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PinePhone

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    • K Offline
      kalle.kruse
      last edited by 31 Jan 2019, 20:21

      Pine64 forum says:

      Some of you may have already heard rumors about the PinePhone on podcasts or read about it in FOSS / tech press. Its true, we're making a Linux-only smartphone called the PinePhone based on the Allwinner A64, and it will strictly be running mainline Linux. Software development on this project has already began - UBPorts, Maemo Leste, PostmarketOS, Plasma Mobile as well as other developers have received early kits to get up to speed on the A64 SOC. Just in the past few days a lot of progress has been made on these early kits (and i mean A LOT!) and, as you will surely see in coming days, some of the aforementioned software is already running on-top of mainline kernel. We will likely have a functional demo at FOSDEM!

      Software-related status debate is beyond the scope of this post - which should be obvious, given that the actual dev kits aren't even available yet - however I cannot resist but to include two pictures of KDE and Unity 8 running on the aforementioned kit, curtsy of Bhushan Shah and Marius Gripsgard from KDE and UBPorts respectively.

      ? D 2 Replies Last reply 14 Feb 2019, 13:33 Reply Quote 1
      • A Offline
        arubislander
        last edited by 1 Feb 2019, 06:35

        Interesting days. Also read about the PineTab on the same blog. For me that would be a very compelling device to run UTouch/Unity 8 on, depending on it's specs

        πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ό πŸ‡³πŸ‡± πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Έ
        Happily running Ubuntu Touch
        Google Pixel 3a (20.04 DEV)
        JingPad (24.04 preview)
        Meizu Pro 5 (16.04 DEV)

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        • T Offline
          trainailleur
          last edited by trainailleur 2 Dec 2019, 02:15 12 Feb 2019, 02:14

          I don't think they're linked yet from the main page of the Pine64 wiki, but here are the pages for the dev kits:

          Project Anakin - Phase 1 Dev Kit

          Project Don't be Evil - Phase 2 Dev Kit

          Crossing my fingers Phase 3 (the shipping phone) comes to fruition (same with the Librem 5).

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • P Offline
            PINE64
            last edited by 14 Feb 2019, 11:28

            That is correct @arubislander , they aren't linked yet ... mostly because the wiki articles are for devs and really not meant for users. Clearly the Phase 2 article isn't even finished πŸ™‚

            Open. Friendly. Community Driven.

            T 1 Reply Last reply 14 Feb 2019, 18:12 Reply Quote 2
            • ? Offline
              A Former User @kalle.kruse
              last edited by A Former User 14 Feb 2019, 13:33

              Numpty question then: how big, in reality, is the gap between Unity8 and UBports' Ubuntu Touch?

              F 1 Reply Last reply 16 Feb 2019, 13:26 Reply Quote 0
              • T Offline
                trainailleur @PINE64
                last edited by 14 Feb 2019, 18:12

                @PINE64 said in PinePhone:

                [T]hey aren't linked yet ... mostly because the wiki articles are for devs and really not meant for users. Clearly the Phase 2 article isn't even finished πŸ™‚

                Not surprising, and I figured that was the reason. Since this is a dev-heavy and dev-supporting community, I hope you don't mind my posting the links for those with a thirst to know more. ☺

                Welcome, BTW. Glad to see you here.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • D Offline
                  doniks @kalle.kruse
                  last edited by 14 Feb 2019, 19:16

                  @kalle-kruse Thanks for the link. It's an impressive post. And it was an impressive stand that they had at fosdem. Also the camera and the tablet looked really nice. But I forgot to try to play any audio or video on the tablet. Can someone comment? Is it Loud enough? Does it sound good?

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                  • P Offline
                    PINE64
                    last edited by 14 Feb 2019, 20:59

                    @trainailleur not at all, its not even a secret. Its just because since regular users cannot (and will not) be able to obtain those kits there isn't really a reason to have them in our wiki. Thanks for having us here πŸ™‚

                    @doniks glad you liked the stall and the post - I wrote it up, so I immodestly take the credit πŸ˜‰ I only played audio on the PineTab once ~6-7 months ago on a super early prototype, so I honestly cannot answer the audio question. I think that it will be serviceable but won't knock your socks off (as you probably expect). As for video; 720p and 1080p playback will be fine with a dedicated player using HW acceleration. Lets see what devs can do with in-browser playback (in-browser 480p sw rendered will work fine but higher will require hw acceleration - newest cedrus has a vaapi wrapper!)

                    Open. Friendly. Community Driven.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                    • F Offline
                      flohack @Guest
                      last edited by 16 Feb 2019, 13:26

                      @3arn0wl What exactly do you mean by that question πŸ˜‰

                      My languages: πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ή πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

                      ? 1 Reply Last reply 16 Feb 2019, 14:04 Reply Quote 0
                      • ? Offline
                        A Former User @flohack
                        last edited by 16 Feb 2019, 14:04

                        πŸ™‚ Hey, @Flohack - thanks for... well just thanks for being, really.

                        Ubuntu was always explained as being all one code, in all one language... Which is a fantastic thing... A real strength.

                        But UT on the N5 seems to be more advanced than Unity 8... Is that an incorrect perception?

                        What I guess I'm asking therefore is: is it a big effort to get Unity 8 working on PinePhone at the same level as UT on my beloved N5? Is it to do with Mir and Wayland?

                        And will all the apps in the OpenStore work on Unity8?

