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Gentoo on a PinePhone 
I've been looking at the PinePhone for a long time and this year I decided to get one msyelf.
The one that I ordered is the PinePhone KDE version with the Convergence package. So I have 32gb eccm and 3gb Ram.
The thing is knew allready is that the OS it came wiith i would not see boot. Because my Linux distro of choice is Gentoo. With the low specs of a phone I am also very intressted in what I can get out of a phone with Gentoo Linux.
Where to Begin
So first l've looked at allready availible documentation and I found some.
Gentoo Pinephone wiki entry 1
Gentoo Pinephone wiki entry 2
Both where good starting points but are both missing abit of information, so hence this blog post.
So for the disk I am gonna do the following:
eccm:
128mb of nothing (needs to be a linux partition)
5Gb is swap (to make sure the system thinks we always have enough RAM)
~26GB of / (ext4) (Just the rest of the left space)
SDcard
180 gb of /home (ext4)
72 gb of /var (ext4)
You can follow juist the normal prepare disks from the gentoo installation.
/var is a large directory same goes for /home so thats why I want to have those two on a SDcard wich should save enough space for the rest of the OS installation. On the eccm disk since for my own Linux Desktop PC excluding those two directories the system uses 18gb space.
Due to some software for the pinephone beeing non open-rc compatible I have to use systemd, I do not like this choice but without systemd your system is gonna be less usable as a phone.
So eventough I do not like systemd I do think its the best option for the installation so use the systemd arm64 stage3 for your installation.
I am using postmarketOS from a sdcard to boot and from there just follow the amd64 handbook to create the system and chroot into it.
nano is not installed by default so if you want to use it you can just do apk add nano.
Build the system
Since the phone itself is quite weak you can use distcc to speed it all up if you want I am not going into the distcc settings and options in this blog.
The make.conf I am using is:
Ive added the following file aswell
content
And unmask some packages at the moment since Gnome 40 is beeing tested on.
As always with gentoo change the USE flags as you see fit, this is what I want for my system.
The reason why -march is not native, is the fact that for distcc you need to specify the flags.
The VIDEO_CARDS needs to be set to "lima" and its important to set the use flags"gles2" since else the video-card might not work optimal because this way you force the emedded opengl settings.
Now to be sure lets set the accept_keywords (I dont want everything on unstable):
The first emerge I am doing is (after the initial sync):
Now I can add the extra repo my own repo GJDWebserver:
Now sync again and we can select a profile, keep in mind that we are selection a systemd profile:
After doing this you can emerge @world and after that the tools you want to use this is gonna take some time.
The emerge I did was:
Building the kernel
Since we a system with packages its time to build the kernel.
If you want to use anbox add the following to the .config after make pinephone_defconfig
This aswell is gonna take some times, so take a coffee break.
Bootloader
If you have the kernel done its time to create the bootloader
You can follow the p-boot README to install p-boot binary and other files into pinephone's /boot folder.
You can clone to git repo into /tmp using
And if you dont want to build it all just copy everything in dist/ to boot
What is missing at this point is an initramfs we can build that using dracut
The config /etc/dracut.conf should look like this
Create and edit the file /etc/dracut.conf.d/dracut-pp.conf
Then in /boot run
Your boot directory should now look something like this
You need the first partition of the boot media formatted as linux (83) partition, with enough space for kernel and other files.
Now write the p-boot.bin to boot media
The boot config should look something like this
The command to write boot kernel and other files to boot partition
Before rebooting make sure you run
In order to get the correct firmware for the kernel
After your initial boot into the system you need to do
To use the phone/simcard without a password add your user to the "plugdev" group
Dont forget to add everything needed to automaticly start after booting.
Finalizing
After this and following just the normal Gentoo setup steps (if not done earlier) like your network config, locale, time and timezone settings you can boot into the system. You can just follow the handbook for this since its a generic setup and not arm64 or pinephone specific.
In part two we are going into making it a usable phone with phosh and anbox.
I will create more blogs about using the pinephone for real using Gentoo.
