So a couple of days ago my pinephone stopped booting into the OS after the Pine64 Logo. Today I tried this fix https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=10130 and at first it seemed like it was working, booting into recovery started the installing update screen but about half way through the update my phone crashed and booting into recovery just shows the "awaiting command" screen. I obviously tried to power through with the rest of the fix but after the reboot command the phone still fails to boot.

Is my UBPorts image fucked or is there still a way to recover? If not does anyone have a good guide on how to reflash UBPorts on the Pinephone.

Greeting and Thanks
Defekto

Be aware, these tests are being executed using an out-of-box testing methodology. All tests are preformed with minimal interaction/setup of devices outside of: OS imaging/updating,  SIM installation, Wifi Configuration,  and Power Cycling the devices.

Results: ubports/2020-09-29-TMobile

Conclusion: This OS is not ready for the device to become a daily driver.

Notes:Still open to the idea that the camera button is to reverse the image not switch to the 'selfie camera' if anyone can confirm either way I would appreciate it. Failed 4G outbound call still an issue. 3G outbound texting is still broken. No audio on outbound calls. Unable to detect Verizon carrier. Interesting set of problems. Seems like there is very little noticeable progress as far as phone feature is concerned at the moment. Phone is running a little hotter than normal. 

Issues:
4G outbound calls broken.
Phone gets stuck in a weird lock state when spamming power button.
Outbound SMS over 3g is broken.
Audio cuts out after "No Calls" error is handled on inbound/outbound calls. - Unable to replicate this one at this time, closed report.
Verizon carrier issues

Other Notes: Although there have been updates outside of the nightly builds, I am close to a point of treating this software as abandon-ware. Lack of response and triage through the teams issue tracker has only made this testing process mildly more frustrating. With that in mind, there are other distros that can support the phone in a much better fashion. I would suggest looking at Manjaro or Mobian. Although both OSes are still alpha.

I have issue with trackpad at PBP. After some hours of work it will suddenly register ghost touches ... and one finger is detected as two ... etc.
Power off and on fixes it for some time.

My X11 trackpad settings:

@tllim said "The PinePhone CE edition mainboard will be released as spare part once the software getting more mature and tested. Probably late Q4 or early 2021".

I have enthusiastically evaporated unreasonable quantities of time with a (possibly hardware related) issue that apparently has no domestic user solution.
Will a suitable replacement motherboard be available for the UBPorts edition phone or do I have to get back in the queue for a new one?

I've finally gotten to s point, I moved a week after my pbp arrived, where I could sit down anfcstart really doing some work.

Lady night just before bed there were half a dozen updates j needed to install, so I figured I'd leave it to update and go to bed.

I had updated to manjaro, but probably not on the emmc, need to get it setup properly once and for all. Bugni yjouhhtnit would do most of the updates and then go to sleep and I'd have to deal with the after effects this morning.

Imagine my surprise when I got up and found the updates done and the pc still waiting. Albeit 5% battery remaining but that anything was left I found amazing.

Great job guys!

Now if I could spend !ors time w my tablet.....

There was some discussion about hot glue guns in the PineTime channel, the consensus seemed to be that it's generally very annoying because the glue guns are very annoying to use. They get too hot, warm up slow, overheat the glue and other various annoyances.

Now the idea is simple, maybe Pine64 could provide a Pinecil but for hot glue. Similar features would be nice - temperature control, motion/inactivity detection, some nice microcontroller with USB-PD/barrel power supply. 

What do you think?

This is just a small idea/suggestion, has there been any consideration of switching the forums to use Discourse?

Being a long-time forum user on a wide variety of forum platforms I've noticed that Discourse seems to generally be quite a bit better than a lot of its competition.

The difference between the platforms is akin to the difference between Phabricator (or god forbid Savannah) compared to GitHub, GitLab or Gitea. It works better across various screen sizes, it has a lot of UX improvements over PHPBB and MyBB. There's abbreviation tooltips, better notification system, nicer moderation tools, people can use markdown and so on and on that make a better whole. There's a lot less ossification and a lot more nice features that really do improve the overall experience. Quite a few large open-source projects have also switched to it.

There's even a migration guide available here. I do think it's doable, would be nice if it were considered.

Hello team Pine64:

I hope that this small write-up has relevance and information that will help newcomers to the land of PBP who want to experiment with other operating softwares on the platform. I've been reading many horror stories of Pinebook Pro's that were damaged, or that the owner THINKS are damaged because they won't boot properly... after a user found themselves with an inoperable OS on their internal eMMC storage.

It seems that once a rookie user has an issue with their eMMC the first thing they do is open the laptop and flip the reset button next to the eMMC storage. This isn't always necessary. I wanted to go over how I reinstalled the original [or updated, if you have an older version of the PBP] Manjaro OS back onto the eMMC without opening the system. From what I can gather, you can certainly open the system and access the internals to get things done - and in some cases this needs to happen... but I'd be willing to bet that in most rookie scenerios, this isn't the case.

