Projects:PinePhone Daily Driver

Project: Using PinePhone as my daily driver smartphone, running Linux fulfilling Goal:Technology.

(!) All the current OS images are crashing (apart from Megous' kernel on Arch Linux ARM) on my PinePhone.

It seems they have DRAM frequency set way too high: 624 MHz instead of 552 MHz. See this thread.

Hardware Setup

• PinePhone
  • Initial testing is done with PinePhone 1.1.
  • Once PinePhone 1.2 becomes available, this will be the daily driven device.
• Battery
  • Factory-provided at first
  • Replaceable with any Samsung J7 form-factor battery[1]
    • TODO: Find out more and look for a shop selling this (once needed)
• Screen protector
  • Factory-provided at first
  • Replacement source
    • Pine64 store? Currently doesn't seem to sell it.
    • Supposedly some iPhone screen protector is usable
      • TODO: Find out more and look for a shop selling this (once needed)
• Protective case
  • TODO: Temporary solution: similar form factor of other devices on the market?
  • TODO: Source from Pine64 store

Software Wishlist

1. Solid base Linux distribution
   • lightweight, customizable
   • community-supported with continuous updates
   • large package repository
2. One day of battery life
   • ability to enter power-saving mode and leave it in a matter of seconds of user request
   • automatic power-saving after a period of inactivity
3. Convenient and efficient UI - common actions need to be easy to achieve
   • switching between the apps
   • turning the screen on and off
   • ability to kill apps
4. Support for essential apps & workflows
   1. Terminal
   2. Web browser (Firefox)
   3. Passwords manager (Keepass))
   4. Personal Information Manager with WebDAV sync support for calendar, contacts
   5. Email client
   6. Calculator, Alarm
   7. IM client (XMPP, Matrix, Slack)
   8. Music player
   9. Camera & Video recorder
   10. VPN client
5. Support for non-essential apps & workflows
   • RSS client
   • OTP generator
   • Ebook reader
   • Weather forecast
   • Maps, navigation
   • Calls & Texts

Software Setup

• OS located on the internal eMMC flash storage (to make some use of it, plus it is faster than the SD card)
  • accessible as an external storage from a computer via Jumpdrive which may be flashed to a tiny SD Card (128 MB in my case)
  • maintenance or distro-hopping can still be done by plugging in an SD Card with a system installed (since it takes precedence over the eMMC storage)
• non-essential data (photos, videos, etc.) on an SD Card with larger capacity (currently 32 GB Samsung EVO Plus)

Components

• Custom-built postmarketOS
• swayWM for UI
• System packages:
  • networkmanager
  • termite, termite-terminfo
  • bluez
  • squeekboard, gsettings-desktop-schemas
  • TODO: alsa-utils (to unmute speaker via alsamixer and then save as default via alsactl store)
  • TODO: gestures
• App packages:
  • vim
  • firefox

Setup

⚠ Warning: serial console is required to properly setup the device with swayWM since there is no touch controls by default.

TODO: Move some of this setup into a repository

swayWM

1. Copy /etc/sway/config to ~/.config/sway/config
2. Edit:
   • $term termite

Bluetooth

• Enable the service on boot: rc-update add bluetooth
• Enable the controller by default:

/etc/bluetooth/main.conf[Policy] AutoEnable=true

TODOs

• TODO: Touch gestures and controls
  • Custom input device? [2]
• TODO: Configure Firefox for touch: [3]
• TODO: Sound, alsa
• TODO: squeekboard virtual keyboard
• TODO: acpi for battery monitoring

Rejected solutions

under Wayland

• libinput-gestures
• twofing
• onboard virtual keyboard

Related

• Projects:PinePhone Daily Driver Distributions Testing
• Projects:PinePhone Daily Driver with Sway
• PinePhone Hardware
• PinePhone Software