I recently bought a Rock64 (4GB) board from Pine64 and I’m excited to start using it for some home server projects. I’ve mostly used x86 machines before, so I’m still learning the best practices for ARM-based SBCs. I’d appreciate advice from more experienced users here.

[*]Which Ubuntu Server version do you recommend for Rock64? I saw that there are several flavors (22.04, 24.04, etc.). Which one offers the best stability and performance?
[*]About Storage setup, I plan to run the system from an NVMe SSD via an M.2 adapter. Does anyone have experience with the setup speed, boot reliability, and any specific quirks to watch out for?
[*]I’m really looking forward to learning from everyone’s experience and getting this setup working well. Thanks in advance for your help!

Hey everyone,

I am trying to install openSUSE on the PinePhone beta and cannot get the phone to boot the image that is provided on openSUSE as of 11-13-2025.

The links to KDE and GNOME on the main article page https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:PinePhone do not even work, and I found the only image fine in the directory which is less ideal since I wanted KDE.

Does anyone have any experience with getting the install to work? Or are we just dealing with a broken image on the openSUSE site.

My process has been to use Balena Etcher to flash this image: 

https://download.opensuse.org/repositori...1.6.raw.xz

Sometimes etcher itself crashes on verification. 

When I insert the microSD card to the phone, the screen remains blank and oscillates between a green and red light, which I guess means the image failed. 

I tried this method using JumpDrive with the same result. 

Does anyone know of a solution here? I appreciate it.

DM

Hey,

I have tried porting Alpine Linux 3.22.2 to my Pine64 A64 LTS v2 board using only packages from Alpine communities, which works reasonable except for sound, ethernet device is weird (have to ethtool it to 100mbit for it to work). I also have a 7 inch panel https://pine64.com/product/7-lcd-touch-screen-panel/ which doesn't work at all. 

I found from the Armbian community patches to DTS overlays that should enable it (pine64_lcd=on). Latest Armbian images doesn't work either, their u-boot breaks my Pine64 board (doesn't detect RAM and demands reset), and the panel only backlights up (no image), though HDMI works,. The touchscreen does produce output when running libinput debug-events.

I have tried experimenting with dts patches to the 6.12 kernel source tree, and got the touchpanel discovered but still broken, while the kernel panics and oops every so often.

I'd like to ask the Pine64 community if anyone have an overview of which patches are needed for the 7 inch panel to work on a 6.12 kernel?

Hi guys. Have a Pine A64 LTS (ver 1.2) board that won't turn on. 

If I apply 5V to the barrel jack - it takes nothing at all as if contact is broken somewhere though I have 5V on both GPIO rows and quite a few components around the pcb. 

Tried replacing AXP803 and even the CPU (I solder well) with known good ones from other Pine64 LTS - nothing changed. 

If I apply 3V3 to GPIO 3V3 pin - power LED lighs up and board takes around 180 mA. 

No shorts were detected on the board anywhere and seemingly no components are missing. 

It looks like there is a fuse on a 5V rail that is blown, but I can't figure it out, so any ideas are greatly appreciated ?

While a wifi hotspot is useful in a situation where you can plug-in your phone and get fast internet for your computer or laptop Bluetooth PAN is so far the best solution(except usb cable link which ideally will also be packaged for) for mobile users trying to conserve battery power.
This really should be a core optional or bundled packages for not just Mobian but all phosh and plasma builds.
We have a working 100% Debian linux based(Maemo 5) solution here for a system current around 2009 pre-systemd.
https://bugs.maemo.org/Bluetooth_PAN (getting dead link)
https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=58570

What is required is to install the PAN bluetooth wireless base station bluez service and then create iptables routing and automated DHCP service like we already have in the WiFi service.
here is how it is done with openwrt user firmware routers.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/hard...th.6lowpan
https://www.multitech.net/developer/soft...pan-setup/

I have gotten the bluetooth PAN service to work once about four years ago on a PP running then current mobian though I had to in the end tunnel using SSH(works like a duct-tape fast socks VPN) to the phone from the client laptop as I had not configured the iptables routing correctly(ssh -D user@pinephoneIPaddress).

Since then I have not been able to replicate the bluez setup of the PAN BT service which is the base component toconnect to everything else.

Hi
in Gnome all works fine

But in SDDM and Plasma i get black rectangle behind mouse indicator/cursor?
Any hints?

Hi, My ppp started being super sensitive to any bumps, or too much pressure on it and I don't know why. if i slightly bump it or barely tap it against something it will immediately stop working and the screen will go blank, I don't think it's completely off because the screen, though black, still is slightly back lit. I've also found that if i even squeeze the phone slightly it does the same thing. I then have to turn it off, and then back on, which is not easy. I have to pop the battery out and back in, shake it, and sometimes tap on the back of it while holding the power button to get it to come back on, and then more often than not, it starts to boot, and then gets stuck, and  I have to repeat the process until it turns back on. im not sure what happened to cause this, I thought at first the battery was not making good contact with the terminals in the phone, but that isnt it. its like something is loose but im not sure where to begin in fixing it, has anyone else had this issue? are there any suggestions? Any help will be very much appreciated as my ppp is pretty much completely unusable right now. Thanks!

Lately I only have the selfie camera as an option, there is no touch switch to choose the main camera.
How do I scan the I2P buss to verify the camera socket is properly seated so I can rule that out?
I did have it unplugged but I dont really want to pent the phone again until my new system board arrives as I dont want to add any stress to the ribbon cables.
Is there a keyboard command to switch cameras?
running mobian trixie until I upgrade to forky

Hi!

I have an old pinephone that I stopped using (due to broken battery pins).

I'm trying to recycle it as a home server, without a battery (I don't want it to catch fire) but:

- Either I plug it using an USB-C charger, it boots, but does not gets Wi-Fi (known behavior), so I'm stuck.
- Either I use the Pinephone convergence dock to use RJ45, but it looks like it lacks power or something as the phone bootloops.

I though about using a voltage regulator to fake the battery BUT I fear the moment the phone tries to "charge" it, lol.

Can someone try to boot its pinephone without a battery and with a convergence dock to see if there's any chance this way?

Or is there another way I missed?

After the battery of my Pinebook (non-Pro) 14" had a swollen battery I removed it from the case.
But now it seems that it cant boot completly, becuase when armbian IoT (trixie) does start I firstly get some good startup messages and then it does reset and restart in u-boot ans then try to boot armbian trixie again

My Battery is a WTL-400110175 with 7 cables (3x red (PB+) , 3x black (PB- / GND) and in the middle a white or yellow cable (PCM / Overvoltage?)

Did anyone get the normal Pinebook to boot completly without a battery?
Or has anyone build a "new" battery from the old connector and a new 10.00mAh cell?
Something like this: https://www.n11.com/urun/1260110-37v-100...a-87767963
because I couldnt fine only a new battery far away from me for the Pinbook Pro (also 7 Pin)

Thanks for Info in advance