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Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

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Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#91

Post by fsflover »

syshum wrote: post #77
kop316 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the Librem Phone, the extra money is also paying for the development of the software ecosystem. I would argue that's worth the investment. For reference, a lot of the Pinephone distros are using the software developed by Purism. I am not saying that's bad, thats the whole spirit of open source!

PinePhone appears to come with PostmarketOS, and they give a small amount of every sale to PostmarketOS. Other than PureOS what other "pinephone distros" are using Purism Software? On top of that, how much of "Purism Software" is upstream linux?

"Phosh is current available on 8 different mobile distros that have been ported to the PinePhone, and Phosh is the preferred DE on 7 of those 8."

https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2020/08/05/advantages-of-ph...

The list of those distros is in the link.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#92

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

tpxl wrote: post #57
noisy_boy wrote: post #52

I get the point of low cost phone to keep the price low. I also know that there is a group that, rightfully, enjoys hacking on low-powered hardware to push it to limits. However, I wonder if there is also an opportunity to also sell high spec hardware, maybe in limited quantity. These phones are not for the masses anyway and I'm sure there is a Linux enthusiasts segment with pockets deep enough to afford the hardware…

The problem with linux phones right now is not the price, but the usefulness/software. The UB Ports edition of the phone doesn't have a working camera, and the Mobian can only use one camera at a time, with a script to switch between them. In about a year when these issues are resolved I'm going to recommend them to everyone I know and probably buy them for my family. As far as high end goes, Librem 5 from Purism has…

This. I am fine with Pine hardware. On the surface it should be sufficient. Oddly, my experience with Ubuntu OS is just plain awful. It made me miss Android almost instantly. I genuinely expected more.

The physical switches are nice, but you still need to have some decent functionality to make it a daily driver. Sadly, it is not there yet.

Since we are talking about it, if someone can recommend good alternative to Ubuntu for my UBports edition, that would be awesome.

I am slowly preparing to try other OSs on Pinephone, but since it is not super easy process ( and since you have full access, you can easily brick your phone ), I have thus far spent more time learning about it than just trying to jump on one of the other OSs.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#93

Post by [deleted] »

noisy_boy wrote: post #52

I get the point of low cost phone to keep the price low. I also know that there is a group that, rightfully, enjoys hacking on low-powered hardware to push it to limits. However, I wonder if there is also an opportunity to also sell high spec hardware, maybe in limited quantity. These phones are not for the masses anyway and I'm sure there is a Linux enthusiasts segment with pockets deep enough to afford the hardware…

[deleted]

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#94

Post by fsflover »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #92
tpxl wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with linux phones right now is not the price, but the usefulness/software. The UB Ports edition of the phone doesn't have a working camera, and the Mobian can only use one camera at a time, with a script to switch between them. In about a year when these issues are resolved I'm going to recommend them to everyone I know and probably buy them for my family. As far as high end goes, Librem 5 from Purism has…

This. I am fine with Pine hardware. On the surface it should be sufficient. Oddly, my experience with Ubuntu OS is just plain awful. It made me miss Android almost instantly. I genuinely expected more. The physical switches are nice, but you still need to have some decent functionality to make it a daily driver. Sadly, it is not there yet. Since we are talking about it, if someone can recommend good alternative to Ub…

You cannot easily brick your phone. You just use dd to write any image to the microSD and the phone just boots from it. Also see here concerning the internal memory: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9444

Many people like Mobian. It has a very nice UI (Purism's Phosh) and the full GNU/Linux under the hood.

I personally would recommend to try Sxmo: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9913. It is unbelievably fast, capable and has a cool geeky UI.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#95

Post by extrapickles »

labawi wrote: post #79
GekkePrutser wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IMEI just identifies your phone. The IMSI identifies your number. So it's perfectly possible to change the IMEI if you leave your IMSI alone. The network will think you just stuck your SIM in another phone. Everything will work fine. You can't change your IMSI as it's hardcoded on the SIM (technically you could with an eSIM but it simply would be unrecognised and just not work then). Of course they still know who…

AFAIK, a SIM card itself has a card id (ICCID), which should not be changed and is not used often. The subscriber id (IMSI) is in the "application" layer of the card and theoretically could be changed by the provider, or as a speciality, multiple ones installed. That being said, I've never actually seen a card's IMSI changed. They usually give you a new sim and IMSI, even for a replacement card.

Most SIM cards are one-time programmable, so they can’t change anything on the card. They do still have a small RW area, but thats generally for user data (contacts).

You can get SIM cards that have large amounts of storage for running applets and have better support for OTA, but most carriers don’t like the extra expense.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#96

Post by ben-schaaf »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #92
tpxl wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with linux phones right now is not the price, but the usefulness/software. The UB Ports edition of the phone doesn't have a working camera, and the Mobian can only use one camera at a time, with a script to switch between them. In about a year when these issues are resolved I'm going to recommend them to everyone I know and probably buy them for my family. As far as high end goes, Librem 5 from Purism has…

This. I am fine with Pine hardware. On the surface it should be sufficient. Oddly, my experience with Ubuntu OS is just plain awful. It made me miss Android almost instantly. I genuinely expected more. The physical switches are nice, but you still need to have some decent functionality to make it a daily driver. Sadly, it is not there yet. Since we are talking about it, if someone can recommend good alternative to Ub…

I don't have my pinephone yet, but everyone I've heard of currently recommends Mobian.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#97

Post by NiceWayToDoIT »

This is great functionality. But on the other hand I already had Meizu MX4 Ubuntu based phone. Apart of bad network reception, main issue was lack of application support, literally I was struggling with simplest application. On positive note I could to development and bash very easy...

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#98

Post by dogma1138 »

extrapickles wrote: post #95
labawi wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, a SIM card itself has a card id (ICCID), which should not be changed and is not used often. The subscriber id (IMSI) is in the "application" layer of the card and theoretically could be changed by the provider, or as a speciality, multiple ones installed. That being said, I've never actually seen a card's IMSI changed. They usually give you a new sim and IMSI, even for a replacement card.

Most SIM cards are one-time programmable, so they can’t change anything on the card. They do still have a small RW area, but thats generally for user data (contacts). You can get SIM cards that have large amounts of storage for running applets and have better support for OTA, but most carriers don’t like the extra expense.

Aren’t most SIM cards today use over the air provisioning since networks employ thin provisioning theses days?

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#99

Post by tpxl »

ben-schaaf wrote: post #96
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I am fine with Pine hardware. On the surface it should be sufficient. Oddly, my experience with Ubuntu OS is just plain awful. It made me miss Android almost instantly. I genuinely expected more. The physical switches are nice, but you still need to have some decent functionality to make it a daily driver. Sadly, it is not there yet. Since we are talking about it, if someone can recommend good alternative to Ub…

I don't have my pinephone yet, but everyone I've heard of currently recommends Mobian.

Mobian seems to be closest to upstream there is, so it should have the best support (assuming stuff gets backported).

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#100

Post by numpad0 »

kop316 wrote: post #90
numpad0 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if it’s possible from running Android on app CPU, but people with copies of QXDM all knows how to do it from PC

Respectfully, I think you misunderstand the page. The Quectel EG25-G is the modem only, the main CPU on the Pinephone is an Allwinner A64 ARM Quad core Cortex-A53. The modem itself has its own linux kernel, app space, etc.

Oh I expected Qualcomm MDMs to run some proprietary RTOS with some NVRAM write protection, but if Linux is already in control then certainly an on-the-fly IMEI switch without resets or QPST/QXDM sounds more feasible.
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