I noticed that the standard shipping option for $12 to the EU is no longer an option. I can only select courier shipping for $30. This makes it really unattractive to order from the Pine store since that amount by itself exceeds the minimum threshold over which you have to pay VAT in many countries and just the VAT on shipping would be another ~$6 (depending on the country), so about $36 just for shipping.
Are there plans to bring back the cheaper option (which still wasn't very cheap)? Or does the courier option has anything to do with the new VAT EU regulations that enable the seller to pay VAT in advance?

Edit: Tagging @Luke since the community probably doesn't know.

Hi everyone -

I wanted to install the ayufan buster-containers release onto my PineBook Pro, but now my machine won't boot. The boot LED doesn't even come on.

Here's what I did. Connected to USB-C power the whole time.

1) Use etcher on another machine to flash buster-containers-rock64-0.11.0-1185-arm64.img from https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-b...tag/0.11.0 onto a microSD card. (I previously tried, and couldn't boot with, the "stable" version 0.9.14).

2) Successfully booted from the sdcard on my pinebook pro and logged in.

3) Connected my USB ethernet adapter, and scp'ed over the same image file. Used md5sum to validate the transfer was OK.

4) Checked which device was mounted as root (emmc 1).

5) `dd if=buster-containers-rock64-0.11.0-1185-arm64.img of=/dev/emmc2 bs=64M status=progress`. (I don't remember the exact device naming convention, but it was the tab completed root device of whichever "mmc" was NOT mounted).

6) `sudo reboot now`

7) The machine hung at a blank screen with a single blinking cursor in the top left, so after a couple of minutes I powered off with a long-press of the power key.

Now I can't turn it back on again! I get a charging LED when I plug in USBC power, but no boot LED when I press the power button.From reading other threads and the doco, I have tried:

* an "extra sure hard power off" by holding power for >30 secs (once even > 1min) before trying to power on again
* validating the sd card contents. `p3` does contain what looks like a normal `/boot`. `p2` is an empty vfat. `p1` contains nilfs, fdisk output:

When I start or stop playing any audio on my PBP, there will always be a crackling noise before and after, loud enough to make me worry about my external speaker system!

Finally I found a workaround to prevent this: I just continually play a sound file at zero volume in the background, that keeps the audio output active and the cracks are gone!

I use this command:
mpv --volume=0 --loop /path/to/audio/file.mp3

I thought some people might be interested in this workaround and use it as well.

Yes, this is far from a perfect solution, but for me it works so far and maybe one day an update will solve the issue :-)

I'm having a little trouble trying too understand how to make the kernel for an archlinuxARM image.  The last instruction I found here, which had make deb as a part of. the make command, doesnt make sense, and there isn't really a rockpro64 AUR entry for it so the normal makepkg method won't really work for me.

Has anyone done this before?

Hi,

My goal is to use the PinePhone as a very minimal webserver. I can (and have) accomplish this on Mobian, but I'd like to try on an even more lean distro.

I don't even need the touchscreen or modem or wifi to work, as long as I can use a USB keyboard or SSH and Ethernet (I have the USB-C dock thing).

What's the best way to install Debian on the PinePhone?

I tried installing Debian from their site with the right architecture -- it involved concatenating one image to another before flashing, but I could never get it to work.

Should I just install Mobian and strip out the desktop packages?

Thoughts? Thanks.

quite some time has passed since the last similar thread was posted. the list of available Linux distributions has grown massively.

which distro and desktop environment are you using, and why?

what are its strengths and weaknesses compared to other combos?

because my history is getting large

I would like to keep the display of my 120W PinePower power supply turned off and make it more difficult to turn on.
At the moment it wakes me up at night a lot because it randomly turns on. I suspect this happens every time the phone reaches 100% and stops charging and then again when it dropped to 99% and starts charging again.
I also constantly press the touch button that turns the display on/off accidentally and I would like to make it so that you have to hold the button for a few seconds before it toggles the display.

Can this be done without modifying the hardware? E.g. by flashing a modified firmware?
Or would I have to physically modify the hardware? If that's the only option I'd be willing to go that route. I have some experience with Arduinos and ESPs.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hello!

The documentation for Rock64 mentions of support for Trustzone. Also, the Trusted Firmware A (TF-A) has "plat/rockchip/rk3328". Are there any instructions on how to build and test TF-A and OP-TEE on Rock64?

I am asking because I would like to purchase one if it is supported, and recommend to others depending on evaluation results.

Hello!

The documentation for Quartz64 mentions of support for ARM Trustzone. Is this available to test at this time, where can I find the repo/sources and the instructions for it? I am looking for OP-TEE along with TF-A support. If there is no support at this time, when is it expected to be?

I am asking because I would like to purchase one if it is supported, and recommend to others depending on evaluation results.