erebion

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Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Headphones work for me and should as well on Mobian. Calls via Bluetooth do not work yet, not sure how to route the audio to the headsets. But I know there's some stuff going on and people are working on improving the audio configs, should all be much better very soon.

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 days ago (3 children)

It's okay. I like that I can do whatever I want. There are some smaller issues still, but I'm fine with those, considering all the freedom I get.

I mean, I have to set the right SIM card slot and run a command to make Bluetooth work, after every boot, until that is solved. It's not too bad. Takes me ~25 seconds.

Only annoying issue that is next on my to do list: Have the phone wake up when using an alarm clock. For now I just leave an Android phone next to my bed for that. Soon that will be solved as well. Apparently I just have to get some Systemd configuration right, but have not yet had a closer look.

Overall I am pretty happy with it. Yet I would not give it to my parents and expect them to use it like any other phone.

If you are a nerd who does need an alarm clock or a camera in their phone, or can at least work around that for now, it's already a usable phone and messaging device.

No idea how that compares to postmarketOS. I have not tried daily driving it, as instead I intend to find issues on Mobian and solve those.

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 days ago

I'm sure you can find another device that can run Linux. :)

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 4 days ago (5 children)
  • That one uses an SDM845, while the Pixel 3a uses an SDM670. But there's a Mobian port to that one anyway. Not sure in what state, anyway. You could flash it and find out.
  • Camera is probably dead because not all the code has been written yet.
  • My background is just playing with Linux since before I was a teen, but I did not know anything about porting to phones until early this year.
  • I have some experience with postmarketOS, but more with Mobian as I am more of a Mobian person. I have more exprience with their docs and community than with postmarketOS itself. Many mobile Linux projects depend on the postmarketOS wiki, as they have the best source of information.
  • Mobian installation is easy, just flash the images.
  • Mobian documentation is somewhat lacking, but I want to improve on that once I'm less busy porting. Can't do everything at once, of course.
Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 5 days ago

It is to Android apps what WINE is to Windows programs, while Waydroid is to Android apps what something between Docker and a VM would be to server software.

Actually, Waydroid is not too dissimilar from running, for example, an Ubuntu Desktop system in a Docker container on a Debian desktop system, just so you can use snap packages... Instead of installing snapd on Debian. (Not that I want snapd.)

Waydroid is more like an Android container appliance that runs a full Android system, while ATL, as the name Android Translation Layer suggests, translates functions and API calls, used by Android apps, into the appropriate methods of doing things on a regular GNU/Linux system (in contrast to an Android Runtime/Linux system), thereby being much more efficient, more comfortable to use and having the potential of integrating into the system really well.

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 days ago

Let me know how it goes! You might notice an issue I have missed and can then fix. :)

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 5 days ago

Yup. It definitely is now ready for everyday use, though there are still a few smaller issues I've got to fix. But nothing that stops me from using it now.

The only thing special about the Pixel 3a is that I had it already. Maybe it is special in that it is now the smallest Linux phone that is supported by a mainline kernel AND which is actually usable as a phone (for some other phones audio does not work, for example). Some might call a headphone jack something special... or an eSIM, as there are not many Linux phones with an eSIM.

To get involved, I recommend joining the Moban Development Matrix room: #mobian-dev:matrix.debian.social

Pretty sure we can find something where skills in C would be helpful.

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 days ago

Thank you. :)

Have a nice day!

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 5 days ago

Definitely do! It's a lot of fun and it feels great to have Mobian on the phone instead of having old Android on it or even a phone in the trash and no phone.

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 6 days ago

No idea, but you could of course install Waydroid on Mobian. I hope Android Translation Layer (https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer) will at some point get to a state where it is usable as the superior Waydroid alternative for many people.

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 6 days ago (3 children)

No idea, but you could of course install Waydroid on Mobian. I hope Android Translation Layer (https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer) will at some point get to a state where it is usable as the superior Waydroid alternative for many people.

Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
[–] erebion@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 6 days ago

Also, I keep some notes up to date over on my Forgejo instance: https://git.erebion.eu/forgejo/erebion/sargo-temp

111
Follow-up Two: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL (lemmy.sdf.org)
 

This is a follow-up to my earlier posts:

https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/12809764 https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/19600671

We're Getting Closer.

It's just small stuff left that needs a bit of piecing together, though I've now been daily driving my port for the past two weeks already.

This Works

  • booting
  • display
  • touch
  • modem <- You might have to switch to the other slot if it does not work: mmcli -m 0 --set-primary-sim-slot=1, options are 1 or 2. Note that the modem could also be a different number, maybe try -m 1 if it is not found as the command will reboot the modem and then it changes.
  • plymouth
  • battery/charging
  • mobile data
  • wifi
  • torch
  • suspend
  • call audio
  • vibration
  • Bluetooth™
  • full disk encryption
  • eSIM (I'm working on the packaging for the tool you need to provision it)
  • SMS
  • audio (ALSA config not packaged, but can be added manually)
  • camera (have taken a few photos, but the kernel driver is still work in progress and sometimes it just does not work)

This Has An Unknown Status

  • Fingerprint Sensor
  • NFC (should work, does so on pmOS)

This Does Not Work Yet (Soon™)

  • GPS
  • USB host mode (no Kernel support yet, but apparently this is being worked on)
  • Verified Boot (first need to do research whether this is actually feasible)

This Is Missing And Will Come Later

  • accelerometer
  • magnetometer
  • ambient light sensor
  • barometer

Project Status

To Do List

Done List

Misc Issues

  • ALSA config for the device has not been upstreamed yet
  • Issues with 5 GHz wifi
    • Can be worked around by forcing the phone to only use the 2.4 GHz band, for example using nmtui, the network settings of GNOME/Phosh are bit too simplistic for that
  • No idea how to get the call audio on Bluetooth, meaning you will have to hold the phone or use a cable, for now

(This is a non-exhaustive list)

Low Priority

Other than that... Everything should be there. It's definitely usable already.

Just a few smaller quirks to iron out and two packages to get into the repo.

The Sources (Use The Source, Luke)

Thanks For All The Fish

Huge thanks to be sdm670-linux project and flamingradian who runs the project (just one person!) to make sure the Kernel works on those devices! :)

I don’t know how Kernel development works, so I would have never started porting without this project.

Find that here: https://gitlab.com/sdm670-mainline/linux

Questions Accepted / Ask Me Anything About The Project

I will gladly answer all questions, I hope that more people will start porting if it becomes clear that this is not arcane magic. It’s mostly just arcane. And a community of friendly people that try to be helpful.#

5
KDE Kasts on Phosh: Icons missing, what's the fix? (lemmy.sdf.org)
 

Hey there,

I installed Kasts from KDE on Phosh, all the icons are missing and it therefore is difficiult to use.

How can this be fixed? Do I have to install some sort of icon package?

Maybe someone even knows the exact Debian package that's missing. :D

10
Current state of re-locking bootloaders on former Android devices? (lemmy.sdf.org)
 

Hello internet,

what is the current state of re-locking bootloaders on devices that previously ran Android?

Any implementations? How does that work?

69
Follow-up: Mobian on the Pixel 3a / 3a XL (getting close) (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by erebion@lemmy.sdf.org to c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml
15 comments fedilink
 

This is a follow-up to my earlier post: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/12809764

(I re-used the photo as it was quicker and because the UI still looks the same, anyway, five months later.)

Time for an update on where I got with the Pixel 3a / 3a XL so far:

I Am Getting There.

