/e/OS ports for the PineBook and PinePhone

[Anonyme]

For your information, from Manoj on the Telegram support channel :

Pinephone porting got delayed due to the lockdown…developer did not get his phone We will be starting the porting activity soon.

[Rik]

1. @Manoj What device is the Olimex precisely?
2. @all : suggestion to all email Olimex and Pinebook to ask if they sell the devices with /e/ pre-installed :). Will help them know that many of us love /e/ and would love to say it on their devices! I just sent Pine64 this:

https://store.pine64.org/?page_id=446

Dear Pine64,

is the pinebook and/or the pinebook pro available with /e/ pre-installed?

best,

Rik

[Manoj]

@Rik

What device is the Olimex precisely?

It is a laptop.
Also /e/OS builds are already available in beta for Olimex and Pinebook

[fab]

Now THAT is a really cool project! I just love your ingenouisty in the /e/ dev team! Keep up this awesome work!

[Oppen]

I’ve got a PinePhone and have tried about 8 different Linux distros for it that various people are working on - you do just burn the image to a micro sd card, everything runs from that (so be sure to use a modern fast sd card). None of them offer any decent performance or UX though, Ubuntu Touch isn’t the standard OS, it comes with none installed (unless you get the new UB Ports edition), it’s the best of a bad bunch though. (mainline) Linux isn’t really ready for running on a mobile yet, it’s early days, this is just the start.

LineageOS or /e/ might actually make it of some use, as it stands it’s a good paperweight.

[Thatoo]

Good. Do you know where we can follow the porting activity?
Pinetab will be in pre-order before the end of the month.
It will be cool to be able to boot it with /e/ too. I guess as it is quiet similar to Pinephone it would not be so difficult to port this one too, no?

[Manoj]

The Pinephone porting has not started as yet. First of all the phone got delayed thanks to covid-19 and never reached the developer. Second due to the delay he got assigned on some other task
We are looking at starting the porting soon. Once the process starts there will an update on the progress here on the forum .

[john-mark]

There is a new Pinephone coming with 3 GB of ram. Is there any progress on porting to the Pinephone. I would be very interested in the Pinephone of the port was available.

[Manoj]

The pinephone port will be delayed. Initial tests were not very encouraging. The developers reported a sluggish UI. Given the lack of mainstream apps running on these devices the chances of an active user base is further reduced. Work on porting Pie to the Pinephone is definitely stopped as there were issues with the partitions as well to further complicate matters. The porting activity will resume once we have a working Q code base of /e/. That may be towards end of this year as again the priority will be devices already planned for migration to Q

[john-mark]

Thank you for the information and quick response. What apps are currently running on /e/ and what apps are expected to work once Q is ready.

[Baggypants]

@Manoj

Given the lack of mainstream apps running on these devices the chances of an active user base is further reduced.

Given the fact /e/'s whole USP is to remove mainstream apps and replace them will their own I find this a worrying line of argument. Of course Pinephone doesn’t have mainstream apps, it’s a hardware device. If it had an android port, even a sluggish one we could test with, then we could run some mainstream apps!

[Violet_lilly]

Can a phone with /e/ os works in USA? I have a female friend who might can use one.

[AnotherElk]

@Violet_lilly

Can a phone with /e/ os works in USA?

Forum search says …

Any issues with /e/ in the USA?

I came across /e/ the other day and want to hear feedback from anyone using it in the USA. My carrier is Ting which is a Verizon MVNO (been with them for years and can’t recommend them enough). I am on an Essential PH-1 / Android 10. It seems like /e/ will basically do all I really need it to do, though I am concerned about running a couple of apps like Micro$oft Outlook + Teams (work) and Ubiquiti Amplifi (for our home wifi) and a couple of others commercially available on Google Play. I th…

Phone recomendation for USA?

I’m in the US and am finding that /e/ does not support many mainstream devices in this country. I understand why this is the case as we do not have laws that prevent manufacturers from locking down devices. Still, I would like to know if anyone has a suggestion of a particular device that wouldn’t be too expensive ($200-$400 is my range) and well supported. I’m on T-Mobile (GSM) and so compatibility with their system is a must. Thanks!

Newbie here, is /e/ ready for the USA marketplace?

I am a Linux Mint user for several years, currently using Mint 19.3 Cinnamon on my laptop… In the Mint family, there is a Software Manager that we can search for Apps to install… I have been browsing this forum and so far, have not run across the equivalent other than mention of Aurora … Searching for “Aurora” just led me to building up something. I am not interesting in programming period. I just want to have a cellphone that is free of Google and running a familiar OS like Android that I h…

[KevonLaity]

Hi…there is a notice of not delivering the PinePhone until there is an OS prepared for it. I ask, why hang tight for that? Why not sell it with an admonition of no OS is prepared, if that is the situation when the telephone is prepared for conveyance?

I am certain numerous nerds (counting me) couldn’t imagine anything better than to get their hands on it regardless of whether an OS isn’t prepared. It might even urge some to make their own.

[Ludix]

You can order a PinePhone via pine64.com. Numerous Linux Distributions (UBports, postmarketOS, Manjaro and more) run on it.

As far as I’m aware there’s no Android ROM available yet. And I’m sure the /e/ team has other plans than pioneering Android on a niche device. This isn’t just porting a ROM to a phone. This is a device without readily available drivers for Android.

This device is experimental and still in early days and shouldn’t be considered ready for day to day usage (we’re slowly getting there, tho).

To follow the progress and discussion visit pine64.org.

Also check out the Purism Librem 5 if you’re interested in such devices. Also doesn’t run Android.

[Thatoo]

Hello, any news on the /e/OS port for Pinephone and Pinetab?
We are not so far from the end of the year. Would it be possible to have an update on the situation?

[Manoj]

No progress on the Pinephone or Pinetab. No team members have been assigned to work on these devices. The focus for now is on devices with a wider user base. Also the feedback we got from some of the users trying out these devices was not exactly encouraging - those trying out other OS’s said the response was slow.

[Thatoo]

I understand but it’s sad.

[Thatoo]

Well, apparently there is an Android ROM available for Pinephone, for some month already : https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest

I hope that will help to see /e/ coming on Pinephone.

A great news also to notice is that the PinePhone’s modem runs kernel 5.10 now. To know more about it, please read the news in here https://www.pine64.org/2021/01/15/january-update-happy-new-gear/