So I hope this blog is helpfull for you into considering Gentoo for your Linux Phone.
Update
I've been working on Phosh now and I have updated the accept_keywords list in the blog and my own overlay to get it all working. My phone is now running the emerge for it. A thing to keep in mind is that rust is getting pulled with it so its gonna be a hefty emerge on the phone itself.
Update 2
Added anbox steps into the blog for if you want to use anbox on the pinephone
Update 3 (12-01-2022)
With the release of the 5.16 kernel I would advice using that, it has the most complete support for the PinePhone and the PinePhone Pro
The one that I ordered is the PinePhone KDE version with the Convergence package. So I have 32gb eccm and 3gb Ram.
The thing is knew allready is that the OS it came wiith i would not see boot. Because my Linux distro of choice is Gentoo. With the low specs of a phone I am also very intressted in what I can get out of a phone with Gentoo Linux.
Where to Begin
So first l've looked at allready availible documentation and I found some.
Gentoo Pinephone wiki entry 1
Gentoo Pinephone wiki entry 2
Both where good starting points but are both missing abit of information, so hence this blog post.
So for the disk I am gonna do the following:
eccm:
128mb of nothing (needs to be a linux partition)
5Gb is swap (to make sure the system thinks we always have enough RAM)
~26GB of / (ext4) (Just the rest of the left space)
SDcard
180 gb of /home (ext4)
72 gb of /var (ext4)
You can follow juist the normal prepare disks from the gentoo installation.
/var is a large directory same goes for /home so thats why I want to have those two on a SDcard wich should save enough space for the rest of the OS installation. On the eccm disk since for my own Linux Desktop PC excluding those two directories the system uses 18gb space.
Due to some software for the pinephone beeing non open-rc compatible I have to use systemd, I do not like this choice but without systemd your system is gonna be less usable as a phone.
So eventough I do not like systemd I do think its the best option for the installation so use the systemd arm64 stage3 for your installation.
I am using postmarketOS from a sdcard to boot and from there just follow the amd64 handbook to create the system and chroot into it.
nano is not installed by default so if you want to use it you can just do apk add nano.
Build the system
Since the phone itself is quite weak you can use distcc to speed it all up if you want I am not going into the distcc settings and options in this blog.
The make.conf I am using is:
code:
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| # These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example for a more
# detailed example.
CHOST="aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu"
COMMON_FLAGS="-march=armv8-a+crypto+crc -mtune=cortex-a53 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -ftree-vectorize"
CFLAGFS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
CXXFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FCFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
MAKEOPTS="-j5"
# NOTE: This stage was built with the bindist Use flag enabled
PORTDIR="/var/db/repos/gentoo"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"
# This sets the language of build output to English.
# Please keep this setting intact when reporting bugs.
LC_MESSAGES=C
#Use flags
USE="wayland phosh gles2 p-boot eg25-manager pinephone chromium samba truetype alsa elogind bluetooth cups ipv6 omemo pulseaudio dhcpcd systemd networkmanager -opengl egl wifi mobile"
#Needed for the video drivers
VIDEO_CARDS="lima"
#Gentoo Mirror
GENTOO_MIRRORS="https://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo" |
Ive added the following file aswell
code:
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| nano -w /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/package.use/pinephone |
code:
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| /etc/portage/package.use/pinephone |
content
code:
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| sys-apps/systemd cryptsetup homed media-libs/mesa -llvm >=x11-libs/libdrm-2.4.102 libkms net-misc/networkmanager connection-sharing media-libs/libsdl2 gles2 -tslib media-libs/libvpx postproc sys-libs/zlib minizip media-fonts/dejavu -X media-video/vlc -X opus media-tv/v4l-utils -bpf -qt5 media-video/ffmpeg vaapi sci-geosciences/gpsd -X -qt5 python >=media-plugins/grilo-plugins-0.3.12 flickr >=sys-libs/zlib-1.2.11-r3 static-libs media-libs/libsdl2 kms tslib >=media-video/ffmpeg-4.3.1 opus x11-libs/tslib -sdl net-wireless/bluez user-session x11-libs/cairo gles2-only net-libs/webkit-gtk gles2-only >=dev-lang/python-3.9.2 -bluetooth -sqlite |
And unmask some packages at the moment since Gnome 40 is beeing tested on.
