Since the next Manjaro batch and the last PMOS batch were both the same hardware revision, which itself was a minor revision of the UBPorts board, are there any plans for a final-final-definitely-for-real-this-time hardware revision of the PinePhone, or should the 1.2a be considered as such?

Purpose

A serial connection is necessary when troubleshooting (or installing) on a headless system (no display/monitor).

Background

I have used a CH340 based USB Serial UART device and have had mixed results. That is why I use USB Serial UART devices based on FTDI's 232RL chip with 3.3v voltage or voltage selector. The version I use is this one:  https://www.microcenter.com/product/4865...controller

This is another model that should have no problems: https://www.amazon.com/DSD-TECH-SH-U09F-...07K76Q2DX/ Notice that it features a "genuine" chip.

You can use cheaper USB Serial UART models but those most likely use imitation chips. This is not an issue if you use linux, but windows machines will brick models with fake FTDI chips. The knockoffs can be unbricked, but that is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

The RockPro64 UART RX/TX pins use 3V by default according to the schematics. ENSURE you set your USB Serial UART device to 3.3V.

Warnings

1. Do not use a knockoff FT232RL based USB Serial UART with a windows system, it will brick the device.
   
2. Set your USB Serial UART device to 3.3V.
   
3. You are responsible for all outcomes resulting from the result of this information, including letting the smoke out™.
   

1. Check for a disconnected wire
   
2. Check that the wires are correctly connected
   
3. Check that you are using the correct device (i.e. /dev/ttyUSB#)
   
4. Check that the RockPro64 is plugged in
   
5. Check that the RockPro64 has a valid bootloader installed in the appropriate media
   

Greetings,

Do any of you use VPN's on your pinebook pro?  I tried installing PrivateInternetAccess on mine, but it doesn't want to run.  I was wondering if anybody here had any success with it, or could point me to a suitable alternative.  Also, how would I go about uninstalling it, I'm still presently a noob...

Thanks!

Hello all,

at Elimo Engineering we have designed Impetus, a SoM that shares the Allwinner S3 SoC with the PineCube. Our first supported platform is (going to be) Buildroot.

Given the similarities of the two, and the general lack of support for the S3, we have decided to do double purpose and integrate support for the PineCube into Buildroot.

You can find the repo on our GitHub account and build instructions in the board support directory readme.

The most important thing that this provides is support for the S3's DDR3 in u-boot. Unfortunately mainline u-boot does not have that yet.

Since we don't have a PineCube ourselves, this is unfortunately untested, but it should get a functional system that boots to a console on UART0. It's pretty fast too, getting there in 1.5 seconds from u-boot to login prompt.

All in all, I think this could be a good starting point for further development.

The wifi of my pmos 3GB edition pinephone does not work. It shows that wlan0 interface cannot be found, and dmesg log reports an error after modprobe.

Hi


Has any of the available distros for PinePhone fixed the poor audio quality yet? If so, which one(s)? Also, loudspeaker option if any of them has implemented it yet?

Cheers!

I was wondering how to deal with the different releases. As manjaro is based on a rolling release, I would guess that updating via pacman should be enough to keep my phone updated. But maybe having device tree and boot scripts for pinephone are exceptions and I need to reflash whenever there is a new build posted?
Thanks in advance for your information!

Hello, as you can read from the title, I can't get my PBP to boot from the eMMC or the microSD. I have used Linux a little before, specifically Kali. I was trying to install Arch Linux because I want to use it as my main distro. I was following the instructions on https://github.com/nadiaholmquist/archis...g/20200702. However, I think I must have done something wrong because once I did everything that the installation process said, I proceeded to boot and it did not boot, it got stuck on a black screen with the orange led on. I then tried to boot without the microSD, directly from eMMC and the same happened. I think it has something to do with u-boot but I don't how to turn it on to fix it. I have been browsing the archives and forums for hours but I can't seem to find a solution. I am just afraid I might have killed my new PBP. I appreciate any suggestions!

Manjaro 20.10 has Linux Kernel 5.8 and now it's really easy to install and run Anbox.
It's not very fast, but at least it's a start.

I started "Run Anbox" and Anbox, but failed.
After a reboot Anbox works.
I think we need better OpenGL support for games like Super Tux Kart to work in Anbox.

Hello,

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong that no matter what method I try, I can't install a new OS on the PinePhone? Right now I'm using the "Method Using Factory Installed Tools" and I'm following these steps:

1. Format the micro SD card.
   
2. Download the .img.gz or .img.xz file (depending on the distro).
   
3. Extract it so it becomes a .img file.
   
4. Copy that disc image file to the micro SD card.
   
5. Insert the micro SD card on the PinePhone's top slot.
   
6. Start up the phone.
   
7. Select the directory where the micro SD card is mounted; in my case it's "cd ~/mnt".
   
8. Run the following command: "sudo dd if=MOBIAN.img of=/dev/mmcblk2 bs=1M". I obviously tried to install Mobian this last attempt.