PinePhone Software Releases
This page contains a list of all available OS releases for the PinePhone, as well as links to other resources.
See PinePhone Installation Instructions on how to install the operating systems.
However, if your phone came preloaded with software, Please see PinePhone Updating Instructions.
Software Releases
This is a list of OSes that specifically support the PinePhone. Since PinePhone support is included in Mainline Linux, in principle, any ARM Linux OS can be used if possible required patches are included.
Arch Linux ARM
(Unofficial) Arch Linux ARM with choice of Phosh UI, Plasma Mobile, or barebones. Currently being maintained by the DanctNIX community (GitHub: danctnix, dreemurrs-embedded).
- GitHub: dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch
Download location
Get the latest image here: https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases
username/password
Default user | alarm/123456
|
root | root/root
|
---|
What works, what does not work
Most of the things now works, there are some minor issues with Crust.
How to contribute and report defects
You may find the Discord, Matrix and Telegram of DanctNIX community at the Channel list section of DanctNIX/README.md.
Feel free to send us pull requests and report issues on GitHub.
ExpidusOS
A fork of Void Linux with a custom fork of XFCE called Gensis as the default desktop environment, developed by Midstall Software.
Download location
Check the download page for that latest version, or the image file list for all versions, look for the file name that starts with "pinephone".
username/password
expidus/expidus
What works, what does not work
The ExpidusOS Wiki has a page detailing supported features.
How to contribute and report defects
Join the Discord server or corresponding repo at GitHub (repo list).
Fedora
An (unofficial) vanilla Fedora rawhide build for aarch64 with megi's kernel and some additional packages to tie it all together. It aims to eventually be an upstream part of the Fedora project, rather than a phone-specific distribution.
- Forum discussion: Fedora + Phosh for PinePhone
- GitHub: nikhiljha/pp-fedora-sdsetup
Download location
There is also an FTP server with a full Fedora 34 workstation build with phosh: ftp://pine.warpspeed.dk/nightly/pinephone/ (Mount this with something like Nautilus)
username/password
pine/123456
What works, what does not work
WiFi, Bluetooth, SMS, Data, Calls all work!
There are still a few bugs though, and some features don't have driver support yet on any PinePhone distribution.
How to contribute and report defects
Please send your bug reports to the project's issue tracker. Be sure to include logs if applicable! Send us pull requests on Github.
Gentoo
There are unofficial Gentoo overlays with ebuilds for the PinePhone.
There are no images - you'll be building it yourself, picking which kernel, bootloader and desktop environment you want to use. You will be using the arm64 version of Gentoo.
Documentation
- https://stealthgun.tweakblogs.net/blog/19336/gentoo-on-a-pinephone
- https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Dr41nU/PinePhone
- https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/PinePhone (incomplete)
Overlay locations
GloDroid
A fully open source port of Android to the PinePhone.
- GitHub: GloDroid
Download location
https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases (last release at 2021-05-20)
What works, what does not work
Works: WiFi, screen dimming, touchscreen and charging work. Don't work: Bluetooth, Telephony, GPS, Sound
LuneOS
LuneOS is a open source mobile operating system based on webOS Open Source Edition(GitHub, previously known as Open webOS) by LG, comes with Luna Next UI, currently developed by the WebOS Ports community.
Download location
It is recommended to use bmaptool, which is faster than dd, and can decompress archived image files on-the-fly.
Syntax is:
bmaptool copy [from] [to]
For example:
bmaptool copy http://build.webos-ports.org/luneos-testing/images/pinephone/luneos-dev-image-pinephone-testing-0-140.rootfs.wic.gz /dev/mmcblk0
.wic file can be treated as .img file when flashing. You may rename .wic file to .img when using GUI tools that require file extension to be .img.
Maemo Leste
Maemo is a trimmed-down version of Debian for mobile devices, originally a collaboration between Nokia and many open source projects (the Maemo community) before Nokia abandoned it. The community now takes full responsibility in developing fully open source Maemo for a variety of mobile devices.
The new version Maemo 8 "Leste" is an ARM64 port of Devuan (Debian without systemd) and runs the mainline Linux kernel. The default user interface stack is Hildon, Xorg, Matchbox WM, and GTK. The current version is Devuan Beowulf (Debian Buster) and has simultaneous support for both Devuan and Debian.
