PinePhone
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@normandc You can keep it safe and it shows how easy it is to get installed. Plus it might help others I suppose
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@Marathon2422
I saw a video on Mastodon of Marius making a call on a UT flashed pinephone recently...
https://soundcloud.com/user-274028038/first-pinephone-call -
@GizmoChicken In my opinion, it's fine giving time to PinePhone but there should be no rush. I think getting OTA-12 released is more important at the moment so we get the new Unity 8 and mir in stable. I believe UT is still ahead in terms of usability anyway.
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I think the commercial version of the pinephone (March 2020 if all goes well) and OTA-12 are linked. But indeed, in order of priority, OTA-12 is in my opinion the priority because the pinephone will not be released on the market without a stable and functional version of UT.
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If I'm not mistaken, PinePhone port started on Edge channel so the current dev branch.
So yes OTA-12 is linked to PinePhone by extension...@normandc I think a end-user can help test the dev channel than later the rc channel on the PinePhone. It will help the developers focus on the issues specific or not found on the PinePhone.
I'm a developer but not ready to jump on OS development, so I ordered the Pinephone to help testing and reporting bugs.
And if I feel I can dive into one or two issues, I will try to fix it.
That is probably a good 1st step. -
@kugiigi
it should not matter until after jan , by the time "Braveheart" gets played with for a week or 2, then ,when the ones come out with an OS in them . Marius will have it all fixed by then -
If I'm not mistaken, PinePhone port started on Edge channel so the current dev branch.
So yes OTA-12 is linked to PinePhone by extension...Yep, that's pretty much what I had in mind when I wrote that "I hope that UBports will focus like a laser on PinePhone development for the next few months."
That is, to the extent that developing OTA-12 and the PinePhone build are intertwined (such as new Mir and new Unity8), work on OTA-12 and the PinePhone build together. But regarding those aspects of OTA-12 that aren't intertwined with PinePhone development, perhaps those aspects could delayed for a later OTA, after the PinePhone build is ready.
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@GizmoChicken
In my opinion PinePhone requires OTA-12, so everything should be targeted for end of february.
So I suppose nothing will be left aside. I don't know if the order is important ... I think the deadline is the main focus and of course quality. -
@AppLee
i saw "Rob Braxman" live on youtube he talked about the pine phone and said to look on the bright side , if it doesnt work , youve got a raspberry computer with a screen on and .... or words to that effect.
(he has one on order ) he is a cyber security guy -
In my opinion PinePhone requires OTA-12
I think you are correct that the PinePhone requires much of OTA-12, including new Mir and new Unity8. And I certainly don't want any delay in those aspects of OTA-12. But to the extent that OTA-12 includes fixes that are specific to other platforms, if those fixes aren't already nearly complete, unless they are showstoppers, perhaps those fixes could be postponed for a later OTA.
Also, although OTA-12 will bring new Mir and new Unity8, my understanding is that it won't include a full transition to Wayland.
If the transition to Wayland can be done more efficiently on the PinePhone compared to other platforms, I suggest transitioning to full Wayland on the PinePhone first, and then later transitioning to full Wayland on older platforms. Same with systemd, which will be needed for rebasing from 16.04 to 20.04.
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Just to bear in mind, a transition to systemd will render all old devices unusable (kernel < 3.10). I am not sure we want to really go this way soon, and not rather stick with upstart. We dont need system atm in order to run a full working phone.
My languages: 🇦🇹 🇩🇪 🇬🇧 🇺🇸
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I am not sure we want to really [move to systemd] soon, and not rather stick with upstart. We dont need system atm in order to run a full working phone.
I'm not advocating for moving to systemd merely for the sake of moving to systemd. Rather, I'm advocating for moving to systemd because rebasing from 16.04 to 20.04 requires moving to systemd. (If 20.04 didn't require a move to systemd, I'd say stick with upstart for as long as you like.)
Also, just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you should drop everything else and start migrating to systemd immediately. Certainly, transitioning to new Mir, transitioning to new Unity8, and transitioning to full Wayland, all should come first. But you need to start planning for the move to systemd soon, so that you can rebase to 20.04 (at least for the PinePhone) sometime early in 2020, hopefully by April or May.
transition to systemd will render all old devices unusable (kernel < 3.10)
Understood. And that's a big part of why I feel that this sort of work (preparing for 20.04) should be started first (and hopefully soon) for the PinePhone, and then later, where possible, applied to builds for older platforms. That is, because a transition to systemd (and rebasing on 20.04) could be done more efficiently on the PinePhone compared to other platforms, start with the PinePhone.
Although Ubuntu 16.04 may technically have a year of support left, at nearly four years old, 16.04 is showing its age. You skipped 18.04. Those buying a shiny new PinePhone will want a shiny new release (or at least not an ancient release) on it. (And you won't need to backport so much to a newer release.) Given that moving to 20.04 (including the requisite step of moving from upstart to systemd) will take a fair bit of work and time, better to start sooner than later.
