Pine Phone Community Edition Runbook

1. SD Card w/ boot record
2. eMMC (internal storage)

An SD Card with a boot record will be booted first. eMMC will be booted from when SD card is absent or does not contain a boot record. Holding the volume buttons while booting drops into a phosh emergency shell.

• /dev/mmcblk0* for SD
• /dev/mmcblk2* for eMMC

From lsblk:

NAME         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
mmcblk0      179:0    0  59.5G  0 disk 
├─mmcblk0p1  179:1    0   243M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2  179:2    0  59.2G  0 part /
mmcblk2      179:32   0  29.1G  0 disk 
├─mmcblk2p1  179:33   0 213.6M  0 part /run/media/user/BOOT_MNJRO
└─mmcblk2p2  179:34   0  28.9G  0 part /run/media/user/ROOT_MNJRO

To install on Embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC, internal storage), install from the booted SD Card by getting postmarketOS from their install page. We'll be using stable v25.06 for and installing the latest phosh image with the goal being to have a very stable install on eMMC we can always fall back on.

ssh user@192.168.0.218
sudo su -

# Download image
wget https://images.postmarketos.org/bpo/v25.06/pine64-pinephone/phosh/20251219-1434/20251219-1434-postmarketOS-v25.06-phosh-25-pine64-pinephone.img.xz

# Verify Digest
sha256sum 20251219-1434-postmarketOS-v25.06-phosh-25-pine64-pinephone.img.xz 
#> 0b6860ea8be70ac4cbc6661954ba8a7ba2278cf6b0eac07991242c4398f370e8  20251219-1434-postmarketOS-v25.06-phosh-25-pine64-pinephone.img.xz
#--0b6860ea8be70ac4cbc6661954ba8a7ba2278cf6b0eac07991242c4398f370e8 <-- from Phosh

xz --decompress 20251219-1434-postmarketOS-v25.06-phosh-25-pine64-pinephone.img.xz



# dd/copy to eMMC
dd if=20251219-1434-postmarketOS-v25.06-phosh-25-pine64-pinephone.img of=/dev/mmcblk2 bs=1M conv=fsyn # this version doesn't seem to have `status=progress`

Full Disk Encryption

ssh user@192.168.0.218
sudo apk add pmbootstrap

pmbootstrap init
# Choose channel `v25.06` at prompt
# Default to Vendor [qemu] (default)
# Device codename [aarch64] at prompt
# Kernel [lts] (default)
# Username [josh]
# Privoder [default] (default)
# User interface [phosh]
# Install systemd? (default)
# Change them? [n] (default)
# Extra packages [none] (default, though it would be cool to provide a list)
# Use this timezone [y] (default, it correctly guessed TZ)
# Locale [en_US] (default, correctly guessed)
# Device hostname [qemu-aarch64] (default)
# Build outdated packages? [y] (default)

pmbootstrap install --sdcard=/dev/mmcblk2 --fde

Using the pinephone modem sdk 0.8.0 release, under Manjaro/Plasma:

sudo su -

pacman -S android-tools

mkdir ~/Modem
cd ~/Modem

# Recommended version by author
wget https://github.com/Biktorgj/quectel_eg25_recovery/raw/EG25GGBR07A08M2G_01.003.01.003/update/NON-HLOS.ubi

# Enter fastboot mode
echo -ne "AT+QFASTBOOT\r" > /dev/ttyUSB2

# Flash Firmware
fastboot flash modem NON-HLOS.ubi
fastboot reboot

Additional info

# See modem/status of modem. Will show if in `(fastboot)`
lsusb

# Show current ADSP version (didn't work for me)
echo -ne "AT+QGMR\r" > /dev/ttyUSB2

The first time I picked a higher-versioned firmware which did not work and caused the modem not to boot. Was able to use the recovery repo to successfully get out of it by shorting the test pins (mentioned in link) to get to EDL mode. In hindsight it's possible that wasn't needed; I went that route because lsusb didn't show the modem at all but it's possible that had I waited or tried fastboot reboot again it would have been sufficient.

• set T-Mobile APN to fast.t-mobile.com Under Settings -> Mobile Network -> (Advanced) Access Point Names -> +
• Enable Mobile Data: Settings -> Mobile Network -> Mobile Data
• MMSC: Chatty has the correct value (http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc) by default

This will also fix the time zone

• Mobile Settings…
  • Top Bar…
    • Scaling Quick Setting
    • Location Quick Setting
    • Caffeine Quick Setting
  • On Screen Keyboard
    • Layouts -> Add Layout -> English (Dvokrak) (make 2nd in list)
• Setup Wifi
• Setup Syncthing
• Setup KeepassXC
  • Mobile Settings -> Compositor -> Enable for KeePassXC (KeepassXC is usually jacked and doesn't fit the screen)
  • View -> Disable "Show Preview"
  • View -> Enable "Compact Mode"
    • Restart
  • Open Database
    • Mobile Settings -> Compositor -> Enable for "keepassxc" dialog (Open Dialog is probably cut off)
  • Settings…
    • Security…
      • Set Clear Clipboard to 120 seconds
      • Uncheck Lock databases
      • Uncheck Lock databases when session is locked…
    • Browser Integration..
      • Enable
      • Enable for Firefox
      • Advanced…
        • Enable Never ask for accessing credentials
• Settings -> Online Accounts -> WebDAV…
  • Setup CalDAV login
• Address Book -> Select "Main Address Book" from CalDAV server
• Firefox Setup:
  • Install KeepassXC Firefox Connection
    • Click plugin, click "Connect"
    • Add name when prompted
  • Settings…
    • General…
      • Enable Open previous windows and tabs
      • Disable Show an image preview...tab... (gets in the way sometimes)
    • Search…
      • Set Defalult Search Engine -> DuckDuckGo
      • Disable Show search terms...
      • Disable Suggestions from Firefox
      • Disable Suggestions from sponsors
    • Browser Privacy…
      • Strict
      • Disable Ask to save passwords (so KeepassXC can handle it)
      • Disable Save and fill addresses
      • Disable Save and fill payment methods
• Install fractal, verify
• Install flare, verify
• Install read-it-later (Easiest to log into instance to copy key/secret)

If the modem is getting suspended too aggressively, having issues when coming out of sleep, you can tell it to chill a bit by editing /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/80-modem-eg25.rules and changing the line:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="2c7c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0125", ATTR{power/control}="auto"
# ---- to -----
ATTRS{idVendor}=="2c7c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0125", ATTR{power/control}="on"
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------^^

echo -ne "AT+EN_CAT\r" > /dev/ttyUSB2

Note: hasn't been an issue on edge (Dec 2025)

Although the UI provides the ability to change scaling on-the-fly the selection does not persist through reboots and will always return to 200%.

Find screen

pine64-pinephone:~$ ls /sys/class/drm/
card0           card1           card1-DSI-1     card1-HDMI-A-1  renderD128      version
#-------------------------------------^^^^^

Edit /usr/share/phosh/phoc.ini (could be /etc/phosh/phoc.ini) and uncomment/modify the following:

[output:DSI-1]    
scale = 1.5 # 150%

• https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/issues/699
• https://blog.brixit.nl/megapixels-2-0-progress/
• https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/using-flatpak.html#add-a-remote
• flatpak remote-add –if-not-exists flathub https://flatpak.brixit.nl/megapixels2.flatpakref
  • Note: could add via command line
• wget https://flatpak.brixit.nl/megapixels2.flatpakref
• Open in file manager
• Long-press -> open with Software Install
• Install from Local (didn't work :( )