Pinephone (braveheart)

Giiba

It feels like there needs to be a consolidated thread to discuss the Pinephone Braveheart development and since it is tacked under 'Community Ports' on GitLab this seems the best place for now, so here goes. I am in no way an expert so don't expect me to know much, but I am willing to collate information and update this first post as things evolve.

Feel free to suggest information to add.

SD Card Installation:
@UniSuperBox said in Pinephone tutorial:

Download the rootfs image from https://ci.ubports.com/job/rootfs/job/rootfs-pinephone/

Extract and write the image to an SD card

Plug SD card into phone

Boot phone

That should do it.

Emmc Installation:
flashing OS to emmc

Updating:
Go to: Settings -> Updates

Sources:
Kernel
rootfs Download

Issue Tracking:
GitLab Repository

Other Threads:
Pinephone Tutorial
How can we help with the Pinephone?

Misc Links:
setting-the-record-straight-pinephone-misconceptions
Pinephone @ pine64.org

Status:
Pinephone Repository Readme

Giiba

And the reason I started the thread:

I downloaded and flashed #215 (or something) a while ago and have since been using apt to update and upgrade packages.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

Is this a suitable method for now or should we be downloading and flashing a new rootfs periodically?

AppLee

@Giiba said in Pinephone (braveheart):

Is this a suitable method for now or should we be downloading and flashing a new rootfs periodically?

I do both.
But that's a good question.

kugiigi

I think forum post could also be helpful for now until these issues are fixed.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9323

Bolly

For now is updated by reflashing the SD card.

Source: https://t.me/ubports_qa_team/29871

Giiba

@Bolly could you share the contents of the discussion? I just spent 20mins trying to view it, and I cannot see any more than your single post as linked above.

Between Telegram Web and TELEports I must say I don't like Telegram... where is a search function?

hummlbach

@Giiba while theres no search function yet in teleports (but we know its missing...), theres an okayish search function in the web client, which should do the job actually...

Giiba

@hummlbach well it is a moot point now... in my trying to figure it out I now cannot log in for what looks like 54000+ mins.

I'm going to ask in the Matrix group this evening as a month old answer seems out of date anyways.

Giiba

Ok, I have clarification of the update question.

We should be reflashing a rootfs regularily because apt is not upgrading the kernel, only ubports components.

Bolly

@Giiba, do you still need the contents of the discussion?

Giiba

@Bolly no, not unless there is something more to be added. Thanks for pointing this in the right direction, I forget about the chat channels at times.

Fla

Does flashing the rootfs loose the data?

Giiba

@Fla yes, it is basically a factory reset. I assume this will be fixed when the Pinephone is transitioned to image based updates.

Fla

@Giiba so I have a hard time figuring out how the link above "running ubports as a daily driver" can work...

Giiba

@Fla when the phone first started shipping those steps were necessary to make certain hardware function, and I think the information is relevant even if they have subsequently been fixed by updates. The low level command line stuff there might prove useful in troubleshooting.

I have been neck deep in school work so I really don't know if modem and sound are fixed in the latest builds.

AppLee

@Giiba Sound is working now right after flashing.
About the modem, I didn't try with my SIM (Covid19 made my phone a work tool)

AlenchikN

I’m going to use the Pine phone with a hub like this one.
Will HDMI audio work when the Pine phone is connected to the hub via USB-C and the hub is connected to the TV via HDMI ?

flohack

Please see that we have all information collected here: https://gitlab.com/ubports/community-ports/pinephone/ so if you have new or updated items, make an MR there. Also you can see and open bugs...

Fla

@Giiba I'm not talking about bugs. Bugs are fine, they'll be squashed and will disappear with a future update. But... that's my point. If you can't update the phone without loosing your data (sms, contacts...), then you can't update it and see the bugs vanish. So you can't use it as a daily driver. Or am I missing something here?

AppLee

@Fla
When UT will be ready, OTA will be available for the PinePhone.
Meanwhile you have to burn SD cards to do so.

And you can save your data before updating... and restore them using SSH if you want.