I've supported PINE64 project from its beginning. I wanted to use it for my electronics projects as a self-contained unit (i.e., without lugging a big monitor, Ethernet cable, mouse/keyboard, etc.). This means it has to work with the LCD touch panel sold along with it.

I have tested the following three OSs with these criteria:
1) The OS has to support GPIO access
2) The OS has to support working WiFi
3) The OS has to support LCD Touch panel

Here are the results:

Android 6.0.1: 2) and 3), but not 1)
Android 7.1: 1) and 2), but not 3)
openSUSE for PINE64: 1) and 3), but not 2) (astonishingly, it does not want to work with the Realtek WiFi driver!)

Is there ANY operating system out there that supports 1), 2), and 3)? Will there ever be?

hi
In the pinebook smallboard schematics why there is pcie ports in the 40 pin connector
and why RTS5229 is there as sd card ports are there
as mostof the pcie pin are grounded in the 40 pin connector on the mainboard schematics
Thanks

I've tried to flash the only andorid tv image found in the pine64 etcher tool, which I believe was 7.1, I couldn't find netflix in the app store.  Is there an existing image that will allow me to easily install the netflix?  I'm not sure how to manually install the app from the android tv interface.  If that is my only option does anyone have some steps I could follow?

I'm a professional software developer (but not a Linux developer) so this question is not "How do I code an app?"  The question is "What's the easiest way to write Pine64 code to handle GPIO events."


Details:  I want to build a background process for my Pine64 (running Debian) to handle GPIOs so that I can power on/off a few things either via Node-Red (already installed on the pine), or by manually pushing a button on my Pine64 case.  The program logic is done, but I'm struggling to find a tool chain that I can use to create the program.  Either I can't compile the code, or once I get an executable running, it doesn't seem to run.  

In a perfect world, I'd love to get C# on the Pine64 working, but I'd be happy with any standard language (C, C++, etc.) that I can write and compile on my main dev machine, which runs Windows 10.  (It can run Linux in a VM if required for compiling.  Heck, I could write it and compile it on the Pine64 via VNC, if that is what is needed.)

What I need is a "Hello World" or "Blink an LED" guide to get a background app/service going on the Pine64 from my Dev machine that covers:

• What needs to be installed on my dev machine (software, dependencies, etc.)  and how do I execute builds (command line commands, etc.)? 
  
• What language I should use (Needs to read/write to GPIOS, run as a background service, and make Node Red calls.  Minor file IO would also be nice)
  
• What do I need to install/configure on the Pine 64 to get the executable to run?
  
• What debugging patterns/tools can I use?  (Is there an IDE supporting debugger breakpoints?  Can I pause running code to inspect its state?  Am I limited to logging style debugging similar to on Arduino?  Are there Pine64 emulators that I can test the code with virtual GPIO inputs?) 
  
• How do I deploy the compiled executable to run as a background service?  How do I update the executable with a newer executable each time I make a new version?
  

Hello, hoping someone can help me - I got in over my head with my Pinebook settings (using Pinebook with Ubuntu Mate 16.04) and increased the size of my /boot partition by unmounting, increasing the size and remounting. The updates that were required before but couldn't complete because of lack of space worked but after a reboot, nothing comes up on the screen. Have tried to restart it in safe mode (hitting Escape button, tab button, etc when booting up). All I get is a power light and nothing on the screen. I tried loading an .img of 16.04 to an SD card in hopes it would boot from that but that didn't work either.
No response from the Pinebook support team.
Wondering if anyone can help?

Thanks,
gmoney604

Hi,

I am thinking of changing the hardware I use, by hardware with low consumption, less space use on a room  and on hard drive, easy replacement and something more easy to evolve. And definitely something more fun.

Actually I have a home made server which runs on AMD 4 cpu for storage (2 hdd with LVM)  and backups (2 hdd with BTRFS). I have a laptop with i3 cpu and SSD.

Their are 2 issues with this, the server is using too many power but it is not really powerfull to be a remote desktop. My laptop is old and during last years I change too many times my laptops due to hardware problems (my last dislikes beer  )

The idea is to split every part in something more efficient. The server could be split in two machines : one for backup and one for storage. I was thinking to have a better desktop PC (with intel ix or Ryzen) because the price is the same as a i3 laptop and finally a pinebook as laptop replacement.

For the server, I am thinking to use a mini itx board with celeron (TDP 10). For now I could use just one box with 5 disks, one ssd for system, 2 for storage (btrfs raid 0) and 2 for backups (btrfs raid 1).
Do you think it's possible to do the same kind of things with pine64 or rock64 boards ? I don't ask for the sopine because I do not really understand it's possibilities. But if it's a solution, I can learn !