In addition to the main repository, they announced a community repository. To keep updated they use automation in their package maintenance with jenkins (similar to debian's build). Porting packages to Maemo Leste is basically a simple matter of porting to arm64 version of Debian/Devuan, which benefits both projects.
- Maemo Leste website
- Maemo Leste Wiki
- GitHub: maemo-leste
- Twitter: @maemoleste
Download location
Maemo Leste test builds. There is also an image builder, see their wiki for instructions on how to build a custom image.
username/password
root/toor
You may use sudo
directly.
What works, what does not work
For current status and workarounds, please read their PinePhone wiki page.
How to contribute and report defects
Most discussion occurs at #maemo-leste
on irc.libera.chat
.
The Maemo website also has an ongoing forum thread for feedback.
All other contact information is listed on the main page of the Maemo wiki.
Submit bug reports on github. To track known issues, you may use these search terms: pinephone, pine64.
Learn about development, porting packages, building packages, todo list, and general info on how to package for Debian. Some tasks have funding available.
Manjaro ARM
Manjaro is a user-friendly Linux distribution based on the independently developed Arch operating system with the Plasma Mobile desktop environment.
Download location
username/password
Default user | manjaro/123456
|
root | root/root
|
---|
What works, what does not work
See Manjaro's release announcements on their forum.
Recent ones: Phosh, Plasma and Lomiri.
How to contribute and report defects
See the end of the announcement.
Mobian
An unofficial Debian build for ARM64 running with Phosh (developed by Purism, uses Wayland instead of Xorg). The base system is pure Debian, with only the GUI applications and a few others (ModemManager, WiFi chip firmware) being built from modified sources (as well as the kernel and u-boot). Current version is Debian Bookworm.
Download location
Extract the image before installing:
$ gzip -d Downloads/mobian-pinephone-*.img.gz
See the project page for specific installation instructions.
username/password
mobian/1234
What works, what does not work
See the project's README file or the wiki for most up to date status.
Check bug tracker for known issues. Questions? Ask on our thread.
How to contribute and report defects
It is recommended that you log your bug reports in the project's issue tracker. As a general rule, issues with third-party apps (even the default ones) should be reported upstream. A Mobian issue would be related to getting the hardware to work on the PinePhone, but if unsure where the issue should be reported just open a ticket or ask. Feel free to pick an open issue to work on, or send a merge request on Gitlab.
Notes
See the wiki for additional information regarding screen resolution, USB networking, WiFi hotspot, Chatty and the repository.
Multi-distro demo image
This image allow users to try many of the above Linux distributions easily, without having to figure out how to flash them individually and juggle with many microSD cards. Also called megi's 15-in-1 multi boot image.
- Main page: https://xnux.eu/p-boot-demo/
- Git repo: https://megous.com/git/pinephone-multi-boot/
- Forum discussion: UPDATED (June 2021): 17-distro multi-boot image for Pinephone (incl. 3GiB variant)
Update 2021-06-02, using megi's kernel 5.13-rc4
DD image to SD card and boot. This image is for 16GiB or larger SD cards, also works if flashed to eMMC.
This is also a good build for charging depleted battery. Just boot up this build with power supply connected, keep the PinePhone charging for 3 hours at power down stage.
For more info on this build, please visit its entry the "News" section of its web page.
- Download torrent file from author's website
- Download img.zst from author's website (speed limited to 512KiB/s)
- Download torrent and img.zst from discord user uxes' mirror
- File name: multi.img.zst
- SHA-256: 9b099cdfece3ba862348ca32af6c51a41a1d161b1d897f9928ae8be3c824a0b6
- File Size: 6.57GiB
- Direct download img.gz from pine64.org (re-zipped from zstd to gzip)
- File name: p-boot-multi-2021-06-02.img.gz
- MD5: 2abdaafb01dd7519f678b5a7c6538493
- File Size: 6.8GB
Due to its size, download though torrent is suggested by the author on its main page.
On Linux, you may install or compile zstd
, and write the image to SD card by using zstdcat
and dd
. See the "Installation" section of its web page for command examples.
