02-13-2024, 10:43 PM
I'm at my wits end, hopefully someone here can help me. So I purchased a Pinebook Pro some time ago, it's generally been a faithful machine, and satisfied my desire to move from x86_64 to aarch64 in the laptop realm. I've thus far resisted the urge to roll my own Linux install on the thing, instead faithfully sticking with the Manjaro that was installed when I got it, save for updates here and there. Needless to say, the thing is still very stock, only having accumulated whatever updates Manjaro has pushed for it, along with some of my own tools for retro console programming and a few other supporting utilities.
The problem plaguing me is being able to also use this laptop as a desktop by plugging in a monitor. The hardware itself does not contain a standard video port of any kind, which seems to be par for the course with laptops these days, so can't really fault Pine for following this awful trend. However, where things fall apart is trying to use any sort of USB dongle or dock which purports to expose video through the USB-C port.
I tried a few dongles that work with my work-assigned Macbook Pro, also over USB-C, thinking that would be fine, but no dice. Got to reading and apparently there are multiple standards for how to do this thing, and a lack of transparency by vendors, so it's a crapshoot getting a device that actually works. So I decided to avoid this whole mess and went straight to the source, I purchased the official Pinebook Pro Docking Deck, thinking this would be the end of my misery. Surely the dock sold by the vendors of the laptop would be plug-and-play, right? Wrong. I've had no luck, even with the vendor supported device, getting anything resembling video output from this thing. I can get all the other parts of the dock to play nicely, such as the USB ports, SD card slot, and audio port. The only thing that I can't get to work is the one thing I bought it for: external video.
Does anyone have any pointers, ideas, anything at all? Forum posts I've read here have unfortunately been largely unhelpful as they're either targeting some third-party component (which I've already accepted aren't going to work) or they're full of advice like "Did you try turning the symmetrical-by-design USB-C connector 180 degrees" which, given USB-C is supposed to work both ways, seems like a non-starter. I've also tried to install the "linux-pinebookpro" package in Manjaro that a few threads I've read suggested, that package isn't even found in the stock repos on Manjaro (again I haven't royally changed the base install, just kept up with updates on the same install that the device shipped to me with.)
Anywho, to summarize, does anyone know how to go about getting HDMI (or VGA!) video out of a Pinebook Pro when plugged into the first-party standard Pinebook Pro Docking Dock? I can accept third-party devices not working, but the fact that I can't even trust the first party one has me honestly a bit irked. This is really the only thing that for what feels like two years now has prevented me from finally taking this computer on as my daily driver, I can only use it through the built-in screen despite ordering what should be the absolute correct device for the job.
Let me know if a dmesg trace or any system information is needed, I've built several Linux systems up from scratch on a few different architectures, so I have a pretty good idea of where to look for symptoms of a problem.
The problem plaguing me is being able to also use this laptop as a desktop by plugging in a monitor. The hardware itself does not contain a standard video port of any kind, which seems to be par for the course with laptops these days, so can't really fault Pine for following this awful trend. However, where things fall apart is trying to use any sort of USB dongle or dock which purports to expose video through the USB-C port.
I tried a few dongles that work with my work-assigned Macbook Pro, also over USB-C, thinking that would be fine, but no dice. Got to reading and apparently there are multiple standards for how to do this thing, and a lack of transparency by vendors, so it's a crapshoot getting a device that actually works. So I decided to avoid this whole mess and went straight to the source, I purchased the official Pinebook Pro Docking Deck, thinking this would be the end of my misery. Surely the dock sold by the vendors of the laptop would be plug-and-play, right? Wrong. I've had no luck, even with the vendor supported device, getting anything resembling video output from this thing. I can get all the other parts of the dock to play nicely, such as the USB ports, SD card slot, and audio port. The only thing that I can't get to work is the one thing I bought it for: external video.
Does anyone have any pointers, ideas, anything at all? Forum posts I've read here have unfortunately been largely unhelpful as they're either targeting some third-party component (which I've already accepted aren't going to work) or they're full of advice like "Did you try turning the symmetrical-by-design USB-C connector 180 degrees" which, given USB-C is supposed to work both ways, seems like a non-starter. I've also tried to install the "linux-pinebookpro" package in Manjaro that a few threads I've read suggested, that package isn't even found in the stock repos on Manjaro (again I haven't royally changed the base install, just kept up with updates on the same install that the device shipped to me with.)
Anywho, to summarize, does anyone know how to go about getting HDMI (or VGA!) video out of a Pinebook Pro when plugged into the first-party standard Pinebook Pro Docking Dock? I can accept third-party devices not working, but the fact that I can't even trust the first party one has me honestly a bit irked. This is really the only thing that for what feels like two years now has prevented me from finally taking this computer on as my daily driver, I can only use it through the built-in screen despite ordering what should be the absolute correct device for the job.
Let me know if a dmesg trace or any system information is needed, I've built several Linux systems up from scratch on a few different architectures, so I have a pretty good idea of where to look for symptoms of a problem.