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diff --git a/posts/i-love-my-pinephone.org b/posts/i-love-my-pinephone.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..346c103 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/i-love-my-pinephone.org @@ -0,0 +1,2385 @@ +#+TITLE: I Love My PinePhone +#+DATE: <2022-08-26 Fri 06:29> +#+TAGS: writeup programming arm rust pinephone alpine postmarketos emacs +#+META-TAGS: (("twitter:card" . "summary") ("twitter:site" . "@0daysfordays") ("twitter:creator" . "@0daysfordays") ("og:description" . "An attempt to document my experiences and rationale for wanting to use a PinePhone, as well as my thoughts on mobile Linux in general.") ("og:image" . "https://jakob.space/static/image/pinephone-1.jpg")) + +For the past ten months, I've been using my [[https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/][PinePhone]] as a "daily driver." By +which, I mean it's been in my pocket everywhere I go, and it's the device I use +to make phone calls. Depending on your familiarity with the PinePhone (or the +state of "Linux Phones" more generally) this statement is either delirious, or +vapid (why should I care that you use a "smart" phone just like the rest of us?) +Don't be mistaken: the PinePhone is usable as a little cellular-capable PDA, and +it's in a league of its own. This article is my attempt to document my +experiences and rationale for wanting to use one, as well as my thoughts on +mobile Linux in general. + +I expect "Linux Phone" to be a readily understood term by readers of mine, but +it is a somewhat imprecise term. So I'll clarify that by "Linux Phone," I mean a +mobile phone that runs not only the Linux kernel, but also the user space and +general experience we all associate with the Linux operating system[fn:8]. +Notably, this excludes Android[fn:1], which has existed for several years. Not +long ago, a Linux Phone seemed like a pipe dream: one I've had ever since I +first held a smartphone I could call my own. Perhaps it's impractical for many, +but I would be happy to trade ubiquity for being able to carry around +workstation-like capability in my pocket. I don't use social media like +Instagram, or proprietary messaging applications like WhatsApp and Snapchat. As +long as I can run my usual Linux software stack, and have a modem that can +receive and send phone calls and text messages, my needs are met. So when the +PinePhone was announced in 2019, I was excited. Not only did it tick many of the +boxes for my dream of a "Linux Phone," but it came from [[https://www.pine64.org/][PINE64]], a vendor I'd had +great experiences with in the past, being a [[https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/][Pinebook Pro]] owner. + +The idea of Linux phones had been at least somewhat popularized at that point +with the earlier announcement of the Librem 5, but the Pinephoe was far more +affordable, and it would be hitting the market well before the Librem 5. I got +it as a Christmas gift from my wonderful mother. Unfortunately, this was amidst +my hellish time as an undergrad, so I didn't have the time to fully buy into +swapping over my mobile compute stack. So it waited until I graduated. I +actually am somewhat happy that I waited, though, because the software situation +is much better today than it was three years ago. + +My previous "smart" phone was a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_5X][Huawei Honor 5X]], which I purchased for about +$200 before the Trump administration [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity_List#Huawei][banned domestic sales of Huawei +products]].[fn:2] I flashed CyanogenMod (later LineageOS) the second I removed +it from the box for reasons I expect to be self-evident. Initially, it was a +significant upgrade over my previous 2nd generation [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moto_G_(2nd_generation)][Moto G]], but the experience +soon grew unbearable as the LineageOS image for the device grew unmaintained. +The System UI would freeze frequently, rendering the phone inoperable until I +forcefully rebooted it; expanding the usable disk space with an external SD card +resulted in strange errors and often the SD would show up as "corrupted" until I +rebooted the phone enough times; and I would frequently have the phone reboot to +[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWRP_(software)][TWRP]] while I was walking around with it in my pocket, a symptom I strongly +suspect to be related to panics in the old, non-mainline Kernel.[fn:17] The +battery also couldn't hold a charge, and I was able to remedy that by replacing +it, but the difficulty I had in finding OEM parts suggested that regularly +servicing the battery probably wasn't sustainable. It was time for a change. + +#+TOC: headlines 2 + +* The First Week + +With that, you now understand the situation I found myself in last October. +Software support for my mobile phone was suddenly non-existent, and I was +growing frustrated with it. I had the option of setting up the experimental +PinePhone I'd been hoarding, or fronting a couple hundred dollars for a new +cellphone. I went with the former. + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +<header class="article-future-interjection"> +#+END_EXPORT +I took some nice photos the day I received the PinePhone, and more on the day I +set it up. Despite my best efforts, I have been unable to locate the SD card +those photos were saved to, so the photos below were taken recently. The visible +bumps and scuffs weren't there when I received it -- the phone's sustained those +over a few months of use. +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +</header> +#+END_EXPORT + +** Unboxing + +#+CAPTION: PinePhone in front of original box. +[[./pinephone-1.jpg]] + +The PinePhone's initial presentation engenders confidence. Despite the cost, the +box it comes in feels nice and gives me the sense that I have a quality product +in my hands. The phone comes in a protective sleeve, with a USB-C cable and a +leaflet with some information. It isn't a manual, but it does link to the Pine64 +wiki, which is close enough to one. + +#+CAPTION: PinePhone, unboxed. +[[./pinephone-2.jpg]] + +#+CAPTION: Somewhat blurry close-up of the leaflet. It's transcribed in the alt text. +#+ATTR_HTML: :alt Dear Piner, Congratulations on receiving your Brave Heart edition PinePhone! You are one of the very first to have a PinePhone. We hope you'll help us and our partner projects by contributing to development. [Line Break] Your input is valuable, so it is important that you report whatever problems you encounter. Please, include relevant logs and/or UART outputs. [Line Break] Join the conversation on whichever platform suits you. You can report non-OS specific (kernel) issues you encounter on gitlab.com/pine64-org. OS specific problems should be reported on the PINE64 Wiki (wiki.pine64.org/PinePhone#Software Support) as well as directly to developers in the PinePhone chats (Forums and Chats tab on pine64 org), on PINE64 forums (forum.pine64.org) or on the relevant partner-project forums (see Partner Projects tab on pine64.org). [Line Break] Brave Heart phones come preloaded with factory test software and nothing else. So you'll have to seek out the OSs that interest you on your own. [Line Break] Keep in mind that all the OSs are presently pre-release and vary in functionality, even from one pre-release to another. Most mobile distribution OS images are linked on the PinePhone subsection of the PINE64 Wiki. Obtaining OS builds absent from the Wiki may require talking to their developers directly. [Line Break] The PinePhone Wiki subsection also contains schematics, instructions, hardware configuration details, and other useful information about your device. You can edit and contribute to the Wiki by logging in with your forum credentials. [Line Break] Brave Heart is meant for early-adopters — developers and enthusiasts — so we expect and encourage you to experiment with the software and hardware by pushing the envelope. That said, please keep in mind that the device is under standard warranty, so breaking components during disassembly or tampering with eFUSEs will void that warranty. [Line Break] Now, have fun with your PinePhone! [Line Break] PINE64 Community Team" +[[./pinephone-3.jpg]] + +I care about the longevity of my gadgets, so I went on Thingiverse and found a +[[https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4658870][hard case design]] for the PinePhone. I could've spent more time sanding it down +and making it look nice, but it was good enough for me at the time. I'm still +inexperienced with making "good" 3D-printed parts. The roughness led to a few +minor scratches on the back cover, but it's saved my PinePhone from worse damage +on several occasions. + +The PinePhone shuts itself off upon impact. I think that's a bug, rather than a +feature, but I'm usually careful enough that it doesn't happen often. (In fact, +it's usually when others are handling my phone that it falls.) + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +<header class="article-future-interjection"> +#+END_EXPORT +While traveling to DEF CON, the bottom of the case got torn off, so I printed a +new one. This time I used =PinePhone-HardCase-v2-Thick.stl= instead of +=PinePhone-HardCase-v2.stl=. I like the thicker case much better, and I'm not as +worried about it scratching up the back cover. + +And, even though a significant part of the case was missing, it still protected +the phone from a drop. All of this is to say that PLA is not a bad material for +a phone case, and =_The3DmaN_= on Thingiverse has a damn good design. +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +</header> +#+END_EXPORT + +Per [[https://www.reddit.com/r/PinePhoneOfficial/comments/havbcm/pinephone_screen_protector/fv5smk0/][this Reddit comment]], I purchased a pack of cheap tempered glass screen +protectors designed for the iPhone Max XS. I haven't dropped the phone enough to +put it to its limits, but thus far it's done well to keep the front of the phone +free from scratches. + +#+CAPTION: Photo of the phone next to the case, horribly doctored to show both sides of the case in the same photo. +[[./pinephone-4.jpg]] + +#+CAPTION: The case makes the phone quite chunky ("thicc" as the kids say these days). Holding it is pleasant. +[[./pinephone-5.jpg]] + +The PinePhone arrives flashed with a "factory test image" which is suitable for +verifying that the hardware on the PinePhone is functional before you proceed +with it configuring it. The test for the modem was finicky, and the =motor= test +did not work. The device, at this point, was well past the limited warranty, so +I decided to press regardless. + +#+CAPTION: A PinePhone running the factorytest image. Courtesy PINE64, as I lost the photo I took when it was installed on mine. (https://www.pine64.org/2020/01/15/pinephones-start-shipping-all-you-want-to-know/) +[[./pinephone-7.jpg]] + +These issues were non-existent when I did install a proper operating system to +the phone, so I suspect there were actually some bugs in =factorytest=. +Experiencing bugs seems to be [[https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=13257&pid=90677][consistent with other users' experiences]]. + +** Distribution + +Now that we've got the phone powered up, we have some decisions to make. What +Linux distribution do we want to install on the phone? Furthermore, what desktop +environment do we want use? + +The PINE64 wiki has a [[https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Software_Releases][page listing most of the distributions]] that are known to +work on the PinePhone, and the choices are surprisingly diverse. On one end of +the spectrum, there's [[https://github.com/GloDroid/][GloDroid]], which is a port of Android to the PinePhone. +That might seem like it defeats the purpose of using the PinePhone, but I'm sure +it can be used for a use-case similar to dual-booting Windows and Linux. Moving +further from Android, we have distributions like [[https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors][Ubuntu Touch]] which actually use +parts of Android to interact with the underlying phone, but implement a full +Linux userland and display server on top of that. Personally, I think this is a +/really/ cool approach for making ordinary Android phones more useful, and you can +read more about the approach [[https://halium.org/][here]]. Finally, we've got regular mainline Linux, +with both desktop-oriented and mobile-oriented distributions. You can run +Gentoo, Fedora, Arch Linux ARM, etc. on the Pinephone, or you can opt for +[[http://postmarketos.org/][PostmarketOS]] (Alpine-derivative) or [[http://postmarketos.org/][Mobian]] (Debian-derivative). + +There are some options that might not fit into my arbitrary "spectrum" idea, +like [[https://sailfishos.org/][Sailfish OS]]. I don't know enough about it to say where it falls. +Regardless, I hope you're taking away that with an open design, you have lots of +options. + +One last choice I want to mention is the [[https://syndicate-lang.org/journal/2022/06/03/phone-progress][SqueakPhone]], which appears to be based +on PostmarketOS, but the userland is almost entirely written in Smalltalk. + +It's a good time to be hacking on mobile devices. We might not be in the golden +age, but we're certainly marching toward it. + +As much as I like running Gentoo on most of my machines, I figured that would be +a bit much for me. It also doesn't seem like a good idea to constantly be +compiling things from source on my phone, which probably doesn't have great +thermals (and I assume it would take a few days to compile e.g. Firefox unless I +took the time to properly set up =distcc=.) + +So I went with [[http://postmarketos.org/][PostmarketOS]]. I admire the design of Alpine Linux, and I think +that PostmarketOS is the project making the most progress in the mobile Linux +space. Now, PostmarketOS comes with several options for a desktop environment. +The three I consider to be the "main" options are [[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Sxmo][Sxmo]], [[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Plasma_Mobile][Plasma Mobile]], and +[[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Phosh][Phosh]]. Sxmo is basically a mobile-oriented [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwm][dwm]] fork. I'm a former dwm user and +current AwesomeWM user, but running a tiling window manager on my phone seems a +bit much, even for me. And in the Gnome versus KDE footballing[fn:11], I like +Gnome better, and I prefer GTK+ over Qt, so I went with Phosh. + +Once you know what you want to install on your PinePhone, the process is +straightforward. Flash a distribution image to an SD card, pop it into the +phone, and power it on. From there, you can install it to EMMC. + +** Storage + +The internal EMMC on the PinePhone I have is 16GB (later models have a 32GB +EMMC). My music folder far exceeds 16GB, so I bought an SD card to use as extra +storage. Unlike Android, a regular Linux distribution gives you some flexibility +with how you split storage up across the various storage devices. I set up a +LUKS-encrypted ext4 filesystem on the SD card and threw a script into [[https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/local.d][local.d]] to +decrypt it and mount it on top of =/home=. I haven't had a single issue with it, +so we're already doing much better than Android. I can store basically whatever +the hell I want on my phone without worrying about space constraints. + +#+CAPTION: A readily-noticeable feature of the PinePhone is how easy it is to get to the internals. You don't need to do much to get to the SD/SIM slot; there's a notch in the back cover that you can pry up on and it pops right off. +[[./pinephone-6.jpg]] + +** Mobile Data + +Mobile data worked surprisingly well, with minimal tinkering. At the time, +PostmarketOS wasn't able to automatically detect the APN for my carrier, but the +PINE64 wiki has a [[https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_APN_Settings][list of APN settings]] for common carriers. Once I set it up to +communicate with =NXTGENPHONE=, I was able to kill the Wi-Fi connection and hit +=icanhazip.com=. I knew it worked because I was given an IPv6 address in response. +First time that's happened to me. + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +<iframe src="https://nitter.net/0daysfordays/status/1489964439608700936/embed" width="500px" height="500px" scrolling="no" ></iframe> +#+END_EXPORT + +I was also able to pull out my PinePhone and pull up a picture of Fred Durst at +the Thanksgiving dinner table[fn:9], far away from my house, so I was able to test out +mobile data "in practice" fairly early into my PinePhone usage. + +** Software + +While we can [[https://waydro.id/][run Android applications on GNU/Linux]], it would defeat the purpose +of using this phone to run Android applications for everything. So, soon after +I'd verified all was working, I put together a list of the packages that I had +installed on my old phone, and figured out what the analogs were on +PostmarketOS. + +| Android App | PostmarketOS package | Note | +|--------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| +| andOTP | [[https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/numberstation][numberstation]] | | +| AntennaPod | | Dropped; I'll just use an RSS reader. | +| AnySoftKeyboard | [[https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/squeekboard][squeekboard]] | | +| App Manager | | Android-specific application. | +| AudioFX | | Unused on Android. But there are plenty of [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PipeWire#Audio_post-processing][post-processing applications]] for Pipewire. | +| Aurora Store | | Android-specific application. | +| BackgroundRestrictor | | Android-specific application. | +| Browser | | Unused on Android. | +| AVNC | [[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/VNC][tigervnc]] | Unused in PostmarketOS. | +| Calculator | [[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Calculator][gnome-calculator]]; [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/calc.html][calc]] | | +| Calendar | [[https://orgmode.org/][Org mode]] | | +| Calendar Import-Export | [[https://orgmode.org/][Org mode]] | Unused in PostmarketOS.[fn:3] | +| Camera | [[https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=megapixels][Megapixels]] | | +| Clock | [[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-clocks][gnome-clocks]] | | +| Contacts | [[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-contacts][gnome-contacts]] | | +| Conversations | [[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Dino][dino]] | Unused in PostmarketOS.[fn:4] | +| Discord | [[https://github.com/diamondburned/gtkcord4][gtkcord4]] | Discord sucks and I hate it, but some friends are only reachable on there, so I have to settle. | +| Email | | Unused on Android. | +| F-Droid | | Android-specific application | +| FFUpdater | | Android-specific application | +| Files | [[https://github.com/tchx84/Portfolio][Portfolio]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dired][dired]], ls(1) | | +| Firefox | Firefox | | +| FM Radio | | _Not replaceable._[fn:6] | +| Gallery | [[https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=gnomephotos][gnome-photos]] | | +| K-9 Mail | [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geary_(e-mail_client)][Geary]] | | +| Libera PRO | [[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince][Evince]] | Could use Calibre, but I actually do most of my e-book reading on a rooted Nook now. | +| Messaging | [[https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/chatty][Chatty]] | | +| MuPDF mini | [[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince][Evince]] | | +| Music | [[https://www.musicpd.org/][Music Player Daemon]] | | +| NewPipe | [[https://mpv.io/][mpv]], [[https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp][yt-dlp]] | | +| Obsqr | [[https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=megapixels][Megapixels]] | | +| Offline Calendar | | Android-specific application. | +| OpenKeychain | gpg(1) | | +| Orbot | [[https://gitweb.torproject.org/torsocks.git][torsocks]] | | +| Orgzly | | Not needed as I can run GNU Emacs natively on PostmarketOS. | +| OsmAnd~ | [[https://sr.ht/~mil/mepo/][mepo]] | | +| Password Store | [[https://www.passwordstore.org/][pass]] | | +| Phone | [[https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=calls][Calls]] | | +| Recorder | [[https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html][ffmpeg]] | | +| RetroArch | RetroArch | Unused in PostmarketOS.[fn:7] | +| Settings | | Android-specific application. | +| Shattered Pixel Dungeons | | Dropped. | +| Signal | | | +| Slide | | Dropped. | +| Syncthing | Syncthing | | +| Termux | [[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/console][gnome-console]] | | +| Tiny Tiny RSS | [[https://gfeeds.gabmus.org/][gnome-feeds]] | I don't currently use RSS synchronization. | +| Tusky | [[https://github.com/bleakgrey/tootle][Tootle]] | | +| wallabag | | Dropped. | +| Wikipedia | | Dropped. | + +Excluded from this list are two banking applications which are effectively +irreplaceable, as they employ some additional anti-tampering and security +measures. I still keep a burner phone around for this -- even though I'm able to +do a lot from the website, there are a few things like digital check deposit and +paying rent through Zelle that I can't do without the mobile app. + +I keep the burner phone in a Faraday bag at home, but I did carry my old Android +phone around on me while I was starting to use the PinePhone -- always in +airplane mode, occasionally connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot. I took the approach of +weening myself off one and onto the other. + +I still occasionally carry around the old phone because mepo is nowhere near +OsmAnd~ in terms of maturity, so the PinePhone isn't very useful for land +navigation. The camera's also a little better on the Honor 5X. + +There are also a few odd things that aren't in the table because in Android, +they're built into the system. In particular, I've been using [[https://github.com/emersion/grim][grim]] to take +screenshots and [[https://sr.ht/~kennylevinsen/wlsunset/][wlsunset]] to set the screen color temperature.[fn:16] + +I'll get into the specifics of using some of these applications (like GNU Emacs) +later in the article. + +* Pain Points + +As you might expect, I've encountered several issues while daily-driving the +PinePhone. Most of these would make the PinePhone a non-starter for anyone with +a relatively normal use-case. But for me, they're inconveniences I'm willing to +live with. Some have been resolved by now, and I'm hopeful that they continue to +be addressed as time goes on. + +** Modem: Frequent disconnects, not receiving calls + +The modem has been the single most frustrating part about using the PinePhone. +For background: the PinePhone uses a Quectel EG25-G modem, which is effectively +a SOC of its own, running a little embedded Linux distribution distinct from the +rest of the PinePhone. So if the firmware is dogshit ([[https://www.toomanyatoms.com/computer/pinephone.html#modem][which it is]], if you're +using the firmware from Quectel), it can run hot or draw a stupid amount of +power while the main SOC is in standby and drain the battery. + +Fortunately, [[https://biktorgj.com/][Biktorgj]] maintains a [[https://github.com/Biktorgj/pinephone_modem_sdk][free firmware implementation]] for the EG25-G +which is much better. Battery life on standby went from a couple of hours to a +whole day when I made the switch. + +Regardless of firmware, I was having an issue where the modem would disconnect +from the phone every couple of minutes, which was very frustrating. This is +resolved by using =udev= to set =ATTR{power/control}= to =on= instead of =auto=, at a +cost in power consumption, but the usability is worth the hit in battery life. + +Having a distinct modem daughter card seems to be a design feature, at least [[https://puri.sm/posts/the-design-behind-a-modular-and-secure-mobile-phone/][in +the eyes of Purism]], because it means that "those network components are fully +isolated from the main board and cannot freely access the rest of the system," +indicating that it's "an important privacy feature." It comes with it's costs, +though. + +Biktorgj's project only addresses parts of the firmware, and not the baseband +implementation. You still need to install ADSP firmware blobs for that. And, +humorously, Quectel doesn't seem to officially publish them, so the PINE64 +community just maintains a collection of four different versions with varying +levels of stability depending on the cellular carrier being used. + +One issue that I have yet to solve is that, if the phone is sitting in standby +for a while (say, overnight), I can't receive or make calls. But it's +inconsistent. For example, at the time of writing this, I'd had my phone in +standby without restarting for several nights, but I could make a call just now. +It's hard to gleam what's going on from the logs, too. + +#+BEGIN_SRC prog +Jul 30 02:02:34 theta daemon.info [2179]: <info> [modem0/bearer1] verbose call end reason (3,1056): [cm] lrrc-connection-establishment-failure-timer-expired +Jul 30 02:02:34 theta daemon.info [2179]: <info> [modem0] state changed (connected -> registered) +Jul 30 02:02:34 theta daemon.info [2179]: <info> [modem0/bearer1] connection #1 finished: duration 22362s, tx: 285780 bytes, rx: 1471594 bytes +... +Jul 30 06:02:43 theta daemon.info [2179]: <info> [modem0/bearer1] verbose call end reason (3,1034): [cm] esm-sync-up-with-nw +Jul 30 06:02:43 theta daemon.info [2179]: <info> [modem0] state changed (connected -> registered) +Jul 30 06:02:43 theta daemon.info [2179]: <info> [modem0/bearer1] connection #2 finished: duration 14407s, tx: 172 bytes, rx: 555 bytes +#+END_SRC + +For me, this isn't a huge problem. 90% of the time I'm getting a phone call, +it's a robot asking me about my car's warranty. If it's someone actually trying +to get a hold of me, they're likely to leave a voicemail, which I am alerted to +even if the phone's in this unusual state of being unable to receive calls. + +So running custom firmware on the modem is currently the best way to have a +moderately-usable modem. With [[https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/commit/17854099d0e614c06b5a40d2477477ee3d850fc7#diff-5a375f230ee85cf307402aaabd8da6e6dbc8ad32e0a5e9f6d302a896a8387c4cR557][the news]] that Quectel could potentially be locking +down their hardware and preventing users from flashing their own firmware, I'm +worried the usability of the PinePhone will be kneecapped in the somewhat +near-future. + +The sad thing is, this modem seems to be the best supported piece of hardware in +ModemManager now, and I don't think we'll see this much work on other modems for +a long while. This Quectel piece of shit will probably be the only usable option +in e.g. PostmarketOS for the foreseeable future. + +** Occasional Non-Wake from Suspend + +My phone will occasionally refuse to wake up from standby. That is, when the +phone goes to sleep because the screen's been off for 2 minutes, it suspends. +But the power button doesn't wake it, nor does the phone respond to the +[[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/TTYescape][TTYEscape]] key sequence. + +I configured =syslogd= to write to disk instead of shared memory to get some +indication of what might be going on, but since doing the issue hasn't presented +itself. I suspected that =gnome-power-manager= was failing to register ACPI +wake-up events in some cases, but I don't see /any/ messages about ACPI in my +=dmesg= output. Seems like [[https://linux-sunxi.org/PSCI][PSCI]] is what's being used, which tracks since the [[http://acpi.info/DOWNLOADS/ACPIspec50.pdf][first +version of the standard to acknowledge ARM]] was only released a decade ago. I +don't know enough about PSCI to hypothesize about what might have been going on. +What matters is that it's been a difficult problem to track down. + +** Suspend Prevents Alarm from Going off + +Rarely a problem for me since I plug my phone in at night and don't have it +configured to suspend when on AC power, but if the phone is suspended, there's +nothing to wake the phone up to check for alarms you've set in =gnome-clocks=. The +effect is that your alarm isn't going to go off. + +Fortunately, the modem is almost always running and is able to wake the phone, +so if you're using Biktorgj's firmware, you can send the modem