[Question] PinePhone kernel base

Hi there!

Following the GitLab repos, the kernel for the PinePhone on Manjaro is based on Samuel Holland’s fork.
PostmarketOS and Arch linux have switched awhile ago from Samuel Holland’s repo to megi’s fork for it’s base. SailfishOS has released a new build also using megi’s kernel.
Megi has been doing phenomenal job getting the most of the PinePhone’s hardware with most of the new features being introduced there.

Would a transit to megi’s fork for Manjaro’s kernel base be something to consider?
I believe the reasons outlined by PostmarketOS developers are really well laid out.

Could you share a link for the Postmarket OS stuff. Would be interested to read. Also, might want to tag @spikerguy in case he or one of the other Manjaro ARM devs miss this.

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The relevant commit from postmarketOS is here: https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/commit/dcc0a8c85550873d90643aa9dc90713e86f25009

Good idea to tag manjaro team members :+1:
From the commits on Manjaro’s GitLab, I guess the question above would be most relevant to @philm . I know @spikerguy was busy with one of the new SBCs recently but the PinePhone is an interesting gadget in its own right.

I don’t want to put more burden on the dev team than they already have :slight_smile:

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I think we will move to megi’s branch while we await testing newer uboot which fails to boot on some devices.

I will look into it once I recieve the newer model as all my test device are 1.0 and 1.1 versions.

I will start looking into it soon.

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@spikerguy, if you guys are looking to expand the pool of users to check the new uboot, feel free to dm me. My PinePhone is v1.2a 3GB (pmOS edition).

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If you have uart cable then you’re welcome.

https://gitlab.manjaro.org/manjaro-arm/packages/core/uboot-pinephone/-/jobs/1358/artifacts/download

Here is the uboot built try it and see if it boots and how far it boots using uart logs.

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Device: PinePhone PostmarketOS Convergence Edition (3GB)

With uboot from job #1358 my phone was temperamental at getting a display output. It boots but there is no display most of the time.

With uboot from job #1599 - yesterday’s build, ehh… I’m going to double-check the steps I’ve taken…

[Update]
2nd fresh install of the Posh image made on 20201104 and uboot from job #1599 works fine on my device. Didn’t experience any issues during boot

Note:
I did experience an odd problem when I flashed it on eMMC and the device wouldn’t boot (no UART logs at all). That’s why I’ve re-flashed a couple of times. However the problematic flash could’ve been caused by my attempt to use dd in ssh through picocom + reverse search (it’s always an adventure seeing how messed up that uart output can become :slightly_smiling_face: )