If you're going to let the limitations of your old hardware restrict the pace of PinePhone development, you'll get left behind.
As I wrote before, if disappointed with UT on first impression, potential users on the PinePhone may become forever lost to one of the competing alternatives, or perhaps forgo the PinePhone altogether.
So, I'll repeat what I originally posted, but with one small edit: I hope that, once OTA-12 has been released, UBports will focus like a laser on PinePhone development for the next few months, even if that means other priorities are delayed for a short time.
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@Flohack Indeed, I think that it is still a little early to "sacrifice" all the precursor phones that support UT well at the cost of evolution in all directions !!
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@Flohack
Sadly some data gaps in this table:
http://docs.halium.org/en/latest/supplementary/devices/index.html
But it doesn't look too bad for Kernel 3.10+ support in my eyes.On the end UT doesn't seem to have the stated goal of Postmarket OS to maintain 10 year old devices.
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Indeed, I think that it is still a little early to "sacrifice" all the precursor phones that support UT well at the cost of evolution in all directions !!
Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting that any phones be sacrificed. To the contrary, I hope that all currently supported phones (even those with kernel < 3.10) receive the enhancements currently slated for OTA-12, including new Mir and new Unity8.
However, we need to acknowledge that 16.04 is nearing EOL, and that UBports will, inevitably, need to rebase to something newer, probably Ubuntu 20.04. And, because rebasing to 20.04 necessitates transitioning to systemd, at least some old devices won't support the upgrade, whenever that happens.
What should happen to those old devices that can't support Ubuntu 20.04 after the inevitable rebasing? I don't know. Perhaps that should be discussed in another thread.
But regarding newer devices, we've been whining for years about the lack of phones that can run mainline Linux. Now we've got one: the PinePhone, which is the topic of this thread. But without a modern and polished OS to install on it, there will be no demand for the PinePhone, and production will likely end. I don't want that to happen.
UBports will only have one chance to make a first impression with potential users of the PinePhone. If UBports makes a bad first impression on the PinePhone, UBports (and the PinePhone) will have missed a huge opportunity. Again, I don't want that to happen.
While I feel that UBports should aim to upgrade all newer phones to Ubuntu 20.04 to as soon as feasible, I'm not proposing that here.
With regard to the PinePhone, I propose that UBports should release, no later than May of 2020, a UT build for the PinePhone that runs upstream Mir 1.6+ using full Wayland on an Ubuntu 20.04 base.
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@GizmoChicken said in PinePhone:
However, we need to acknowledge that 16.04 is nearing EOL, and that UBports will, inevitably, need to rebase to something newer, probably Ubuntu 20.04. And, because rebasing to 20.04 necessitates transitioning to systemd, at least some old devices won't support the upgrade, whenever that happens.
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@GizmoChicken sounds good, so what are you doing to make that happen?
IMHO for now a well working OTA12 with 16.04 base is good enough for what you are asking for on the PinePhone, but I agree the switch to 20.04 should probably be priority after that.
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@ernest Thanks for providing a chart that emphases that, except for "extended security maintenance for customers" (which doesn't apply to UBports users), 16.04 is indeed nearing EOL.
sounds good, so what are you doing to make that happen?
Rallying the troops and breaking down resistance among the old guard.
IMHO for now a well working OTA12 with 16.04 base is good enough for what you are asking for on the PinePhone, but I agree the switch to 20.04 should probably be priority after that.
I'm proposing that UBports set a goal to deliver 20.04 to the PinePhone by sometime in May of 2020, which is almost five months from now. But sure, 16.04 will be fine on the PinePhone until then, and maybe even for a while after, if UBports can't make that goal.
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Too little time right now to add the details to the OP (will update sometime later), but I highly recommend that anyone who has yet to see it read @PINE64 's December Update. Some very good news for fans of physical keyboards among other updates.
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@GizmoChicken I'm pretty sure that timeline will be really hard to meet with the current workforce of UBports even if we decide to do it now. I'd love that as well but we have to be realistic though. Best case that I can think possible is having the new Mir/Unity8 and perhaps wayland. Rebasing to 20.04 would be a huge task to do.
And somehow, I don't agree that there's a rush in the development just to make a good first impression to future PinePhone users. I mean as far as I know, there's no OS yet that's fully functional on the PinePhone and I think UBports already has the advantage at the moment. From the current state of UBports on PInePhone, I'd say it would already give a good first impression
Lastly, not to be negative, but I predict that most future PinePhone users are looking for a linux-experience that are similar to desktops which UBports won't give them by default and that might be a bad first impression already that we can't do much about
But of course, i still believe UT is a great OS that many will still learn to love
