PinePhone: Installing Anbox on Arch Linux ARM, trying WhatsApp and Signal
Channel: LINMOBnet
Date: 2020-09-06

This is quite a long video, sorry for that!
In fact, the process is pretty simple: Download the latest image at https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases, flash it onto an microSDHC/XC card (or eMMC using Jump Drive) and then run sudo pacman -Syu anbox anbox-image adb and you are done.


Unfortuantely, parts of the process can be difficult and I would recommend setting up some sort of a swap – be it zramswap, a swap file or a swap partition. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Swap.


Read my older blog post on Anbox to find out how bad it used to be previously: https://linmob.net/2020/08/15/anbox-o...

Please tell me below or via Twitter (@linmobblog), Mastodon (@linmob@fosstodon.org) or email (anbox@linmob.net) which apps you would need/like to have. I also plan to make videos on other ways to get Android Apps running on the PinePhone soon.

Reupload with louder audio: https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/219f7716-f00e-470f-b490-553d01bfe16a


Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and initial distro setup
01:20 Upgrading the distribution and installing Anbox at once
02:20 Removing the db.lck in order to upgrade
02:55 Actually upgrading
04:30 Creating a swap-file
09:11 Reboot and enabling swap (sudo swapon /swapfile)
10:25 Starting Anbox for the first time, Preinstalled Apps on ALARM
11:52 The Anbox launcher, disabling a couple Android Apps
13:18 Installing the Simple Keyboard app with the F-Droid store
14:50 Enabling "Simple Keyboard"
17:25 Rebooting a second time instead of restarting anbox-container-manager
18:30 Talking about the Convergence Edition (3GB Ram PinePhone)
19:05 Adjusting Simple Keyboard settings
19:43 Another hang (somebody forgot to enable swap)
21:15 Starting Firefox to download WhatsApp.apk
22:50 Another reboot
24:04 Enabling swap once more
24:33 Android Calendar app and adb install WhatsApp.apk
26:50 Starting Firefox again to download Signal.apk
29:20 adb install Signal.apk
30:20 Signal and WhatsApp are in the launcher after a reboot, turning the swap on again
31:20 Height bug
31:45 Signing up with Signal
32:40 Trying to enter the sign on code and failing
33:15 WhatsApp
34:50 Fixing an F-Droid error by clearing data and cache
36:00 Conclusions on Anbox, WhatsApp and so on
37:23 One more thing: Adjusting /etc/locale.gen on Arch Linux ARM
40:50 Goodbye and thanks for watching