On Windows, you may use 7-zip-zstd, it provides different installation method in the README.md. Install and extract the .img file from the zst archive, and flash with tools like Win32 Disk Imager.
Also see PinePhone Installation Instructions.
username/password
All passwords, including root passwords, are 1111
.
sxmo username is user
.
Nemo Mobile
Nemo Mobile is the open source build of Sailfish OS with a open source UI called Glacier (Mer Wiki), based on Manjaro.
- Website: Nemo Mobile UX team
- Mer Wiki page
Download location
See the installation page on their website for the newest release and installation guides.
What works, what does not work
Development is now moving very fast after rebasing. For the current devel image, Wifi and Bluetooth works.
How to contribute and report defects
For the Nemo Mobile UX itself:
- GitHub issues: https://github.com/nemomobile-ux/main/issues
For hardware:
- GitHub issues: https://github.com/neochapay/nemo-device-dont_be_evil/issues
NixOS
NixOS support is handled through the Mobile NixOS project.
- Project home page: Mobile NixOS
- PinePhone device page: Pine64 PinePhone — Mobile NixOS
- GitHub: NixOS/mobile-nixos
There is no pre-built complete image. For now users, are expected to follow the instructions in the Getting Started page, and Project's device page.
What works, what does not work
Currently, it boots, it's just as compatible as the Android-based devices are with Mobile NixOS. It even supports a bit more since it can use WiFi.
Support for all of the hardware will be coming, this project is a breadth-first work, where the work spans multiple devices in parallel.
How to contribute and report defects
On the project's repository. Please specify that you are using a PinePhone when reporting issues. Details about contributions and donations are on the NixOS website.
OpenMandriva Lx
OpenMandriva Lx with Plasma Mobile as UI.
Download location
The official image can be found at sourceforge.net. See here for the offical announcement.
What works, what does not work
From the 4.3 announcement, in future updates (4.3 and later), "Phone calls are working, and we have rewritten the camera app to be far more useful".
openSUSE
Our images use the same openSUSE Tumbleweed base as our desktop images, except what needs to be changed for the PinePhone. The images include zypper (RPM) as the default package manager, and have access to virtually the same (open source) software as our desktop repositories, thanks to the Factory ports. Using dnf is possible, if preferred.
Download links
To verify the images you need to import our GPG key. Keep on mind that the first boot may stay on black screen for about a minute - consequent boots should be faster.
You can find install instructions at this section in the openSUSE Wiki.
Username/Password
The login credentials are pine/1234 and root/linux. Change (or disable) the root password once you are set up.
What works and what does not work
You can find all information about the releases of the project here. Detailed information, tips and troubleshooting suggestions are also provided at the openSUSE Wiki. You will also find information in our wiki on how to report issues (Contributing section).
postmarketOS
postmarketOS extends Alpine Linux to run on smartphones and other mobile devices. It offers various user interfaces (Phosh, Plasma Mobile, Sxmo, Plasma Desktop, Gnome 3, Kodi, XFCE4, ...).
As of writing, official images are provided with Phosh, Plasma Mobile and Sxmo. The official images come in two flavors, either as a test image to try out postmarketOS, or with the installer.
When using the installer images (recommended), it is possible to:
- encrypt the installation
- install from the SD card to eMMC
Power users may also create their own image with the distribution's install and development tool pmbootstrap
.
Please read the detailed installation instructions in the wiki.
Download location
Username/password
- Test images: user/147147
- When using the installer images or building an image with pmbootstrap, you set your own username and password.
- The Phosh and Plasma Mobile lock screens only support numeric keyboard, so you should only use numbers in your password.
What works, what does not work
See the issue tracker.
How to contribute and report defects
postmarketOS issue tracker for PinePhone support. See postmarketOS wiki for options to contribute.
PureOS
PureOS is a user friendly, secure and freedom respecting GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian and GNOME developed by the Purism community.
- PureOS Wiki, no PinePhone page there
- Mobile-optimized apps list from the Software Center in PureOS and 3rd party repos
- current PinePhone PureOS repo, A script to convert Librem5 PureOS to PinePhone Pure-OS
Download location
Use the convert script to download and build the image from u-boot, PinePhone linux kernel and Librem5 PureOS.
