So was looking at the PinePhone Pro, but going through the threads seams like the camera is not yet working, and some other beta like disadvantages. But it looked lie kit worked great with t-mobile in the US.  I also did a search and find soft yeses for using things like google play and other apps.

Looking at just the PinePhone, it's listed as beta, and hardware seams a little lackluster. (currently using Samsung A10e)

My most used apps are from google, Maps or Voice and then email oh and google's calendar type stuff. I don't care if google knows where I am while using it's map but they should be shut out of location if not running maps. ) after the google apps is Signal. Then we get down to clock, calculator, camera and last would be web surfing with firefox.

My questions:
1. Are there only 2 phones being offered, and they are both beta?
1a. Either of the phones fully usable if I bought for myself or my kid?
2. Confirm that the PinePhone hardware is a lot less than my current low end phone A10e(bellow specs) and the Pro would be a close?
2a. How fast would it feel being that the OS is different?
3. See weird verbiage about the battery being sold/package separately on the PinePhone Pro, do I order battery separately, etc?
4. Current or expected future use of apps from Google and or Google play?
4a. Using google maps to get to places and or google voice(for sms)?


Current Phone: A10e
Octa-core (2x1.6 GHz Cortex-A73 & 6x1.35 GHz Cortex-A53)
GPU Mali-G71 MP2
32GB 2GB RAM or 32GB 3GB RAM
Camera: 8 MP, f/1.9, AF or 5 MP, AF

PinePhone Beta
CPU: 64-bit Quad-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A-53
GPU: MALI-400MP2
Memory: 2GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
Internal Flash Memory: 16GB eMMC
Camera: Single 5MP, 1/4″, LED Flash

PinePhone Pro
CPU: 64-bit 6-core 4x ARM Cortex A53  + 2x ARM Cortex A72
GPU: Mali T860MP4
Internal Flash Memory: 128GB eMMC
Memory: 4GB LPDDR4
Camera: Single 13MP, Sony iMX258, LED Flash

I am running the latest Armbian

I had trouble installing it the conventional way to the emmc - where you copy the compressed system image to the emmc. It would boot and hang/spin in the Armbian loading screen

However the system has been running no problem from the SD card. Is there some way I could copy my existing/running system to the emmc?

And could I then copy it back (for backup) to the SD card?

Ideally I'd have a 32GB system partition that I could backup periodically from the emmc

The issues is i don't really know the correct Unix commands to copy the system back and forth.

Hope someone with more Linux foo could help me out with the right dd lines (or maybe it's more complicated bc of partitioning?)

Hi guys

Cross posting from another thread here..

https://github.com/monero-project/monero/issues/8473

Are there any recommended steps in replacing the clock speed with the custom file: rk3399_ddr_666MHz_v1.25.bin directly on an eMMC boot module?

ELI5 pls if possible at all, I am not super technical

Thanks for the help

Hi all,

I'm not sure how much traction this idea will get, as I'm not sure how many people would benefit from it , but I was wondering if Pine64 would be willing to develop a Uninterruptible power supply for all their SBC's.

Maybe something similar to this for the Raspberry pi
It could include a shutdown script that is run should power switch to the backup module just incase that power outage is prolonged.

Unless users of pine64's SBC's have found another solution for the issue of power outages ?

Any thoughts of this idea ?

Using arch64/sxmo/PPP

How can I automount external storage devices?

For example when I insert an SD card from my digicam I do not find it after boot, I need to manually mount it, which sucks a bit.

What I am looking for is a simple tool which automounts external devices (as we have e.g. in Ubuntu)

Any hints very welcome ;-)

Hi Everyone,

Has anybody had problem getting WiFi to work consistently? I can connect to my home router and use it for about 5 minutes, but then it seems to error out and disconnect. This presents as a signal-strength kind of issue, but that seems ridiculous when the phone is sitting within 4 ft of the router and none of my other devices (in other rooms) are having problems. Though, I was able to connect to a guest WiFi in a public area and things seemed to work consistently.

Does anybody have any ideas? Could my little NetGear router be bumping my device off for some reason? If any body else has had this problem I'd love to hear if you solved it.

