Pine64 community early admission on smartphone , completed with a firmware with a mobile platform based on Alpine Linux, Musl and BusyBox. The opening of pre-orders is scheduled for early July 2020. The smartphone will cost $150.
By default, a custom shell is suggested , developed by Purism for the Librem 5 smartphone based on GNOME and Wayland technologies. If desired, the user can download the firmware version from , but in order not to duplicate efforts in stabilizing the postmarketOS Community Edition, Phosh was chosen as the primary environment. Of the features of the firmware, the use of a new installer is noted, which supports installation with encryption of all data on the drive (the password for accessing encrypted partitions is set at the first boot).
Firmware is still in progress and not all errors and shortcomings have been fixed (the main problems are promised to be solved before the start of delivery of devices on pre-order). However, the basic functionality of a smartphone , including tools for making calls, sending and receiving SMS, accessing the network via a cellular network or Wi-Fi. The interface is optimized for small touch screens and is based on standard GNOME or KDE technologies, depending on the selected shell.
The PinePhone hardware is designed to use replaceable components - most of the modules are not soldered, but connected via detachable cables, which allows, for example, if you wish, to replace the mediocre camera offered by default with a better one. The device is built on a quad-core SoC ARM Allwinner A64 with a Mali 400 MP2 GPU, equipped with 2 GB of RAM, a 5.95-inch screen (1440 × 720 IPS), Micro SD (with support for booting from an SD card), 16GB eMMC (internal), USB port -C with USB Host and combined video output for connecting a monitor, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP), GPS, GPS-A, GLONASS, two cameras (2 and 5Mpx), 3000mAh battery, hardware disconnected components with LTE/GNSS, WiFi, microphone and speakers.
Recall that the goal of the postmarketOS project ensuring the possibility of using a GNU/Linux distribution kit on a smartphone that does not depend on the official firmware support life cycle and is not tied to standard solutions of the main industry players that set the development vector. The postmarketOS environment is unified as much as possible and puts all device-specific components into a separate package, all other packages are identical for all devices and are based on standard packages , which is selected as one of the most compact and secure distributions. The Linux kernel and udev rules are being developed as part of a joint project , designed to unify system components for Ubuntu Touch, Mer/Sailfish OS, Plasma Mobile, webOS Lune, and other Linux solutions for devices shipped with Android.
Except postmarketOS, for PinePhone boot images based , , , , and partially open platform . Work is underway to prepare assemblies with . The software environment can be loaded directly from the SD card without the need for flashing.
Source: opennet.ru