So, let's get back to daily driving Mainline Linux on mobile devices!

I've been running @postmarketOS on an ancient Samsung tablet from 2012. Gotta say, feels surreal that it runs linux 6.x when all the LineageOS unofficial builds for it run on linux 3.x ... quite impressive when you think about it :) (Hardware support is also pretty good, main issue is camera, and stylus which I managed to get working)
I use it for light web browsing and as a kind of smaller laptop when I'm too lazy to carry around my current x86_64 laptop ^^

Sure, pmOS is not yet fully ready, but you can always still find some usecases here and there and excuses to use it daily :)

@fun @postmarketOS what Samsung tablet do you have?

@fun
>2012 Samsung tab
Mom has a Tab S2 (2014-2015) that she barely uses: it's still a usable device, but the rubber coating has gone bad and she was really worried about the consequences of removing it.

I also have a Nexus 7 2013 with a swollen battery, but I'm honestly more interested in plugging the screen into a motherboard with non-soldered storage and a better set of ports.
That product line could probably have kicked the Macbook Air to the curb (for many users) if it had a keyboard accessory.

@fun
I also have a Vivotab plagued by Windows RT (putting postmarketOS on it isn't as straightforward as it is on the Surface RT)
Dad still gets pretty fired up about Microsoft gimping their full-fat ARM port of Windows 8 by locking out third-party desktop apps.

@fun @postmarketOS I am daily using #postmarketOS on a OnePlus 6 phone, writing this post with it, in fact. So many functions work perfectly or near perfectly: wifi, gps, bluetooth, listening/watching audio/video, web browsing,sms/mms...
Camera functioning has come a long way in recent months. In short, I use it for nearly everything I would use a phone for, except for...phone calling..., which is still flaky, but I feel confident that the amazing and generous geniuses working on this project will overcome these challenges.

I am not very technical, but I am able to help out in small ways by testing functions and apps and reporting issues, and contributing to the wiki and the chats with whatever knowledge I have gained.

It's so great that this alternative to the Android/Apple duopoly is coming to fruition!

#MobileLinux #LinuxOnMobile

@loomhigh @postmarketOS p4note & kona

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Note_8.0_(samsung-kona)
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Note_10.1_(samsung-p4note)

@unfinishedsymphony @postmarketOS Yep! I also was daily driving pmOS on my phone (Poco F1) at some point, but right now no longer (also I switched to a Fairphone) because reliability still isn't 100% perfect and I need that. But I'm confident we will get there at some point.

> I am not very technical, but I am able to help out in small ways by testing functions and apps and reporting issues, and contributing to the wiki and the chats with whatever knowledge I have gained.

That's already a huge help :)

@moses_izumi my tablets were also very barely used for a long time, but pmOS kind of revived them. Actually, my p4note was initially dead (well, not quite, but screen did not come up), but it turned out to be a broken screen flex cable .. which presumably died years ago.

@fun
I'm mostly interested in seeing how these old tablets perform compared to Pentium 4-era laptops: once you get past the lackluster connectivity/expandability.
Bonus points if running Wine through Fex or Box64 is somehow a viable option for Win32 gaming (beyond WinDoom and Fury3).

@fun
I also think it'd be incredible if postmarketOS, libreboot and the various jailbreaking projects created (or at least linked) guides for building your own battery packs.

Having a FOSS OS or bootloader rings a wee bit hollow when
you're stuck with new-old stock batteries or cheap clones.

pinging @libreleah

it shouldn't be very hard to do, the battery's existing bms could help here

@moses_izumi oh I'm pretty sure they're much faster than that

@fun
Whatever the case, a first-gen Macbook Air would probably make for a more exciting comparison.

@moses_izumi I'd say it's slightly faster than my 2006 MacBook w/ Core 2 Duo

@unfinishedsymphony @fun @postmarketOS TBF phone calling doesn't work on my LineageOS device either thanks to VoLTE. 🤬 I just use SIP via Linphone, which is a rather bad app but at least it works. Is a decent SIP phone available on pmOS?

@dalias @unfinishedsymphony @fun @postmarketOS The “Calls” app in the GNOME Mobile interface apparently^ allows adding VOIP accounts you already have which use the SIP protocol. Dunno what there might be to originate a new account, but you might be able to port one over that you already have the following info for:
Server, Display Name (Optional), User ID, Password, Port [number], and Transport [UDP, TCP or TLS].
__
^(I have not tried it, not having a current SIP account for which I can find the credentials)

@dalias @unfinishedsymphony @fun @postmarketOS GNOME Calls has SIP support, the Flathub version should work for this use case: https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.Calls

@unfinishedsymphony @fun @postmarketOS I wanna get in on this!

I fixed my dad's #mido aka #redminote4, and am currently installing it now onto an SD Card!

#postmarketos #linuxmobile

@darkdragon @dalias @unfinishedsymphony @fun @postmarketOS There's also #GOnnect

@darkdragon @dalias @unfinishedsymphony @postmarketOS gnome-calls is packaged in postmarketOS so no need to use the flathub version?

@fun @postmarketOS it does feel like Linux from 20yrs ago. Some hardware worked and some didn't. People started writing drivers for stuff that didn't work and slowly things progressed. Look at where Linux support is today.

So as support grows for PostmarketOS, hopefully more support for hardware will as well.

@fun @unfinishedsymphony @dalias @postmarketOS Indeed, this should work, too.

@ysb33rOrg @postmarketOS In a way it does, hardware-wise, but IMO software-wise it's a lot better, because all these userspace improvements that was made over the years, we basically get all of them for free :) sure, on a phone we still have work to do on the userspace, but we do get the modern software stack that already powers linux desktops

@dalias @fun @postmarketOS To be more specific:
I installed 81voltd, which provides VoLTE. Calls do frequently work, but sometimes I have to reboot to restore calling ability. And at times the audio is messed up on a call. There are also problems with suspend and phone calling.

I am in the US; my phone service is an MVNO using the T-Mobile network, which works very well with my OnePlus 6.

@unfinishedsymphony @fun @postmarketOS 👀 ooh that's super promising. I'd strace the fuck outta that on a system I actually had functional control over (pmOS vs Android hell) and fix whatever's causing that in no time.

@dalias @unfinishedsymphony @fun i'd be more than happy to get you a device if you're interested! but it's probably not so easy... i think most of the issues are a mix of kernel driver bugs and logic errors / limitations with the whole complexity of the audio stack, DSP firmware and modem firmware. Heck just audio routing without calling is not fully reliable yet :/

@cas @unfinishedsymphony @fun It'd be lovely if it could be done mostly in software with minimal dependence on any of that. Legacy POTS voice calls are literally less than 0.1% of a modern usage load and it doesn't matter how inefficient they are on battery. Better to avoid layers that could be unsafe or unstable.

@unfinishedsymphony those are really cool ways to contribute! I am currently also looking for somebody willing to help improve our docs. There are actually quite some issues in https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/docs.postmarketos.org/-/issues with "help wanted", and some that aren't might still be fit for others to help. Is that maybe something that would motivate you :D? @fun @postmarketOS

@pabloyoyoista @fun @postmarketOS Yes! I am checking out that link now.

@unfinishedsymphony huge thanks! And don't hesitate to reach out if you need any help or guidance :D @fun @postmarketOS