Thanks

Hello,
I bought a PINE64 PA642GB and flashed it with Armbian (Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)). I need the Pine64 for the BirdNET project https://github.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi.

The Pine64 is so interesting precisely because the microphone input is also on the 3.5mm jack plug. Does this still have to be activated?

Many thanks for your help!

hello

I would really really really like to have a Linux cell phone.

I understand the pinephones are Beta right now.

What I am wondering, are there any PinePhones out there that have been gone over by hackers that are ready for use?

I am willing to pay extra for the extra finishing work.

I have limited experieince and limited time but a lot of enthusiazm for a phone for the people.  What I mean is a phone that is made for the people to use and NOT made to use people.

thank you.

Hello all,

I recently got the Quartz64-A board and I'm starting to feel a bit more experimental with it.  I don't have a lot of experience, but if I'm pointed towards some good docs and given some hints I can usually make some progress.  I have a scripting background with a very rudimentary programming understanding so I'd probably only be able to integrate other peoples work from other projects into this one vs writing something from scratch.

What I'm wondering, and this may need to go to the EDK II forums instead, is if it is possible to add the ethernet driver for uefi boot options and then to be able to use either PXE or iSCSI to get the board booting remotely?

What I've looked at so far, and only understand about 10% so far, are the following.  If there's better places or maybe more focused on the Quartz please let me know.  If you have any suggestions on how I'd need to go about learning more for this topic I'd appreciate it as well.

# Found that there are sections indicating something is called for both the ethernet driver and iscsi in the dsc for the quartz board
https://github.com/jaredmcneill/quartz64...artz64.dsc

# Starting to read through the Network driver requirements to understand how what's there may already be used
https://edk2-docs.gitbook.io/edk-ii-uefi...guidelines

# A link I've found but don't have the background to understand yet around iSCSI
https://github.com/tianocore/tianocore.g...C-Protocol

As others have pointed out in general (and I pointed out in regards to the PineTime), we need products to be more repairable, as well as sustainable (both being able to repair the devices, as well as have what to replace if need be), and this is a huge issue nowadays, though finally starting to be taken seriously (Framework, Fairphone, Puri.sm (to a degree), and some of Pine64's products come to mind).

Pine64, for the most part, does a great job on that front (the larger devices, such as the PinePhone, PineTab, PineNote, are built brilliantly) although there are some shortcomings, mainly with the smaller devices (the PineTime's construction hindering repairs, especially the soldered battery, however the Pinecil manages to avoid this and be a repairable device, that is also sustainable (more on that later)), and this does bode an ill-omen for things that are even harder to design with repairability in mind, like the PineBuds (even Fairphone failed to put a battery that is not soldered to the board, although they did manage to make opening the device relatively easy, when considering the challenges).

Puri.sm's Librem 5 development was (and still is) fraught with issues (mostly management issues), and despite not being as suited to be a daily driver as the PinePhone is, they got something right, and that is that there should be a way to easily replace the wireless components (not in the way they did, and less in regards to the specific component that thought about, that is more suited for a development unit in a lab), since despite the main issue there is the quality (Realtek is long known for their garbage quality and inefficient networking), the advantage of being able to replace the module, is that, if designed correctly, this could also alleviate the issues with broken antennae connectors (this will require a rethinking of how the modules exists, since the closest equivalent is M.2 1216, which only exists in soldered form in consumer-ready products, however even that form factor would be a step-up, although protocols other than PCIe should be considered for chipsets that cannot provide PCIe).

Regarding sustainability, I believe that Pine64 is working hard on that, and are on the right track, however we already have a situation where a Pine64 product is not sustainable, the PineTime (though this was probably because it was meant as more of an experiment, I have high hopes for a potential PineTime successor). The obvious examples of sustainability done right are Fairphone and (probably, we need more time for verification) Framework. I hope we see that level of sustainability, where replacement parts are available long after the device is no longer being sold (the Pinecil is already showing great promise in that area, and I believe, though not having the budget, I am not as knowledgeable about the state, of the PineBook and PinePhone and the other devices between those device classes, that something similar should be there as well.