After reading about the various issues on using the SPI flash for U-Boot, it comes down to 2 things;

 - Bricking when you write a new U-Boot that does not work as expected. But does not allow recovery.
 - Writing to the SPI flash reliably

I can't speak to the second issue directly, will have to accept what others have to say.

However, I have some thoughts on fault tolerance for the SPI flash image This is what I came up with;

 - Stage 1 code to select U-Boot image, that has recovery by looking at a special SD card
 - data to select image 1 or 2
 - U-Boot image 1
 - U-Boot image 2

So, under normal conditions, we have an old, working U-Boot, (maybe lacking a feature like NVMe boot), installed in one SPI U-Boot slot. And we want to install a new, less tested image into the second slot. We then run a program to install new U-Boot image and change the boot image selection to newest.

If the new U-Boot image fails in such a way we can't work around the problems easily, we install a SD card that has a special signature our stage 1 code recognizes. If stage 1 sees this, it changes the U-Boot image selection to the other one, (aka old U-Boot image), and proceeds to boot.

We can also have stage 1 look for a second signature on the SD card. If found, boot off the SD card. That way, we have a choice.

Since this is all open source, the exact location and data of these signatures would be well known and documented.


So, that's my solution to the SPI issue where we could "brick" our Pinebook Pros.


Discussion anyone?

Hi,

The current Pinebook pro comes with the option between ISO and ANSI layout, what is great. But it is only QWERTY. 

I understand that makes sense. Other layouts are the exception. And this is not a store. To keep costs low, producing other low volume keyboard layout versions is probably not possible. 

Nevertheless if you are accustomed to a non-Qwerty layout it can be annoying to be forced to use it. Using stickers is an option but not ideally. It never looks great. 

Idea;

Let's take French Azerty.  Take all the keys with the correct printing on them for French Azerty.  And then remove the keys that are identical of the included QWERTY layout.

Sell that bag of extra printed keys as an ad-on to the order.  So ordering a Pinebook pro AZERTY FR is only the default computer + a bag of extra keyboard keys.


And then the buyer can do some puzzling to rearrange the keys. The bag can also contain a tool for removing the keys of the keyboard.

I suspect (hope) a bag of extra lose printed keyboard keys would not be very expensive. This way multiple keyboard layouts could be offert.

Hey,

It seems to me that the GPU isn't used at all on Ubuntu 18.04 on my pbp.
At least powertop reports 100% idle for the GPU even when playing video (in browser and mpv).
Does anyone else have a similar experience?

Hi everyone,

I have one of the original Pine64s from the kickstarter. I was wondering if these are able to be set to boot from a HDD connected via USB (like you can with the pi3/4)?

Any help would be most appreciated.

I've bought one a year ago, attracted by the idea and the somewhat low price point (somewhat because the shipping and import tax doubled the price, but I wanted to support the project) plus the idea of getting better at working with linux.

A year later, I have to say this failed big time. You built a neat product, looks sleek, the premise is awesome. But the included software is ancient, so you start looking for a new OS. Now, I am somewhat proficient with linux in that I can apt-get my way around the command line and maybe understand a simple script or symlink, but compiling something or building something myself is not something I know how to do. And that's where things break down.

None if the images (and I tried neigh all of them) that are mentioned as being fit for the Pinebook were stable in any way. I haven't been able to use any of them with any measure of success. My latest install of Manjaro ARM KDE lasted for 2 bootups: After the first major 'update' the system broke down and the wifi is since inoperable. I'm sure it's easy to fix for a linux guru or when I get down to it and put a couple of hours of research into it, but having to fix a new issue every freaking fresh install is getting up my nerves after a year. I've had update cycles break the system, but often the system will just break itself and stop working after X bootups. Weird audio issues. Weird mouse issues. Weird display issues. Weird network issues. Every time I give it a go something else breaks without me having even touched the system or the configuration. 

