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Support

If something isn't working for you, you can get in contact with Mobian developers and the Mobian community in various ways. All of them are listed here.

Installation

This document guides the user how to install Mobian on their PinePhone, an open source smartphone designed by Pine64 to run Linux distributions.

Prerequisites

Mobian on the PinePhone requires that Tow-Boot is installed on the mmcboot partition of the device's eMMC. Users should follow the "Installing to eMMC Boot guide in the Tow-Boot documentation before proceeding.

Obtain the image

Pre-built Mobian images for the ?PinePhone can be downloaded from this link. Installer images are available in the same location. Same images and installers are available both under folders pinephone and sunxi of https://images.mobian.org. Effective 2024-01-25, pinephone and pinetab images have been replaced by sunxi ones: please refer to sunxi images for newer images targeting these devices.

Verifying the images

Mobian images come with multiple files:

• *.img.xz: The flashable image.

• *.img.bmap: The bmaptool input for the image. (See Method 1a below.)

• *.sha256sum: A shasum file of SHA-256 hashes of the image file.

• *.sha256sum.sig: A detached signature for the sha256sum file.

To verify the download, follow these steps:

1. Import the Mobian signing key from here. Once downloaded, the key can be imported with gpg --import mobian.gpg.

2. Verify the signature with gpg --verify *.sha256sums.sig.

3. If the signature is valid, check the other files with shasum -c *.sha256sums

4. If this prints OK for all files, the download is verified successfully.

Flash the image

In order to flash the Mobian image, you need to identify the device attached to target. On the ?PinePhone, it is /dev/mmcblk0 (for SD) or /dev/mmcblk2 (for eMMC, its size should be 16GB or 32GB depending on your device model) You can also use device names by-id for increased safety, e.g. /dev/disk/by-id/mmc-SU16G_0x1d6654fd. Be careful not to write to the wrong device! Replace the "X" in /dev/mmcblkX or /dev/sdX or use /dev/disk/by-id/.

Follow below steps on how to flash to eMMC or see these Pine64 Wiki instructions for more ways on how to access eMMC of the PinePhone Pro. To flash to an SD card, simply use a computer of your choice.

Be advised that the first boot will take longer due to the automatic resizing of the filesystem.

Installation to eMMC

You can install the image to eMMC by using JumpDrive, by using Tow-Boot's USB storage mode, or by booting the installer from an SD card. To access Tow-Boot's USB storage mode, hold volume up while powering the device on. The devices eMMC should appear on the computer connected by USB.

To use JumpDrive:

• Download the JumpDrive image and flash the JumpDrive image to a micro SD card

• Boot the PinePhone from the JumpDrive micro SD card

• Connect the PinePhone to your computer using a USB cable

• The SD card and the eMMC will become available as block devices on your computer (in the form of /dev/sdX block devices).

• Flash the exposed (mounted) PinePhone drive with the Mobian image using one of the methods below.

• Disconnect the PinePhone from your computer and remove the JumpDrive SD card

• Power in the PinePhone and boot Mobian from eMMC.

Note: It is not recommended to flash the installer directly to the eMMC. If you do install this way, please ensure there is no SD card present while running the installer.

Method 1a: bmaptool via URL

bmaptool is a comfortable means to flash your image. It handles sparse files, so it can be considerably faster than plain dd. It also handles both .bmap and .xz files and can download them directly from an URL. Execute:

• sudo bmaptool copy https://images.mobian.org/sunxi/CHANGEME $BLOCKDEVICE

with $BLOCKDEVICE the blockdevice to flash, e.g. /dev/mmcblkX, /dev/sdX [in the case of jumpdrive], or /dev/disk/by-id/XXXXXX).

Example:

• sudo bmaptool copy https://images.mobian.org/sunxi/weekly/mobian-sunxi-phosh-20250112.img.xz /dev/disk/by-id/mmc-SU16G_0x1d6654fd

Method 1b: bmaptool with a local image file

You can also use bmaptool to flash a local image. Execute:

• sudo bmaptool copy $IMAGE $BLOCKDEVICE

with $IMAGE, the path to the compressed or uncompressed image file and with $BLOCKDEVICE the blockdevice to flash, e.g. /dev/mmcblkX, /dev/sdX [in the case of jumpdrive], or /dev/disk/by-id/XXXXXX).

Example:

• sudo bmaptool copy mobian-sunxi-phosh-20250112.img.xz /dev/disk/by-id/mmc-SU16G_0x1d6654fd

Method 3: dd

To use dd, you need to unzip the image:

• unxz mobian-sunxi-phosh-YYYYMMDD.img.xz

Then flash with the following command:

• sudo dd bs=64k if=mobian-sunxi-phosh-YYYYMMDD.img of=/dev/mmcblkX status=progress

(the status= option will display some progress while flashing, dd is awfully silent otherwise)

Default pin and password

The default user is mobian and has the password: 1234. The password is also used as PIN on the unlock screen.

The root user is locked by default.

You should change the user password - please see ?changing password about the right way to do so. If you want to access your phone via ssh, you need to ?set it up to do so.

Automatic resizing of your filesystem on first boot

After flashing the image and booting for the first time, Mobian will resize the root filesystem to take all possible space on the disk. This can take a while and will only happen on first boot. So grab a ${DRINK_OF_CHOICE} and be patient.

Useful Tips and Notes

Detailed Status Report

Graphics Controller

Audio Controller

Microphone and bottom speaker

After checking for software problems, consider hardware problems for the microphone and bottom speaker. The pine64.org wiki describes physical hacks for these.

Cellular Modem

The cellular modem can be flashed with open source ("nearly free") custom firmware with advanced functionality; see the project's source code repository for more details.

The PinePhone supports a micro-SIM. Using a nano-SIM card withit requires an adapter, and it is recommended to use a quality adapter or even to tape the SIM into the adapter if it is to be removed with any frequency, as some users report difficulty in removal resulting in damage to the socket on the device.

Some users report the cellular modem runs very hot. The custom firmware will send SMS messages when the modem is running hot, and will shutdown the modem to avoid overheating.

Wi-Fi Adapter

The Wi-Fi adapter works largely without issue out of the box

Bluetooth Adapter

The Bluetooth adapter seems to work well. The Bluetooth configuration file at /etc/bluetooth/main.conf may default to "Multiprofile = off". This can adversely affect Bluetooth headphones that rely on multiple profiles to act as both headphones and hands-free handset for calling, resulting in poor audio quality when listening to music. The preferred solution is to set "Multiprofile = multiple".

Display

The device (or operating system [?]) will throttle the CPU when temperatures reach ~65 °C, to avoid damage to the display.

Touch Input

The touch input driver and stack works well.

Cameras

The PinePhone has both a front-facing and a rear-facing camera. As of linux 6.6.56 (Mobian staging), GNOME snapshot is available as a Flatpak and a Debian package. It can take pictures and videos with the front and back cameras.

Battery

The battery in the PinePhone is the same/compatible with that of the PinePhone Pro and is user-swappable. Depending on usage and configuration, the battery charge may last for an entire day or possibly more, though w/ moderate or heavy use, it will not.

Power Management

TODO: empty section.