Furthermore, I'd like to state an easier way to experiment with other OSes rather than modifying the eMMC in the first place. Sure, if you have come across an OS build that you want to run in production, forever, I understand putting that on the eMMC... but I think people get into trouble with their PBP because they just want to play around, try to throw a new OS on the eMMC and don't have all the Linux knowledge needed to doso - ending in 'a boat anchor' or being upset with the hardware.... that did nothing wrong. It only does what we tell it to, and follows directions - even if the Pine64 'outline' isn't perfect. The proper way to play around with OSes is to burn them to an SDcard and boot it up; if anything fails or doesn't operate correctly, you just take it out and smile because you know the next boot will be your perfect Manjaro install on eMMC.

There is a whole list of OSes on the wiki:
https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=..._Downloads

You can download any one of these, and I prefer to doso on a different system but you can certainly doso on the PBP and use dd if= of= to burn your SDcard, and use a software like Balena Etcher or any SDcard burner and burn the ISO to the SDcard. Just pop that SDcard in the slot of the PBP and go have fun... play with that OS, dig into it... mess it up even! [With the understanding that you leave the eMMC storage alone, and don't much with IT!] You can always simply pop that SDcard out and boot right back into your Manjaro build. Simple pimple.

Now, if you do happen to mess up the build on eMMC don't immediately grab a screwdriver and get all hardware happy and think that you're a Linux-ninja. It isn't necessary! [For most of us, anyway...] In fact, if you mess up the eMMC at all lets set the PBP to the side for a few minutes and settle down. Go over to the wiki, at the same link I posted above, and download the Manjaro ARM with KDE Plasma MicroSD and eMMC Boot Direct Download from Manjaro... unzip it, grab the .ISO and burn that to an SDcard... heck, you can even use dd if= of= if you just have to feel like a CLI rockstar. Boot from that Manjaro SDcard and update the system thru the dock, the pamac GUI software utility or by 'sudo pacman -Syyu'. Next install 'manjaro-arm-flasher' with pamac or pacman... run manjaro-arm-flasher. Select pinebook pro, KDE Plasma, 20.08 and mmcblk2.

Important: If you don't see mmcblk2, but rather boot1 or boot2 - don't select that! You can find more info at the thread link below, but since you should be doing this from an SDcard, I don't think you should see this:
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-flasher/26002

Anyway tho, if it does list boot1 or boot2 you need to unmount the eMMC before flashing! So long as you see mmcblk2 and select it, make sure you have ample battery charge and the laptop is plugged in, and click Start... let it do its thing.

When finished, you can shutdown. Take out the SDcard and when you reboot the Pinebook Pro you should have a copy of Manjaro ARM booting from eMMC with no SDcard inserted.

The Pinebook Pro is just as it comes from the factory. [At least if you have the newest PBP available.] Again, 'sudo pacman -Syyu' and your done.

Personally, I'd suggest keeping Manjaro ARM on the eMMC and play around with other OSes on SDcards... this ensures that you don't ever have to go deeper before you want to. You shouldn't HAVE to open the PBP or flip the eMMC switch unless you've already messed with things and now have a bigger problem to fix.

Even if so, don't give up... we can get your PBP back to factory settings with Manjaro ARM on the eMMC... these machines only do what we tell them to; and only respond to events that we create... so when you go deeper you just get further into a situation that is harder to back out of.

Remember you have a community here to help you; and I will, along with an army of other REAL Linux-rockstars. All we have to do is get you backed out of what you created. If you just follow these basic set of baseline rules, you'll never get there! If you find an OS that you just love, like I really like Armbian, we can put that OS on the eMMC... and you can still experiment with others, using SDcards! We just have to feed the computer the correct instructions - it WILL respond and function.

Anyway, I hope this long ass write-up helps someone so that they don't get down the rabbit hole. We got this...

Hi,

I have added the capability to decode QR codes within megapixels. If a QR code is founded, a special button changes its color and allow to view the data of the code, to copy it to the clipboard or to open the link.

This is more a Proof of Concept than a finished product. The interface needs to be improved and no check is done before creating a link (this might be a security risk).

You can find my work there: https://git.sr.ht/~antoines/megapixels

I need to contact the author of megapixels to see if he is interested in adding this kind of capability.

Antoine

Hi PineBooker's,

I bought the PBP relatively early when it came with a different version of Linux.  I've really enjoyed it for many things but couldn't quite get things working to make it fully capable for me.  I burnt the Manjaro Linux at that time to a microSD and tried that too.  It was not quite ready for me either.  Seven months later, I descided to give it a try again.  This weekend I installed Manjaro 20.08 on the eMMC disk and was up an running in no time.  Most everything I need is working great!

When I first got the PBP I searched for and bought the lowest profile accessories:

• A little, perfect size carrying case
  
• iLuv AUD Mini Bluetooth Speaker (never got working on PBP before this weekend)
  
• FENIFOX Flat Portable Bluetooth Mouse (I am not good at trackpads so I turn it off when working)