Mobian for PinePhone

See PinePhone Software Releases#Mobian.

Additional Notes

If not already mentioned on the project page, the thread might have known workarounds to software and user experience issues as contributed by the users.

Most of Debian's repository is available

There are packages that apt won't find, which need to be cross compiled ("ported") to ARM64 (see Debian's wiki on ARM64 port), but the process is fairly easy. Most developers package their software for the AMD64 version of Debian, so they will throw an error when run; if you have the source code, you can compile it to run on ARM64/PinePhone. If you do so, you should contact the developers so they can provide precompiled ARM64 packages for others in the future. You should also contact Debian if you have working ARM64 packages not listed on this page, since this helps them track the status of ARM64 with Debian. Give their wiki page some TLC.

Apps that don't work with Wayland

If you encounter an app that only works with X11 and not Wayland, report it upstream to the app's developers.

The Chatty app

Requires that in order to start a new text, you need to enter +[country code]-[phone number]. Without the + and the country code (+1 for USA) you won't be able to send a new text.

To use the USB port for networking

For serial port access:

sudo apt install pinephone-devtools

Note that this also installs openssh-server, see here.

If you want to share your PinePhone mobile data internet connection via the USB port then in addition to the above, you should

sudo nmcli connection modify USB-gadget ipv4.method shared

To enable WiFi hotspot

In "Settings > WiFi" enable your hotspot.

To adjust screen resolution

sudo apt install linux-libc-dev build-essential ninja-build meson cmake libwayland-dev yad

Continue the rest of the instructions on this page. When you finish, you will have a touch-capable app you can use to adjust resolution any time, useful when switching between various apps. Unlike other solutions, this works across reboots.