Also see:
- Successful installation of PureOS on PinePhone - PureOS - Purism community
- The PureOS section of PinePhone page on ruff.mobi
- An archived repo for PureOS on PinePhone
- A file list with pureos pinephone build instructions on mozzwald.com
Sailfish OS
Sailfish OS is a Linux-based operating system based on open source projects such as Mer, and a closed source UI based on Lipstick.
- PinePhone Wiki Page on Mer Wiki, for both Nemo Mobile and Sailfish OS.
- Linux kernel config repo
- Sailfish OS repo
Download location
Flashing script
The Sailfish OS image is built on Gitlab CI. The latest image can be installed using the flashing script.
The script downloads the image and bootloader from the CI, extracts everything and burns it onto the SD card. Note: The script will format and erase the SD card!
Instructions:
- Download the flashing script
- Insert a microSD card in your device
- Make the script executable:
chmod +x flash-it.sh
- Verify that you have the
bsdtar
package installed - Execute it:
./flash-it.sh
- Follow the instructions. Some commands in the script require root permissions (for example: mounting and flashing the SD card).
- When asked where to flash, type 'raw' and it will build the image on your computer. Otherwise define the path /dev/.... to flash to card or internal emmc.
username/password
Set PIN on initialization.
- Sometimes the first run stalls before the tutorial. Reboot and it will start from setting the security pin.
- The homescreen may be locked unless you boot with a sim card inserted. An old expired sim will do. If you do not have a SIM card on hands, do NOT set a security code on first boot.
- When a screen with a loading circle is displayed, just left/right swipe it away.
- If you're not familiar with Sailfish OS, pay attention to the tutorial - the interface works great, but is not immediately obvious. If you are familiar with it, you can skip the tutorial by touching all 4 corners starting top left.
What works, what does not work
See the Hardware Support section on the Mer Wiki's PinePhone Page.
There is a limited selection of apps available from the Jolla store, the vast majority are hosted on openrepos.net. If the Storeman app for openrepos is not preinstalled, download the RPM and click to install.
How to contribute and report defects
See the Installation section on the Mer Wiki's PinePhone Page for compile, build and development.
Git repo links are at the top of this OS section. other repos that may be helpful:
- GitHub project page
- the repo of the flash-it.sh flashing script
- Mer Open Build Service page (Mer is being assimilated into Sailfish OS and OBS is shutting down, also see OpenStack is replacing OBS with another build system based on Jenkins, if it's related, even OBS come back under Sailfish OS, it will be different.)
See the Sailfish OS wiki for links to their forum, as well as info required when reporting an issue. See the Sailfish OS wiki main page for options to contribute to Sailfish OS.
Notes
OTA is supported: zypper refresh && zypper update
as root (devel-su
to get root access). Things that need reflash are bootloader specific at the moment. If improvements like Crust or changes of partition layout are added, then you need to reflash.
SkiffOS
Minimal in-memory cross-compiled OS optimized for hosting multiple in parallel Docker containers.
Provides the reliability of firmware with the ease-of-use of package managers.
Upgrade over-the-air via a simple rsync script, or copying 3 files.
Uses the Buildroot cross-compilation tool for support for all Pine64 boards.
Use configuration packages to configure distro:
core/pinephone_neon | KDE Neon via Ubuntu repositories |
---|---|
core/pinephone_nixos | Nixos Mobile |
core/pinephone_gentoo | Gentoo with Link-time Optimization & KDE Mobile or Phosh |
core/pinephone_ubports | Ubuntu Ports for PinePhone |
core/pinephone_manjaro_kde | Manjaro for PinePhone: KDE variant |
core/pinephone_manjaro_phosh | Manjaro for PinePhone: Phosh variant |
core/pinephone_manjaro_lomiri | Manjaro for PinePhone: Lomiri variant |
The boot-up OS is upgraded independently from the containers.
Download location
The repository and instructions can be found here.
Sxmo
A collection of Suckless programs to create a mobile UI. Based on postmarketOS.
Download location
Sxmo images can be found here (in the /pine64-pinephone/sxmo/ sections respectively).
username/password
user/147147
How to contribute and report defects
Contributing information is listed here.
Ubuntu Touch
A Mobile Version of the Ubuntu Operating System made and maintained by the UBports Community.
