06-13-2016, 10:23 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-13-2016, 10:24 AM by xtcrefugee.)
My 2GB A64+ arrived today, and after trying and failing to get the Phoenix image to work (it just sat at the "powered by Android" screen) I tried the rooted 32GB Android image and successfully got to the desktop. I'm using a standard 64GB SanDisk Ultra UHS-I card (Win32DiskImager claimed the 64GB image would not fit on it) and am pretty sure it's genuine. I have wireless USB receivers for keyboard and mouse connected and nothing else, and it's powered by a 2 Amp Samsung adapter, so that should all be OK I think.
The system is unbelievably slow. Just navigating the settings screens takes ages as the app freezes or locks up repeatedly. My mouse freezes at times for a few seconds, then comes back. Chrome gave me a black screen with the "this app is not responding" message, but eventually loaded. After some persistence I was able to activate Wi-Fi and add my Google account, but I've tried several times now to start Google Play, each time it causes the device to restart (back to the Pine logo screen) after a long attempt to load.
I'm not sure if I have a faulty unit here, a faulty setup in some way, or if perhaps my expectations were too high? This certainly isn't a usable system, that's for sure, I can barely load an app. I'm downloading Remix instead now to see if that's any better, but really I bought this as Pine claimed to support Android.
Your SD card is probably slow at small random transfers. My tests are here, on Linux: http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?t...ne#pid9042
Yeah you have a bottleneck somewhere, my 2GB board flies along with the 64gb DD image. Its on the SD supplied by pine that was preloaded but has been re-flashed for touchscreen.
(06-13-2016, 10:56 AM)benpope81 Wrote: Your SD card is probably slow at small random transfers. My tests are here, on Linux: http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?t...ne#pid9042
Thanks, I've just tried Remix and it's just as bad. When I have time I'll get Ubuntu and perform that benchmark to see if that's the problem. The mouse freezing issue however has me thinking that a hardware fault is still possible?
Your sd card is the problem here. Probably it has bad sectors and damaged areas and that's why you weren't able to use the dd image for 64GB despite your card is in fact a 64GB one. Try it to do a full formatting of the card with SD-formatter and if the problem persists, you should get a new one, Sandisk or Samsung preferably and at least class 10 speed.
Android runs very smooth and fast on the 2GB board provided that you have a good PSU. The problems are very specific on Android (such as Ethernet, HDMI overscan) although overall experience is really good.
(06-13-2016, 12:24 PM)g_t_j Wrote: Your sd card is the problem here. Probably it has bad sectors and damaged areas and that's why you weren't able to use the dd image for 64GB despite your card is in fact a 64GB one. Try it to do a full formatting of the card with SD-formatter and if the problem persists, you should get a new one, Sandisk or Samsung preferably and at least class 10 speed.
It's a brand new card, literally just out of the packet. I performed a full scan, no errors. Capacities of cards vary depending on the brand, it wasn't by much but this card was slightly under the image size so that's why it wouldn't work.
After reading more I suspect this is the random transfers issue, these SanDisk Ultra cards just don't seem suited for that. I'll verify in Ubuntu when I get the chance. It's a shame the PINE documentation isn't a bit more helpful in this respect, I've ended up buying this SanDisk for nothing. They should be keeping a recommended list of cards, not just saying "buy a class 10".
(06-13-2016, 12:33 PM)xtcrefugee Wrote: (06-13-2016, 12:24 PM)g_t_j Wrote: Your sd card is the problem here. Probably it has bad sectors and damaged areas and that's why you weren't able to use the dd image for 64GB despite your card is in fact a 64GB one. Try it to do a full formatting of the card with SD-formatter and if the problem persists, you should get a new one, Sandisk or Samsung preferably and at least class 10 speed.
It's a brand new card, literally just out of the packet. I performed a full scan, no errors. Capacities of cards vary depending on the brand, it wasn't by much but this card was slightly under the image size so that's why it wouldn't work.
After reading more I suspect this is the random transfers issue, these SanDisk Ultra cards just don't seem suited for that. I'll verify in Ubuntu when I get the chance. It's a shame the PINE documentation isn't a bit more helpful in this respect, I've ended up buying this SanDisk for nothing. They should be keeping a recommended list of cards, not just saying "buy a class 10".
There are tons of counterfeits Sandisk cards out there, so unless you bought it from a reputable seller, chances are you have a fake one. In the past I even bought a Sandisk ultra from Amazon uk which I later verified it was fake with the help of application ''SD insight'' !
I now solely use ''SanDisk 16GB U3 Extremes'' which work flawlessly while the community recommends Samsung EVO+. I think whichever you buy you will be on the safe side.
The point here is that you should not worry about your Pine64's performance on Android. The experience you had so far has certainly nothing to do with the board's normal performance. 
(06-13-2016, 01:23 PM)g_t_j Wrote: There are tons of counterfeits Sandisk cards out there, so unless you bought it from a reputable seller, chances are you have a fake one. In the past I even bought a Sandisk ultra from Amazon uk which I later verified it was fake with the help of application ''SD insight'' !
I now solely use ''SanDisk 16GB U3 Extremes'' which work flawlessly while the community recommends Samsung EVO+. I think whichever you buy you will be on the safe side.
The point here is that you should not worry about your Pine64's performance on Android. The experience you had so far has certainly nothing to do with the board's normal performance.
It's a genuine SanDisk according to that app, but comes up as a 63GB SL64G rather than a 64GB SU64G like my others? Maybe SanDisk themselves have started selling inferior cards in their Ultra line. I tried it in Crystal Disk Mark (on 2 different PCs) and the random read/write results are terrible, much worse than even the PNY card mentioned in the thread benpope81 linked above. I'll go and buy an EVO+, thanks
(06-13-2016, 02:01 PM)xtcrefugee Wrote: (06-13-2016, 01:23 PM)g_t_j Wrote: There are tons of counterfeits Sandisk cards out there, so unless you bought it from a reputable seller, chances are you have a fake one. In the past I even bought a Sandisk ultra from Amazon uk which I later verified it was fake with the help of application ''SD insight'' !
I now solely use ''SanDisk 16GB U3 Extremes'' which work flawlessly while the community recommends Samsung EVO+. I think whichever you buy you will be on the safe side.
The point here is that you should not worry about your Pine64's performance on Android. The experience you had so far has certainly nothing to do with the board's normal performance.
It's a genuine SanDisk according to that app, but comes up as a 63GB SL64G rather than a 64GB SU64G like my others? Maybe SanDisk themselves have started selling inferior cards in their Ultra line. I tried it in Crystal Disk Mark (on 2 different PCs) and the random read/write results are terrible, much worse than even the PNY card mentioned in the thread benpope81 linked above. I'll go and buy an EVO+, thanks As long as this app finds it genuine, it is as it reads the serial and barcode by the manufacturer.
Obviously you got a faulty one. See if you can return it for a new one.
The EVO+ is considered to be value for money with the best sequential write speeds.
Enjoy!
Is the board really so fragile about SD cards?
All of cards I have (like 15 different sizes, speeds and manufactures) working perfect with raspberry pi, raspberry zero, I used them to boot linux on a PC or laptop, install windows from them anything...
None of them working with pine64 I have tried everything and unleas this board is so fussy about card that can take only two types of the best, perfect cards the board is faulty... (even being so fussy and fragile about condition of card I would consider a fault or bug that need to be address urgently.)
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