Anyone know what the reason was that MATE was chosen for the desktop environment?
I just installed LXDE and it looks like right off the bat it has a good 250-400 MB more RAM free after initial login. Seems like this would be a better choice for slim hardware like the Pinebook has. I haven't used it for more than about 15 minutes so far, but seems to be much snappier.
Don't get me wrong...I'm not hating on MATE. I use it at work on my Dell desktop with full Compiz effects too. Love it.
I spent some time playing with different browsers and exploring youtube playback options, and in this post I list my findings. Although Chromium is quicker than Firefox on the Pinebook - especially if you put in time to do some modifications - to my knowledge, it lacks a good plugin for easy playback of youtube (and other) videos using external player. I looked all over, read countless threads, but found just one plugin utility for chromium that kinda-sorta works. However, it requires a lot of setup and is not a simple click-and-play solution because it requires you to have VLC launched in the background as well as a VLC server running at localhost:8080. I generally found it quite unreliable.
So I moved onto Firefox. For starters, I did some tweaking to improve Firefox performance from terrible - to usable. Some things can be tweaked from the settings panel while others have to be enabled from a hidden options list. The very basics can be found in Preferences -> Advanced and:
In general: disable Smooth Scrolling
In Data Choices: disable Firefox Health Report
For the more advanced tweaks one needs to enter about:config in the URL bar. There is a search bar at the top so you can look for the settings I list below.
For starters you may want to make sure to prevent pinch-to-zoom behaviour by setting: zoom.maxPercent to 100 zoom.minPercent to 100
Then find and set the following: network.http.pipelining true Network.http.proxy.pipelining true network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 8
Its also worth adding the following integers by right clicking anywhere on the about:config page, selecting New -> integer:
Lastly, similarly to Chromium, it’s a good idea to move cache to ram by setting the following: Browser.cache.disk.enable false Browser.cache.memory.enable true Browser.cache.memory.capacity -1
The last variable can be tweaked; value of 100000 = 100mb RAM. The -1 value, as I understand it, refers to dynamic allocation of RAM usage. I don't know what the optimal setting for this ought to be. Also, you can find out more about how much ram is used and other options by entering about:cache in the browser bar.
Now that faster Firefox performance is improved (subjectively, when running off of eMMC, it’s on par with Chromium in Mate DE) we can move onto enabling playback via VLC player.
The plugin needed to achieve this is called VLC Youtube Shortcut. Extensive instructions are not needed for getting this to work - after installing the plugin, you will be able to just right click the youtube (or other) video in Firefox and select Play Video from link from the drop-down menu.
To get good playback in VLC some tinkering is needed … but that is a topic for a different post.
I purchased a 14" Pinebook and noticed there wasn't a plug type available for the UK (chose EU since it's the closest I could adapt). I was curious if anyone from the tea nation had bought a UK barrel power adapter that worked with their Pinebook?
I've had some pretty so-so experiences buying power adapters so wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations, preferably eBay or Amazon. Looking forward to its arrival!
Oh and anyone who did receive it, did you receive a DHL tracking code?
I want to use i2c-0 as well as i2c-1 in my project. i2c-0 connects to the TP port for use with the touchpanel by default. On the baseboard are 2k pullups between the TWI0-{SCK,SDA} pins and VCC-CTP.
I found that with with the pull-ups installed (R96 and R97), external pull-ups to 3v3 just create a voltage divider and the TWI0 pins don't go high enough for the A64 to detect the i2c bus is idle. (I first tried removing the ferrite bead, FB3, attempting to sever the connection to VCC-CTP, but that didn't make a difference.) I suspect the problem is that VCC-CTP isn't enabled and is instead acting as a strong pull-down.
So here's what I did to make TWI0 functional from Linux on SO-Pine + Baseboard; I think the same should work on standard Pine64.
De-solder R96, R97, and FB3.
Solder wires to the center 2 test points on the group of 6 directly behind the TP connector on the bottom of the board
Connect your wires to external pullup resistors to 3v3. I used Pin 0 on the Pi2 bus for 3v3.
Alternatively there's surely a way to enable VCC-CTP; this is shown as a 3v3 regulator in the AXP803 chip on the SOPINE schematic. With this enabled, one could get 3v3 and ground from the test pads on the back, as well. Or use an appropriately sized ribbon cable. If someone knows how to enable this, please share. I didn't find this while searching.
Loaded up the Longsleep Ubuntu on my working 2gb Pine. But on a working HDMI I'm getting "Format not supported." I didn't find anything in the Wiki or this forum.
What should I try to get HDMI working?, sam
Hi guys, I'm running kernel 7.1 with build https://github.com/ayufan-pine64/android.../tag/0.1.1 in Pine A64+.
Sometime during the boot, there's kernel panic and boot failed. Have to replug-in the power to reset.