The actual 'installation procedure' is either boot from SD, install from a capable installer FROM SD to EMMC or the dreaded "DD" which for me, no matter the amount of instructions from people who assume half an word is enough, has never worked. I've tried scripts, after failing those I contacted the people who made the scripts, and they didn't respond or stopped responding after I asked a question. Numerous attempts from users to create something viable have died out, and many of the builds still being produced by avid enthusiasts are riddled with issues. 

I know this product was sold with a big disclaimer. It's supposed to be a 'learning experience'. It's such a shame the product is so unusable even that is not an attainable goal because the 'experience' is condensed down to keeping the bloody thing running (or even getting it to work). 

I would have loved to be able to have some form of Debian running on it, because that's a system I know. But the 'armbian' images are DD only (and I've tried ever method I've found to DD the installation to the EMMC, every try has borked the system and did not give the described results) so I couldn't get them to work. Heck, I couldn't even figure out why it didn't work as described, and attempts to find support have landed me nothing. 

Can't say that I'm anything but dissappointed in this project, and my purchase.

Out of curiosity, I have tried putting the Pinebook Pro into developer mode via holding esc and F3 during boot, but it seems not to "see" that I am holding the keys down, booting to the login screen like normal. Is chromium developer mode not supported on the Pinebook Pro? I have Chromium installed on my emmc via Wizzard's AWESOME Dual booting chromium and linux tutorial.

Has anybody tried this yet?  I'm looking at the Pinebook Pro as a solution to x86 laptop woes, but there's still a bunch of questions about compatibility.

Fedora updates to the latest stable kernel soon after release while Debian doesn't.  They also mentioned that the panfrost driver is available now, and they've shown it running Fedora Workstation 31 w/ stock Gnome3 on an RK3399 SBC at some kind of trade show (I forget who had the link).  According to Collabora, the panfrost driver was supposed to have been mainlined in Linux 5.2.  So is this actually usable now?  Has anybody tried it with Fedora 31 aarch64?

Also, there's the question about the other hardware that makes the PBP unique from its SBC counterparts, namely things like screen compatibility and the big elephant in the room: wireless and Bluetooth support, specifically in Fedora.  I'd like to see some kind of 802.11ac wireless that DOESN'T require proprietary firmware blobs, but that situation is looking pretty grim, with no manufacturers committing to changing for "WiFi-6".

The PBP looks good, but I also work with GTK3+ apps and want to target Gnome3 development, so this is a requirement.

I'm debating whether to invest money into a laptop that could still have compatibility issues, or to go with an SBC that lacks some of those troublesome hardware for OSS.

I could not sign in and sync my chromium preferences because Chromium crashes when I access "settings". So I installed the snap version of Chromium and now can sync my account and change all preferences. The snap version is a bit slower but usable.

Hello everyone,

I know it's a controversial subject. I would just like to put the idea out there and hear what you think and whether anyone would be interested (or not).

Whenever I talk about the Linux phone to friends who know what Linux is, I get the same answer: apps, apps, apps! What about Snapchat? Instagram? Bleh! I have zero interest in having Instagram for Linux, but I would like to have a wide selection of apps that appeal to geeks and non-geeks. I would also love it if indie developers could make a living developing Linux apps full-time. 

So imagine we have closed-source apps sold on an app store. Those apps could be cross-platform (also sold on iOS and Android) for wider appeal, compatibility and profitability. A worker cooperative could own the apps and run the back-ends when needed (a pain point for free software I think). The same or another coop could run the app store. With the right public statutes, this organization would give everyone confidence that the developers are compensated fairly and that only ethical software is being sold. It would also be possible to prevent acquisition by a tech giant. 

So what do you think? Worth discussing further?

Hey,
It seems to me that the Pinebook Pro does only enter into S1 suspend when closing the lid or pressing the power button. At least the output of journalctl | grep "PM: suspend" | tail doesn't indicate any form of deep suspend and my battery drain is around 3% / h which seems quite high.
Does anyone know how to change this behavior? I would prefer a deeper suspend, even for the price of a longer wake-up time.
Ideally I would like to set the suspend mode to s3 which is suspend to ram (meaning mostly anything exept for the ram self refresh is turned off).

Thanks in advance!