There isn't that much missing anymore. Will probably soon try this out as my daily driver, just did not yet have the time to configure all the applications I need. :)

This Works

  • booting
  • display
  • touch
  • modem
  • plymouth
  • battery/charging
  • mobile data
  • wifi
  • torch
  • suspend
  • SMS (only receiving was tested, but I don't have reason to believe sending wouldn't work)
  • vibration (udev rule needs to be added to the corresponding package)
  • audio (ALSA config not packaged, but I'll get to that...)
  • Bluetooth™ (mac address has to be set after each boot, one single command, should probably package a script, still thinking about the right path)
  • eSIM (supported, but needs a bit more testing)
  • camera (front camera buggy, back camera works but patches not in git yet)
  • GPS (needs some improvements to accuracy)

This Does Not Work (Soon)

  • USB host mode
  • call audio (requires packaging q6voiced to get audio from the modem, but of course VoIP would already work)
  • full disk encryption (no installer images yet, once the other stuff is done this will magically be there)

This Has An Unknown Status

  • Fingerprint Sensor
  • NFC (no idea what software I could use for testing, but should work, does so on pmOS)

This Is Missing And Will Come Later

  • accelerometer
  • magnetometer
  • ambient light sensor
  • barometer

The Main Issues That Prevail

  • A systemd unit with a hard-coded value, that has to be manually edited for now
  • ALSA config not yet packaged, has to be manually copied for now
  • few things to do for kernel packaging and then submitting that to Mobian
  • no call audio yet, as the daemon (q6voiced) is not yet packaged, but can be manually added for now (I'm considering just using VoIP until I can get to that :D)
  • simple script that brings up Bluetooth has to be added somewhere

Other than that, I cannot think of anything else that would be missing.

The Sources (Use The Source, Luke)

Thanks For All The Fish

Huge thanks to be sdm670-linux project and flamingradian who runs the project (just one person!) to make sure the Kernel works on those devices! :)

I don't know how Kernel development works, so I would have never started porting without this project.

Find that here: https://gitlab.com/sdm670-mainline/linux

Questions Accepted / Ask Me Anything About The Project

I will gladly answer all questions, I hope that more people will start porting if it becomes clear that this is not arcane magic. It's mostly just arcane. And a community of friendly people that try to be helpful.#

27
Found some stuff which might be useful to those that would like WhatsApp on Linux phones (lemmy.sdf.org)
 

I personally don't use it, but I often see people complaining that they cannot use it on their Linux phone and that might help.

I stumbled across a project which implements the client connection, like the app does, for WhatsApp: https://github.com/WhiskeySockets/Baileys

That would allow building a third-party WhatsApp client.

That should also be relatively simple to integrate into a Matrix bridge such as mautrix-whatsapp. Apparently it uses the same API as the app, but it authenticates as a web client. If someone were to implement the authentication of the app, people could start using WhatsApp without the app and also comfortably bridged to Matrix.

You can still link the bridge to the app currently, but the app needs to be online or the bridge will get disconnected after a few days. And if you don't want to have a phone constantly running, you probably want a VM for the app and then that all gets fiddly.

Also, I recently found a blog post on how to build Matrix bridges, so that should be feasibe if anyone wants to implement that as part of the existing bridge: https://mau.fi/blog/megabridge-twilio/

157
Got Mobian (almost) ported to Pixel 3a / 3a XL (lemmy.sdf.org)
 

Most parts work, still not sure why Bluetooth gives me errors in dmesg, audio out works, microphone input not yet... I'm getting there.

But graphics, charging, low standby power consumption, LTE, wifi... those all work already.

The fact that postmarketOS has support and also that there are people working on mainline support, makes this a task that is not as difficult as I thought, as most work was already done for another distro.

Otherwise it runs more fluid than Android ever did on it and it has a great standby time (forgot to turn it off at around 80 % and a few days later it was at 58 %).

For now stuck on merging the Kernel patches from the sdm670-mainline project with those from Mobian, not really something I can do without knowing C. I just hope someone with the right skills does it at some point.

Then I just need to make some smaller merge requests, like one to add a udev rule for vibration support and so on.

Not much missing before I can finally use it as a daily driver.

34
Current state of Gnome mobile? (lemmy.sdf.org)
 

What is the current state of Gnome mobile?

Will the patches get merged to the main branch, so it just becomes available on all diatributions?

Why has only PostmarketOS packaged it so far?

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