I made myself a Linux phone!

2 months ago by Allero to c/linuxphones

So, after following the discussions for quite a while, I decided to pull it off.

Having gone though the support list of various distributions, I chose Pixel 3a for my setup. Among the dirt cheap smartphones, it seems to enjoy the support of almost everything.

I decided to install PostmarketOS with Plasma Mobile. In the meanwhile, I also tested Mobian (didn't work for me for some reason) and Gnome (I ended up being too much of a KDE fanboy).

The overall experience is, honestly, mixed. It sure is exciting, and I've spent a whole day tinkering here and there (and feeling a bit nostalgic for the day I felt this way about Linux as a whole), the hardware support was a pleasant surprise, up to multipoint Bluetooth TWS headphones, but still, system stability isn't anywhere near a daily driver, and software support lags behind in many ways.

In any case, now I too have a platform to look into the future. Year of Linux mobile, anyone? :)

P.S. Any advice on censorship-resistant (VLESS/Reality/AmneziaWG-based) VPNs for PostmarketOS on ARM devices?

melroy 17 points 2 months ago

do you have more screens for us to share? Looking good. This is the future.

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Allero 18 points 2 months ago

Sure! 😊

Here are some for you. Don't mind Google apps, they come with Waydroid and run from an Android container. Initial installation comes without it, but Plasma Mobile has some useful integrations.

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Solrac 6 points 2 months ago

Regarding the GApps, I used this while I was testing pmOS on the Fairphone 4, worked pretty nifty. https://codeberg.org/... but it's on 3.5

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Allero 4 points 2 months ago

Nice!

I intentionally chose the full option with Google apps, so that I wouldn't have to find workaround in what's already a workaround. But any progress towards minimizing Google presence is good!

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codenul 3 points 2 months ago

First time seeing this. I run /e/os on my phone and love it. Interesting to see ot being used along with Waydroid

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melroy 4 points 2 months ago

Wow nice! Yeah Okey so if needed you can still fallback to some android apps if really needed..?

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Allero 6 points 2 months ago

Yep! You can install and use most Android apps through a container. Note that, by default, the container will use its own file storage, and ensuring that it shares this with a host system takes some effort.

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clay_pidgin 5 points 2 months ago

Or do you MOSTLY use Android apps?

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Allero 3 points 2 months ago

Then why would you make a Linux phone in the first place? :D

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melroy 2 points 2 months ago

I can imagine it might take a while to catch up with android apps. Linux phones are still just getting started. We are at the beginning of a new era.

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i_am_hiding 16 points 2 months ago

Mad!

I have been running SailfishOS as my daily driver for two years now. Linux phones are great!

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Allero 9 points 2 months ago

Wow, we have a veteran here! :D

Glad to hear!

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i_am_hiding 4 points 2 months ago

Hardly, SFOS users go back to the meego/n9 days and earlier. I'm a newcomer!

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Allero 3 points 2 months ago

TIL attempts to bring Linux to mobile are THIS old

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Shatur 11 points 2 months ago

How's the battery life? It was my main issue with PinePhone (Pro).

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Allero 13 points 2 months ago

Actually decent! Can't make proper comparisons since the device is long used, but it does survive a day of use.

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Allero 2 points a month ago

Update on battery life: one place Linux (or, at least, PostmarketOS KDE that I use) truly shines is idle power consumption!

It agressively suspends connections when there are no background processes running and the phone is in the sleep mode, which ends up dramatically improving the idle draw.

I charged my Pixel 3a to 99% and then didn't use it too much - only listened to music for 1,5 hours. Two full days later, it sits at 70%. If the numbers are correct, I must expect it to last almost a week idle on a single charge.

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Shatur 2 points a month ago

Wow, that's very impressive!

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Shatur 1 point a month ago

What about calls? Can you receive them reliably?

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Allero 2 points a month ago

Still didn't test, tbh

Had to do some work to make mobile data work, so there could probably be some issues initially. The pmOS wiki for the phone states that calls are working, but VoLTE support is very experimental.

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Shatur 2 points a month ago

When I last time looked into it, you couldn't receive calls when the phone sleeps. It works on PinePhone Pro because the modem is a separate board and can wake the phone. This is why I'm curious 🙂

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Sarcasmo220 10 points 2 months ago

You can check if your preferred VPN provider has instructions to create config files for OpenVPN or WireGuard that you can import into Network Manager

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Allero 10 points 2 months ago

I come from a jurisdiction where both are blocked, and require more advanced tools. Thanks for suggestions, though!