For the desktop, I am thinking to use a mini-itx with a ryzen 5/7 or i5/7, a starting GPU card (GT 710) and a small SSD for the system only. The data will be stored on storage server (NTFS). The idea here, is with the same budget as a i3 laptop (< 850$) I could buy hardware that will be sufficient for the next 5-10 years. I am doing basic desktop (libreoffice, mail, browse) and development (python/web). The server and the desktop will sit on the same room and are wired connected (1Gb/s). 
I had a look to the pine64 clusters project, and I do not know if it could be an alternative solution, what do you think ?

And last, the pinebook. Here my idea is to connect to the desktop from local and internet network.
- I would like to use the desktop cpu and gpu so which is the best solution to use a remote desktop ? SSH/XForwarding, vnc, wayland, another ?
- 99% of the time I have a good internet connection (100Mbit/s) but at home I have an upload bandwidth of 1MBit/s, is it a limitation for remote desktop by internet ?
- I do an hypothesis that the pinebook will use at a minimum it's CPU and GPU this way, do am I right ?

Thank you for the time you spent to read this.

Hi all,

After a much disappointment from the Pine64 2GB which does not support HDMI - AVR pass-through I would like to know if this new board support HDMI pass-through via AVR?

Thanks,
Moshe.

i want to use 2 li-ion batteries in parallel on my pine 64, but 1 of the batteries has no thermister, will the 2nd battery charge without it?

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hi all , i'm new here and applied for the BTO of the 14" pinebook.
at first i thouhg the ""BTO" meant i can customize some things, but then i saw the product page in the store, which explains the term better than the bto page itself ^^;

i do have some questions about the pinebook
1: why is is so cheap in comparision to the olimex open source laptop?
2: is there any upgrade path for the mainboard in the future, by which i only need to swap it and plug the emmc module in?
2-1: if so, what will those specs be? (i hope for >= 4gb ram, extra storage options, like a second emmc slot or a sata 3 or m.2 slot)
3: can there be a bigger battery in the unit, as i saw on google images that the insides between the 2 pcb's is unused space.
4: what is the sound quality like? if it is 'meh' , then i would sugggest for a newer revision the have a pair of high note speakers pointing out at the back of the system, like between the 2 hinges for the display (i did a similar mod to a el cheapo yepo 737s and the sound sounded waaay fuller, even pleasant for such a thin laptop!)
5: will there ever be a usb type c connector on a newer revision of the laptop?
6: would be fun to have an internal usb 2 port as well, for a usb to sata hdd for the lose space in the laptop
7: is the headphone jack also a mic in (2-in-1 solution?)
8: what are the thermals under load right now? does the cpu throttle? and what is the TDP of the SOC in watts peak?
9: is there a possibility of extra cooling by adding a flat copper plat or something?
10: what is the bottom panel made of? i hope aluminium, as my yepo 737s had that, and it acted as a cooling plate for the intel atom with a TDP of roughly 6W peak (2w average SDP (scenario design power))
11: does it run u-boot or some other bootloader?
12: what's the maximum battery lifespan on the default OS, at 50% brightness of the lcd, while having firefox with a youtube video running? (at the refernce 360p)
13: if i place a BTO request like right now, what will the expected waiting time be? (so i know around what period i can pay)

The production units DO NOT have this problem, apparently; several have tested.

If you have a pre release pinebook, please read on !

I first noticed this problem on the 14" pinebook while using weechat irc client;  the meta key combination alt-L to pull up the raw window does not work on my client... I used the manual command and moved on (forgot about it frankly)

Tonight after update and upgrade I tried to pull up one of the fbcon (black screen) terminals with Ctrl+Alt+F1 and it did not work.  In fact none of my fbcon terminals will come up ( Ctrl+Alt+F1 - F7 ).

Next I tried using xev ( as well evtest ) to get the keycodes of the Ctrl key, as well the Alt meta keys (left and right). And to my surprise the meta keys on my 14" do not produce valid keycodes ( neither Alt key ) on either of the test instruments ( xev nor evtest ).

So, I'm interested to know whether anyone else with a Pinebook 14" with the new production keyboard has this issue too?  To test just start  xev  tool and then press and release several of the keys on you keyboard , but specifically the left Alt and right Alt keys;  do you get a valid keycode for each Alt key, or does it not respond ??

Thank you.