Brand-new Pinebook Pro - keyboard not working

[guy100]

I have a brand new Pinebook Pro and I haven't spent 10 minutes on it yet because some keys are not working. I found a similar report here:

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9894

I emailed Pinebook support 3 days ago and haven't received a response. I see in the above thread there wasn't any responses either.
Can someone assist? I have a brand new computer that's currently a brick and I would like to understand my options.

Thanks so much!

[guy100]

Still no response from Pine Support regarding my ticket. I've also emailed them at sales@pine64.org and support@pine64.org. I've also emailed two personal email addresses within Pine and no response. I filed a Better Business complaint and it's been several days and no response. I'm deeply disappointed in Pine; I ordered this machine because of the respect this organization has within the community. I have a brand new $240 brick..

[KC9UDX]

Are you sure it's not software? The Manjaro that ships with the PBP has keyboard issues (until it's updated).

[kendew]

Guy100,

I have no answer to your problem, only have a keyboard problem too, which I've posted in this forum.  So just writing to let you know you are not alone in your frustration.  Like you said, a big part of the frustration is getting no response at all.  Even a response like "we're thinking about this", while it doesn't solve any problem, at least tells us support is alive.  Total silence and we're left guessing, and it's easy to guess the worst scenario, like these are people who are good with computers but don't like people. 
  This project and community has such potential that I hope that computers and attitudes and feelings can get fixed.  You'd think the project's creators would want it so.  Personally, I don't mind if it takes a little time and I'm willing to help with the troubleshooting.  But I need more than silence to work with.

If you figure anything out, I hope you'll post it here.
Kendew

[tllim]

Still no response from Pine Support regarding my ticket. I've also emailed them at sales@pine64.org and support@pine64.org. I've also emailed two personal email addresses within Pine and no response. I filed a Better Business complaint and it's been several days and no response. I'm deeply disappointed in Pine; I ordered this machine because of the respect this organization has within the community. I have a brand new $240 brick..

Please PM me your ticket number and will pass to support team.

[guy100]

Still no response from Pine Support regarding my ticket. I've also emailed them at sales@pine64.org and support@pine64.org. I've also emailed two personal email addresses within Pine and no response. I filed a Better Business complaint and it's been several days and no response. I'm deeply disappointed in Pine; I ordered this machine because of the respect this organization has within the community. I have a brand new $240 brick..

Please PM me your ticket number and will pass to support team.

Thanks so much, tllim!

My support ticket number is 7059.
The text of my ticket is:

Greetings.

I received my new Pinebook Pro today and attempted to get started with it but the keyboard appears to be defective. Numerous keys (e.g. "a" "u" "i"  ,etc) simply don't work when pressed unless I hold them down for a second or more. Please advise to how I can get the keyboard replaced/serviced. I really like the machine layout and feel and look forward to using it!

Thanks much!
Stacey Knight

---

Guy100,

I have no answer to your problem, only have a keyboard problem too, which I've posted in this forum.  So just writing to let you know you are not alone in your frustration.  Like you said, a big part of the frustration is getting no response at all.  Even a response like "we're thinking about this", while it doesn't solve any problem, at least tells us support is alive.  Total silence and we're left guessing, and it's easy to guess the worst scenario, like these are people who are good with computers but don't like people. 
  This project and community has such potential that I hope that computers and attitudes and feelings can get fixed.  You'd think the project's creators would want it so.  Personally, I don't mind if it takes a little time and I'm willing to help with the troubleshooting.  But I need more than silence to work with.

If you figure anything out, I hope you'll post it here.
Kendew

I will certainly post what happens, one way or the other.

---

Are you sure it's not software?  The Manjaro that ships with the PBP has keyboard issues (until it's updated).

Thanks for your response, KC9UDX. I will start it up and run the update to see if that fixes it.
I didn't catch this possible solution in my searches - I wish Pine would have suggested this to me 2 weeks ago.

Update: I applied all updates (300+), full shutdown and restart (twice), no change. I still have the keyboard issue.

[guy100]

A response to my Pine ticket was posted, most likely from prompting from tllim.

The suggestions from them were:
-Try an external keyboard
-Reinstall the OS
-Post this issue to the Pine forum

I don't have an external keyboard, I'm not inclined to reinstall the OS but I have upgraded it to current, and I posted the this thread on 9/19.
I replied to his/her posting but I don't anticipate a response, of course.

[KC9UDX]

You can install any OS on an SD card and try that; it would be no different than reinstalling the OS on your eMMC.

[guy100]

For potential [new] users experiencing this keyboard issue in the future, here is what ultimately solved the problem for me.

Updating the OS didn't help, it required a complete reinstall at the suggestion of KC9UDX. To accomplish this, you'll need the following:

- A micro SD card with minimum of 8gb of space
- A separate computer that you can use to etch the new OS image to the above card
- Your selected ARM Linux distro

Then, follow these instructions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTyBI2PO4I0