has anyone had success with pika backup archives?
I cant get the borgbackup installed on PP so cant even try.
Am I missing the easy solution?
https://docs.borgbase.com/restore/
The backup app looked so easy and was optomized for mobile so I had to do it, found out now after the latest Mobian updates had me crasing in under a minute that I dod NOT have a usable backup.
I am reinstalled but I guess I am going to have to look up phone numbers and reconfigure all of my apps.
Next time it is cp /home /mnt/SDcard/backups then tar-gz it vs pikabackup.

Using my SOQuartz board with a eMMC module for last few weeks has been great performace-wise. However, every time I have to detach the module, flash new OS and reattach I wonder how long is that tiny plastic connector is going to last. I do kernel and driver development so when I use it I re-flash the OS few times per day.

So my question is. How many connect/disconnect cycles are these flat eMMC connectors usually rated for? Had people have them break already in normal use? Should I be doing something special to extend its lifetime (lubricating with plastic spray lubricant) etc?

Also, when they break, is it fairly easy to buy them? I can solder such components no problem, but buying them is another story.

Can someone point me to an image of linux/bsd that is 100% bootable on Pibebook Pro from SD card with eMMC physically removed?

I tried latest Manjaro for ARM and a custom Debian from mrfixit2001, no luck.

Do I have to write u-boot separately after burning a distro img?

I don't know what goes on in the Linux world.  I surmise that Manjaro now comes with a U-Boot that is incompatible with NetBSD.

I bought another PinebookPro.  I have a microSD card with NetBSD 9.0 on it that I used as sort of a rescue boot for my other PinebookPro (which runs NetBSD 9.1).  I know that it works because I booted the old PBP with it, to make an image of the eMMC, so that I could make the new PBP a clone of the old one.  Booting this new PBP with the microSD card works for less than 20 seconds, and then the display turns off.  I have yet to open this PBP up to use the serial console, but I don't expect that will help, because NetBSD does start to boot.  I see that the PBP image of NetBSD has been withdrawn from armbsd.org, and I expect that is due to this problem.

I suppose it may be possible to install a different Linux on a microSD card in order to re-flash the eMMC with my original PBP NetBSD image.  But I wonder if I will run into some other trouble and effectively brick the PBP.  Is Manjaro booting via SPI ROM?  I'm not very ambitious about experimenting because I don't have my other PBP running NetBSD to fall back on.

Hello! New to the pinephone world, just got my PPP a few days ago. So far, I've installed Tow-boot (spi) and pmOS with Phosh (emmc) and been able to get SMS and mobile data working. I've got a few questions:

1. How do I remove the SIM? It's one of the new ones with a nano, and it fits so perfectly snug/flush that it doesn't seem like it can be removed. With all the posts about broken SIM readers, I figured I'd ask before becoming the next victim.
   
2. When booting, it's prioritizing the SD card, whether or not I hold power and volume down (before you ask, it's definitely an Explorer, and the LED reacts appropriately when I hold the volume buttons, so I'm pretty sure tow-boot is running).
   
3. It's stuck thinking that it's charging even when not plugged in. I saw someone say using Mobian unstable fixes this, but wondering if there's a fix for pmOS.
   

Hi everyone,

I've been casually using my PinePhone Mobian community edition for the past year and a half or so and love the progress that's being made on mobile Linux.

Yesterday I've installed some updates but I've noticed a package got held back, specifically the pinephone-support package.
Trying to apt install this single package gives me a warning that it can't be installed because "the following packages have unmet dependencies: pinephone-support: Depends: firmware-realtek-rtl8723cs-bt but it is not installable, unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.".

I never ran into this before (plus the updates also uninstalled my gnome-software store + gnome-software-flatpak-plugin and settings application) and am kind of at a loss how to solve it since the package can't be found or upgraded. It seems kind of essential?

Did anyone else run into a comparable situation?

Thanks in advance!

Yesterday I received a Mobian update on PinePhone (one of the community editions) that included the swipe up (access application icons) and swipe down (access shortcuts to various settings) instead of tapping on the screen to access these features. The swipe up and swipe down is working very well for me and I like it a lot.

Overall - Mobian OS has steadily improved over the past 18 months to a very usable state for me. I use the PinePhone as a daily driver phone. The battery life is 8+ hours, which is enough for me.

I hugely appreciate libhandy, which I think adapts non-optimized applications to be usable on the PinePhone. I have a PinePhone Pro with Manjaro on it; however, I don't use it because (a) the original PinePhone is working so well and (b) too many applications installed by default that I don't use and applications that I do like to use don't adapt to the screen (i.e., not very usable).

One day I may try installing Mobian on the PinePhone Pro for a super experience; however, I will do this when the PinePhone hardware becomes usable. When the day comes to switch from the PinePhone I am using as a daily driver and I cannot get Mobian to work acceptably well on the PinePhone Pro, then I may order PinePhone because I like Mobian so much (it just fits me).

Thanks goes out to all of the developers of the entire software(s) stack that brings continued and improvements to Mobian on the PinePhone devices.

Cheers!

Is is possible to use a program like gtkterm or similar on PineNote to communicate via RS232 / USB Adapter with an other device.

Mostly working outdoor with a Laptop to read out sensor data over RS232 is painful if the sun is shining.... Being able to run a terminal program on PineNote and read the  output on the e-ink display would be great....

Thanks for any information on this topic.

Hi! Regardless of a battery %, my PinePhone v1.2a won't start charging - unless I shutdown it before connecting a USB cable ; then, PP auto-starts when you connect it to a charger, and could be further booted & used fine while still successfully charging in this way. I tried the different chargers, and even installed a CameronSino CS-SMJ700SL (perhaps the best alternative battery) - but I can't get a PP charging if it's already booted to an OS.

My favorite charger (a dumb 5V 2.4A without "Quick Charge" features) - shows the charging current on its' LCD display, which helps to ensure that a device is really charging. If I connect it to the PP while it's already powered on, it will only eat ~0.3A - which could be enough to support the current power consumption, but not to charge! However, if I connect it to the PP while it's off, it will auto-start and eat ~1.3A - enough to both charge a battery and power a CPU/LCD/etc.

Regarding the software: I'm running the latest PostmarketOS. Although I upgraded the ANX7688 firmware ( see Pine64 Wiki ) , I think I've had this problem out-of-the-box with the default ANX7688 firmware and Mobian. These "charging quests" are really annoying, because I have a FDE enabled and each time I'd like to charge a PP - I need to turn it off, plug it into a charger and input two lengthy passwords while booting. Is there any way to fix this?

What’s the lowest achievable power consumption on a Quartz64 B with basically everything shut off (Wifi, BT, HDMI, CSI, ... all OFF), but the system still listening to/waiting for GPIO inputs?

Does it make a difference whether the system runs on Android or on Linux?

TIA!