                        F 1 Reply Last reply 16 Feb 2019, 18:14 Reply Quote 0
                        • F Offline
                          flohack
                          last edited by 16 Feb 2019, 18:13

                          The challenge to get Ubuntu Touch running is not unity8 I would say, and the click apps will stay. We have to remove the Android container and instead access the hardware directly.

                          We still dont know the exact amount of work what will be involved, but yes, the goal is to give the same experience at the end.

                          Also we must say here that the hardware specs might not be final and we dont know yet about GPS, sensors etc. And the main CPU is for sure slower than N5.

                          But dont judge the phone by its specs. Its a groundbreaking chance to show that we do not need Android hardware and that an open phone is possible. I think thats the huge message we want to get out.

                          My languages: πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ή πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

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                          • F Offline
                            flohack @Guest
                            last edited by 16 Feb 2019, 18:14

                            @3arn0wl Also watch todayΒ΄s Q&A we might have some answer for you there.

                            My languages: πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ή πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

                            ? 1 Reply Last reply 17 Feb 2019, 18:07 Reply Quote 1
                            • ? Offline
                              A Former User @flohack
                              last edited by 17 Feb 2019, 18:07

                              @Flohack - It was great to see UT working on the Pine board in yesterday's Q&A. From what Jan has said recently about Google's direction with Fuchsia, the development of a completely Open alternative becomes vital.

                              F 1 Reply Last reply 17 Feb 2019, 18:10 Reply Quote 2
                              • F Offline
                                flohack @Guest
                                last edited by 17 Feb 2019, 18:10

                                @3arn0wl Yes I cannot repeat it too often: Android Fuchsia threatens the last part of openess that Android currently has: By removing the Linux kernel they are free to go fully closed source. Even if their microkernel might be open, all high level functions can then nicely be wrapped in closed source modules.

                                The idea of a microkernel seems neat for phones, true: Lots of features of a fully blown Linux kernel might never be used on phones at all. But its more about the political decision here than a technical one. So yes, UBports is fully aligned with fiinding alternatives, seeing Android porting as a temporary measure as the underlying problem cannot be fixed at all.

                                BR

                                My languages: πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ή πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

                                dobeyD 1 Reply Last reply 18 Feb 2019, 00:39 Reply Quote 0
                                • dobeyD Offline
                                  dobey @flohack
                                  last edited by 18 Feb 2019, 00:39

                                  @Flohack said in PinePhone:

                                  Even if their microkernel might be open, all high level functions can then nicely be wrapped in closed source modules.

                                  So no different than currently. All the high level stuff in Android is closed. It's why we can't ship the foundation services to be able to hook up push notifications, which are already implemented in most web services for Android, and thus must have our own implementation which almost nobody supports. Beyond that, it will basically not be any different than needing something like libhybris, but for Fuchsia, instead.

                                  T F 2 Replies Last reply 18 Feb 2019, 02:18 Reply Quote 0
                                  • T Offline
                                    trainailleur @dobey
                                    last edited by 18 Feb 2019, 02:18

                                    @dobey said in PinePhone:

                                    Beyond that, it will basically not be any different than needing something like libhybris, but for Fuchsia, instead.

                                    The permissive license has potentially vast implications.

                                    dobeyD 1 Reply Last reply 18 Feb 2019, 03:59 Reply Quote 0
                                    • dobeyD Offline
                                      dobey @trainailleur
                                      last edited by 18 Feb 2019, 03:59

                                      @trainailleur said in PinePhone:

                                      The permissive license has potentially vast implications.

                                      Feel free to elaborate. The drivers aren't going to be any less free, and that's where the real issues are. We've already got overly proprietary drivers with a GPLv2 kernel, so I don't see how having the kernel be Apache 2 is going to make it any worse, considering vendors already don't respect the GPL in most cases. All it does is put Google themselves in the position of not having to worry about the kernel license versus proprietary drivers.

                                      Beyond that, nothing else is really going to change. Most of the middleware that we do need to run in the android container for UT is already Apache 2 anyway, and that's unlikely to change with Fuchsia underneath.

                                      Really, all I see is people being hysterical for no reason.

                                      ? T 2 Replies Last reply 18 Feb 2019, 13:04 Reply Quote 1
                                      • ? Offline
                                        A Former User @dobey
                                        last edited by 18 Feb 2019, 13:04

                                        @dobey said in PinePhone:

                                        The drivers aren't going to be any less free, and that's where the real issues are.

                                        I guess that's why it's important that the Pine and Librem efforts are successful: to demonstrate to hardware manufacturers that there's a strong desire for open devices, to encourage them to produce more.

                                        There are efforts though to produce Open Source drivers, aren't there?

                                        P dobeyD 2 Replies Last reply 18 Feb 2019, 13:50 Reply Quote 0
                                        • P Offline
                                          PINE64 @Guest
                                          last edited by PINE64 18 Feb 2019, 13:50

                                          @3arn0wl said in PinePhone:

                                          There are efforts though to produce Open Source drivers, aren't there?

                                          Yes, of course, and for the A64 such drivers are quite far along too [video showing open source hw video acceleration] : https://youtu.be/X18JN1pq2H4?t=1
                                          Then there is lima for the GPU (WIP): http://linux-sunxi.org/Mali

                                          Not saying that initial releases will not use blobs - they probably will - but in time devs will surely switch over to FOSS drivers.

                                          Open. Friendly. Community Driven.

                                          ? 1 Reply Last reply 18 Feb 2019, 14:02 Reply Quote 1
                                          • ? Offline
                                            A Former User @PINE64
                                            last edited by 18 Feb 2019, 14:02

                                            πŸ™‚ Well that's very encouraging news, @PINE64

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