So, after following the discussions for quite a while, I decided to pull it off.
Having gone though the support list of various distributions, I chose Pixel 3a for my setup. Among the dirt cheap smartphones, it seems to enjoy the support of almost everything.
I decided to install PostmarketOS with Plasma Mobile. In the meanwhile, I also tested Mobian (didn’t work for me for some reason) and Gnome (I ended up being too much of a KDE fanboy).
The overall experience is, honestly, mixed. It sure is exciting, and I’ve spent a whole day tinkering here and there (and feeling a bit nostalgic for the day I felt this way about Linux as a whole), the hardware support was a pleasant surprise, up to multipoint Bluetooth TWS headphones, but still, system stability isn’t anywhere near a daily driver, and software support lags behind in many ways.
In any case, now I too have a platform to look into the future. Year of Linux mobile, anyone? :)
P.S. Any advice on censorship-resistant (VLESS/Reality/AmneziaWG-based) VPNs for PostmarketOS on ARM devices?
Drop by in the Mobian chat in case you encounter any issues. I ported Mobian to it and would like to see all issues fixed.
I will, if I get to do this again!
Unfortunately, I did not write down the error, but it failed to boot properly with some GPU error, I believe with the -2 code, and defaulted to the terminal login screen.
To be more precise: my device is Pixel 3a XL (bonito), SDC panel. The issue does get reproduced on a stable release as well.
That shouldn’t be the case and it looks like you hit a bug.
EDIT: Should mention, -2 is “no such file”, probably missing firmware, for some reason.