a text message to +[[https://github.com/the-modem-distro/pinephone_modem_sdk/blob/kirkstone/docs/SMS_INTERFACE.md][schedule a wake-up call]]. It's a nice solution to a pretty unfortunate problem. + +There are some [[https://static.lwn.net/images/pdf/suspend_blockers.pdf][papers]] on how power management is done in Android-land, which +makes me think that user space alarms /could/ work in the presence of an automatic +suspend framework. In fact, the RTC available on the PinePhone [[https://codeberg.org/Silmathoron/pinephone-autowake][is sufficient]] to +trigger a wake event, but configuring it seems to be quite user-unfriendly. I +hope that we see more libraries and software development kits for Linux that +take advantage of mobile hardware capabilities. + +** Battery Life + +As stated above, battery life out-of-the-box is awful. It's made much better by +installing Biktorgj's modem firmware, but is still somewhat underwhelming. I've +seen this [[https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/comparing-l5-and-pp/][attributed to the phone's design consisting of four separate chips]]. + +The [[https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/comparing-l5-and-pp/][PinePhone Keyboard]] comes with a 6000mAh internal battery to effectively +extend the battery capacity of the PinePhone. I haven't purchased one yet. + +What I have done is spend about $40 on a 40000mAh power bank from Anker. That +was a good investment, since I can charge my PineBook and other devices as well. +I just keep that and a spare USB-C cable in my bag (which I bring with me +practically everywhere), and I haven't had any issues. + +I'm hopeful that PINE64 eventually releases a back cover that supports a +higher-capacity battery (maybe 5000mAh). My hesitancy with the keyboard is that +I'm worried it would be /too/ chunky. I wouldn't expect a slightly fatter battery +to make it difficult to fit the phone in my pocket, but a phone with a keyboard +attached might be a tight fit. + +** Mobile hotspot not working + +Non-issue as of PostmarketOS 21.12. The hotspot works fine, and I use it +extensively to connect my PineBook to the internet while on the go. + +Even in 21.06, it wasn't a terrible issue to have to work around. The issue was +that I couldn't connect to the internet directly, but I could still connect to +the PinePhone, so SSH tunneling and a SOCKS5 client were all I needed to browse +the web or check my email. It was [[https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=10974][apparently a kernel issue]]. + +** On-screen Keyboard + +This is a difficult issue to put into words, and as such I've had a hard time +looking around for mention of it on the bug tracker or elsewhere. + +Sometimes, when typing with [[https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/squeekboard][Squeekboard]] (the on-screen keyboard that comes with +Phosh), I'll press a key once and two characters will be inserted -- as if the +phone registered it as two taps in quick succession. + +A solution I'd like to try is to patch Squeekboard and have it keep a timer for +determining how much time there elapses between key press events. If the pause +is too short, then we'd drop the second key press. Squeekboard seems to be +mostly written in Rust, so I find that to be an enticing quality-of-life +improvement project, but I think I've done enough technical work in this post +already, so I'll do it another time. + +** Bluetooth Audio + +Bluetooth audio remains a pain point, and an elusive one at that. It works well +when attempting to troubleshoot, but seems to bug out when I actually use it. +The [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Bluetooth_headset#Connecting_works,_but_there_are_sound_glitches_all_the_time][Arch Linux Wiki has a page]] on troubleshooting my situation, which is that +"[c]onnecting works, but there are sound glitches all the time." In my case, I +have no issues connecting to my car's stereo system, for example, but 90% of the +time I will have audio buffer overruns that cause the audio to pause every +second or so. It is infuriating to have to listen to. I mostly notice this +behavior with =mpd=, and I have a procedure for "fixing it." + +1. =nice -11 mpd= +2. =mpc play= +3. =pkill mpd= +4. =nice -11 mpd= +5. Music starts playing without hiccups. + +I'm not sure why it works, or if this indicates that the issue is in =mpd= rather +than the Bluetooth stack. Regardless, it's behavior I would expect to "just +work." + +[[https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=10810][CyberSeb on the PINE64 forum has a post]] for configuring the Bluetooth stack to +work better, and I have some recollection of the second step working well, but +as of late the script I have to run those commands (included below) no longer +works. It tends to fail at =pactl set-port-latency-offset=, either because +=BLUEZCARD= isn't defined, or something else. The error messages aren't especially +descriptive. + +I was only doing the second step because, for some time, I was convinced that my +phone wasn't running Pulse. I really thought it was on Pipewire, but it seems my +memory failed me. + +#+BEGIN_SRC prog +theta:~$ sudo apk add pipewire-pulse +ERROR: unable to select packages: + pipewire-pulse-0.3.51-r1: + breaks: postmarketos-ui-phosh-18-r3[!pipewire-pulse] + satisfies: world[pipewire-pulse] gnome-settings-daemon-42.1-r0[pulseaudio] postmarketos-base-ui-gnome-1-r3[pulseaudio] gnome-session-42.0-r1[pulseaudio-alsa] +#+END_SRC + +Even if Pulse is installed, I'm hesitant to screw with its niceness because it +does not have a reputation of being resourceful. I'm wondering if these issues +would go away if I /did/ switch over to using Pipewire, but the error from =apk= +above makes me think that it would be a hard nut to crack. I've tried [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PulseAudio/Troubleshooting#Setting_the_default_fragment_number_and_buffer_size_in_PulseAudio][setting a +default fragment size]] in Pulse as a more reasonable workaround while I wait +for Pulse to eventually die a slow and painful death. So far, it hasn't fixed +the =mpd= problem, and I'm not especially inclined to troubleshoot further. + +** Cross Compiling Woes + +PostmarketOS maintains a tool for cross-compiling packages (among other things) +called [[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Installing_pmbootstrap][pmbootstrap]], which I find to be quite nice. =pmbootstrap init= will set you +up with a chroot pinned at a specific version of PostmarketOS (or =edge=) for a +specific device and architecture, and from there you can use =pmbootstrap build= +to cross-compile packages for installation on the PinePhone. Cross-compiling can +be a bit slow (it literally took a day to compile Emacs PGTK) because, in most +cases, the toolchain will be running under [[https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/user/main.html][QEMU's user space emulator]], but it's +probably better than melting your phone trying to compile things on the device. + +I've had a few sour experiences with cross-compiling, but the issue always came +down to poor quality control in Alpine's =community= repository rather than the +cross compiling workflow not being good. Before learning about [[https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/numberstation][numberstation]], I +was trying to use =gnome-authenticator=, and the version available in =apk= was +[[https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/13296][completely unusable]]. I tried to build a newer version, which ended up being +incompatible with the libraries installed in my version of PostmarketOS, and I +tried to build a really old version (before the application was rewritten in +Rust), which didn't work either. I ended up cross-compiling [[https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/13296][otpclient]] with +little friction. + +** Lack of software + +A lot of what I want to do is well-supported by existing Linux packages, but +there are a couple of blind spots like Signal. In theory, I can use Pidgin and +[[https://signald.org/][signald]], but I haven't been bothered to try it. + +In these cases, the solution is to write your own software. + +#+CAPTION: One of the first applications I wrote for my PinePhone: a basic Signal client, in Rust, running on my workstation. I obfuscated my partner's phone number for obvious reasons. +[[./warp-mvp.png]] + +Being able to do this without the complexity (and Java requirement) of the +Android SDK is the biggest appeal of running a Linux phone to me. So much so +that I've got an entire section dedicated to it later in this article. + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +<header class="article-future-interjection"> +#+END_EXPORT +Something I was not privy to early in my use of the PinePhone was the existence +of [[https://linuxphoneapps.org/][LinuxPhoneApps]], which enumerates Linux applications and games which are +relatively well-supported on touch screen devices. The list, while smaller than +something like the F-Droid, gives one some hope that the software situation is +improving. +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +</header> +#+END_EXPORT + +* The Good Parts + +I started off talking about the problems that come with using a device like the +PinePhone, but I've continued to use it because for me, the benefits far +outweigh the issues, which I'll outline below. + +** Emacs on Mobile + +This is the "killer feature" for me. + +You might expect Emacs on mobile to be little more than a novelty, but the only +application I think I use more than it is Firefox. I've now got a friction-less +=org-capture= device in my pocket. If an idea pops into my head, or if someone +tells me to do something, I just pull out the PinePhone, =M-<RET> TODO= and type +it in. That note then makes its way to my other machines by the magic of +[[https://syncthing.net/][Syncthing]]. Another use for mobile Emacs is that, sometimes, I'll cuddle up to my +partner, and they'll fall asleep on me, but I really want to work on a blog +post. If this happens, I can use [[https://www.gnu.org/s/tramp/][TRAMP]] to edit the draft over SSH. In fact, I've +literally edited /this blog post/ from my bed while Oli was asleep on me, using +mobile Emacs. + +The other uses are honestly pretty mundane. I like being able to use =dired= to +browse the local filesystem; I can use [[https://github.com/speedenator/malyon][Malyon]] to play [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork][Zork]] & friends on the go; +and if I'm really bored, I can just start hacking on Scheme or Elisp code while +I'm sitting on the train. + +I was anticipating wanting to pick up [[https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil][evil-mode]], thinking it would be better for +use with an on-screen keyboard, but the Squeekboard terminal layout is actually +quite good for Emacs-ing. I can whip around a buffer at about a fifth my speed +on my workstation, which is pretty good for only using a fifth of my God-given +fingers. Icons (I don't disable =tool-bar-mode= in my mobile configuration) make +for a slightly nicer touch input experience, too. + +#+CAPTION: GNU Emacs on the PinePhone. Not blurry, after the process described below. +[[./pinephone-running-emacs.png]] + +It was a little difficult to get things running. Emacs is in the PostmarketOS +repos.. except the package sucks because it's the old X11 Emacs, and Phosh is +Wayland, so it has to run through Xwayland and fractional scaling makes it a +blurry mess. To resolve that, I ripped a ton of code out of the [[https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/tree/community/emacs?h=master][APKBUILD]] and +pointed it at a tarball for Emacs =master= (which has [[https://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2021-12/msg00126.html][had the PGTK branch merged]]). + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +<div class="section-fold" data-name="APKBUILD for Emacs (pure GTK branch)"> +#+END_EXPORT + +#+BEGIN_SRC prog +# Maintainer: Natanael Copa <[REDACTED]> +# Contributor: Timo Teräs <[REDACTED]> +pkgname=emacs +pkgver=29.0 +pkgrel=7 +pkgdesc="The extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor" +arch="all" +depends="emacs-nox" +url="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html" +license="GPL-3.0-or-later" +makedepends=" + autoconf + automake + gawk + gmp-dev + gnutls-dev + harfbuzz-dev + jansson-dev + linux-headers + ncurses-dev + ncurses-libs + texinfo + " +subpackages="$pkgname-doc $pkgname-nox" +source="emacs-$pkgver.tar.xz" + +case $CARCH in + riscv64|s390x) + # limited by librsvg (rust) + _docdir="nox" + ;; + ,*) + makedepends=" + $makedepends + alsa-lib-dev + fontconfig-dev + giflib-dev + glib-dev + gtk+3.0-dev + libgccjit-dev + libjpeg-turbo-dev + libpng-dev + librsvg-dev + libxaw-dev + libxml2-dev + libxpm-dev + pango-dev + tiff-dev + " + subpackages=" + $subpackages + $pkgname-gtk3 + " + _docdir="gtk3" + ;; +esac + +prepare() { + default_prepare + ./autogen.sh +} + +_build_variant() { + cd "$builddir/$1" + shift + CFLAGS=-fno-pie \ + LDFLAGS=-no-pie \ + ./configure \ + --build=$CBUILD \ + --host=$CHOST \ + --prefix=/usr \ + --sysconfdir=/etc \ + --libexecdir=/usr/lib \ + --localstatedir=/var \ + --with-gameuser=:games \ + --with-gpm \ + --with-harfbuzz \ + --with-json \ + "${@}" + + make $_extra +} + +_build_gtk3() { + _build_variant gtk3 \ + --with-pgtk \ + --with-xft \ + --with-jpeg=yes \ + --with-tiff=no \ + --with-gif=ifavailable \ + --with-xpm=ifavailable +} + + # --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 \ + +_build_nox() { + _build_variant nox \ + --without-sound \ + --without-x \ + --without-file-notification +} + +build() { + mkdir -p nox + mv ./* nox || true + + case "$CARCH" in + riscv64|s390x) + # limited by librsvg (rust) + _build_nox + ;; + ,*) + cp -a nox gtk3 + _build_nox + _build_gtk3 + ;; + esac +} + +package() { + mkdir -p "$pkgdir" +} + +doc() { + depends="" + mkdir -p "$subpkgdir" + cd "$builddir"/"$_docdir" + make DESTDIR="$subpkgdir" install + # remove conflict with ctags package + mv "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/man/man1/ctags.1.gz "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/man/man1/ctags.emacs.1.gz + # only keep info and man directories, all other is in the specific package + rm -rf "${subpkgdir:?