We need to run Android as we are in a low bandwidth situation and to be able to download Netflix so we can watch without a fast enough stream we need to use either Android or iOS. In the past I have run Android on a RPi 3B+. But now I have a much more capable RockPro64 board! I know I could dedicate it to Android, but then it is really restrictive from being able to do other things for me.

So, I was thinking maybe the best solution would be to try running Android as a QEMU guest on top of a Debian / Ubuntu base (I could also go Manjaro.... point being a "full Linux base"). Any tips or pointers? Could I just try to use the Android RockPro64 image directly with QEMU? Or is there another way to go about this? I have also looked at Netflix in Anbox but that isn't working so well, even with the Google Play store also installed in Anbox.

Thanks for any advice.

I bought the Rock64 over 2 years ago. I never really used it. None of the Linux OS were stable for my needs.

I just need one that works well as a mini desktop computer. For a browser to work and play videos just fine. To also work as a Samba server. I want it to run through a VPN (the router would hanlde this, so no probs there).

And is there a way to make the SD card redirect the OS to run from a hard drive instead?

If none of the above, the I'll just have to try to sell it...

Good Evening,
first time post and very newbie to the Pinebook Pro (PBP).
I have successfully loaded Manjaro 20.06 (xfce) on to the eMMC of my PBP (previous default OS was Debian. PBP ordered in Nov 2019, received in Jan 2020)

recently, when i attempt to power up the PBP, i press the power button as usual, the power indicator turns red (as usual) then turns green (as usual) but the screen remains black.
I long press the power button to turn off the PBP.  I wait a moment, and do the exact same steps (I don't hold the button longer or shorter) the red light comes on, followed by the green light (and perhaps the green power light flickers a bit more) the then the manjaro ARM login pops up, and i'm good to go.

no other issues.  it simply takes more than 1x to power up the PBP, sometimes 2-3 times.  Nothing different between each attempt.

Any insight as to a solution if this is a known hardware issue,  would be greatly appreciated.  My search attempts on Manjaro and Pinebook forums capture issues related to eMMC not booting at all. Which is not my issue. PBP boots fine but takes multiple attempts to do so.

If this is a Manjaro ARM issue, i'll scoot over and make inquiry on the Manjaro forum.

thanks in advance!

I had problems importing contacts. On my previous phone I exported my contacts to both my SIM card and SD card.

On the PinePhone, I used the contacts app to import contacts. It said that there were no contacts on the SIM card - and the google import just span around. I looked at the vcf file and imported a few by hand, but since I had hundreds of contacts I stopped.

Today, I managed to import all of my contacts :-)

I used a terminal, typed 'sudo su' with my screenlock password to get a root shell.

Then 'lsblk' to find the name of my devices and then 'mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mt' to get access to the sdcard.

I then used the file manager app to view /mnt, then double-click the .vcf file, and choose open with 'Contacts' which then imported all!

Hope this helps someone.

I have a few question regarding the Pinebook Pro. First has anyone gotten Netflix or Amazon Prime Video to work on the Pro machine? I created two bootable micro SD cards with Chromium arm64 live. One using belenaEtcher and the other Rufus. Zilch noda no run on my pro. Used both Etcher & Rufus to make bootable USB drives for my desktop and micro SD cards with Manjaro 20.06 and they worked just fine. Is there a magic trick to run Chromium on the Pinebook Pro? I got the iso's from Pinebook Pros Wiki page. Youtube is ok but Netflix and Amazon Prime Video is the way to watch movies.

I did run the NPB3.4.1-MZ Benchmark on my cluster of 7 compute modules. Here are the results for SP-MZ Class=B:






For comparison:



My Intel Core-i5 5300U needs 72 seconds on two cores to complete the benchmark.






I plan on doing some more benchmarks, let me know what you think!

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I haven't been able to find my 5Ghz network since i got the pinephone Ubports edition. Connects fine to my 2.4Ghz. Is the phone not compatible with 5Ghz?

Good evening,

My Rock64 won't boot anymore : the SD card has no issue, the text displayed at the boot is only garbage and after a time the red light is blinking twice quickly and wait 1 second, then twice b;inking again and so on ... 

Could somebody help to understand what happen ?

Many thanks in advance,
Regards,
Jean

Hello,

I used my Bosch Bohrschrauber (it means you can drill and put in screws with it. There is no english word for it, I think) to put the screws in my Pinebook Pro.
Despite being set to the lowest setting of resistance it managed to damage three screws. I tried with various methods to get the screws off and now I have three screws
with their heads broken off which are stuck in the body of the Pinebook. Any suggestions how to remove them? 

The Screws, btw, are one off the things which annoy me most about my Pinebook. They are small, there are to many of them and they break off too easily as demonstrated above. This is a computer for people who open it a lot compared to the standard laptop user. I imagine some really solid solution which one could open
without tools and which could be repaired by any village smith. (I thinking of a AK-47 of laptop cases). The case looks really nice, but I would prefer solid to good looking.

Yours sincerely
Stefan

Just curious if there is any info, drawings, mockups etc... for Pine Tab while I'm Jonesing for my pre-order to ship when I can start obsessing on the package's progress via Tracking data.