a PinePhone community edition, brand new)

  • Signal strength for mobile is missing (it does not show it)
  • Cannot understand the logic of the top and bottom arrow to switch the GUI
  • accessing manjaro.org from the phone shows a red alert with “update your browser”
  • The app “Usage” apparently uses 89% of CPU when it is displayed
  • How do you type the ESC key when you are on terminal ?
  • Battery temperature is missing
  • if I charge the phone and launch the “Usage” the CPU temperature goes to 70degree celsius
  • I really would love to be able to use the phone as “hotspot” or in alternative USB-tethering
  • Megapixels apprently cannot find the camera
  • I cannot understand if I am using beta2 or a previous version. Settings -> about does not report SW version, only Gnome version 3.38.1

The work of all that have made this possible is incredible and we all fully appreciate it !

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Megapixels no longer works… :frowning:
Also, I realized that Geary no longer works, the geary-mobile package. Geary desktop works but it’s so small, can’t use it.

EDIT
Sounds is back, the phone is ringing and youtube is playing with sound! :slight_smile:

Generally the phone is more responsive and smooth, so nice work. :wink:
Question: why don’t you enable HW acceleration? Checked it on postmarketOS and it’s awesome.

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I have one question: if I update the software that came with the phone with pacman -Syu, do I have the same results as re-flashing? I suppose not, so what’s the difference?

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I received my PinePhone three days ago. I used

sudo pacman -Syu

and it seems to have updated fine. I did have to approve one package change. I think it was a replacement for upower (was it upower-mobile?.. I think yes.)

I’ve been having trouble with the GUI updater and installer, however. It usually fails. Furthermore, it (or something) leaves /var/lib/pacman/db.lck lingering. This has happened the three times I’ve used pacman and I must

sudo rm /var/lib/packman/db.lck

before running pacman.

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Beta2 provides me with an image on an HDMI monitor now, but the image is just wallpaper. How can I display something useful on it?

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Received pinephone manjaro community edition about a week ago. I know this is not a support forum and I am not requesting support. However, I share some of my experiences below in case it is useful to others. Let me know if posting any of the information below at another manjaro webpage will be useful (please provide a link).

Big thanks to manjaro developers for developing a mobile OS for linux enthusiasts, and look forward to seeing how manjaro develops for the pinephone.

Below are a few initial experiences with ‘Manjaro ARM Beta2 with Phone (PinePhone)’ with kernel 5.9.1.9-MANJARO-ARM.

Note: Prior to updating to Beta2, I received a notification (about 9 or 10 hours ago) that new software was available. I appreciated receiving this notification because I am looking forward to installing new updates with improvements developers are willing to implement.

Updating to Beta2

I used the Software application to perform the update. The update required two taps of the screen. The first tap was on a ‘Download’ icon/button. The time taken to download was one or two minutes, unexpectedly quick. I then tapped on a ‘Reboot and Update’ icon/button (the previous download icon disappeared).

The system shut down and rebooted. The reboot took no more than 5 minutes, which was long enough for me to put the pinephone down and I browsed the internet while I waited.

Usability Experiences

A. Nemo (file manager)

Really enjoy having a file browser installed by default.

Issue: Multiple folders are highlighted/selected when tapping on one. Double tapping does open the desired folder; however, seeing multiple folders selected is strange behavior that could be improved.

Recommendation: An easy solution is to change the default folder list setting from a folder name list to display folder icons with names as the default.

B. Various Applications

Issue: Application pop-up dialog boxes do not fit within the screen width when in portrait mode. For example, when entering a url or search terms in the Firefox address bar, I cannot see what I am typing on the screen because it is beyond the left side of the screen when in portrait mode. This seems to apply to install applications when the app displays a pop-up dialog box. Switching to landscape mode solves this problem; however, not having to switch for this reason will improve the user experience.

C. Display flickering when in landscape mode

Issue: When in landscape mode, the display will go blank. I tap the display and eventually the display will come back. It is jarring because it makes me think the phone has crashed, which I don’t believe is happening. However, the system is doing something and needs some seconds to work it out. When the display returns and I don’t quickly switch back to portrait mode, the display will go blank again. I monitor this behavior and report back if this changes.

D. Megapixels (camera application)

Enjoying this application and can see its potential.

Issue: When tapping on the icon to change to the front camera does work, tapping the same icon again causes the image to freeze and the app does not change to the rear camera. I can hear a faint click sound when trying to switch back to the rear camera. However, I resort to closing the application by tapping the up arrow at the bottom of the screen and then tapping on the x in the application window.

Issue: When taking a photo with Megapixels in portrait mode, the image viewer application displays the image in landscape mode. When taking a photo with Megapixels in landscape mode, the image viewer displays the image in portrait mode. Of course, it is easy for user to change the orientation of the image within the image viewer application. User experience will be improved if manually changing the orientation when viewing photos is not needed by default.

E. Battery Life and Battery Indicator

A single charge of the battery lasts less than a day with little use of the phone. Thus, this is an area that could/should be improved as the software matures.

Issue: I find the battery indicator (top right of the screen) to be a bit too inaccurate to be useful (i.e., the indicator communicates more charge than actual). Thus, I rely on tapping on the battery indicator icon in the upper right of the screen to display the drop-down list and see the percent charge.

Recommendation: When the phone is not charging, change the battery indicator from a solid icon to a solid icon with a % charge in the middle (if possible). Another solution is improving the accuracy of the indicator level. Of course, there are probably many other solutions.

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I really enjoy the software keyboard in the pinephone (manjaro edition) because I find it highly usable in the terminal application (a feature not included in faux-smartphones). I find that the software keyboard is a great experience for executing a terminal command. Of course, I geek out over this keyboard because I am a long-time linux user and use terminal commands for excellence in usability of the operating system.

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you have to drag the program from the mobile to the monitor, monitor setup is mobile left and monitor right

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From what I read above, I don’t know if I should be using this thread for support (both posting and replying-to inquiries as I have done) but thanks so much! After switching to landscape mode, I was able to drag the program to the right with a USB mouse and it was displayed. I’m still learning how phosh works but I’ll try to figure out how to do it with the touch screen later. Maybe I need to practice the timing of a double-tap and drag or something similar.

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Nemo arrived configured with single tap to open in my Beta 1 phone and I fixed the multiple selection issue by changing that behavior to double tap (and maybe I changed something else; I don’t recall). The menus don’t scale properly (as you noted, in general) so it’s very difficult to change Nemo preferences. I had to switch back and forth between landscape and portrait modes but, now that HDMI is working for me in Beta 2, I’d probably attempt to make preferences changes using an external monitor and the menus would hopefully scale to be fully visible and useful.

Also, I could not manage any video files (move, delete, rename, etc.) that I downloaded with youtube-dl with single tap to open enabled. Selecting the files for managment would always launch Firefox and play the video file!