}"/usr/bin \ + "$subpkgdir"/usr/lib \ + "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/appdata \ + "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/applications \ + "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/emacs \ + "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/icons \ + "${subpkgdir:?}"/var \ + "$subpkgdir"/usr/lib/systemd +} + +_subpackage() { + cd "$builddir/$1" + make DESTDIR="$subpkgdir" install + + # remove conflict with ctags package + mv "$subpkgdir"/usr/bin/ctags "$subpkgdir"/usr/bin/ctags.emacs + rm -rf "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/info \ + "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/man + + # fix user/root permissions on usr/share files + find "$subpkgdir"/usr/share/emacs/ -exec chown root:root {} \; + find "$subpkgdir"/usr/lib -perm -g+s,g+x ! -type d -exec chmod g-s {} \; + # fix perms on /var/games + chmod 775 "$subpkgdir"/var/games + chmod 775 "$subpkgdir"/var/games/emacs + chmod 664 "$subpkgdir"/var/games/emacs/* + chown -R root:games "$subpkgdir"/var/games + + # remove useless systemd user file + rm -rf "$subpkgdir"/usr/lib/systemd +} + +nox() { + pkgdesc="$pkgdesc - without X11" + depends=" + !emacs-gtk3 + !emacs-gtk3-nativecomp + !emacs-x11 + !emacs-x11-nativecomp + " + _subpackage nox +} + +gtk3() { + pkgdesc="$pkgdesc - with GTK3" + depends=" + !emacs-gtk3-nativecomp + !emacs-nox + !emacs-x11 + !emacs-x11-nativecomp + desktop-file-utils + hicolor-icon-theme + " + _subpackage gtk3 +} + +sha512sums=" +20c96e4485b9acbc5c9049bca9b4d9675cd5f4062cd04a9abde4fb7088c7dc55e3bf473acce8f447825c0c1fd9a5def23623d0219bc0353b31892a0cc23f7884 emacs-29.0.tar.xz +" +#+END_SRC + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +</div> +#+END_EXPORT + +There is no Emacs =29.0= (yet, at the time of writing this), that's just so =apk= +knows that this is newer than what's in the repositories. + +And if you find the code snippet incomprehensible, don't worry, because I've got +a gentler introduction to Alpine packaging [[*Porting Software][later in this article]]. + +** YouTube on Mobile + +I was a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewPipe][NewPipe]] user when I was using Android. I'd frequently find it unusable, +and the times it was usable, I'd still get annoying toasts warning me of errors, +just about every time I watched a video. The F-Droid package didn't keep up with +YouTube cat-and-mouse game as quickly as youtube-dl did. I always thought about +how nice it would be to use =mpv= and =yt-dlp= just like I do on desktop, and that's +now a reality. + +#+CAPTION: mpv playing one of Andreas Kling's YouTube videos on SerenityOS, using yt-dlp to resolve the media stream. +[[./pinephone-running-mpv.png]] + +I get the video URLs from RSS and invoke =mpv= from the terminal. I find it +convenient. The only issue I had is that the screen blanks automatically even +when a video is playing, but this is easily remedied by prefixing =mpv= with +=gnome-session-inhibit --inhibit idle=. + +** Better Music Player + +LineageOS included the old Cyanogenmod Music app [[https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_packages_apps_Eleven][Eleven]], and that's what I used +when I was on Android. I didn't see a purpose in using any other music player +since they all seem to use the same Android APIs and, hence, all suck as much as +Eleven does. Among other things, it cuts out frequently (presumably the process +getting killed due to memory pressure), and it can't even load a damned jpeg. + +#+CAPTION: Album artwork being mangled by some bug unknown to me. +[[./music-on-zeta.png]] + +So I was quite happy to be able to use =mpd= to listen to music on the PinePhone. +My entire library's managed with Syncthing. + +** Running scripts, cron, other automation + +Another "killer feature" is just being able to automate things with =bash= and +=cron= the way I would on desktop. One pain point I remember particularly when I +was using Android was manually adjusting the screen color temperature in +settings. Now I can just use =cron= to run =wlsunset= at a particular hour. + +I suppose that's the only example that's worth mentioning. I haven't leveraged +it as much as I could have (but I expect to in the future.) + +** Convergence + +A selling point of the PinePhone is [[https://yewtu.be/watch?v=yBeza4UNOm8][convergence]], enabling you to plug your phone +into a monitor and keyboard (over USB-C), and use it as if it were a desktop +computer. I haven't taken advantage of this yet, but I can SSH into my phone. +That's already far better than what I can do on Android, and it's enough for me +to be happy -- just being able to pull/push files over rsync, run shell commands +over SSH using an actual keyboard... + +The only thing I wish I could do is send SMS over SSH and get notifications from +my phone on my workstation. SMS messages can (theoretically) be sent using +=mmcli=, and I'm not sure about notifications. Perhaps I've made a programming +project for myself. + +** Run Linux Desktop Applications + +Nearly all of the above points boil down to the PinePhone enabling me to run +Linux desktop applications on mobile. Consistency is nice. Who would have known! + +* Software Development + +I consider this to be one of "The Good Parts", but it ended up being big enough +to take up a section of its own. + +** Software Stack Freedom + +If you're at least mildly familiar with Android, you know that the Java +ecosystem is nearly unavoidable if you're doing application development for the +platform.[fn:10] The NDK enables application developers to write code in other +languages (provided they "compile down" to machine code) but it isn't practical +to write an entire application this way, as NDK code is limited in the ways it +can interact with Android's APIs. Furthermore, the Android SDK is a pain in the +ass to use if you're not using [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Studio][Google's IDE]]. It's doable, and I have [[https://git.sr.ht/~jakob/mines][done it in +the past]], but I got frustrated before I could set up an emulator for improving +the feedback loop. I was literally pushing to my device via =adb= on every build +if I wanted to experiment with something. That said, it is easy to understand +why it is this way. Google (and Apple) want to have uniformity across their +platforms' third-party applications, so they impose strong opinions (you /must/ +use our UI framework, you /must/ use our Java APIs). Comparatively, the +applications that run on my PinePhone are literally the same applications that +run on my workstation. I can use any language or libraries I want, provided they +support AArch64. I can develop and test on my workstation, and then push it to +the PinePhone with high confidence that it will work as intended. + +I've been writing my applications in Rust with =gtk-rs= and =libhandy=. There's been +a (somewhat recent) distinction between "application programming languages" and +"systems programming languages." Rust falls into the latter. The distinction is +somewhat arbitrary as you can write an application in assembly, but the reason +it's come up in recent years is because people want a way to describe languages +that (1) aren't interpreted or VM languages and (2) don't have a convenient +garbage collector. These sorts of language seem to work quite well for a +resource-constrained environment like the PinePhone, even if it is somewhat more +difficult than using something like Python or Ruby. + +Using Rust is perhaps a bit overkill. I'm sure Vala would have been a good +choice, too, since it compiles to C, but I went with Rust because I'm more +comfortable with it and it has a ecosystem of libraries for the sorts of things +I want to do. + +So that's all I have to say about the language decision, but there's the +decision of UI toolkit too. I went with GTK3 and [[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libhandy][libhandy]]: the classic GNOME UI +toolkit and [[https://puri.sm/][Purism]]'s supporting library for adaptive, mobile-friendly layouts +and widgets. But that isn't the only option available. Still in GNOME land, +there is GTK4 and [[https://blogs.gnome.org/alexm/2021/12/31/libadwaita-1-0/][libadwaita]], which I'll probably be using in the near future. +I'm just a little slow to start using cool new things. There are /many/ more +choices on the Plasma Mobile side of the house: [[https://develop.kde.org/frameworks/kirigami//][Kirigami]], [[https://mauikit.org/][MauiKit]] (built on top +of Kirigami), plain [[https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtquick-index.html][QtQuick]], or Sailfish OS's [[https://sailfishos.org/develop/docs/silica/][Silica]]. While GTK and QT are the +leading frameworks, I was keeping a close eye on [[https://github.com/dvdsk/pods][pods]], a PinePhone-oriented +application using Rust's [[https://github.com/iced-rs/iced][iced]], which is neither GTK nor QT. Unfortunately, it +looks to have since stagnated. But [[https://sr.ht/~mil/mepo/][mepo]], a maps application, is a surprisingly +pleasant mobile experience and is written just in SDL. + +As an aside, I'd like to experiment with some immediate-mode UI frameworks on +the PinePhone. GTK is relatively performant, but I'm curious about whether +something like [[https://github.com/emilk/egui][egui]] would be "snappier". Hell, maybe it would be interesting to +try and write my own UI framework. + +*** "Tunes", an MPD Client for Rust + +To demonstrate the GTK3 and libhandy combo, I decided to write the minimum +viable product of an application I want on my PinePhone that, to my knowledge, +doesn't exist yet. A touch-friendly GTK+ MPD client. + +Yes... I've been using =mpc= in the terminal emulator since I got the phone. It's +not as pleasant when you don't have a real keyboard, so this application will +theoretically improve my quality-of-life. + +But, because I don't want this post to take any longer than it already has, I'm +just going to write about what I could get done in a few weeknights. It's a +single-file, and fairly self-contained. + +*** Alright, Let's See the Code + +It's a few hundred lines and I've dumped it here under a fold since it's a few +hundred lines. You can find it [[https://git.sr.ht/~jakob/tunes][on SourceHut]] as well, which has the =Cargo.toml= +and all that you would need to actually build it. + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +<div class="section-fold" data-name="source code for Tunes"> +#+END_EXPORT + +#+BEGIN_SRC rust +// Copyright © 2021-2022 Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +// +// This file is part of Tunes. +// +// Tunes is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it +// under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as +// published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the +// License, or (at your option) any later version. +// +// Tunes is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT +// ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY +// or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General +// Public License for more details. +// +// You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public +// License along with Tunes. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. + +use futures::{channel::mpsc, StreamExt}; +use glib::clone; +use gtk::prelude::*; +use gtk::subclass::prelude::ObjectSubclassExt; +use gtk::{gdk_pixbuf, gio, glib, pango}; +use libhandy::prelude::*; +use libhandy::{ApplicationWindow, HeaderBar}; +use mpd::idle::Idle; +use mpd::Client; + +const MPD_HOST: &str = "127.0.0.1:6600"; + +fn main() { + let application = gtk::Application::builder() + .application_id("space.jakob.Tunes") + .build(); + + // We have to wait until the `activate` signal is fired before we can do our + // setup. + application.connect_activate(|app| { + // Our event-handling code will look a bit like what's common in SDL + // with their `SDLPollEvent` interface, in the sense that we'll have all + // of the different sub-systems of this application notify the main + // event loop by way of a channel. + let (sender, mut receiver) = mpsc::channel(1024); + + // Load all of the mobile UI support code from `libhandy`. + libhandy::init(); + + // `mpd` will notify us of events. Let's spin up a thread to listen for + // those notifications, and shuttle them through a channel as they + // arrive. + std::thread::spawn(clone!(@strong sender => move || { + let mut conn = Client::connect(MPD_HOST).unwrap(); + while let Ok(_subsystems) = conn.wait(&[mpd::idle::Subsystem::Player]) { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::MpdEvent) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + } + })); + + // We'll connect to the MPD daemon here so we can populate the UI with + // some information from the current state. + let mut conn = Client::connect(MPD_HOST).unwrap(); + + // We'll have two "views" in our application: one for viewing and + // manipulating the current `mpd` queue, and another for searching for + // songs to add to the queue. In GTK, we can handle switching between + // these different views using a Stack. + let stack = gtk::Stack::new(); + stack.set_expand(true); + + let song_info = SongInfo::new(sender.clone()); + stack.add_named(song_info.as_ref(), "current_song"); + stack.set_child_title(song_info.as_ref(), Some("Now Playing")); + stack.set_child_icon_name(song_info.as_ref(), Some("audio-speakers-symbolic")); + + let query_info = QueryInfo::new(sender.clone()); + stack.add_named(query_info.as_ref(), "query_songs"); + stack.set_child_title(query_info.as_ref(), Some("Search Database")); + stack.set_child_icon_name(query_info.as_ref(), Some("system-search-symbolic")); + + // The `HeaderBar` is a GTK concept that libhandy plays nicely with. On + // desktop, the elements for switching stack views will show up there. + // On mobile, it will show up in a `ViewSwitcherBar` at the bottom. + let header_bar = HeaderBar::builder() + .show_close_button(true) + .title(&header_title(&mut conn).unwrap()) + .build(); + let view_switcher_title = libhandy::ViewSwitcherTitle::builder() + .title("Tunes") + .stack(&stack) + .build(); + header_bar.add(&view_switcher_title); + let view_switcher_bar = libhandy::ViewSwitcherBar::builder() + .visible(true) + .can_focus(false) + .stack(&stack) + .reveal(true) + .build(); + + // The window needs a single child, so we'll join the header bar, the + // stack, and the view switcher into a single box. + let content = gtk::Box::new(gtk::Orientation::Vertical, 0); + content.set_vexpand(true); + content.add(&header_bar); + content.add(&stack); + content.add(&view_switcher_bar); + + // Finally, the window. It's tied to a child, which we made above, and + // the GtkApplication that we declared at the beginning of `main`. + let window = ApplicationWindow::builder() + .default_width(350) + .default_height(70) + .modal(true) + .child(&content) + .build(); + window.set_application(Some(app)); + window.show_all(); + + // This isn't perfect (it won't run when the window gets its initial + // size), but this is how we notify that the album art display should be + // resized. + window.connect_configure_event(clone!