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?
Mad!
I have been running SailfishOS as my daily driver for two years now. Linux phones are great!
Wow, we have a veteran here! :D
Glad to hear!
Hardly, SFOS users go back to the meego/n9 days and earlier. I’m a newcomer!
TIL attempts to bring Linux to mobile are THIS old
do you have more screens for us to share? Looking good. This is the future.
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.
Regarding the GApps, I used this while I was testing pmOS on the Fairphone 4, worked pretty nifty. https://codeberg.org/SolAZDev/waydroid-eOS/releases but it’s on 3.5
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!
First time seeing this. I run /e/os on my phone and love it. Interesting to see ot being used along with Waydroid
Wow nice! Yeah Okey so if needed you can still fallback to some android apps if really needed…?
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.
Or do you MOSTLY use Android apps?
Then why would you make a Linux phone in the first place? :D
For fun, privacy, or testing even if it’s not ready for prime time?
Fair!
For me it’s mostly just fun, and this little joy of having everything run Linux, lol
But also to see for myself the current state of things.
So yes or no xd?
No, I only use Android apps for when I absolutely need a working VPN :)
Otherwise, all Linux, baby!
🥳
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.
That’s what I’m guesting too.
How’s the battery life? It was my main issue with the PinePhone (Pro).
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.
Actually decent! Can’t make proper comparisons since the device is long used, but it does survive a day of use.
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
I come from a jurisdiction where both are blocked, and require more advanced tools. Thanks for suggestions, though!
Fuck Putin
Agreed wholeheartedly
Year of the Linux Phone!
Mobian weekly images are currently broken, use an older one and simply update.
Might end up doing just that at some point!
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.
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.
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.
This is a well-made phone.
Sure is! I like it, it clearly seems to stand the test of time quite well.
Nice choice with the Pixel 3a. Great little phone. The newer Pixels are trash.
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).
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 :/
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.
They’re using waydroid, which is native Android (kind of like wine) on a container, not a VM.
Great job, man! Do RCS messages work?
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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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.
@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.
Not a linuxphone then.
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?
