I don't have a pinephone for now, but plan to buy one. I have a question about the default setup (or about what can be configured easily).
On desktop linux, if the system works badly, there is an option to get an "emergency" terminal, which does not depend on the graphical X system, by pressing ctrl-alt-f1 or something similar. (Well, if the things go too badly, the computer will not respond to ctrl-alt-f1 either, but often this works.)
Is there such an option on pinephone with the default OS? Do I need an external keyboard for that?
I flashed the appropriate Armbian using dd to my SD Card, I place it in the RockPro64, add HDMI monitor and power (using a non-official 5volts, 3A output supply), and the device doesn't boot.
U-Boot starts running, but we never make it to the actual booting process.
It hangs at:
"## Flattened Device Tree blob at 01f00000
Booting using the fdt blob at 0x1f00000".
I searched that message online and the only thing I found was a long since squashed bug.
At the very beginning of the boot process it says: "Warning - bad CRC, using default environment".
I tried to use the pine64-installer from github, but it won run for me, and there are multiple issues in the repo saying the same for other users.
The SD Card is not new, I used it for a year or so in an RPi with no problems.
Any pointers appreciated.
PS: i can't work out how to search on this forum, so I haven't searched for my issue here. Apols if it has already come up. I did look through the first boot threads though.
I could not find an already existing thread and so I am writing this one.
My set-up results in the battery slowly draining until no charge and I am forced to end my session with convergence because the phone shuts down when all of the power in the battery is gone (of course ) .
Seems to me that the Anker is not passing enough power through to the PP in order for it to charge up the battery. Perhaps there exists a dock that is more efficient and does pass enough power to the Pinephone. The PinePower connected directly to the PP does charge the PP battery up very well, as expected.
Is there a combination of PD and dock that will result in the PP battery charging up while it is docked with HDMI output?
I am aware that there may be software issues involved as well. I think that the software performs negotiation with the PD to set the phones level of power draw from the PD.
Perhaps that software does not "know" how to negotiate power levels from the Ankler dock but it does know how to do that with the PinePower. idk
I have a PP Dev edition. Trying to install tow-boot and so far tried everything under the sun. The phone does not want to boot into Tow-boot.
This is what I am getting:
:: Auto-booting FIT image -> Reading file9330348 bytes read in 981 ms (9.1 MiB)
-> Attempting boot...## Executing script at 00600000
sha1+
:: Auto-booting FIT image...
Unknown command 'setexpr' - try 'help'
## Loading kernel from FIT Image at 00600000 ...
Could not find configuration node
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...
libfdt fdt_check_header(): FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC
Card did not respond to voltage select! : -110
Scanning disk mmc@fe310000.blk...
Disk mmc@fe310000.blk not ready
Scanning disk mmc@fe320000.blk...
Scanning disk mmc@fe330000.blk...
Found 6 disks
No EFI system partition
Had an issue a few days ago that attempting to sign in to my google account through settings came back with a 'browser unsupported ' error.
After browsing round git for a while I found a workaround which is to delete ~/.config/goa-1.0/accounts.conf and try again.
This solved the problem (manjaro/phosh). I've seen posts elsewhere from people having the same issue on other phosh or gnome based platforms. I'd reply to the issues on gitlab but their authentication only appears to like me about 1 attempt in 3 so I'm putting it here instead.
for mobile work via terminal/ssh I am looking for a notebook with very long battery life (as long as possible, 20 hours, better more), so a very efficient device (like the pinebook (pro)) makes sense. But unfortunately, the battery capacity is very small (for laptop standards), so the battery lifetime is by far not as good as possible.
But I have a pinephone: the hardware is fast enough for all the applications needed, and it even has an integrated WAN modem :-)
Unfortunately, for the described use case, the battery is too small, the screen is too small, and there is no keyboard.
So there is an interesting idea:
Why not having a "laptop", that consists only of the following components:
– screen (e.g. 13" or 14") (full hd, non glare)
– very high quality keyboard(!)
– very high capacity battery (60-80 Wh)
– some USB ports, and a power connector
– a slot (on the left or right side) for inserting the pine phone
As soon as the phone is inserted, the screen and keyboard of the laptop is available/enabled to the pinephone, which is then powered/charged from the "laptop" battery... which could easily provide power for 20h, 30h, or even more (also depends on the screen).
Bonus: the top-side of the pinephone slot is "open", the pinephone touchscreen could stay enabled and optionally usable as a second screen (like a non-centered touchpad on the left or right side, but with color screen :-))
Such a "mobile dock" should be easy to realize... and can perfectly replace a laptop and powerbank for many usecases.
Perhaps this idea is not new.... but in case it is: I really hope you like it :-)
So, here it is.
Manjaro Phosh, 3G_RAM/32GB_STORAGE PinePhone board.
After discovering that my pinephone stopped charging, I tore it down to see the main diode on the usb-c board blew. Replaced it and started charging. But now I can not keep convergence active on any external display using, a NexDock lapdock(usb-c to usb-c alt mode), an Anker HDMI dock, or the official pinephone dock. The external display just flickers and will not stabilize. A quick connect, disconnect, repeat issue. I thought I may have fixed it by tearing it down and unplug, then reapply the ribbon cable on the usb-c board and main board.
External displays worked again, or so i thought. Cut to class today. screen kept flickering, so I switched out my SIM card to my backup android phone and tried to dock it again, it worked.
The thing that baffles me is this, any other peripheral works without fail, (ie flash drive, mouse, keyboard)
After trying this multiple times, using an external display will ONLY work without the SIM card inserted.
I switched off the WLAN DIP, SIM inserted, wont work. WLAN DIP switched on, no SIM, convergence works flawlessly.
Should I just get a new mainboard, as I am thinking the diode didn't blow soon enough before some extra voltage screwed up the main board.
.