(@strong sender => move |_, _| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::WindowResizeEvent) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + false + })); + + // Now that everything's been allocated a window, let's go ahead and + // update the widgets. + song_info + .update(&mut conn) + .expect("Couldn't update song info"); + + // The following code will fill the search view with every song in the + // database. If you have a music library as big as mine, it will + // negatively impact startup time. This could be done in, for example, a + // worker thread, but I've just omitted it because I don't want this + // example to be more complex than it has to be. + // + // let mut query = mpd::Query::new(); + // query.and(mpd::Term::Any, ""); + // let songs = conn.search(&query, (0, 65535)); + // for song in songs.unwrap() { + // query_info.model.insert(0, &SongObject::new(&song)); + // } + + // Finally, we'll start the "main event loop" we've been talking about + // in the main context of the application. + let main_context = gtk::glib::MainContext::default(); + main_context.spawn_local(async move { + let mut conn = Client::connect(MPD_HOST).unwrap(); + while let Some(event_type) = receiver.next().await { + match event_type { + StateUpdateKind::MpdEvent => { + if let Ok(title) = header_title(&mut conn) { + header_bar.set_title(Some(&title)); + song_info + .update(&mut conn) + .expect("Couldn't update song info"); + } + } + StateUpdateKind::WindowResizeEvent => { + song_info + .update_album_art(&mut conn) + .expect("Couldn't update album art"); + } + StateUpdateKind::QueryUpdateEvent(query_string) => { + // Let's not produce massive queries while the user is typing :) + if query_string.len() <= 2 { + continue; + } + + // Start from a blank slate. + query_info.model.remove_all(); + + // Query on all fields, case-insensitively, for the text + // that the user input. + let mut query = mpd::Query::new(); + query.and(mpd::Term::Any, &query_string); + let songs = conn.search(&query, (0, 65535)); + + // Insert them all into the model. This is reversed, + // which I don't consider to be a big deal. It's far + // less complex than adding it in order, which you will + // see below in the code that handles the queue. + for song in songs.unwrap() { + query_info.model.insert(0, &SongObject::new(&song)); + } + } + StateUpdateKind::QueueDeleteRequest(index) => { + conn.delete(index).expect("Couldn't dequeue song"); + } + StateUpdateKind::QueueAddRequest(filename) => { + conn.push_str(filename).expect("Couldn't queue song"); + } + StateUpdateKind::PlaybackStateChange(action) => { + dispatch_playback_state_change(&mut conn, action) + .expect("Couldn't queue action"); + } + } + } + }); + }); + + application.run(); +} + +/// Take action on `conn` based on a `PlaybackStateChange` notification +fn dispatch_playback_state_change( + conn: &mut mpd::Client, + action: PlaybackStateChange, +) -> anyhow::Result<()> { + use PlaybackStateChange::*; + match action { + SkipBackwards => conn.prev()?, + SkipForwards => conn.next()?, + Start => conn.play()?, + Stop => conn.stop()?, + Pause => conn.pause(true)?, + } + Ok(()) +} + +/// Kind of event we can notify the UI future about +#[derive(Debug)] +enum StateUpdateKind { + MpdEvent, + WindowResizeEvent, + QueryUpdateEvent(String), + QueueAddRequest(String), + QueueDeleteRequest(u32), + PlaybackStateChange(PlaybackStateChange), +} + +/// A simple action that affects playback state. +#[derive(Debug)] +enum PlaybackStateChange { + Start, + Stop, + Pause, + SkipBackwards, + SkipForwards, +} + +/// Produce a short status line for the current state of `conn`. +fn header_title(conn: &mut mpd::client::Client) -> anyhow::Result<String> { + let status = conn.status(); + let state_descriptor = match status?.state { + mpd::status::State::Stop => "[STOPPED]", + mpd::status::State::Pause => "[PAUSED]", + mpd::status::State::Play => "[PLAYING]", + }; + if let Some(song) = conn.currentsong()? { + Ok(format!( + "{} {} - {}", + state_descriptor, + song.title.unwrap_or_else(|| "Untitled".into()), + song.artist.unwrap_or_else(|| "Untitled".into()), + )) + } else { + Ok("Tunes: No Song".into()) + } +} + +/// View for information about the currently playing song. +struct SongInfo { + container: gtk::Box, + album_art: gtk::Image, + song_text: gtk::Label, + model: gio::ListStore, +} + +impl SongInfo { + fn new(sender: mpsc::Sender<StateUpdateKind>) -> Self { + let container = gtk::Box::new(gtk::Orientation::Vertical, 16); + let album_art = gtk::Image::new(); + let song_text = gtk::Label::new(None); + song_text.set_justify(gtk::Justification::Center); + song_text.set_line_wrap(true); + song_text.set_line_wrap_mode(pango::WrapMode::WordChar); + container.add(&album_art); + container.add(&song_text); + + let action_bar = gtk::Box::new(gtk::Orientation::Horizontal, 16); + action_bar.set_halign(gtk::Align::Center); + + let control_previous_song = gtk::Button::from_icon_name( + Some("media-skip-backward-symbolic"), + gtk::IconSize::SmallToolbar, + ); + action_bar.add(&control_previous_song); + control_previous_song.connect_clicked(clone!(@strong sender => move |_| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::PlaybackStateChange( + PlaybackStateChange::SkipBackwards, + )) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + })); + + let control_start_song = gtk::Button::from_icon_name( + Some("media-playback-start-symbolic"), + gtk::IconSize::SmallToolbar, + ); + action_bar.add(&control_start_song); + control_start_song.connect_clicked(clone!(@strong sender => move |_| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::PlaybackStateChange( + PlaybackStateChange::Start, + )) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + })); + + let control_pause_song = gtk::Button::from_icon_name( + Some("media-playback-pause-symbolic"), + gtk::IconSize::SmallToolbar, + ); + action_bar.add(&control_pause_song); + control_pause_song.connect_clicked(clone!(@strong sender => move |_| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::PlaybackStateChange( + PlaybackStateChange::Pause, + )) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + })); + + let control_stop_song = gtk::Button::from_icon_name( + Some("media-playback-stop-symbolic"), + gtk::IconSize::SmallToolbar, + ); + action_bar.add(&control_stop_song); + control_stop_song.connect_clicked(clone!(@strong sender => move |_| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::PlaybackStateChange( + PlaybackStateChange::Stop, + )) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + })); + + let control_next_song = gtk::Button::from_icon_name( + Some("media-skip-forward-symbolic"), + gtk::IconSize::SmallToolbar, + ); + action_bar.add(&control_next_song); + control_next_song.connect_clicked(clone!(@strong sender => move |_| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::PlaybackStateChange( + PlaybackStateChange::SkipForwards, + )) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + })); + + let model = gio::ListStore::new(SongObject::static_type()); + let listbox = gtk::ListBox::new(); + listbox.bind_model( + Some(&model), + clone!(@strong sender => move |item| { + let sender = sender.clone(); + + let box_ = gtk::ListBoxRow::new(); + let item = item + .downcast_ref::<SongObject>() + .expect("Row data is of wrong type"); + + let grid = gtk::Grid::builder().column_homogeneous(true).build(); + + let remove_individual_song = gtk::Button::from_icon_name( + Some("list-remove-symbolic"), + gtk::IconSize::SmallToolbar, + ); + let index = item.property::<u32>("index"); + remove_individual_song.connect_clicked(move |_| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::QueueDeleteRequest(index)) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::MpdEvent) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + }); + grid.attach(&remove_individual_song, 0, 0, 1, 1); + + let title_label = gtk::Label::new(None); + title_label.set_line_wrap(true); + title_label.set_line_wrap_mode(pango::WrapMode::WordChar); + item.bind_property("title", &title_label, "label") + .flags(glib::BindingFlags::DEFAULT | glib::BindingFlags::SYNC_CREATE) + .build(); + grid.attach(&title_label, 1, 0, 1, 1); + + let album_label = gtk::Label::new(None); + album_label.set_line_wrap(true); + album_label.set_line_wrap_mode(pango::WrapMode::WordChar); + item.bind_property("album", &album_label, "label") + .flags(glib::BindingFlags::DEFAULT | glib::BindingFlags::SYNC_CREATE) + .build(); + grid.attach(&album_label, 2, 0, 1, 1); + + + let artist_label = gtk::Label::new(None); + artist_label.set_line_wrap(true); + artist_label.set_line_wrap_mode(pango::WrapMode::WordChar); + item.bind_property("artist", &artist_label, "label") + .flags(glib::BindingFlags::DEFAULT | glib::BindingFlags::SYNC_CREATE) + .build(); + grid.attach(&artist_label, 3, 0, 1, 1); + + grid.show_all(); + box_.add(&grid); + box_.upcast::<gtk::Widget>() + }), + ); + + let scrolled_window = + gtk::ScrolledWindow::new(gtk::Adjustment::NONE, gtk::Adjustment::NONE); + scrolled_window.add(&listbox); + scrolled_window.set_vexpand(true); + + container.add(&action_bar); + container.add(&scrolled_window); + container.show_all(); + + SongInfo { + container, + album_art, + song_text, + model, + } + } + + fn update_album_art(&self, conn: &mut mpd::Client) -> anyhow::Result<()> { + if let Some(song) = conn.currentsong()? { + // If we've been allocated a window, pick the least dimension (width + // or height) and divide that dimension by two to get the size (in + // pixels) that we'll scale the album art to. Otherwise, we default + // to 128. + let album_art_size = std::cmp::min( + self.container + .window() + .map(|x| x.width() / 2) + .unwrap_or(128), + self.container + .window() + .map(|x| x.height() / 2) + .unwrap_or(128), + ); + + let image_data = conn.albumart(&song)?; + let image_pixbuf = gdk_pixbuf::Pixbuf::from_stream( + &gio::MemoryInputStream::from_bytes(&glib::Bytes::from(&image_data)), + gio::Cancellable::NONE, + ) + .ok() + .and_then(|x| { + x.scale_simple( + album_art_size, + album_art_size, + gtk::gdk_pixbuf::InterpType::Hyper, + ) + }); + self.album_art.set_pixbuf(image_pixbuf.as_ref()); + } + Ok(()) + } + + fn update(&self, conn: &mut mpd::Client) -> anyhow::Result<()> { + self.update_album_art(conn)?; + + if let Some(song) = conn.currentsong()? { + let title = song.title.as_deref().unwrap_or("[Unknown]"); + let artist = song.artist.as_deref().unwrap_or("[Unknown]"); + let album = song + .tags + .get("Album") + .map(|x| x.as_str()) + .unwrap_or("[Unknown]"); + let text = format!("{}\n{} - {}", title, artist, album); + self.song_text.set_text(&text); + + // We'll use `pango` attributes to make the display look nice and + // pretty. Scale the title of the song the most, and still make the + // other info reasonably large. + let attr_list = gtk::pango::AttrList::new(); + let mut attr = gtk::pango::AttrFloat::new_scale(2.0); + attr.set_start_index(0); + attr.set_end_index(title.len() as u32); + attr_list.insert(attr); + let mut attr = gtk::pango::AttrFloat::new_scale(1.5); + attr.set_start_index(title.len() as u32 + 1); + attr_list.insert(attr); + + self.song_text.set_attributes(Some(&attr_list)); + } + + self.model.remove_all(); + for (i, song) in conn.queue()?.iter().enumerate() { + let index = i.try_into().unwrap(); + let object = SongObject::new(song); + object.set_index(index); + self.model.insert(index, &object) + } + + Ok(()) + } +} + +impl AsRef<gtk::Widget> for SongInfo { + fn as_ref(&self) -> >k::Widget { + self.container.upcast_ref() + } +} + +/// View for selecting songs to add to the queue. +struct QueryInfo { + container: gtk::Box, + model: gio::ListStore, +} + +impl QueryInfo { + fn new(sender: mpsc::Sender<StateUpdateKind>) -> Self { + let container = gtk::Box::new(gtk::Orientation::Vertical, 2); + + let query_input = gtk::Entry::builder().visible(true).build(); + query_input.connect_key_press_event(clone!(@strong sender => move |widget, _| { + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::QueryUpdateEvent(widget.text().into())) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + gtk::Inhibit(false) + })); + + let model = gio::ListStore::new(SongObject::static_type()); + let listbox = gtk::ListBox::new(); + listbox.bind_model(Some(&model), clone!