So I decided to run some benchmark tests on the Pinebook 11" using a utility available in the Android app store called AnTuTu (I also tried out Passmark but it showed similar results).  I was curious as to how it stacks up against another super-cheap device I've had for a few years now: The RCA 7" Android tablet I bought at Walmart for $39. Model #RCT6773W22

Stats on this device are:
CPU Model: MTK MT8127
Architecture: ARM Cortex A7 32-bit
Cores: 4
Frequency: 1300 Mhz
GPU: Mali-450 MP
RAM: 1 GB
OS: Android 4.4.2
Storage: 8 GB


RCA Tablet
Overall Score: 18607
3D: 1651
User Experience: 5520
CPU: 8419
RAM: 3017

Pinebook 11" (Running Android 6.0.1 image from Pine64)
Overall Score: 21764
3D: 673
User Experience: 10043
CPU: 8983
RAM: 2065

A few things shocked me.
- I figured the Pinebook would kick the crap out of my RCA tablet in the CPU arena. It didn't seem all that much faster in the results, but maybe that can be attributed to the fact that the tablet tops out at 1.3 ghz, while the Pinebook seems to redline at around 1.1 ghz.
- RAM performance on the Pinebook was lower than my cheap tablet. I tried to dig up information on what kind of RAM the RCA tablet has, but could only find references stating that it had DDR3 in it. The only thing I can figure is that the Pinebook states LPDDR3 which is I believe a low-power version of that RAM. Maybe my tablet is not using the low power version... maybe higher performance at the cost of lower battery life?
- Biggest disappointment was the GPU performance. The stats on the Mali 400 / 450 are drastically different and it reflects in the scores. I can play some decent games on my tablet including my favorite Real Racing 3. I haven't really tried any games on the Pinebook other than briefly loading Minecraft PE, but I'm guessing it's not useable for any kind of 3D oriented gaming. The Mali400 just doesn't look up to the challenge.  Probably ok though considering most games on Android are designed to be used with a touchscreen or accelerometer, which the Pinebook won't be able to do.  If more Android games supported keyboard/mouse configurations, this might be a different story.

Hi guys,


do you have an idea about which is the best approach to crypt the entire rootfs (using criptsetup software or other tools) and then decrypt itself automatically on system startup?


Thanks in advance 

Q4OS builds for Pinebook 1080p and Pinebook legacy are available:

Download: https://www.q4os.org/downloads1.html#downloads_spechw
Setup guide: https://q4os.org/dqa013.html

Description: This is a Q4OS build with Desktop Environment based on Debian stable.

Instructions:  Once flashing completed, insert the micro-sd card into the Pinebook, power on and enjoy Q4OS. Optional installation to internal eMMC is available, just click to a desktop icon and follow instructions.

Initial credentials:
 Username: adminq
 Password: adminq

Xenial Mate (Pinebook) 20170505 (MD5: 93bcaf2d33aabf34691ec7b94ead50d3)

Release Notes:
1. This build is base on 0.4.0: jenkins-linux-build-pine-a64-44
2. Added packages: aisleriot, gnomine, gnome-sudoku, emacs, nano, vim, geany, scratch, gcc, htop, smplayer, smtube, mplayer, libvdpau, gimp
3. Fixed left USB port as host
4. Login Credential
Username: pine64
Password: pine64

Known Issues:
1. HDMI output not working yet.
2. Auto detect headphone not working yet.  Currently the audio will output to both speaker and headphone.

Is the SPI flash programmed at the factory with necessary boot code, or is that just there for us to use in our own applications? It looks like the PINE64 has an EMMC instead of a SPI flash and Linux-SunXI wiki says SPI-flash has a lower boot priority than SD-Card, so I'm assuming it's presently unused.

If it's available for us to use without breaking the boot process, we're thinking we might store device specific calibration values there rather than on the SD-Card. Has anyone played around with the SPI flash yet? From the above SunXI page I get the feeling that drives might not yet be in the kernel.

I saw a article regarding google HOME and PI: https://www.engadget.com/amp/2017/05/04/...ompetitor/

 Has anyone tried doing it on pine64 board? If so, i would like to know. Thanks!

Does the production Pinebook include a BMA223 accelerometer on the onboard I2C bus, as mentioned on the linux-sunxi list back in February?

if so, anyone done anything fun with it?

curious what it would be used for in a machine w/ no spinning disks 

Any guesses how long we'd be waiting if we signed up now?

I've found some disagreement between the Pinouts document (v1.0) and the schematics  for the SOPINE (v0.9) and the SOPINE Baseboard (v0.9). Usually the two Schematics agree, but not always. Some of these errors are quite serious and I suspect the Pinouts was an early document that wasn't fully updated after the final schematic materialized.

I did not list times where the Schematics called a pin "PC3" and the pinout called it "PC3_FUNCTION". But I did list times where it's pretty clear the same function is just being called by different names (ex LCD-PWM vs PL10-S_PWM)

Since I couldn't figure out how to do table layout on this forum, here's a Google Sheet with the discrepancies:
SOPINE Pin Descrepencies

For those who hate google, I've also attached screenshots.