What types of phone would you pair your smartwatch with?

• [ ] Android
• [ ] Apple

Yeah…

Currently using it with a Linux phone…

This is huge news for Pebble users! \o/

Exciting times we live in!

I’ll definitely buy two watches just because I want to live in a reality where Pebble exists. Then I’ll give one to a friend, I guess.

Try Phosh. That one works well.

be sure to not use greeter logins and disk encryption as the on-screen keyboards (OSK) don’t work outside the DE. also, issues with non-US keyboard layouts.

Just set up unl0kr and keep safe, no need to use an installation without encryption. It’s not even difficult, mainly just requires installing the package and adding the unlock script path to crypttab.

It’s nice to have a device with FDE and Secure Boot, gives peace of mind in case that thing ends up in the wrong hands.

I doubt that. Signal has slow development, there aren’t new features all that often.

I just realised I did not link to my most recent post, but the one before it. This one is two months newer: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/22388672

This was the state three months ago. Quite a few things changed, I will definitely post an update once I find the time.

Curious how well existing Android devices with Linux support fare currently.

Better than the Pinephone. See my other post on this thread where I talk about my Mobian port to the Pixel 3a and click the link for some more detailed info on how well it works.

Oh and the Pinephone is just way too slow and the thermal design is not really good and it also does have issues in other parts of the hardware. It’s not a good phone, it’s a passable development device that easily allows to turn off things such as Bluetooth.

And… an old Android phone such as the Pixel 3a is just a lot cheaper and runs way faster with a far better battery life.

I’ve been recently porting Mobian to the Pixel 3a and posting about it here*. Now, Mobian is close to being ready, but is not yet. I’ve been using it as a daily driver for a few months now, but it is not what most people looking for a well-working phone would want, currently. If you want to try a well supported device now, I suggest trying postmarketOS on the Pixel 3a perhaps, they’re a bit quicker than I am, mostly because more people are working on it.

The Pixel 3a has recently been called one of the best supported Linux phones with a mainline kernel. Only issue right now is the camera not producing sharp photos, but they’re people working on the drivers in the kernel to improve on that.

Other than that, I don’t really know what’s well supported, as I focus on what I have available here.

* https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/19600671 Please note that this post is somewhat outdated and some of the issue are solved already.

And they’ve been working on it for years now. :)

I believe they’re working on it. :)

It uses a library which currently gets calls added, for example. Once that library supports calls, they can add it for Flare.

Yeah, because it’s a Pinephone. It’s an underpowered set top box SoC from around a decade ago. Definitely try something else. :)

There’s Saldo: https://flathub.org/apps/org.tabos.saldo

Works fine on Android 14 here. Google even released an update, long after Pebble had become history, to fix support for newer Android versions.

Instructions and APK are now available from Rebble: https://help.rebble.io/setup-android/#1

Depends on the bank, I’ve been a customer at four different banks over the last few years, all their apps worked flawlessly without Play Services or microg installed. One just gave a warning.

Just type in a few commands and you’ll have an image you can flash.

I’ve got a detailed description of what to do: https://git.erebion.eu/forgejo/erebion/sargo-temp

Headphones work for me and should as well on Mobian. Calls via Bluetooth do not work yet, not sure how to route the audio to the headsets. But I know there’s some stuff going on and people are working on improving the audio configs, should all be much better very soon.

It’s okay. I like that I can do whatever I want. There are some smaller issues still, but I’m fine with those, considering all the freedom I get.

I mean, I have to set the right SIM card slot and run a command to make Bluetooth work, after every boot, until that is solved. It’s not too bad. Takes me ~25 seconds.

Only annoying issue that is next on my to do list: Have the phone wake up when using an alarm clock. For now I just leave an Android phone next to my bed for that. Soon that will be solved as well. Apparently I just have to get some Systemd configuration right, but have not yet had a closer look.

Overall I am pretty happy with it. Yet I would not give it to my parents and expect them to use it like any other phone.

If you are a nerd who does need an alarm clock or a camera in their phone, or can at least work around that for now, it’s already a usable phone and messaging device.

No idea how that compares to postmarketOS. I have not tried daily driving it, as instead I intend to find issues on Mobian and solve those.

I’m sure you can find another device that can run Linux. :)

• That one uses an SDM845, while the Pixel 3a uses an SDM670. But there’s a Mobian port to that one anyway. Not sure in what state, anyway. You could flash it and find out.
• Camera is probably dead because not all the code has been written yet.
• My background is just playing with Linux since before I was a teen, but I did not know anything about porting to phones until early this year.
• I have some experience with postmarketOS, but more with Mobian as I am more of a Mobian person. I have more exprience with their docs and community than with postmarketOS itself. Many mobile Linux projects depend on the postmarketOS wiki, as they have the best source of information.
• Mobian installation is easy, just flash the images.
• Mobian documentation is somewhat lacking, but I want to improve on that once I’m less busy porting. Can’t do everything at once, of course.