(@strong sender => move |item| { + let sender = sender.clone(); + + let box_ = gtk::ListBoxRow::new(); + let item = item + .downcast_ref::<SongObject>() + .expect("Row data is of wrong type"); + + let grid = gtk::Grid::builder().column_homogeneous(true).build(); + + let add_individual_song = + gtk::Button::from_icon_name(Some("list-add-symbolic"), gtk::IconSize::SmallToolbar); + add_individual_song.set_visible(true); + let filename = item.property::<String>("filename"); + add_individual_song.connect_clicked(move |_| { + let filename = filename.clone(); + let mut sender = sender.clone(); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::QueueAddRequest(filename)) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + sender + .try_send(StateUpdateKind::MpdEvent) + .expect("Couldn't notify thread"); + }); + grid.attach(&add_individual_song, 0, 0, 1, 1); + + let title_label = gtk::Label::new(None); + title_label.set_line_wrap(true); + title_label.set_line_wrap_mode(pango::WrapMode::WordChar); + item.bind_property("title", &title_label, "label") + .flags(glib::BindingFlags::DEFAULT | glib::BindingFlags::SYNC_CREATE) + .build(); + grid.attach(&title_label, 1, 0, 1, 1); + + let album_label = gtk::Label::new(None); + album_label.set_line_wrap(true); + album_label.set_line_wrap_mode(pango::WrapMode::WordChar); + item.bind_property("album", &album_label, "label") + .flags(glib::BindingFlags::DEFAULT | glib::BindingFlags::SYNC_CREATE) + .build(); + grid.attach(&album_label, 2, 0, 1, 1); + + let artist_label = gtk::Label::new(None); + artist_label.set_line_wrap(true); + artist_label.set_line_wrap_mode(pango::WrapMode::WordChar); + item.bind_property("artist", &artist_label, "label") + .flags(glib::BindingFlags::DEFAULT | glib::BindingFlags::SYNC_CREATE) + .build(); + grid.attach(&artist_label, 3, 0, 1, 1); + + grid.show_all(); + box_.add(&grid); + box_.upcast::<gtk::Widget>() + })); + + let scrolled_window = + gtk::ScrolledWindow::new(gtk::Adjustment::NONE, gtk::Adjustment::NONE); + scrolled_window.add(&listbox); + scrolled_window.set_vexpand(true); + + container.add(&query_input); + container.add(&scrolled_window); + + QueryInfo { container, model } + } +} + +impl AsRef<gtk::Widget> for QueryInfo { + fn as_ref(&self) -> >k::Widget { + self.container.upcast_ref() + } +} + +// Unfortunately, to use the `ListStore` interface, we'll need to represent our +// data as an actual `glib` object. This is a little hairy in Rust, involving a +// fair bit of boilerplate, but not too terrible. +glib::wrapper! { + pub struct SongObject(ObjectSubclass<imp::SongObject>); +} + +impl SongObject { + pub fn new(song: &mpd::song::Song) -> Self { + glib::Object::new(&[ + ("filename", &song.file.clone()), + ( + "title", + &song + .title + .as_ref() + .cloned() + .unwrap_or_else(|| "[Untitled]".into()), + ), + ( + "artist", + &song + .artist + .as_ref() + .cloned() + .unwrap_or_else(|| "[No Artist]".into()), + ), + ( + "album", + &song + .tags + .get("Album") + .cloned() + .unwrap_or_else(|| "[Untitled]".into()), + ), + ]) + .expect("Failed to create `SongObject`.") + } + + pub fn set_index(&self, idx: u32) { + let private = imp::SongObject::from_instance(self); + private.index.set(idx); + } +} + +// These class "implementations" are typically done in a separate +// file/directory. I wanted to keep the example self-contained. +mod imp { + use std::cell::{Cell, RefCell}; + + use glib::{ParamSpec, ParamSpecString, Value}; + use gtk::glib; + use gtk::prelude::*; + use gtk::subclass::prelude::*; + use once_cell::sync::Lazy; + + // Object holding the state + #[derive(Default)] + pub struct SongObject { + filename: RefCell<String>, + title: RefCell<String>, + artist: RefCell<String>, + album: RefCell<String>, + pub(crate) index: Cell<u32>, + } + + // The central trait for subclassing a GObject + #[glib::object_subclass] + impl ObjectSubclass for SongObject { + const NAME: &'static str = "TunesSongObject"; + type Type = super::SongObject; + } + + // Trait shared by all GObjects + impl ObjectImpl for SongObject { + fn properties() -> &'static [ParamSpec] { + static PROPERTIES: Lazy<Vec<ParamSpec>> = Lazy::new(|| { + vec![ + ParamSpecString::builder("filename").build(), + ParamSpecString::builder("title").build(), + ParamSpecString::builder("artist").build(), + ParamSpecString::builder("album").build(), + ParamSpecString::builder("index").build(), + ] + }); + PROPERTIES.as_ref() + } + + fn set_property(&self, _obj: &Self::Type, _id: usize, value: &Value, pspec: &ParamSpec) { + match pspec.name() { + "filename" => { + let input = value + .get() + .expect("The value needs to be of type `String`."); + self.filename.replace(input); + } + "title" => { + let input = value + .get() + .expect("The value needs to be of type `String`."); + self.title.replace(input); + } + "artist" => { + let input = value + .get() + .expect("The value needs to be of type `String`."); + self.artist.replace(input); + } + "album" => { + let input = value + .get() + .expect("The value needs to be of type `String`."); + self.album.replace(input); + } + "index" => { + let input = value.get().expect("The value needs to be of type `u32`."); + self.index.replace(input); + } + _ => unimplemented!(), + } + } + + fn property(&self, _obj: &Self::Type, _id: usize, pspec: &ParamSpec) -> Value { + match pspec.name() { + "filename" => self.filename.borrow().to_value(), + "title" => self.title.borrow().to_value(), + "artist" => self.artist.borrow().to_value(), + "album" => self.album.borrow().to_value(), + "index" => self.index.get().to_value(), + _ => unimplemented!(), + } + } + } +} +#+END_SRC + +#+BEGIN_EXPORT html +</div> +#+END_EXPORT + +Basically, a sizable amount of code to set up these two views: =SongInfo=, which +is somewhat of a misnomer because it shows more than just information about the +currently-playing song, and =QueryInfo=, which is the view for searching through +the =mpd= database. Then there's some =mpsc= plumbing to get the UI to talk with the +thread that's responsible for talking to =mpd=. It's a big hunk of code, but I'm +confident it's sufficiently commented that I don't need to re-learn any literate +programming tools to talk about it in this article. + +I did all the development for this in Emacs on my primary workstation, keeping +in mind that I would eventually be putting this on a mobile phone, but otherwise +writing it as I would a desktop application. The feedback loop was much faster +than what I had when I was doing Android development all those years ago, since +I was literally compiling and running the program on my workstation. + +#+CAPTION: The primary view of Tunes as it appears on my workstation +[[./tunes-on-workstation.png]] + +The only part that was really affected by the mobile consideration was with +using a =ListStore= instead of just adding things into a =ListBox=. I'm frankly not +sure I did it right, but the intent was to have an application that doesn't +create a thousand labels at once, instead instantiating them as they come into +view. This is by no means a mobile-only consideration, but the PinePhone has an +eighth the memory of my workstation, and I have a big (20G) music collection. +Anyway, the right way to do it is described [[https://gtk-rs.org/gtk4-rs/stable/latest/book/list_widgets.html][here]], but that book is using GTK4, +so I wasn't able to lift it verbatim. + +The rest of it is standard Rust, once you realize that everything in GTK land is +basically an =Arc<Mutex<T>>=. Closures are a little funny, too, which is why you +see =let mut sender = sender.clone()= show up so frequently: we can't share the +same mutable reference across multiple invocations of the same closure[fn:12] + +I tried to go against the grain and use regular Rust structs (that implement +=AsRef<Widget>=) instead of using subclassing, but you can see that I had to do it +anyway to shoehorn the data we got from =mpd= into the =ListStore=. I think the +struct-based composition is a little bit nicer to work with. + +Once I had the code tested, somewhat optimized, and refactored, I was ready to +try it out on the phone. + +*** Building and Installing the Application on PostmarketOS + +=pmbootstrap= comes with a nice =hello-world-rust= =APKBUILD= to get you started with +packaging your Rust application. + +#+BEGIN_SRC sh +# Maintainer: Oliver Smith <[REDACTED]> +pkgname=hello-world-rust +pkgver="0.1.1" +pkgrel=0 +pkgdesc="Small test program for (cross) compiling rust" +url="https://gitlab.com/ollieparanoid/hello-world-rust/" +arch="all" +license="Unlicense" +makedepends="cargo" +source="https://gitlab.com/ollieparanoid/hello-world-rust/-/archive/$pkgver/hello-world-rust-$pkgver.tar.bz2" + +build() { + cargo build --release --locked +} + +check() { + printf 'Hello, world!\n' > expected + target/release/hello_world_rust > real + diff -q expected real +} + +package() { + cargo install --path . --root="$pkgdir/usr" + rm "$pkgdir"/usr/.crates.toml +} + +sha512sums="b755b02529e6ad40a969d5d563bc28be1202c8008661b72335c8c9e6f06bc5f0220fa047f5444b552815df5184c3ab86eb2f6a4f70701962fa0d4bc9a25ab259 hello-world-rust-0.1.1.tar.bz2" +#+END_SRC + +I copied this over to a new directory under =cache_git= named =tunes=, threw my +source tree into a tarball, and edited the template =APKBUILD= to declare the +dependencies my application would need. + +#+BEGIN_SRC sh +# Maintainer: Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +pkgname=tunes +pkgver="0.1.1" +pkgrel=0 +pkgdesc="Mobile-friendly MPD client" +url="https://git.sr.ht/~jakob/tunes/" +arch="all" +license="GPL-3.0-or-later" +makedepends="cargo gtk+3.0-dev libhandy1-dev" +source="tunes-$pkgver.tar.gz" +options="!check" # no tests + +build() { + cargo build --release --locked +} + +package() { + cargo install --path . --root="$pkgdir/usr" + rm "$pkgdir"/usr/.crates.toml +} + +sha512sums="561c95dcd8cc9e61c7f2faeaa3ffbd5cbd4fc3383a8fe87825b7367343f89ad088de0dd9ca4305b11d22ec9d9e5c1c8300760f73b9b41a497b39dcd0808eb9f8 tunes-0.1.1.tar.gz" +#+END_SRC + +After that it was just =pmbootstrap -t 3600 build --arch=aarch64 tunes=[fn:13], +wait an hour or two, and I had a =tunes-0.1.1-r0.apk= I could work with. I =rsync='d +that over to my PinePhone and ran =apk add --allow-untrusted tunes-0.1.1-r0.apk=, +and it worked on the first try. + +#+CAPTION: The primary view of Tunes on the PinePhone +[[./tunes-on-pinephone.png]] + +I haven't updated the =APKBUILD= to install it, yet, but I've made a =tunes.desktop= +file so that the application shows up on my home screen. + +#+BEGIN_SRC conf +[Desktop Entry] +Type=Application +Version=1.0 +Name=Tunes +Comment=Mobile-friendly MPD client +Icon=mpd +Terminal=false +Exec=/usr/bin/tunes +Categories=Multimedia +#+END_SRC + +#+CAPTION: The entry for Tunes shows up on my home screen with the MPD logo. My wallpaper (a picture of my sweetheart) makes the text a little hard to read, so I apologize for that. +[[./tunes-on-home-screen.png]] + +Final thoughts? That was much more pleasant than anything I've done in Android +land. I've got an application that's actually useful to me that didn't take me +more than a week -- a week where I was working late most nights, mind you. + +It's still a proof-of-concept rather than a battle-tested application thats +ready for packaging upstream, but it's enough to go off of. I'm expecting to +continue working on it, but I might pull in [[https://github.com/Relm4/Relm4][Relm4]] or [[https://github.com/bodil/vgtk][vgtk]] to cut down on some of +the boilerplate and event loop spaghetti. + +**** Comments on the =mpd= interactions + +You may notice that I've vendored the entire =mpd= crate into the the =tunes= +repository. In short: the =mpd= crate is pretty old and a little broken. I ran +into [[https://github.com/kstep/rust-mpd/issues/40][this (two-year old!) issue]] using the query interface, so I cloned =master= +and applied SimonPersson's patch. Then I ran into /another/ issue where I was +trying to send a song path across a channel instead of the whole =Song=, and I +wasn't able to use that for the API calls I wanted to make, because =ToSongPath= +isn't implemented for =String= or =&str=. It should be, since there's an =impl +ToSongPath for dyn AsRef<str>=, but there isn't, so I had to add my own =push_str= +method. I also merged in another [[https://github.com/kstep/rust-mpd/pull/43][pull request]] from SimonPersson which adds +=albumart= support... so I have a pseudo-fork of the =mpd= crate sitting around, +which I had to bring into version control if anyone was going to reasonably +build Tunes from source. + +When I eventually come back to this to make it more than a useful prototype, +I'll probably drop the 'mpd' crate for something that's better-maintained. +Either [[https://github.com/SimonPersson/mpdrs][mpdrs]] as it's a plain old fork of 'mpd' with the things I want, or +[[https://github.com/elomatreb/mpd_client][mpd_client]] if I decide I want to bring in all of [[https://tokio.rs/][Tokio]] for this little +application. Decisions, decisions. + +** Porting Software + +What one might expect to follow from "it's easy to develop for the PinePhone +because you're writing applications as if you were writing them for your +workstation" is that it should be relatively easy to port existing applications +as well. And this is indeed the case. The compile times can be painful, but I +was successful in cross-compiling [[https://github.com/diamondburned/gtkcord4][diamondburned's gtkcord4]] -- which has no +existing Alpine package to my knowledge -- to run on the PinePhone. + +#+BEGIN_SRC sh +# Contributor: Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +# Maintainer: Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +pkgname=gtkcord4 +pkgver=0.0.2 +pkgrel=0 +pkgdesc="GTK4 Discord client in Go" +url="https://github.com/diamondburned/gtkcord4" +arch="all" +license="GPL-3.0" +makedepends="gtk4.0-dev gobject-introspection-dev libcanberra-dev go" +source="$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.gz::https://github.com/diamondburned/gtkcord4/archive/refs/tags/v${pkgver}.tar.gz" + +build() { + go build +} + +package() { + install -D -m755 $pkgname "$pkgdir"/usr/bin/$pkgname +} + +sha512sums=" +1c0465f4c2d54794551811c0a536b610a51d3f795c403af3cf10954a46770b42d1aadef4709818f935aa54e2b413052546bdde5214f44e89d5ad2e2d7cbdf514 gtkcord4-0.0.2.tar.gz +" +#+END_SRC + +The above is all it took. I initialized =pmbootstrap=, made a directory named +=gtkcord4= under =cache_git/pmaports/main=, ran =pmbootstrap build --arch,=aarch64 +gktcord4=, and a couple hours later and I had a =gtkcord4-0.0.2-r0.apk= sitting +under =packages/v21.12/aarch64=. + +I'm not sure diamondburned ever anticipated that gtkcord4 would be running on a +mobile device, but thanks to their choice to use GTK4, I didn't have to make any +changes to the code and it still runs great on my device. + +#+CAPTION: gtkcord4 running on the PinePhone, showing a conversation between myself and my friend. +#+ATTR_HTML: :alt [10:46 AM] Jakob: If you managed to get enough samples, do you think you could do a TEMPEST-like attack on USB? [Line Break] [10:47 AM] Ergodic: I don't see why not [Line Break] [10:47 AM] Jakob: Or serial, or any other standard where the connection doesn't have a lot to keep it from being leaky [Line Break] [10:47 AM] Ergodic: I think Israel can dump ram from far away right? [Line Break] [10:47 AM] Ergodic: So pretty much anything [Line Break] [10:47 AM] Ergodic: Well [Line Break] [10:48 AM] Ergodic: Actually [Line Break] [10:48 AM] Ergodic: Wait [Line Break] [10:48 AM] Ergodic: With um [Line Break] [10:48 AM] Ergodic: A HdMI it doesn't matter if some data is wrong cuz you can keep resampling, same with ram [Line Break] [10:48 AM] Ergodic: But you can't with USB unless they're doing the same thing 40 times