Ubuntu touch is a mobile version of Ubuntu developed by the UBports community. Installation instructions can be found on the UBports PinePhone project. There is also a script to download the latest image and flash to your PinePhone. In the future, Ubuntu Touch will be able to be installed onto the PinePhone with the UBports installer GUI tool.
Download location
username/password
Set up during boot
What works, what does not work
Scroll down to the bottom of this page.
How to contribute and report defects
See UBports gitlab page. See UBports website for how to donate.
Tools
There are software tools, that can be booted on the PinePhone.
JumpDrive
JumpDrive can be used to flash the eMMC (and the microSD card), see PinePhone Installation Instructions#Using JumpDrive.
See https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Jumpdrive/releases for the latest image. Make sure to download the "PinePhone" image and to unpack the archive before flashing.
Factory Test OS
On the Braveheart model, there was a postmarketOS based basic Factory Test OS pre-installed on the eMMC. The developer Martijn Braam from postmarketOS has improved the functionality of the image considerably later. Since the 20200501 version, it is able to test all the hardware. It also includes functionality to install a new OS to the eMMC when using with an test image that includes that OS image. The downloadable image just does the hardware tests. Do not flash eMMC to test your device, just dd it to microSD and test from there. New versions are distributed as part of the postmarketOS distribution.
Links:
- Software Images (download the latest one named like pine-pinephone-yyyyMMdd-factorytestX.img.xz)
- Git repo
- Documentation
Factory-loaded OS builds
These are different operating system builds that was preloaded in the factory with testing utility.
Download the build, extract the image and dd it to a 8 GB or larger microSD card, then insert it into the PinePhone. After power up or reboot, you may perform and complete the test routine, or apply the build from microSD card to eMMC.
All the download links below are direct download from pine64.org.
OS | Download Link | File Size | MD5 |
---|---|---|---|
Beta Edition | pine64-pinephone-plamo-beta-factorytest.img.xz | 1.78GB | f16bce93504a52217540ac886863a418
|
Mobian | pine64-pinephone-20201207-factorytest-mobian.img.xz | 1.41GB | 015be381ff4e650a7fca6d4eaa90d63d
|
KDE | pine64-pinephone-20201208-factorytest-kde.img.xz | 2.28GB | 32979ff17b5ec4d358ce99f1aff0c77c
|
Manjaro | pine64-pinephone-20201013-manjaro-stable-20201018-factory56.img.xz | 1.04GB | 4edfd4dceaefdd32a3417c1727161c29
|
postmarketOS | pine64-pinephone-20200726-phosh-v20.05-factory.img.xz | 517MB | 244093be2f6d728fcbd1d29114607727
|
Ubuntu Touch | PinePhone-flasher-ubuntu-7b.img.gz | 1.05GB | 2d7f5271e7a281db8f1b1219bedbe131
|
Installing other ARM64 distributions
General steps:
- Create a boot partition (from 4 MB to about 252 MB) and a root partition (from the end of boot to the end of the card) filesystem on the SD card.
- Format the boot partition with vfat, and the root partition with a supported filesystem like ext4 or f2fs.
- Extract the root filesystem from your distribution's ARM image into the root filesystem on the SD card. Do not copy the partition, copy the files instead (in archive mode, like
rsync -ar
). - Edit
/etc/fstab
to match your partitions. - Grab megi's kernel from https://xff.cz/kernels/, Follow the instructions in the README, which involves copying the kernel modules into the SD card rootfs, and writing u-boot and the bootloader.
If you would like to see examples or specific commands for how to complete these steps, see:
- an example for Fedora, current unofficial [#Fedora] release
- an example for Arch Linux by megi
Other Resources
Community
Hardware information
- General PinePhone hardware info in this Pine64 wiki
- Details specific to the Braveheart Edition: PinePhone 1.1 Braveheart hardware details
- Details specific to the Community Edition: PinePhone 1.2 hardware details
- The postmarketOS wiki has a detailed page on the PinePhone hardware here and the preceding devkit here
Other software information
- sunxi community wiki
- megi's feature/driver support matrix
- megi bootUI notes (for dualbooting/multibooting) see demonstration on YouTube
- ayufan boot tools
Other