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+<h1 class="page-title">The Pinephone Pro, PostmarketOS, and Why Mainlining Phones is Important</h1>
+<p class="date">Published 2022-09-07 on <a href="/">Anjan's Homepage</a></p>
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+In =#sxmo= on OFTC, users often ask why the pinephone pro is less functional on postmarketOS than other distros.
+PostmarketOS uses a mainline pinephone pro kernel [fn:1].
+There exists a heavily patched fork of the linux kernel called the megi kernel with broader support for the functionality of the pinephone pro [fn:2].
+In this blog post, I will explain why postmarketOS has mainline-first approach.
+
+#+begin_quote
+Carrying around forks of the kernel is not sustainable as it becomes impossible to provide security patches after a short time. The only way to truly fix this for a device is mainlining it.
+#+end_quote
+- Source: postmarketOS wiki https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/The_Mainline_Kernel
+
+Moreover, I have ran into stability issues when using heavily forked kernels with postmarketOS.
+Recall that postmarketOS is aiming for a 10 year lifecycle for smartphones.
+Forked kernels are a hurdle we must overcome to achieve this goal.
+
+It is often suggested that we use the megi forked kernel for the pinephone pro in the postmarketOS distro as a temporary solution.
+However, it is easy to underestimate how permanent a temporary solution can be - the heavily forked megi kernel for the original pinephone is used in postmarketOS and has not been upstreamed [fn:7].
+PostmarketOS cannot change from the megi kernel to the upstream kernel for the original pinephone without losing functionality.
+Indeed, postmarketOS is trying to change the status quo where phones are a throwaway insecure mess cause the code is so heavily patched.
+Only shipping the mainline kernel creates pressure for someone to mainline the megi kernel patches.
+
+* Options
+
+PostmarketOS is the only linux distro I have used on my pinephone, pinephone pro, and android phones because of how well the distro is maintained.
+Indeed, the mainline-first approach encourages the community to enact best practices.
+If you are convinced of the importance of mainlining and postmarketOS's approach, here is how you can help:
+
+** Help mainline the pinephone pro kernel
+
+The megi kernel is not as bad as a typical downstream kernel.
+For example, megi's kernel has a ~500k line diff and OnePlus 6's downstream kernel has a ~5000k line diff [fn:8].
+However, we should still work towards mainlining the megi kernel.
+Megi expressed in the past that he is not interested in mainlining because rebasing to the latest Linux release is less work for him.
+Megi's work is valuable and a good start.
+I am thankful he is doing this work but we need to work as a community to make sure his work lives on forever.
+
+There has been progress on mainlining the pinephone pro kernel!
+The pinephone pro device tree has been merged into the upstream linux kernel [fn:3].
+If you want to help, please checkout the =#cross-distro-kernel= channel on the libera.chat irc network and the gitlab [fn:6].
+There are lots of people in =#postmarketos-mainline= channel on the oftc irc network to help you learn how to mainline.
+Maybe you can mainline other Android phones?
+
+** Buy functional mainlined devices
+
+I have been daily driving the poco f1 with Sxmo for a couple months and it's the perfect phone [fn:4].
+You can also use the OnePlus 6/6T for similar support.
+These devices have proper mainline support in postmarketOS and can be obtained in Canada for 150 Canadian dollars.
+Optionally, you can donate the money saved from buying [[https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Qualcomm_Snapdragon_845_(SDM845)][SDM845 devices]] to the developers making sure we have lots of mainline devices to use [fn:5].
+
+* Conclusion
+
+I appreciate megi's work as a start but we need to mainline devices to have a polished experience long term.
+If postmarketOS merged heavily forked kernels for devices, a lot of work would need to be done to maintain those devices.
+More likely, we wouldn't bother and have severely insecure devices after a couple years.
+The large initial investment of mainlining is worth it.
+
+* Footnotes
+
+[fn:8] See: https://mainline.space/ https://not.mainline.space/
+
+[fn:7] https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/blob/master/device/main/linux-postmarketos-allwinner/APKBUILD#L38
+
+[fn:6] https://gitlab.com/pine64-org/linux
+
+[fn:5] https://www.patreon.com/calebccff
+
+[fn:4] Read my blog post: [[https://momi.ca/posts/2022-04-19-sxmopocof1.html][Sxmo on the poco f1]]
+
+[fn:3] https://lore.kernel.org/all/166231195330.2423948.5394487959576836993.b4-ty@sntech.de/
+
+[fn:2] https://megous.com/git/linux
+
+[fn:1] https://gitlab.com/pine64-org/linux