Following is boot log get from serial port, kernel panic due to bug:
I have a 14” Pinebook prototype that was used for testing and QA at the beginning of the year. In the process of testing the unit got damaged and no longer works (which doesn’t matter anyways, as current images are not compatible with this hardware). Since it just sits there and takes up space, I figured that I will tear it down so we can better understand how these things are put together in case someone wishes to mod or repair their unit. Now, those more observant of you will surely notice that this 14” design is different to its production counterpart, and more akin in some respects to the 11” unit, so keep that in mind if you ever want to attempt any repairs or modifications on a production Pinebook.
I think it important to mention that you should not reproduce this disassembly as it may damage your unit and will void your warranty.
[TL : DR] Here are some key points if you don’t want to read the entire post:
Replacing the screen isn’t all ‘that’ difficult and...
replacing most components isn’t particularly difficult either, with the notable exception of...
... the keyboard, which is rather hard to remove from the chassis.
Unfortunately I cannot embed pictures in this post so they will be hyperlinked. You can also find all pictures from the teardown here.
The first thing I took apart was the screen (stupid of me - I should have removed it from the body first...oh well). The screen is held in place by plastic hooks which run all around the bezel of the screen. There are also four metal pegs holding it in place which located under the squishy pads / standoffs on each corner of the bezel. The plastic hooks release easily when a pry-tool is inserted but the metal pegs require considerably more force to come undone. If you do it super gently few marks will remain on the plastic. I can confirm that the construction is the same is true on the 11” production model.
Inside, the LCD is held in place by four screws - 2 at the bottom and 2 on top. Other than that we also find the webcam, which is connected to the same cable as the LCD panel, and two magnets for the hall switch. That’s pretty much all there is - not that you would expect anything else. [edit] It appears that on the 11” production unit the wifi antenna is also routed inside the the screen, so one should be careful not to tear it by accident when separating the bezel from the back of the lid.
To remove the screen from the body of the laptop - which I should have done in the first place - you will need to take of the bottom cover. The bottom cover is only held in place by 10 philips screws so it comes off very easily; lift it from the front and gently pull up.
To separate the screen from the body, all that is needed is to undo the hinges on both sides and the screen connector located on the main board. The hinges are held in place with philips screws and come right out. After removing the screws, the hinges need to be carefully bent back to a 90* angle (as if the Pinebook would be normally used) and to separate the screen all one needs to do is push it away (back) from the body. If the hinges are ‘flat’ it is very difficult to separate remove the screen/ lid.
Onto further disassembly. The first thing that needs to go is the battery. The battery connector on the main board pops up and out when gently lifted from the bottom. The battery itself is held in place by a couple of screws - there is no adhesive, so removing it is very easy.
Next up the daughterboard on the left side of the body (when viewed upside-down from atop). It’s held in place by two large screws and some adhesive tape. There is only one connector for a ffc cable held down by a hinge that needs to be lifted. You will need to gently pull up and away from the plastic case to remove it, because the USB socket sits inside the plastic.
Onto the main board. Here you will have to separate the 5 more cables (from left to right as viewed from atop): the microphone, cable running under the battery to the daughterboard, the microphone, the large flex cable is for the keyboard, trackpad and lastly speakers (LCD + camera and battery have already been removed). For the daughterboard, keyboard and trackpad cables, simply lift up the hinge and slide the cable out. For the microphone and speaker cables, wiggle the connectors out from their sockets (don’t pull by the cables - they look fragile). The mainboard is held in place by 4 more of those same screws as found on the daughterboard. To remove it from the chassis, lift it up on the far end of the board and pull away from the plastic where the Micro SD, USB and headphone sockets sit.
With most of the stuff out already the harder part begins, namely trackpad and keyboard removal. First things first - unclip the cable that connects the trackpad to the mainboard by lifting the hinge and sliding out the cable. I will return to the trackpad in a bit…
Onto the keyboard. The keyboard is located under the metal cover which held in place by a couple of philips screws and plastic ‘tabs’. After removing the screws comes the hardest part of the disassembly as you will have to remove, one by one, all the plastic tabs protruding through the metal. I chose to cut of the tips of the plastic using a precision knife and it took me a long time. It’s clear that this part of the assembly was never meant to be removed by the end user (do note, I have since reassembled the keyboard and removing the plastic tabs has significantly affected the rigidity not only of the keyboard but also entire bottom section). Once all tabs are cut, you can lift it up and push it towards the back and the keyboard will slide right out as it is not held in place by glue or adhesive tape. About the keyboard; the keycaps come right off and snap back with ease. The keys have a butterfly-like assembly under which there is a dome.
Lastly, there are the speakers. They are held down with adhesive but can easily be popped out by placing a pry tool in the cable-routing hole and gently pushing up.
And so the teardown is complete. I also managed to reassemble everything without relative ease. I don't know if anything was broken in the process (other than the sturdiness of the keyboard) since the unit was already broken in the first place. If I were iFixit I'd probably rate this device a solid 10/10 because the unit is, for the most part, put together using regular screws and clamps which make things easy to remove and refit. Also, very little adhesive and glue was used on this particular pinebook which is a big plus for repairability.