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quick_snail 10 points 2 months ago

Fuck Putin

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Allero 7 points 2 months ago

Agreed wholeheartedly

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onipa 7 points 2 months ago

Year of the Linux Phone!

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MonkderVierte 4 points 2 months ago

This is a well-made phone.

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Allero 4 points 2 months ago

Sure is! I like it, it clearly seems to stand the test of time quite well.

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quick_snail 4 points 2 months ago

Nice choice with the Pixel 3a. Great little phone. The newer Pixels are trash.

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Allero 5 points 2 months ago

That's my first Pixel, and I like it. The build quality is nice, battery still goes strong, and yes, under Android the camera bangs for its age (not under Linux yet, though - it works, but the quality is down considerably).

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erebion 4 points 2 months ago

Mobian weekly images are currently broken, use an older one and simply update.

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Allero 2 points 2 months ago

Might end up doing just that at some point!

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erebion 2 points 2 months ago

Drop by in the Mobian chat in case you encounter any issues. I ported Mobian to it and would like to see all issues fixed.

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Allero 1 point 2 months ago

I will, if I get to do this again!

Unfortunately, I did not write down the error, but it failed to boot properly with some GPU error, I believe with the -2 code, and defaulted to the terminal login screen.

To be more precise: my device is Pixel 3a XL (bonito), SDC panel. The issue does get reproduced on a stable release as well.

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erebion 2 points 2 months ago

That shouldn't be the case and it looks like you hit a bug.

EDIT: Should mention, -2 is "no such file", probably missing firmware, for some reason.

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uniquethrowagay 3 points 2 months ago

Can you launch Android apps without them starting up a full-blown Android VM? I'd love some kind of translation layer like wine. There are too many services that require a phone app for me to switch right now :/

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Allero 3 points 2 months ago

It's a container, not a full VM, so it's a bit lighter on resources.

But no, you have to start this container up before apps are operational. So you either have to have the container up and running all the time (consuming quite a lot of battery in the process), or you'll have to wait for it to spin up every time and miss out on any notifications or background activity from this container.

It's very much not perfect rn, and it's not a simple translation layer like wine. And hopes for having a translation layer are quite low, as a huge chunk of Android apps directly depends on Google services and various Android system features. We have better hopes in developing the Linux-native ecosystem, but it's a little bit of a chicken and egg problem, despite some large developer groups slowly claiming the space.

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xvapx 2 points 2 months ago

They're using waydroid, which is native Android (kind of like wine) on a container, not a VM.

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dragospirvu75 1 point 2 months ago

Great job, man! Do RCS messages work?

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Allero 1 point 2 months ago

Honestly don't know, didn't test it on its own cellular network yet. Considering getting a separate SIM for it :)

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DieserTypMatthias -19 points 2 months ago

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Allero 29 points 2 months ago

That's a weird thing to suggest in a Linux Phones community. Sure, I know of GrapheneOS, and I'll maybe have a Graphene-powered phone one day, but I specifically want to have a Linux phone, not an Android one.

Besides, I doubt you'll have Pixel 6 and later models for less than $200, and I got this thing for $50.

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quixote 1 point 2 months ago

@Allero @DieserTypMatthias Erm, three years ago I bought a Pixel 6a for USD150. Unless they've become collectors' items, it's presumably less than that now.

Though probably more the $50, I'd guess, so your point still stands.

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leftascenter 25 points 2 months ago

Not a linuxphone then.

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alastel 15 points 2 months ago

With google doing all it can to kill what is left of openness in android i wonder how long it will be valid to use graphene. What when AOSP gets shutdown entirely?

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linuxphones

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Community about running GNU/Linux on phones. Projects like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, PostmarketOS, Mobian etc. Either on former Android phones or hardware like the PinePhone.

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linuxphones

@lemmy.ml

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Community about running GNU/Linux on phones. Projects like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, PostmarketOS, Mobian etc. Either on former Android phones or hardware like the PinePhone.

Related communities:

Linux Phones @ lemmy.ca

See also:

Related chats:

English XMPP room
German XMPP room

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