code:
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| nano -w /etc/portage/package.unmask |
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| gui-libs/gtk gnome-base/gnome-shell gnome-extra/gnome-shell-extensions x11-wm/mutter x11-libs/pango dev-cpp/pangomm dev-libs/vala-common dev-lang/vala gnome-base/nautilus app-misc/tracker app-misc/tracker-miners gnome-base/gnome-settings-daemon gnome-extra/gnome-calendar media-sound/gnome-music |
As always with gentoo change the USE flags as you see fit, this is what I want for my system.
The reason why -march is not native, is the fact that for distcc you need to specify the flags.
The VIDEO_CARDS needs to be set to "lima" and its important to set the use flags"gles2" since else the video-card might not work optimal because this way you force the emedded opengl settings.
Now to be sure lets set the accept_keywords (I dont want everything on unstable):
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| #Gnome gnome-extra/chrome-gnome-shell ~arm64 mail-client/geary ~arm64 net-im/chatty ~arm64 x11-misc/squeekboard ~arm64 net-dns/dnsmasq ~arm64 media-video/megapixels ~arm64 media-libs/hdr-plus ~arm64 media-sound/lollypop ~arm64 x11-themes/sound-theme-librem5 ~arm64 media-sound/gnome-music ~arm64 gui-libs/libhandy ~arm64 dev-libs/feedbackd ~arm64 gnome-extra/evolution-data-server ~arm64 mail-client/evolution ~arm64 sci-geosciences/gnome-maps ~arm64 gnome-extra/iio-sensor-proxy ~arm64 app-editors/gedit ~arm64 gnome-base/gnome-control-center ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-contacts ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-calculator ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-calendar ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-clocks ~arm64 gnome-base/gnome-keyring ~arm64 gnome-base/gnome-desktop ~arm64 gnome-base/gnome-session ~arm64 gnome-base/gsettings-desktop-schemas ~arm64 gnome-base/nautilus ~arm64 media-video/totem ~arm64 app-dicts/gnome-dictionary ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-power-manager ~arm64 gnome-extra/sushi ~arm64 net-libs/gnome-online-accounts ~arm64 net-libs/webkit-gtk ~arm64 x11-themes/adwaita-icon-theme ~arm64 x11-themes/gnome-backgrounds ~arm64 www-client/epiphany ~arm64 x11-terms/gnome-terminal ~arm64 app-text/evince ~arm64 x11-libs/vte ~arm64 gnome-base/gnome-shell ~arm64 app-misc/tracker ~arm64 dev-libs/libportal ~arm64 app-misc/tracker-miners ~arm64 dev-libs/gjs ~arm64 gui-libs/gtk ~arm64 x11-libs/gtk+ ~arm64 x11-wm/mutter ~arm64 net-wireless/gnome-bluetooth ~arm64 net-libs/libnma ~arm64 dev-libs/libgweather ~arm64 gnome-base/gnome-settings-daemon ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-system-monitor ~arm64 gnome-base/gdm ~arm64 app-misc/jq ~arm64 sci-geosciences/geocode-glib ~arm64 x11-misc/colord ~arm64 dev-libs/glib ~arm64 gnome-extra/zenity ~arm64 dev-util/sysprof ~arm64 dev-util/sysprof-capture ~arm64 dev-util/sysprof-common ~arm64 dev-libs/libdazzle ~arm64 7media-libs/hdr-plus ~arm64 media-gfx/zbar ~arm64 dev-libs/folks ~arm64 media-libs/gsound ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-color-manager ~arm64 