UT on pinephone vs halium based UT
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I read that what distinguishes the pinephone from other android based phones, is that it can run a standard Linux kernel instead of the usual abstraction layer sitting on top of the android kernel and blobs.
Is that true for UT?
Is it like a standard Intel PC but with an arm cpu which can possibly be upgraded with a simple dist-upgrade? -
Hi @suoko
Sorry to disappoint you, but you are mixing different concepts here.
You're right, the Pinephone allow us to run a mainstream kernel with only few adjustments.
The idea is to push the "adjustments" to the upstream project so we can keep the kernel up-to-date.That is true for all Pinephone's OSes but this goal is not achieved yet.
Then there is the architecture, yes it is basically the same Kernel built for ARM or specifically ARM64.
Now regarding the rest of the OS that's another story.
An OS is not just a Kernel, what makes an OS is what gravitates around this kernel: The filesystem with the basic apps, the DE, the 2D and 3D engines, the packager used for software installation and so on.That does not change, it is what makes Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch.
So no APT, no RW rootfs, softwares are installed using click packages and Lomiri is used as a DE.A huge part of the difficulties with the Pinephone come from the introduction of Wayland as a compositor for recent Kernel. So chunks of Lomiri had to be modified in order to talk with Wayland while still talking the ancient language for android ports.
I hope that'll clarify things for you.
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@applee yes, but that raises another question.
If lomiri is ported to Ubuntu desktop edition, compiled for arm, we could have a standard Ubuntu on the pinephone that looks identical to UT ?
And click applications could be packaged for Ubuntu arm like we can already do when testing them using 'clickable desktop' ?Or I still miss something?
I know that camera drivers suck on Ubuntu compared to android drivers. -
@suoko I suppose it could work.
But the work necessary so this will run smoothly is equivalent to the work made to maintain Ubuntu Touch... -
I think there are three things you should look into :
- PostmarketOS on the PinePhone64 (Pro)
- Ubuntu Touch on the Raspberry Pi 3B
- At some point indeed Lomiri in combination with regular Ubuntu Desktop either on x86-64 or ARM based hardware
