I've got a brand new PineTab2 that arrived in the mail today. I've done nothing but:
- Create a new admin account
- Delete the default admin account
- Change plasma theme to breeze dark

I can't figure out how to connect to either wifi or ethernet. No networks found even with a USB-C to Ethernet adapter. I've tried manually creating a wifi connection, typing in my network name and password, and it's not showing up in the available connections.



ifconfig only shows lo
iwconfig command not found

Update 6/20/23: After my original post @DeltaWhy noticed that the touchscreen was still rotated in portait mode. Making it difficult to click on something like the virtual keyboard if you had the PT2 out of the keyboard case. To fix this you will also need to install xorg-xinput and add a line to the Xsetup file. I've updated my original post to include this fix. Huge thanks to @DeltaWhy. While at it, I also recommend checking out @frtodd 's post about getting the auto screen rotation working. I've been using it for awhile now and it works really well. Community ftw!

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Hey there!

Just received my PineTab 2 in the mail today. So far it's a really cool piece of kit. However, I noticed on first boot that the KDE (sddm) login screen was rotated 90 degrees and in portrait mode. As one does I took it upon myself (with help from the internet) to figure it out. Below are the steps I went through to get it working. Be mindful that this is kind of a hacky way to accomplish this. Essentially we're running a script before the login screen is shown. Also note that the following commands are meant to be run in the terminal and are case sensitive. 

Install xorg-xrandr and xorg-xinput. It's worth noting here that I had to login to the desktop using root (without a password) and give sudo access to that alarm account so that I could install and create these files.

The quick start guide for the PineTab2 mentions only charging at 5v and 3 amps. I.e. not using a charger beyond 15W. 

Since I thought PD was supposed to negotiate the safe limits between the devices.

A couple of possibilities come to mind:
1. The testing just hasn’t been completed to certify that higher voltages are okay
2. The BMS/PD is programmable and Pine has no way to know what OS distributions have done to it.
3. There are inherent limitations in the circuitry that preclude the use of higher wattages. 

Basically if someone with knowledge of the charging circuitry weigh in that would be great. 

Thanks

I'm writing an app using egui but the launcher only shows up if I click "Show All Apps". How do I get the launcher to show up when only mobile friendly apps are shown?

The PineTab 2 came extremely well packed and was promptly delivered; I chose courier service & it arrived a day sooner than initially stated.

Boot-up was quick and straightforward without issue. Setup was also a breeze thanks to the quick reference card in the box. The build quality seems excellent; I couldn’t find any flaws. The back-lit keyboard is fine, the mouse is really accurate & responsive & the function key combos I’ve tried work.

After changing the initial passwords, I wanted to get online to check for updates; Wifi isn’t active yet, so I used the dock for my PineBook Pro (lan) and had no issues getting online. No updates were found and I installed my normal apps through terminal (personal preference) without any problems.

USB tethering seems to work flawlessly with the original PinePhone (Mobian/kernel: 5.15-sunxi64), as well as a KaiOS phone with a cheap USB OTG adapter, I used hama part #00200311 for both tests.

I’m really impressed with it so far & going to take it to work tomorrow to test it out. 

Pinetab 2, first impressions

This text was written on the Pinetab2 

Unpacking
Packaging is all in white and it feels good. Looks really nice.
A bit of plastic could maybe have been avoided.

You get two packages:

First package with:
- Pinetab2
- Small user guide
- Charging cable
- Serial UART to USB connector to analyse errors if the dispaly does not turn on (hopefully not needed)

The Pinetab has a nice feel to it. A sturdy, not super light feeling. 

Package two:
- Keyboard


Keyboad cover
Check for the camera hole and the pogopins to get the connection right.

The keyboard feels great for a keyboard cover. 
The touchpad is quite big, also good.

First Startup
- The boot time is surprisingly fast.
- The passwd for user alarm is: 123456

Dispaly
I have not taken the transport cover off. The firt impresion is good.
I am writing this outside and it works. My iPad mini is not brighter. Not super bright but normal and usable.

The resolution is not bad and not particular good. For this price point its absoutely fine.

Wifi
Everyone probably knows by now that the existing Linux Wifi driver needs work. Now that the Pinetab2 is out with the users there should be some progress.

In the meantime you can use a Wifi Dongle or connect a Mobile with a USB cable. Instructions are in the Wiki. I am using the USB cable to an Android mobil. Apparentl iPhone could work as well, but I have not tried it yet.

With a dongle or mobile it works fine, the native driver needs patience or active contribution.

Bluetooth.
Not tried, but apparently the driver needs work anyway.

Sound
Works fine. The Pinetab has a nice sound, not super loud, not very much bass  but it sounds very natural and nice.

Touchpad
I can't emphasis enough how smooth the touchpad feels. Not only in comparison to the Pinebook Pro, but in general.
It is super smooth.

The OS
The original OS is based on Archlinux and adapted to work well with the Pinetab2. It is a rolling distribution, means new software is installed when it is available. This will probably work fine for the upcoming active development phase for the Pinetab2.

The KDE GUI  is using Wayland and feels very smooth. Quite surprising in fact.
There might be the odd second wait before something happens to load the app or so, but once the result is shown it looks quite realxed and fluent.

The installed browser is Anglefish and also feels surprisingly quick and definately useful.
Overall, just by gut feeling the Piinetab2 feels on the same level as the Pinebook Pro. There might be smll differences here or there but not much. This might be different for computin intense usecases, but that is also not original tables territorry. The Pinetab2 feels fst enouch for tables tasks.

So there it is. Quite a pleant first day experience 

Hi,
the keyboard cover does not recognize that it is completely open (keyboard behind the tablet), but is there any way to disable it when I do not want to use it?
This is my first encounter with Plasma, so I don't know if it gives any such options or shortcut.
Optimally there should be some kind of button like for backlighting the keyboard to turn it off.

I am a huge supporter of SBC and low-power computing and I've been using a *lot* of Pine64 systems over the years. I used to run A64, original 14" and 12" PineBooks and the 14" PineBook Pro.
I have retired everything but the PineBook Pro, as memory and CPU no longer live up to modern standards.
The original Pinebook Pro is showing its age, too and I blindly ordered a PineTab 2 to replace the PineBook Pro. More RAM always helps.

I do not intend to run the PineTab 2 as a tablet, screen real estate is too small, but I will keep the keyboard always attached, so no special tablet features are needed.

Given the architectural similarities between PineBook Pro and PineTab 2, will the PineBook Pro Manjaro run on the PineTab 2/??

Hi all,
I just got my sealed PineTime a month ago, it was all up to date and working fine, then I left it in a bag and it discharged its battery. When I put it on the cradle to charge I get the pinecone in green, then it freezes on the InfiniTime logo. After reading other posts on the forum I tried various things.
- reset it - same thing happens
- reset it to blue pinecone - same thing happens
- reset it to red pinecone - same thing happens
- gadgetbridge was already disconnected, but I also turned off my phone and left it off and tried the above again
- allowed the watch to discharge its battery again then tried the above again with phone off (so there's no chance of any connection)
So I'm stuck, no matter what I do I can't seem to get past the InifiTime logo.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
Ralph

Hello,

It's been some time already that Pine stopped selling PBP's with an ISO keyboard.

I couldn't find any separate ISO keyboard in the Pine shop nor something similar on Aliexpress. I'm not interested in a used PBP.

Anybody knows if the ISO keyboard can be purchased separately and if so where?