Hi,

I just received my new pinebook (it is a "1080P Pinebook"), and I am trying to setup an usable OS...
The OS that comes pre-installed on the pinebook (KDE plasma something) does not seem to be too usable (the graphical interface is soooo slow... When I click something with the mouse, the corresponding window needs some seconds to open --- does this "KDE plasma" use the GPU?).

So, I am wondering if anyone has any advice on better distributions to install (I plan to use the pinebook for presenting some slides and reading emails, so I need a working graphical interface, a working HDMI output, and working network). Or some configuration I can use to make the pre-installed KDE plasma faster...

What do people generally use?

Before asking, I tried some options, but I had no luck:
1) I see that when I login I can select a KDE plasma session based on wayland... I tried it, and the system froze (I had to reboot)
2) I see that this KDE plasma is really a modified version of ubuntu, so I tried "sudo apt-get install xfce4" and I started an xfce session... This is much faster (really usable, I'd say), but I lost the network connection (looks like the xfce session is not starting network-manager, or whatever is needed to connect to wifi). I tried to install wicd, but it is not able to connect to the network.


Any suggestions?


Thanks,
Luca

I'm having regular problems netbooting my Rock64 with U-Boot 2017.09-rockchip-ayufan-1035-gd646df03ac (Oct 26 2018 - 08:36:01 +0000)
  
The symptoms reflecting the problem are that the LED state on the Rock64 RJ45 is wrong (either the green LED or the orange LED is on but not both) and both the U-Boot console and the switch at the other end of the cable[1] indicate GigE/FDX but the TFTP client reports checksum errors and eventually gives up.
  
This seems to be solely related to the firmware autonegotiation - once the kernel starts, it's rock solid at 1000/FDX.  It also gets less reliable as the ambient temperature drops[2].  Whilst the above firmware isn't the latest, the changelogs for the later versions appear solely related to supporting the RK3399.

Has anyone else seen this problem?

Whilst investigating the problem, I discovered that there's a Rock64 v3 and my board is v2.0.  According to ROCK64 SBC v3.0 Change Notice, one change is "Improved transmission packet loss on gigabit Ethernet by adjusting LED0/CFG_EXT and LED2/CFG_LDO1 pull up resistor connect to 3.3V instead of 1.8V."  This sounds similar enough to my problem that I thought it was worth looking into.  Comparing the v2 and v3 schematics, the only relevant difference is that on v2, R3331 is absent and R3332 is present, whilst on v3, R3331 is present and R3332 is absent.  VCCIO_PHY is connected to VCC_IO (3.3V via R3352) in both variants.  Based on that, it should be possible to implement that fix on a v2 board by moving R3332 to R3331.  Whilst there's no publicly available component overlay for the v2 board, the v3 component overlay in that area agrees with the results of my buzzing out that part of the schematic.  Has anyone tried making this mod on a v2 board?
  
[1] I've tried both a NetGear GigE switch and a spare GigE port on my main server with the same behaviour.
[2] Warming the board with my wife's hairdryer will "fix" the problem.

For those of you using a Rock64 Rev 3 and wanting to use ayufan's images - be it OMV, minimal or desktop - please make sure to download and test

0.8.0rc12 or newer

I just got my Rock64 and am running the build "Android TV 7.1 Community Build Image [microSD Boot] by ayufan", i installed Direct TV Now on it, but when i try to select something to watch it says it cannot run on a rooted device.  This image isnt rooted but i think it throws the error because its being run on a Rock64 in general. So im pretty sure i would need something like Magisk Hide to bypass the error message.  Has anyone got Magisk installed on the Android TV image for the Rock64 or found a way to root the "Android TV 7.1 Community Build Image [microSD Boot] by ayufan" image?

Does anyone know of any instructions/directions/tutorials/etc on how to go about installing DietPi to EMMC in a Rock64?

(For the record, I'm not a Linux guru so just looking for some guidance.)

Thanks.

Hey Guys,

 I have a qestion to the RockPro64. Is a nvidia 570 geforce compatible withe the RockPro64 ?
 I like to operate over the Pcie. What kind of Pcie I need (sometimes a Pcie x4 to Pcie x16 bridge) ?
 Did I need a special driver or a normal ARM64 driver. My other AMD GPU does not work. The Fans working normal but I get no signal from the HDMI port of the GPU.

I hope someone can help me thanks   

Hey together,

I would like to use the rockpro64 as a server.

First of all I would like to do speed and stability tests.

I have two questions for now

1) Which image should i use?
I've heard that kernel 5 is supposed to bring some speed enhancements, is there already a stable image for it?

2) I have a passive cooler, do I still need heat conduction paste?

I have a few of the Pine products, which I use for testing and teaching Games coding for beginners. 

Im also working on a project to deliver some outreach courses to African countries to target potential new developers who may not have the chance to get access to usable computers much less expereinced game developers as teachers.

With that in mind I am exploring the Pinebook as a possible unit give to students and then hold courses to teach them the basics.

My 1st impresssions of the Pinebook are really great, out of the box running KDE neon 5.15 its clearly fully working, its a bit slow but thats expected, I don't need massive power, only funtionality. I was able to install Code::Blocks and run some test projects. I'm going to try some graphic tests shortly too. I'll continue with KDE Neon for a while but there might be a good reason to change to another OS (I note it does eat a lot of my 2Gb)

I wonder if I can pick your brains though, for full usability I need an OS that has OpenGLES2.0 graphic drivers for the Mali 400 GPU (is it a single core??)

Can anyone tell me which of the current ones have hardware access to the GPU?

thanks 

Brian

Hello,

I posted on another thread but after further basic testing decided to put it in separate thread as i am not sure where the problem is.

Below was ordered in march 2019 and haven't been setup or fully used yet.

• rockpro64 4gb
  
• nas case with 12v 5a psu and fan
  
• Sata pcie card ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller (rev 01)
  
• sd card imaged with stretch-openmediavault-rockpro64-0.7.9-1067-arm64.img
  

1. After first boot no disks are seen but i hear hard drives starting to spin up 2x 4TB WD red, i tried with only 1 drive but the same problems so power shouldn't be an issue.
   
2. If i execute "halt -p" when disks are not seen in omv i can still hear them spinning when rockpro64 power on light is off.
   
3. During reboot disks do not stop spinning
   
4. Based on the above it looks like sata card or whatever controls disk recognition need to be reconfigured to add delay but i do not know how
   

Hey Guys,

 I have a qestion to the RockPro64. Is a nvidia 570 geforce compatible withe the RockPro64 ?
 I like to operate over the Pcie. What kind of Pcie I need (sometimes a Pcie x4 to Pcie x16 bridge) ?
 Did I need a special driver or a normal ARM64 driver. My other AMD GPU does not work. The Fans working normal but I get no signal from the HDMI port of the GPU.

I hope someone can hell me thanks