Problems with PinePhone Builds

LinAdmin

@C0n57an71n Thank you for the screenshot. Since I had no Ubuntu system ready, I installed gnome-disk-utility
and ran "gnome-disks --restore-disk-image=ubuntu-touch-pinephone.img.xz".
This resulted in the same screen as you showed and installed the image directly to the sd-card.

Obviously gnome-disk did not detect that the backup of GPT table was at the wrong place. I did repair this as usual using gdisk.
I am convinced that this gives the same result as using xz to decompress and dd to write to the sd-card.
And indeed when placing the card in the phone it only shows the pine logo and then the ubuntu boot screen.

This has now happened with #87 to #89. The last 'working' image had been #82.

So there remains the question who else has success using these new images and who does just upgrade from old ones?

@LinAdmin I'll try to write the latest image on my Pinephone (SD card and eMMC) tonight/tomorrow morning and let you know how it went. You could insert the SD-card in the phone, and try writing the image on the card, but with the phone connected to the laptop.

@LinAdmin With the latest image that I have on the phone, I can confirm that it tries like 2 times to boot and then it works. Did you gave it enough time to do its thing?

LinAdmin

@C0n57an71n Yes I always waited long enough. What image # have you used to flash now?

@LinAdmin I'm on stable. Latest update was on 29.10.2020. I need to look from a PC because Morph doesn't show me the link to the right image on ci.ubports and the Pinephone doesn't show me in settings.

@LinAdmin That will be 86.

@LinAdmin So I've flashed the latest image on an SD card and boot it from it. After it tried 2 times, it skiped and booted from eMMC instead. So yeah. The latest images might be broken, that could explain why my Pinephone didn't update to them automatically. You can give it a try with version 86, that one works for me.

OhneZ

Hello, I have a short question about this. I have 3 channels in the Pinephone to choose from: dev(298), RC(15) or stable (8). What version is in the link above ? The version (88 or 86) is more stable ? and would the normal OTA updates run here as well ?
I am a bit confused. I hope you can help me with simply clear Words.

Keneda

@OhneZ

OTA should be on any channel, however stable channel is the more stable version of uTouxh and you should go to that one if you want the stabler experience.

RC can be a second choice, more up to date but little less stable.

@OhneZ The latest stable version is 89 , but for some reason it doesn't work. My last update on the Pinephone is to version 86 and for some reason, my phone didn't update to the newer versions.

@OhneZ So I have switched to RC channel and back to stable and it updated to version 8 so I guess that's the latest stable image.

ziggutas

@OhneZ It is confusing, you're right there!

The images on the ubports CI are described on that page as the "newest stable image" and "the build numbers of this job do not correspond to any useful OTA or Ubuntu Touch build numbers"

So #86 is a stable build of 29 Oct. I installed it to the eMMC on my pinephone and it worked but I've since switched to the dev channel.

My understanding of the channels is

Stable: system update will be via the major OTA's; 14, 15 etc. Most stable, obv
rc, the Release Candidate is/was a weekly update cycle. Fairly stable
and dev would be updated daily. Can go wrong now and then.

All channels get normal updates for apps, open store etc

But that's from using other devices, not the pinephone. As I'm writing this I find that I can no longer switch channels and Updates is saying "software is up to date" . I'm on Version 294. So I don't know what's going on!

As a footnote: I flashed #89 to sd card an hour ago and it booted up ok.

@ziggutas Switch between channels. Have patience, it might seem that the download is frozen. If doesn't work, restart, and repeat.

ziggutas

Thanks @C0n57an71n , I have plenty of patience; just miss the obvious things sometimes. The time was not auto set correctly. Manual set to today and not 1865, hey presto, updates roll in.

OhneZ

@ziggutas Many thanks for the explanation. Then I will stay on the RC and see when the Pinephone can be used as a daily driver. At the moment, with 6h battery life and other various problems, this is not given yet.