in a row 👀 [Line Break] [10:49 AM] Ergodic: Like depending on the protocol, how accurate do you wanna be +[[./gtkcord4-on-pinephone.png]] + +Some applications might need to be modified to work well on a touchscreen. I +haven't had to do that yet, and even if I did, I would expect it to be a +difficult topic to cover in this (already quite long) article. The part that I +will elaborate on is how we got to that magic code block above. The gtkcord4 +example is a little boring because of how little it takes to invoke the Go build +system,[fn:14] so let's port [[https://openxcom.org/][OpenXCOM]] instead. I'll start from scratch and +document my process as I go. + +Speaking of process, this is basically what I follow: + +1. Determine if the software in question is already packaged in another + source-based distribution (basically Gentoo or the Arch AUR). + 1. If so, translate the recipe to APKBUILD. In the case of Gentoo, figure out + what set of =USE= flags "make sense" as a default. + 2. Use [[https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages][pkgs.alpinelinux.org]] to map each dependency in the original package + spec to an Alpine dependency. +2. If it isn't... + 1. Find a skeleton APKBUILD (like the "hello world" example in the + [[*Building and Installing the Application on PostmarketOS]["Building and Installing the Application on PostmarketOS"]] section). + 2. Fill it in with the instructions to compile from upstream. I find you need + to specify =build= and =package= as the bare minimum if you explicitly disable + =check=. + 3. Guess-and-check for dependencies. Sometimes upstream will be good about + enumerating them, sometimes not so much. + +I know that [[https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/games-engines/openxcom][openxcom is packaged in Gentoo]], so we'll start there. + +#+BEGIN_SRC sh +# Copyright 1999-2021 Gentoo Authors +# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2 + +EAPI=7 + +inherit cmake xdg-utils + +DESCRIPTION="Open-source reimplementation of the popular UFO: Enemy Unknown" +HOMEPAGE="https://openxcom.org/" + +if [[ ${PV} == *9999 ]]; then + inherit git-r3 + EGIT_REPO_URI="https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom.git" +else + COMMIT="ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564" + SRC_URI="https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom/archive/${COMMIT}.tar.gz -> ${P}.tar.gz" + KEYWORDS="~amd64 ~arm64 ~x86" + S="${WORKDIR}/OpenXcom-${COMMIT}" +fi + +LICENSE="GPL-3+ CC-BY-SA-4.0" +SLOT="0" +IUSE="doc" + +RDEPEND=" + >=dev-cpp/yaml-cpp-0.5.1 + media-libs/libsdl[opengl,video] + media-libs/sdl-gfx + media-libs/sdl-image[png] + media-libs/sdl-mixer[flac,mikmod,vorbis]" +DEPEND="${RDEPEND}" +BDEPEND="doc? ( app-doc/doxygen )" + +DOCS=( README.md ) + +src_compile() { + cmake_src_compile + use doc && cmake_build doxygen +} + +src_install() { + use doc && local HTML_DOCS=( "${BUILD_DIR}"/docs/html/. ) + cmake_src_install +} + +pkg_postinst() { + xdg_icon_cache_update + + elog "In order to play you need copy GEODATA, GEOGRAPH, MAPS, ROUTES, SOUND," + elog "TERRAIN, UFOGRAPH, UFOINTRO, UNITS folders from original X-COM game to" + elog "/usr/share/${PN}/UFO" + elog + elog "If you want to play the TFTD mod, you need to copy ANIMS, FLOP_INT," + elog "GEODATA, GEOGRAPH, MAPS, ROUTES, SOUND, TERRAIN, UFOGRAPH, UNITS folders" + elog "from the original Terror from the Deep game to" + elog "/usr/share/${PN}/TFTD" + elog + elog "If you need or want text in some language other than english, download:" + elog "https://openxcom.org/translations/latest.zip and uncompress it in" + elog "/usr/share/${PN}/common/Language" +} + +pkg_postrm() { + xdg_icon_cache_update +} +#+END_SRC + +Although I probably should, I'm not going to bother with =postinst= or =postrm= +right now. I'm also not going to build the docs. What we can tell immediately is +that this is a CMake project (so we should find an =APKBUILD= for something else +that uses CMake -- I used =gzdoom=) and the dependencies are the following: + +- =yaml-cpp= +- =sdl= +- =sdl_gfx= +- =sdl_image= +- =sdl_mixer= + +All of these are packaged in Alpine except =sdl_mixer=, so we'll need to port that +ourselves. I was able to take the =APKBUILD= for =sdl_mixer= and use that as a +skeleton. The packages are packaged very similarly, so I was able to fill in the +blanks with some of the info from the [[https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/media-libs/sdl-gfx][Gentoo package]]. + +#+BEGIN_SRC sh +# Contributor: Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +# Maintainer: Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +pkgname=sdl_gfx +pkgver=2.0.26 +pkgrel=3 +pkgdesc="Graphics drawing primitives library for SDL" +url="https://www.ferzkopp.net/wordpress/2016/01/02/sdl_gfx-sdl2_gfx/" +arch="all" +license="zlib" +makedepends="sdl-dev" +subpackages="$pkgname-dev" +source="http://www.ferzkopp.net/Software/SDL_gfx-2.0/SDL_gfx-$pkgver.tar.gz" +builddir="$srcdir"/SDL_gfx-$pkgver + +prepare() { + default_prepare + update_config_sub + update_config_guess +} + +build() { + ./configure \ + --build=$CBUILD \ + --host=$CHOST \ + --prefix=/usr \ + --sysconfdir=/etc \ + --mandir=/usr/share/man \ + --infodir=/usr/share/info + make +} + +package() { + make DESTDIR="$pkgdir" install +} + +sha512sums="e571caa0d7575683efd4cf8f0a41ab10f4acf913f9ece216ac823af11da22c8734fc2c0ea049009a3e1a53715e49622f5bfcfdbdafb95e5151990d0a4eb69c01 SDL_gfx-2.0.26.tar.gz" +#+END_SRC + +It took a little bit of trial and error to arrive at the =APKBUILD= above. I first +ran into an issue with autotools not recognizing the target platform. + +#+BEGIN_SRC prog +>>> sdl_gfx: Building pmos/sdl_gfx 2.0.26-r3 (using abuild 3.9.0-r0) started Tue, 23 Aug 2022 01:28:27 +0000 +>>> sdl_gfx: Checking sanity of /home/pmos/build/APKBUILD... +>>> sdl_gfx: Cleaning up srcdir +>>> sdl_gfx: Cleaning up pkgdir +>>> sdl_gfx: Fetching http://www.ferzkopp.net/Software/SDL_gfx-2.0/SDL_gfx-2.0.26.tar.gz + % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current + Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed +100 251 100 251 0 0 1764 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2127 +100 1729k 100 1729k 0 0 2103k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2103k +>>> sdl_gfx: Fetching http://www.ferzkopp.net/Software/SDL_gfx-2.0/SDL_gfx-2.0.26.tar.gz +>>> sdl_gfx: Checking sha512sums... +SDL_gfx-2.0.26.tar.gz: OK +>>> sdl_gfx: Unpacking /var/cache/distfiles/SDL_gfx-2.0.26.tar.gz... +checking build system type... Invalid configuration `aarch64-alpine-linux-musl': machine `aarch64-alpine-linux' not recognized +configure: error: /bin/sh ./config.sub aarch64-alpine-linux-musl failed +>>> ERROR: sdl_gfx: build failed +(011680) [21:28:30] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +(011680) [21:28:30] NOTE: The failed command's output is above the ^^^ line in the log file: /home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/pmbootstrap/log.txt +(011680) [21:28:30] ERROR: Command failed (exit code 1): (buildroot_aarch64) % cd /home/pmos/build; busybox su pmos -c CARCH=aarch64 SUDO_APK='abuild-apk --no-progress' PATH=/native/usr/lib/crossdirect/aarch64:/usr/lib/ccache/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin HOME=/home/pmos abuild -D postmarketOS -d +(011680) [21:28:30] See also: <https://postmarketos.org/troubleshooting> +(011680) [21:28:30] Traceback (most recent call last): + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/__init__.py", line 49, in main + getattr(frontend, args.action)(args) + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/helpers/frontend.py", line 114, in build + if not pmb.build.package(args, package, arch_package, force, + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/build/_package.py", line 520, in package + (output, cmd, env) = run_abuild(args, apkbuild, arch, strict, force, cross, + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/build/_package.py", line 447, in run_abuild + pmb.chroot.user(args, cmd, suffix, "/home/pmos/build", env=env) + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/chroot/user.py", line 26, in user + return pmb.chroot.root(args, cmd, suffix, working_dir, output, + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/chroot/root.py", line 76, in root + return pmb.helpers.run_core.core(args, msg, cmd_sudo, None, output, + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/helpers/run_core.py", line 347, in core + check_return_code(args, code, log_message) + File "/home/jakob/Containers/pmbootstrap/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pmb/helpers/run_core.py", line 219, in check_return_code + raise RuntimeError(f"Command failed (exit code {str(code)}): " + +RuntimeError: Command failed (exit code 1): (buildroot_aarch64) % cd /home/pmos/build; busybox su pmos -c CARCH=aarch64 SUDO_APK='abuild-apk --no-progress' PATH=/native/usr/lib/crossdirect/aarch64:/usr/lib/ccache/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin HOME=/home/pmos abuild -D postmarketOS -d +#+END_SRC + +Fortunately, it wasn't too difficult to find the issue online. Someone had tried +(unsuccessfully) to [[https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/merge_requests/15673][add sdl_ttf to aports]] and ran into the same issue. The +recommendation in the MR comments was to include the =prepare= block above. + +When that was sorted, I had a =sdl_gfx= package that I could use as a dependency +for =openxcom=. + +#+BEGIN_SRC sh +# Contributor: Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +# Maintainer: Jakob L. Kreuze <[REDACTED]> +_commit="ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564" +pkgname=openxcom +pkgver=1.0.0 +pkgrel=1 +pkgdesc="Open-source reimplementation of the popular UFO: Enemy Unknown" +url="https://openxcom.org/" +arch="all" +license="GPL-3.0-or-later" +makedepends="cmake ninja yaml-cpp-dev sdl-dev sdl_gfx-dev sdl_image-dev sdl_mixer-dev glu-dev libexecinfo-dev" +depends="libexecinfo" +source="openxcom-$pkgver.tar.gz::https://github.com/OpenXcom/OpenXcom/archive/$_commit.tar.gz +0001-Link-execinfo-unconditionally.patch" +builddir="$srcdir"/OpenXcom-$_commit + +build() { + if [ "$CBUILD" != "$CHOST" ]; then + CMAKE_CROSSOPTS="-DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=Linux -DCMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_NAME=Linux" + fi + cmake -B build -G Ninja \ + -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \ + -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \ + -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=True \ + $CMAKE_CROSSOPTS + cmake --build build +} + +package() { + DESTDIR="$pkgdir" cmake --install build +} + +sha512sums="57ff9a9cbbbf48b8c4f792458edf0590d7d0df9a5805eab13a4c984713311e98587afca00778e82bd66fb2f330b354ca80703b87922a92f9ae48e5bdecf68442 openxcom-1.0.0.tar.gz +de4cc52530200992fef0e723acd59fef1b214f5b12baabec4dcca03820fbbc38c30033c0707f918fccc29e7d0d67ddef0c2a7be56d21b2bba7221899c759c282 0001-Link-execinfo-unconditionally.patch" +#+END_SRC + +where =0001-Link-execinfo-unconditionally.patch= is the following: + +#+BEGIN_SRC diff +From 2fe3e39c90086c7e3953d83ce75b0686ee4f5813 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 +From: "Jakob L. Kreuze" <[REDACTED]> +Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2022 20:11:16 -0400 +Subject: [PATCH] Link execinfo unconditionally + +--- + src/CMakeLists.txt | 4 +--- + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 3 deletions(-) + +diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt +index d484380ba..b7d3020bd 100644 +--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt ++++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt +@@ -485,9 +485,7 @@ if ( WIN32 ) + endif () + + # backtrace(3) requires libexecinfo on some *BSD systems +-if (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES FreeBSD OR ${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES NetBSD OR ${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES OpenBSD) +- set ( system_libs -lexecinfo ) +-endif () ++set ( system_libs -lexecinfo ) + + target_link_libraries ( openxcom ${system_libs} ${SDLIMAGE_LIBRARY} ${SDLMIXER_LIBRARY} ${SDLGFX_LIBRARY} ${SDL_LIBRARY} ${OPENGL_LIBRARIES} debug ${YAMLCPP_LIBRARY_DEBUG} optimized ${YAMLCPP_LIBRARY} ) + +-- +2.37.2 + +#+END_SRC + +The first error I got was about a missing =mmintrin.h=. I opened up the source +code and found that was under an =IFDEF= for =MMX= support, so I did a =./configure +--help= to figure out how to disable that. After that, I was getting a message +about a missing =glu.h=. + +#+BEGIN_SRC prog +[63/313] Building CXX object src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Mod/RuleVideo.cpp.o +ninja: job failed: /native/usr/lib/crossdirect/aarch64/g++ -DDATADIR=\"/usr/share/openxcom/\" -DGIT_BUILD=1 -I/usr/include/SDL -I/usr/include/yaml-cpp -I/home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/build -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -O3 -DNDEBUG -std=gnu++11 -MD -MT src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Mod/RuleVideo.cpp.o -MF src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Mod/RuleVideo.cpp.o.d -o src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Mod/RuleVideo.cpp.o -c /home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/src/Mod/RuleVideo.cpp +In file included from /home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/src/Mod/../Engine/OpenGL.h:15, + from /home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/src/Mod/../Engine/Screen.h:22, + from /home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/src/Mod/RuleVideo.cpp:21: +/usr/include/SDL/SDL_opengl.h:47:10: fatal error: GL/glu.h: No such file or directory + 47 | #include <GL/glu.h> /* Header File For The GLU Library */ + | ^~~~~~~~~~ +compilation terminated. +ninja: subcommand failed +>>> ERROR: openxcom: build failed +#+END_SRC + +I went ahead and added the =glu-dev= dependency, after which point I was getting +some warnings about redefinitions. So I have a feeling this might have been +another thing that was behind an =IFDEF=, but that's a problem for later. + +#+BEGIN_SRC prog +[218/313] Building CXX object src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Engine/AdlibMusic.cpp.o +ninja: job failed: /native/usr/lib/crossdirect/aarch64/g++ -DDATADIR=\"/usr/share/openxcom/\" -DGIT_BUILD=1 -I/usr/include/SDL -I/usr/include/yaml-cpp -I/home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/build -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -O3 -DNDEBUG -std=gnu++11 -MD -MT src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Engine/CrossPlatform.cpp.o -MF src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Engine/CrossPlatform.cpp.o.d -o src/CMakeFiles/openxcom.dir/Engine/CrossPlatform.cpp.o -c /home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/src/Engine/CrossPlatform.cpp +/home/pmos/build/src/OpenXcom-ea9ac466221f8b4f8974d2db1c42dc4ad6126564/src/Engine/CrossPlatform.cpp:68:10: fatal error: execinfo.h: No such file or directory + 68 | #include <execinfo.h> + | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ +compilation terminated. +ninja: subcommand failed +>>> ERROR: openxcom: build failed +#+END_SRC + +The last errors I got were related to =execinfo=. This is, to my knowledge, a +=glibc= thing. Fortunately, Alpine being a popular base image in Docker land means +[[https://github.com/ddopson/node-segfault-handler/issues/70][the workarounds]] are easy to find on the 'net. The missing header file was one, +thing, but then I was getting some linker errors about a missing symbol for +=backtrace=. Searching came up with an [[https://discuss.pytorch.org/t/compiling-master-from-source-on-alpine-fails-with-undefined-reference-to-backtrace/64676][issue in PyTorch]] which gave me some +insight, and then I found a [[https://github.com/OpenXcom/OpenXcom/pull/1123][pull request upstream]] related to it. My patch above +just makes the fix in that pull request unconditional (in =master=, it's only +applied on BSD); we get all the =backtrace= symbols from =execinfo=, but we need to +make sure it's actually linked into the binary. + +Then.. shit. It built correctly, but my =pmbootstrap= setup was a version behind +the PostmarketOS on my phone (=v21.12= vs =v22.06=), so I was getting some +dependency resolution errors. I re-initialized =pmbootstrap= and then learned that +=sdl-dev= is no longer supported, so I had to backport it from =edge/testing=. It +was at least smooth sailing after that. + +#+CAPTION: OpenXcom running on the PinePhone. It performs surprisingly well. +[[./openxcom-on-pinephone.png]] + +So porting software to the PinePhone is relatively easy. + +You don't even have to go through half of the mess that I did if you don't care +about cross-compiling or having things tracked by the package manager. You could +probably just install the =gcc= toolchain and do a =make && sudo make install= on +your phone; Alpine/PostmarketOS have [[https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Running_glibc_programs][glibc compatibility]]. Or, hell, use a +Flatpak/AppImage/Snap if you want to. + +However you do it, the end result is the same. You get to use the same Linux +applications on your phone that you would on your desktop, and I think that's +great. + +* Community + +Despite owning several PINE64 widgets and doodads, I've basically had no +interactions with the PINE64 community. I leverage community maintained +resources like the PINE64 wiki and the PINE64 forums frequently, but I don't +post regularly. I think I should, but at the time of writing this, I don't. + +The community of people who use the PinePhone is small, but those within are +very willing to helping others, which I admire. The best example I have of this +was when I was preparing for DEF CON and I emailed Biktorgj to ask about the +FOTA code in the EG25-G modem. I sent this in the morning while I was getting +ready for work and literally /minutes/ later I got a detailed response about how +it's been removed from the firmware. It was at that point I knew that the +PinePhone software stack was in good hands. + +(If you're curious, this was the response.) + +#+BEGIN_QUOTE +Hi, all the FOTA code from Quectel doesn't exist in the custom firmware: + +- LK bootloader has all the relevant code removed +- The main root filesystem doesn't even have a tool to download it +- The recovery partition, which in stock is used to apply the updates is replaced with a minimal bootable filesystem that doesn't have anything except adb, a shell and strace + +If there's something that could be broken into (discarding physical access, if someone has it you're done anyway) would need to be done with a bogus GSM network exploiting some bug in the ADSP firmware (but you could have that with any phone) + +Hope it helps :) +#+END_QUOTE + +But, really, these sorts of things make me want to be more involved in the +community. Maybe I'll do something related to mobile Linux for my master's +thesis. + +An unrelated aside: the only time I've heard of a trojan for Linux circulating +in the wild was a [[https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/pinephone-malware-surprises-users-raises-questions/][snake game for the PinePhone]], but I don't think this says +terribly much about the PINE64 community. + +* Social Implications + +A few weeks ago I had a party at my place, and some chick was talking about how +she considered owning an Android phone to be a red flag. I turned to my friend +to say that I hoped my weird-ass Linux phone wasn't a red flag. I thought I was +funny. But in reality, the difference doesn't matter to non-technical folk. To +them it's just the color of a "bubble," or whatever. I don't understand why it's +a red flag, nor do I particularly care, I just wanted to lead with an anecdote +about why one's choice of mobile phone somehow carries stigma in my (doomed) +generation. If I cared about that, I probably wouldn't be using a PinePhone, but +I don't often surround myself with these types of people who care about what +kind of cell phone you have. + +There have been a couple of rough spots because of literal technical limitations +with the PinePhone -- for example, PostmarketOS v21.06 wasn't MMS-capable, so I +missed out on some group texts and photos that my parents were sending. But my +parents, my partner, and my friends haven't complained about me using a weird +ass half-functional phone. They've put up with it, and for that I'm +appreciative. That said, it's been a while since I've had one of those annoying +technical problems, so I'm not sure they've really noticed. + +All-in-all, the people I do tell about how I use a phone running mainline Linux +(mainly coworkers) find it cool but also very characteristic of who I am as a +person. I think that's a fair way to conclude this section. + +* Conclusions + +I hinted at this in the introduction, but I'll say it again: the PinePhone is +not a popular choice. I know precisely two people who own one. Both of whom seem +happy to own one. I appreciate the PinePhone, and there are others who +appreciate it as well, but the overwhelming opinion is that it isn't ready for +most "real life" use-cases. + +Come on down to the PINE64 mobile shop. We've got [[https://xnux.eu/log/#017][(hypothetical) exploding phones]] +and [[https://www.pine64.org/2022/08/18/a-response-to-martijns-blog/][core contributors leaving in protest of bureaucracy]]. + +The PinePhone is unique in that it's backed by hobbyists rather than big +companies. With the exception of some of its software components like the +mainline Linux kernel, it doesn't have the constant inflow of resources to make +it usable or convenient. It's well behind its "competitors" in terms of normal +usability and support for running popular mobile applications. That's enough to +make it a non-starter for many people. The PinePhone, and Linux phones more +broadly, are likely to only garner the "free software nerd" crowd for the +foreseeable future. + +I'm hopeful that, as big players like Google [[https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/05/google-backed-glance-to-launch-in-us-within-two-months/][continue moving in the wrong +direction]], interest in free and open alternatives will grow, and that we'll +see start to see non-Android Linux as a viable option some day. But that time is +certainly not now. + +My experiences have been positive, but I am dogmatic about software freedom and +privacy, and get by without a lot of what typical smartphones offer. Hence, I am +not the typical smartphone user. + +That said, if that brief summary of my situation resonates with you, the +PinePhone is an excellent choice. I love my PinePhone because it's more like a +workstation than some strange alien device that I can't easily hack on; it +integrates incredibly well with the rest of my personal computing stack. + +And it's certainly the best option on the market for me right now. The Librem 5 +is the PinePhone's main "competitor," and I would recommend reading Amos B. +Batto's article [[https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/comparing-l5-and-pp/][Comparing the Librem 5 USA and PinePhone Beta]] for some more +articulate thoughts about the differences, but in my case, the Librem 5 is +simply out of my price range. + +I would love a device like the PinePhone but with more typical hardware, like a +Qualcomm Snapdragon (though the [[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Qualcomm_mainline_porting][mainline Linux support]] for newer Snapdragon SOCs +leaves a bit to be desired.) A bigger battery would be nice, too -- I wouldn't +care if it made the phone unreasonably thick. Modular and easily serviceable.. +with wake/suspend support that doesn't suck. Yeah. That's my dream phone. But I +expect it'll remain a dream for a long while, so for now, I love my +PinePhone.[fn:15] + +--- + +[fn:1] In practice, Android typically uses an outdated kernel with vendor-specific blobs and modifications, and it notably does _not_ use the GNU/Linux userland. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionic_(software)][Bionic]] is the libc, [[https://source.android.com/devices/graphics/surfaceflinger-windowmanager][SurfaceFlinger]] is the display server, and so on. For the most part, there is very little semblance between Android and the Linux distributions one may be familiar with. You cannot, for example, run a regular Linux application on Android. + +[fn:2] If we take a minute to consider the policy /without/ its partisan nuance, I think this was a [[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790270/HCSEC_OversightBoardReport-2019.pdf][good call]] (albeit poorly implemented). + +[fn:3] Using the Android calendar was so painful that I wrote some scripts to generate ICS files for my college classes, recurring meetings at work, etc., so I could import a couple hundred events at a time. I am so thankful that I don't need to do that anymore. + +[fn:4] Folks message me on XMPP so infrequently that I can get by just using it on desktop. + +[fn:6] Which is a bit of a shame. It wasn't a feature I used often on my old phone, but I was happy it was there. I have some really fond memories of sitting in the car when I was 16 and using the FM radio app on my phone to scan the airwaves as we passed through Maine during the winter. + +[fn:7] It was a bit of a pain to set up when I first tried it, so I gave up. + +[fn:8] While I tend to use "GNU/Linux" to refer to the kernel + user space, the distribution I'm running on my phone doesn't actually use GNU components. [[https://postmarketos.org/][PostmarketOS]] is based on Alpine, which uses [[https://musl.libc.org/][musl]] and [[https://www.busybox.net/][BusyBox]]. + +[fn:9] If I recall, my cousin had pulled out a picture of his bedroom back in the late 90's and was commenting on the Limp Bizkit poster, and I mentioned that they'd released an album earlier that week. (And said something about Fred Durst's new appearance.) + +[fn:10] The only attempt I've seen at "breaking into" Android land with something that isn't based on Java is David Boddie's [[https://www.boddie.org.uk/david/www-repo/Projects/#DUCK][DUCK]], which I'd experimented with and enjoyed quite a bit. Unfortunately, I had my falling out with Android development around when I discovered it and never made anything of note with it. + +[fn:11] I /think/ this term originates from [[https://dustycloud.org/][Christine Lemmer-Webber]]. It's a neologism for arguing about which of some number of choices is the best, when one thing being better than another is not only subjective but also a triviality, and when the arguments tend to be unusually heated. American football teams is a good example. I don't think anyone actually cares about the Gnome versus KDE argument nowadays, though, (it seems to have been more relevant in my dad's time) so maybe it isn't accurate to call it footballing in 2022. + +[fn:12] And I can't figure out how to tell the compiler that I want to =move= the mutable =sender= into the closure and use that across all invocations. I don't think it's possible, but someone better than me at Rust is probably going to write me an email and tell me the better way to do this. When that happens, I'll update this post with an addendum. + +[fn:13] The =-t 3600= is to tell =pmbootstrap= not to kill itself if it doesn't see any output in half an hour. It's absolutely the most annoying thing in =pmbootstrap= because things just sometimes take a really long time to cross-compile. + +[fn:14] I should have included =go= as a build dependency, come to think of it. + +[fn:15] I considered a couple of different "clever" titles for this post, but settled on the simple "I love my PinePhone", after seeing a [[https://blog.danieljanus.pl/2022/08/18/i-love-my-gpd-micro-pc/][post of a similar name]] by Daniel Janus's about his GPD Micro PC. Coincidentally, a lot of the reasons he gives for enjoying the laptop line-up with my reasons for enjoying the PinePhone. + +[fn:16] I use [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrot][scrot]] and [[https://www.umaxx.net/dl/sct-0.5.tar.gz][sct]] for these tasks, respectively, on all of my X11-running machines. I've patched both =sct= and =wlsunset= to set the blue balance to 0 at night because [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_effects_of_high-energy_visible_light][high-energy visible light stimulates melanopsin receptors in the eye]]. I was never able to find an app that could do that on Android, so I'd have to manually adjust it every night. + +[fn:17] Now that I've had a month to mull over this introduction, I think it's actually more likely that the power button was just being pressed down while it was shifting around in my pockets. |