I just recently got a Pinecil v2 and I want to make sure that my setup doesn't have issues. The two screws which hold the tip get hot enough to burn me if I brush them while rotating the pinecil during soldering. Do your screws get hot?

Cable: anker 100W silicone usb-c cable https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B093GGNRZM
Charging block: Apple 140W laptop charger https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/MW2M3AM/A/140w-usb-c-power-adapter
The device says it's getting a consistent 20V and has never posted a warning.
Firmware: v2.23-rc4
Tip: initially noticed with a ST-KU tip I got off Amazon but the original tip it shipped with also has this issue
Temps: 350-380C used while I was testing using lead free solder

Is this just something I need to be aware of and avoid touching? If so that's fine. If the entire tip is supposed to get hot it would make sense that the screws touching it also get hot.
Some searching suggests that it could be an issue with either my setup or some of the circuitry in the device and I don’t want to damage it. 

This is on Arch ARM* or Manjaro installed on RP64. If compiling on amd64 machine, set CROSS_COMPILE variables accordingly.


Build ATF:

Hi,

I'm relatively new to the community here, as I received my first and, so far, only Pine64 product roughly a year ago, even though I've been reading the blog for much longer.

It's the PBP, and I've been using it as my only laptop.

It's really good for what it is: being small, light, having a long battery life (for light tasks), it is entirely silent, it looks and feels like a premium product.
The RAM capacity and CPU performance are limited, but it's good enough. All demanding tasks I want to do can wait for the moment when I get to my desk and boot up my desktop PC.
My laptop's role is mainly displaying PDFs, static websites, running a text editor, running GIMP, compiling small programs, letting me SSH into other machines.
As for the future: the machine serves its role well, and this isn't going to change, so even though I would like my next laptop to also be a small, light, fanless Pine64 product, I wouldn't want to buy it until 2030. Also, given that performance is not very important, I think that the increase between RK3399 and RK3588 is relatively insignificant, and Pine64 either way should wait for new, more promising hardware to become available before beginning work on a new iteration of the Pinebook.

Hello,

just a Reminder:

LINUX Mobile is DEAD (and it's never coming back)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIVqKQwEwu0
What do you believe?

Ciao
Walter

I've noticed that the mobian dialer has an option to add a SIP account.

I did so and was able to place a call over wifi with no SIM card in the PinePhone. But after a reboot, the option to place a SIP call is gone even though the file /home/mobian/.config/calls/sip-account.cfg is still present and unchanged. And I had to re-enter all SIP account details in order to make another call.

Is the dialer supposed to notice the presence of /home/mobian/.config/calls/sip-account.cfg after a reboot?

Does this work for anyone?

When looking at the schematic for the Pinecil I don’t think I see any open gpio pins, but I was bored and was curious to see what you guys thought about trying to incorporate a multimeter into the Pinecil. Has anyone attempted adding anything like this?

I encountered a complete lack of support from the sales department's technical support team.
All my explanations were met with no response or willingness to look into the issue, and eventually, they stopped replying altogether.
I submitted a support ticket (Ticket ID #19968), but have not received any response there either.
Here is the content of the ticket:

Dear Pine64 Support,

I am writing to file a formal complaint regarding my order #375842, which remains undelivered due to an addressing error.

The tracking number is LZ251648191CN, and according to the official China Post tracking system
(https://track-chinapost.com/result_china...51648191CN), the package has not left Frankfurt and was never delivered to Berlin.

Upon calling DHL customer service, I was informed that the package lacks a full delivery address – only the postal code was indicated, which made delivery impossible. DHL advised me to contact the sender to correct the address issue.

I did exactly that. However, the response I received from your Sales Department was unhelpful and dismissive. The representative simply insisted that the address was present and provided a shipping label screenshot, which only shows what should have been there in theory, not what was actually on the package. This does not prove that the address was correctly printed and attached.

Despite my repeated explanations and clear evidence of the issue, your sales representative eventually stopped responding to me altogether.

This situation is unacceptable. I kindly request that you either:

Resolve the issue by initiating an investigation and correcting the delivery,
or

Refund the full amount including shipping, as the failure to deliver is clearly due to an error on your side.

Please treat this matter with urgency and respond as soon as possible.

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