gnome-base/libgnomekbd ~arm64 gnome-extra/nm-applet ~arm64 dev-libs/libpeas ~arm64 gui-libs/tepl ~arm64 gui-libs/amtk ~arm64 dev-libs/olm ~arm64 dev-libs/gom ~arm64 net-misc/modemmanager ~arm64 net-libs/libqmi ~arm64 media-sound/callaudiod ~arm64 dev-util/wayland-scanner ~arm64 x11-themes/gnome-backgrounds ~arm64 x11-libs/pango ~arm64 gnome-base/gnome-desktop ~arm64 sci-geosciences/gnome-maps ~arm64 gnome-extra/evolution-ews ~arm64 gnome-extra/portfolio ~arm64 gnome-extra/gnome-weather ~arm64 sci-geosciences/gnome-maps ~arm64 media-libs/libchamplain ~arm64 net-libs/libgfbgraph ~arm64 #Phosh dev-embedded/imx-usb-loader ~arm64 dev-embedded/jlink ~arm64 dev-embedded/mfgtool ~arm64 dev-embedded/mkbootimg ~arm64 gui-wm/phosh ~arm64 gui-wm/phosh-meta ~arm64 x11-wm/phoc ~arm64 gnome-extra/postmarketos-tweaks ~arm64 #Webclients www-client/chromium ~arm64 www-client/microsoft-edge-dev ~arm64 www-client/firefox ~arm64 www-client/chromium-bin ~arm64 #Phone things app-mobilephone/flashlight ~arm64 app-mobilephone/mobile-config-firefox ~arm64 app-mobilephone/pinephone-modem-scripts ~arm64 app-mobilephone/pinephone-softsleep ~arm64 app-mobilephone/pinephone ~arm64 app-mobilephone/usb-tethering ~arm64 net-voip/calls ~arm64 x11-plugins/purple-mm-sms ~arm64 net-misc/ofono ~arm64 net-misc/ofonoctl ~arm64 net-misc/eg25-manager ~arm64 net-dialup/atinout ~arm64 dev-libs/libphonenumber ~arm64 sys-firmware/anx7688-firmware ~arm64 sys-firmware/ov5640-firmware ~arm64 sys-firmware/rtl8723bt-firmware ~arm64 #Other virtual/libgudev ~arm64 sys-power/gtherm ~arm64 sys-kernel/pinephone-sources ~arm64 sys-kernel/gentoo-sources ~arm64 media-libs/alsa-ucm-pinephone ~arm64 media-sound/wys ~arm64 net-vpn/networkmanager-openvpn ~arm64 app-office/LibreOffice ~arm64 app-misc/neofetch ~arm64 media-libs/mesa ~arm64 net-misc/owncloud-client ~arm64 app-emulation/snapd ~arm64 sys-boot/osk-sdl ~arm64 sci-geosciences/gpsd ~arm64 dev-libs/wayland ~arm64 dev-util/gdbus-codegen ~arm64 app-emulation/lxc ~arm64 dev-libs/properties-cpp ~arm64 dev-util/android-tools ~arm64 dev-libs/libwacom ~arm64 dev-libs/gobject-introspection ~arm64 dev-libs/gobject-introspection-common ~arm64 media-plugins/grilo-plugins ~arm64 app-text/asciidoc ~arm64 net-libs/libqmi ~arm64 media-libs/gstreamer ~arm64 dev-util/gdbus-codegen ~arm64 dev-libs/glib ~arm64 dev-python/nautilus-python ~arm64 dev-lang/vala ~arm64 dev-libs/vala-common ~arm64 dev-util/ninja ~arm64 sys-apps/systemd ~arm64 sys-kernel/linux-headers ~arm64 net-misc/networkmanager ~arm64 net-misc/modemmanager ~arm64 net-misc/dhcpcd ~arm64 app-accessibility/at-spi2-core ~arm64 dev-python/pylast ~arm64 media-plugins/gst-plugins-taglib ~arm64 #Geary dev-lang/vala ~arm64 dev-libs/vala-common ~arm64 net-mail/ytnef ~arm64 dev-perl/MIME-tools ~arm64 sys-libs/glibc ~arm64 app-text/nuspell ~arm64 net-libs/libvoikko ~arm64 dev-libs/glib ~arm64 #Neofetch www-client/w3m ~arm64 x11-apps/xrandr ~arm64 x11-apps/xwininfo ~arm64 #Anbox net-proxy/squid ~arm64 |
The first emerge I am doing is (after the initial sync):
code:
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| emerge --ask app-eselect/eselect-repository dev-vcs/git app-admin/sudo |
