Pinebook Pros,

I need to update my PBP and want your advice.

Here is my Linux background. I've had Linux as my desktop since about 1992. Softlanding Linux right when it came out and supported X-Windows.  Others came and went over the next 30 years like Slackware, Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Mint, Ubuntu.  I'm now back to Debian 12 with the MATE desktop. Before all that it was SunOS (Unix) on my desktop.

I ordered my Pinebook Pro when it was announced and finally received it in 2019.  Then I added Manjaro to my list of Linux desktops.  The PBP is not powerful but has been all I've needed in a laptop.  I do all my primary work on desktops.  I've used my PBP on three continents so far and am headed to another continent in the fall.  I'm trying to decide if I can bring it up-to-dated.  Manjaro doesn't seem to be keeping up.

Questions:

1) Linux Version
  * Is Debian a good option now for PBP?
  * Are there guides for installation?
  * Can I use MATE?

2) Updates
  * Are there firmware updates that I should apply.  It's never been updated.
  * I've never gotten it to suspend or sleep.  Or I've never gotten it to wake back up.  But, I've found that I don't really need that for how I use it.
  * Some of the function keys don't work the way they are advertised but the ones I use work fine.

3) Hardware
  * The left side hinge doesn't open correctly.  It's doesn't really bother me but I might try to fix that when/if I re-build the whole thing.  Are that any good pages showing the proper way to crack into the case?
 
Thanks!

Bill

The original problem started with an upgrade in April 2025 that installed 600 packages on my PPP, which failed to complete. I reran the the upgrade, which ended up completing, but it failed to boot. I saw several "core" files in the root dir.  So, I decided to install from a new img.

Installing mobian phosh (mobian-rockchip-phosh-20250525.img.xz).

I installed the new OS image on my PPP using the suggested method (dd). I placed the installation img file on a micro sdcard which had that same OS on it. I installed that sdCard in my PPP and booted it.

I then used dd to transfer that img to the eMMC per instructions.

I recently caught the news on the Pine64 homepage that the community is looking for logo ideas and I had some time on my hands so I whipped up a few ideas. I'm not terribly proficient woth vector graphics so these were created in Blender. The fonts used are modified versions of fonts I downloaded from freefontlibrary.org. Merom-sans and Boxfont-round.

I wasn't sure if the community was looking to replace the pinecone logo or not so I included an option with the current pinecone logo. A couple of these break the three color suggestion, but I throught they projected somewhat of a retro computing vibe. My personal favorites. Anyway...















Oh, and hello Pine64 community

I bought a soldering iron over 2 months ago. Still haven't received it.

Has anyone had experience buying in Spain?

Hey everyone,
I recently updated my PineTime to the latest version of InfiniTime (v1.13.0), and while the interface feels smoother, I’ve noticed the battery seems to be draining faster than before — around 2 days max with moderate notifications and heart rate monitoring off.
Has anyone else experienced this on the latest build? I’m trying to figure out if it's related to the firmware, my watch face choice, or maybe the BLE connection with my phone.
Would love to hear your battery stats and any tips to optimize power consumption. Thanks in advance!

If anyone has an original Pinebook gathering dust, I'd be interested in buying it. Failing that, does anyone now how I might get hold of one in 2025?



Cheers
Andy

The UART's light does not go on when it's plugged
into a running pinetab with or without the power pass through.

I've created a Mastodon account! It is using rss channel of the web. You can follow it to stay updated:

https://mastodon.social/@nemomobile/

Here’s what has happened in 2025 so far:

https://nemomobile.net/pages/nemomobile-in-may-2025/
https://nemomobile.net/pages/nemomobile-...pril-2025/
https://nemomobile.net/pages/nemomobile-...uary-2025/
https://nemomobile.net/pages/Nemo-redesign-part-1/

In the last week of so I have noticed my PPpro will get a flashing LED notification in an aqua blue-green color, I think this is for a missed incoming call.
I really liked the Notification LED on the Nokia N900 and how it was used, breathing orange for charging, red flashing for low battery, green external power & fully charged, blue for USB host mode, I think there was a flashing blue LED for received IM or SMS too.
If the new flashing aqua color LED notification is for missed call how do we end/kill the LED notification(calling back doesn't work nor does clicking the notification).
What other notifications would you like to see added as clickable options for the notification LED?
me I like:
Charging - red:below 5-10% breathing orange:charging chafged ext power:green
messaging phone - aqua flashing:missed call blue flashing:SMS blue flashing pattern:messenger new color:email
Navigation - red-blue flashing: lost GPS, signal pattern speed varies on how bad signal accuracy gets
maybe notifications to see if a call or whatever is a secure VOIP vs a non-secure cellular call
whatever these are should be user configurable including changing the colors and patterns

Hello everyone.

Please tell me, has anyone tried to install Trisquel https://trisquel.info/  or Parabola  https://www.parabola.nu/ distro with linux-libre kernel on a Pine64 RockPro64 single board computer?

Free GNU/Linux distributions => https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html


As reported on the FSF-Free Software Foundation website.


Rockchip devices based on the RK3288 or RK3399 chips are usable with free software. Accelerated video encoding/decoding is supported with free software, with upstream support on-going via the "hantro" driver. These Rockchip devices have Mali GPUs supported via the free Lima and Panfrost drivers. Display out over type-C requires a proprietary firmware on RK3399, but HDMI may be used instead. Wake-on-word functionality with the RK3399 DSP may require a proprietary firmware. More recent Rockchip devices require nonfree blobs in order to boot.