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

androidpolice.com

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

#131

Post by davidhyde »

zatop wrote: post #129
cuu508 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't go more optimised than that. Phosh uses GTK, right? That's a pretty thick layer right there. You used to be able to put pixels on screen with a handful of ASM instructions https://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/tut8.html

Yes this is totally true, I should've been more precise. There are two parts : 'Phoc' and 'Posh'. Phoc is the Wayland compositor (Wlroots & C), Posh is the launcher UI (GTK). Phosh is just "an app" (with special privileges to talk to Phoc). All it does is display app icons and windows thumbnails (which are not actual live windows but just screenshots of the apps (like on Android)) it does not composite windows, it do…

Very interesting, thanks! I wish there were more videos focusing on UI latency and snappiness for the Librem 5 but all you see are "feature" videos. It's hard to tell if the phone is laggy (finger move to eyeball time) or not.

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

#133

Post by Yc4win »

autisticcurio wrote: post #48
ben-schaaf wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With software ones you still have to trust the hardware and firmware in addition to the software. With light indicators like Apple's you also need to trust the hardware - and since the designs aren't open it's more difficult to do so - but once verified that they work as advertised having kill switches is a much more active security function than an indicator light.

International standards can also be zero days. For example, the international standard for called ID, uses a dial up modem protocol which means the hardware has to have capabilities to read this data which means the hardware has dialup modem capabilities. So if you can compromise the firmware of the modem, a backdoor into a device is via the very telephone network you later rely on to communicate. https://en.wikipedi…

Your comment is so in depth thanks. It really opened my eyes to some of the industrial subversion going on that I was unaware of, especially about the international standards being a vector for backdoors.

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

#134

Post by m463 »

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…

They could sell them for $399 and nobody would care because open phones are a special thing.

Unless that's not what motivates them. Maybe they want to get them into as many hands as possible to bootstrap a working phone.

They can always raise the price when the software becomes more usable.

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

#135

Post by m463 »

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…

> Librem 5 from Purism has better specs (still a lot worse than high end Androids/iPhones...

What I would say from booting linux on apple hardware is: apple has a LOT of fat to cut away.

macos/ios run an enormous number of unnecessary processes, and apps themselves use tremendous resources as well. So a lot of resource use is for business reasons and not technical ones.

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

#136

Post by herogreen »

stronglikedan wrote: post #101

All those fancy physical switches, and none simply for silent mode? My most-missed physical switch on Android devices.

This button could easily be added by a third party protection case using the GPIO that is available on the pogopins at the back of the phone.

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

#137

Post by gardaani »

kop316 wrote: post #37
prox wrote: post #3

Is anyone usimg a linux phone? Love to hear use cases. I know about the PinePhone and the Librem, don’t know if there are others.

I have it in addition to my Android phone. I am actually really impressed on how well it works (I use Mobian). Email, maps, calendar, and web browsing all work. The camera sort of but not really works. The only thing stopping me from using it as a daily driver is MMS: https://sr.ht/~anteater/mms-stack/ Ubuntu Touch seems to be the closest to be able to have MMS (it uses Ofono,all of the other distros seem to use Mode…

Sailfish OS supports MMS. I've been using Sailfish for years without issues in MMS.

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

#138

Post by lioeters »

fsflover wrote: post #94
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…

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 unb…

Sxmo ("Simple X Mobile") looks great.

> Sxmo, or Simple X Mobile, is a collection of simple and suckless X programs and scripts used together to create a fully functional mobile UI adhering to the Unix philosophy for the Pinephone.

https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/

It reminds me of working with text-based user interface in the terminal, with intuitive window manager. I love it!

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

#139

Post by RealStickman_ »

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 like Mobian. It's based on Debian and allows you to do the same stuff as on a normal desktop (technically).

That's also the reason why I almost immediately threw UBPorts off my PP UBPorts CE. You can't do anything like you would it in Linux. For example, mounting the SD card automatically on boot with fstab wasn't possible as it always reset itself to default values. The root partition is also read only. No thanks.

For trying other OSs. Just flash them to an SD card and put them in the phone. It'll boot from the SD card before booting from the eMMC.

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

#140

Post by RealStickman_ »

mschuster91 wrote: post #125
westmeal wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would a cop even know about this and arrest you? Being serious.

Easy: check if the imei on the back matches the one shown in the software as part of a theft check. Threaten the user with seizing it for suspected theft or whatever if they refuse.

That would only work if you are already under suspicion for something. I don't think many random cops knew how to check the IMEI, also because you'd have to open the phone up. (I think so?)
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