Now I can add the extra repo my own repo GJDWebserver:
code:
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| eselect repository add gjdwebserver git https://git.gjdwebserver.nl/gjdwebserver/gjdwebserver-overlay.git |
Now sync again and we can select a profile, keep in mind that we are selection a systemd profile:
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| pine64-pinephone / # eselect profile list Available profile symlink targets: [1] default/linux/arm64/17.0 (stable) [2] default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop (stable) [3] default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop/gnome (stable) [4] default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop/gnome/systemd (stable) [5] default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop/plasma (stable) [6] default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop/plasma/systemd (stable) [7] default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop/systemd (stable) [8] default/linux/arm64/17.0/developer (stable) [9] default/linux/arm64/17.0/systemd (stable) * [10] default/linux/arm64/17.0/big-endian (exp) [11] default/linux/arm64/17.0/musl (exp) [12] default/linux/arm64/17.0/musl/hardened (exp) pine64-pinephone / # eselect profile set 4 |
After doing this you can emerge @world and after that the tools you want to use this is gonna take some time.
The emerge I did was:
code:
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| emerge --ask app-admin/syslog-ng sys-process/cronie sys-kernel/pinephone-sources net-misc/dhcpcd net-wireless/iw net-wireless/wpa_supplicant sys-apps/mlocate net-misc/openssh |
Building the kernel
Since we a system with packages its time to build the kernel.
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| pine64-pinephone / # emerge -ask pinephone-sources (if not done before) pine64-pinephone / # eselect kernel list Available kernel symlink targets: [1] linux-5.11.0-r1 * pine64-pinephone / # cd /usr/src/linux pine64-pinephone / # make pinephone_defconfig pine64-pinephone / # make Image dtbs modules pine64-pinephone / # cp ./arch/arm64/boot/Image /boot/vmlinuz-5.11.0-r1-pinephone-arm64 pine64-pinephone / # cp ./arch/arm64/boot/dts/allwinner/sun50i-a64-pinephone*.dtb /boot pine64-pinephone / # make modules_install pine64-pinephone / # make firmware_install pine64-pinephone / # make headers_install INSTALL_HDR_PATH=/usr |
If you want to use anbox add the following to the .config after make pinephone_defconfig
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| CONFIG_ANDROID=y CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_IPC=m CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDERFS=y CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_DEVICES="binder,hwbinder,vndbinder" CONFIG_MACVLAN=y CONFIG_BRIDGE=y CONFIG_TUN=y CONFIG_USER_NS=y CONFIG_UTS_NS=y CONFIG_VETH=y |
This aswell is gonna take some times, so take a coffee break.
Bootloader
If you have the kernel done its time to create the bootloader
You can follow the p-boot README to install p-boot binary and other files into pinephone's /boot folder.
