I recently (yesterday) installed PostmarketOS with Phosh on a refurbished OnePlus 6. Since this is my first time using a Linux phone I thought it might be useful to track the issues I hit - since you tend to lose the 'noob-insights' as you get more used to a new platform (for better or worse).

Problems

• Can't launch new software in Software app

One of the first things I wanted to do with the Linux phone was show off on social media that I was using a Linux phone, how basic of me. I tried to install a Mastodon client through the Software App and one called 'Pinafore' showed up. After some awkward UI wrangling it marked as Installed. However it doesn't show up anywhere on the phone UI, including the Software app. If I try to launch it from the 'Installed' splash then the Install splash for the Software app itself opens. In the end I did my showing off through the web browser for now.

I didn't look for an issue report for this one yet - but of course maybe most people go straight to the console and use a list like this: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Applications_by_function (In the end I installed tuba for this.

• Can't set a pin-like password

The OS comes with a preset pin-like (short, numerical) password. Naturally you will want to change it pretty early on.

Gnome Settings seems like an intuitive place to do it, it has a User profile and a UI to change the password. However it only accepts relatively long alphanumeric passwords, as you might expect on desktop. This doesn't work on mobile - you want to pick up your phone and unlock it pretty quick.

The workaround is to open a console and use passwd.

I found a defect report here: https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/issues/2902 but it is marked as an upstream bug - I don't understand enough yet to know which upstream. I haven't found other reports yet (but am still getting up to speed on issue trackers).

• Occasionally can't select file in web browser - clipped UI

While continuing my quest to show off on social media I tried to share a screengrab on Mastodon via Firefox. This worked fine via the File picker on first attempt. Since I messed up the post I tried a second time but now the File picker was sized larger than the screen and I was stuck.

I didn't look for an issue report yet and am not fully sure how reproducible this is.

• Battery level not working

The battery is shown as always charging - I'm pretty sure I saw this in an FAQ/common issues - so will need to dig it out.

Nuisances

• Multiple settings apps

I tried to turn off haptic feedback for the keyboard. I got there in the end but it was awkward finding the setting in the multiple setting apps.

• Camera not working

This is probably a 'Problem' for others but I don't tend to use it much. However one of the reasons for going for the One Plus 6 was the camera support. I'm probably missing something from an FAQ/common issues for this - but 'out of the box', no camera.