SOLVED PinePhone display flickers

jojumaxx

Hey everyone!

I received my Pinephone Community Edition today. That was a pretty disappointing experience since it lacks, camera doesn't work at all and so on.
But the worst thing is, that the display keeps flickering like a heartbeat. Has someone else experienced this and is there something I can do about it (latest updates installed)?
It's not usable like that...

Thanks in advance

stanwood

@jojuma As it was described on the order process, Pinephone portage is still under development and work is in progress. This is really important to accept that the device is not yet completely ready for a daily usage.
I suggest you to check frequently the updates (Settings => updates)
There’s also a FAQ on general Pinephone development stage & issues here: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=10130

Marathon2422

it told you in the advert about this.
you could change to "development " version (46) .
settings/update/ then - update settings (bottom right corner) select development.
exit settings, go back and check it has changed.
but be prepared to reflash it.
or put UT on an SDCARD , and try the DEV version from safety

Keneda

@jojuma said in PinePhone display flickers:

But the worst thing is, that the display keeps flickering like a heartbeat.

That's maybe a hardware issue, you should go on Pine64 forums to talk about that.
https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=122

PhoenixLandPirat

@Keneda The pinephone has software issues for flickering, so I don't think you should be to concerned unless you can see flickering on the pine64 logo splash screen.

I don't think its fixed on devel channel, but maybe someone on devel could confirm.

jojumaxx

I'm fully aware that the phone is in development state, don't worry.

I saw a video lately, in which a developer stated, the UBPorts version will have a working camera when delivered. Maybe I got that wrong.

And the performance, compared to both Meizu phones is pretty poor. Probable the old BQ phones don't perform worse.
That surprises me since I understood, that version of UT has been adapted especially to that new and open hardware.

Please don't get me wrong. I love UT and I'm nevertheless happy and proud to own one of these new phones and I will work on and with it.

It's just that despite all that knowledge, with a flickering screen you can hardly do anything and that includes development.

But for the first time since unpacking and though I tried some things before, flickering stopped now. Hopefully it stays this way.

Thank you for helping me, I really do appreciate it!!!

PhoenixLandPirat

@jojuma a lot of core things have had to be changed for the pinephone, its a much newer kernel, and its mainline, most phones use android kernels with android drivers, mainline linux should make it easier, but I think some things in the Ubuntu touch side had to change to amend for that.

Ubuntu touch is also using wayland on the pinephone rather than just mir, which takes a LOT of work!

theres just a lot of new work that had to be done, that touches a lot of different places, which is why its not as smooth as other devices using mir rather than Wayland.

arturo2bodegas

I have the pinephone CE version running UT 46 and at first before I updated I had screen flickering as well...it has gotten much better after the update to 46...make sure that you've updated your phone to version 46 or the latest build...

Keneda

So it's really a hardware issue : https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=PinePhone_v1.2#Backlight

Backlight LED current regulation depends on gpio0-ldo voltage stability due to feedback voltage from current sensing resistor being modified via SoC's PWM pin and pullup resistor to gpio0-ldo. gpio0-ldo also powers the CTP controller and light/proximity sensor, among other things. When backlight brightness is very low and the CTP controller actively communicates on the I2C bus the backlight blinks heavily.