You can clone to git repo into /tmp using
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| pine64-pinephone /tmp # git clone https://megous.com/git/p-boot |
And if you dont want to build it all just copy everything in dist/ to boot
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| pine64-pinephone /tmp/p-boot # cd dist/ pine64-pinephone /tmp/p-boot/dist # ls fw-debug.bin fw.bin p-boot-conf p-boot-conf-native p-boot-serial.bin p-boot.bin pine64-pinephone /tmp/p-boot/dist # cp * /boot/ |
What is missing at this point is an initramfs we can build that using dracut
code:
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| emerge --ask sys-kernel/dracut |
The config /etc/dracut.conf should look like this
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| # PUT YOUR CONFIG IN separate files # in /etc/dracut.conf.d named "<name>.conf" # SEE man dracut.conf(5) for options # Equivalent to -H hostonly="yes" # Choose compression program for the image compress="lz4" |
Create and edit the file /etc/dracut.conf.d/dracut-pp.conf
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| nano -w /etc/dracut.conf.d/dracut-pp.conf |
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| # load kernel modules that's needed to run accelarated osk SDL force_drivers+=" lima gpu_sched goodix evdev sun6i_mipi_dsi sun8i-drm-hdmi sun8i-mixer panel-sitronix-st7703 " # pmic force_drivers+=" axp20x-pek axp20x_adc " # force feedback force_drivers+=" gpio-vibra " # encryption module force_drivers+=" crc-t10dif " # emmc/sd driver force_drivers+=" sunxi-mmc " |
Then in /boot run
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| pine64-pinephone /boot # dracut -m "rootfs-block base" --host-only --kver 5.11.0 |
Your boot directory should now look something like this
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| pine64-pinephone /boot # ls -l total 24284 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 342 Feb 26 16:58 boot.conf drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 26 16:58 files -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 59496 Feb 26 16:38 fw-debug.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 59496 Feb 26 16:38 fw.bin -rw------- 1 root root 10551208 Feb 26 17:18 initramfs-5.11.0.img drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Feb 26 16:32 lost+found -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 50512 Feb 26 16:38 p-boot-conf -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 44520 Feb 26 16:38 p-boot-conf-native -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27136 Feb 26 16:38 p-boot-serial.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32768 Feb 26 16:38 p-boot.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38825 Feb 26 16:18 sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.0.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39040 Feb 26 16:18 sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.1.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39027 Feb 26 16:18 sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14063624 Feb 26 16:18 vmlinuz-5.11.0-r1-pinephone-arm64 |
You need the first partition of the boot media formatted as linux (83) partition, with enough space for kernel and other files.
Now write the p-boot.bin to boot media
code:
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| $ sudo dd if=p-boot.bin of=/dev/mmcblk2 bs=1024 seek=8 |
The boot config should look something like this
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| $ cat /boot/boot.conf device_id = pp3 (PP 1.2a) no = 0 name = Gentoo 5.11.0 (EMMC) atf = fw.bin dtb = sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb linux = vmlinuz-5.11.0-r1-pinephone-arm64 initramfs = initramfs-5.11.0.img bootargs = console=tty1 console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/mmcblk2p3 rootfstype=ext4 rw rootwait quiet splash = files/pboot2.argb |
The command to write boot kernel and other files to boot partition
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| $ cd /boot $ ./p-boot-conf . /dev/mmcblk2p1 |
Before rebooting make sure you run
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| emerge --ask sys-firmware/anx7688-firmware sys-firmware/ov5640-firmware sys-firmware/rtl8723bt-firmware |
In order to get the correct firmware for the kernel
After your initial boot into the system you need to do
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| root #hostnamectl set-hostname pinephone root #localectl set-keymap us # or whatever your keyboard is root #timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Amsterdam # or wathever your time-zone is root #timedatectl set-ntp true |
To use the phone/simcard without a password add your user to the "plugdev" group
Dont forget to add everything needed to automaticly start after booting.
Finalizing
After this and following just the normal Gentoo setup steps (if not done earlier) like your network config, locale, time and timezone settings you can boot into the system. You can just follow the handbook for this since its a generic setup and not arm64 or pinephone specific.
In part two we are going into making it a usable phone with phosh and anbox.
I will create more blogs about using the pinephone for real using Gentoo.
So I hope this blog is helpfull for you into considering Gentoo for your Linux Phone.
Update
I've been working on Phosh now and I have updated the accept_keywords list in the blog and my own overlay to get it all working. My phone is now running the emerge for it. A thing to keep in mind is that rust is getting pulled with it so its gonna be a hefty emerge on the phone itself.
Update 2
Added anbox steps into the blog for if you want to use anbox on the pinephone
Update 3 (12-01-2022)
With the release of the 5.16 kernel I would advice using that, it has the most complete support for the PinePhone and the PinePhone Pro