This approach uses additional hardware to probe, read, write, verify and erase the 128Mbit SPI NOR flash found on the Pinebook Pro.  Although this should work on the PBP's cousins (ROCKPro64, ROCK64, PINE A64-LTS, PINE H64 vB, CUBE?), the process has only been thoroughly tested on the PBP.

In summary, I used a Raspberry Pi (with monitor and USB keyboard), a USB flash drive, a test clip, a breadboard with jumper wire, and an external 3V3 power supply to perform in-circuit operations on the installed GD25Q127C SPI NOR flash ROM successfully. This post is being made with the Pinebook Pro I own and used in the experiments.  

WARNING: I accept no liability for any outcome that results from any use of this information.

I can confirm that, at least on my unit, the SPI NOR flash arrives empty. You will find a detailed write up of the entire process at this link:

https://gist.github.com/hxmuller/1c209d2...37237b649e

The Pine64 single board computers (SBCs) might work as well, I just don't own any to test with.

Could someone please provide the specs for the screws and spacers?  I'm assuming that the screws are soome kind of standard size,  and that I can find replacements for the spacers if I know their dimensions.  I have removed the back cover at least a dozen times and have already lost two screws and have broken spacers . (One was broken when I received the notebook) If I knew what the specs were,  I am sure I could buy them online here (U.S.). 

Perhaps, in future devices, slightly larger screws could be used.

  Also,  would it be possible to buy another bottom cover?  I would love to try putting a hinged port over the areas with the switches (emmc, serial, reset button, emmc socket) so that I wouldn't have to deal with the ten tiny screws.... :-)

Purchased one of these recently and finally got it today. Found plenty of good reviews, but only one with power usage information, and it looks like it should be perfect for the PBP and its power restrictions. Installed it without any issues (great thing that it's a shorter one, I didn't want to cut the board.) However, now that I'm booted back into Manjaro (or Chromium) I can't even see that the drive is there. I'm going to try reinstalling the hardware, but I was curious and thought I'd ask if anyone else has experienced a similar issue. Has anyone's NVMe drive given you issues being made available for formatting/partitioning?

So far neither Gnome Disks or Gparted shows the drive, and I don't see it within /dev/, Chromium doesn't show the drive at all either.

Is there a way to map the |\ key to Right shift and ~# key to Enter?  I have it set as a US keyboard, but I routinely hit those keys accidentally because they're where Shift and Enter normally are.  I cannot figure out how to remap them on the PBP.

Hi there

I'm using a Pinebook Pro with default OS.

Problem: Suddenly I cannot login as user rock anymore. Giving the credentials it loops and shows the login mask again and again.

I created another user before (they worked well in parallel) which is still usable.

I used User rock for update purposes. And now I do not have the update button in the lower right side anymore.

Any idea how to fix the login or do I have to reinstall from scatch?

Any help / tip is very welcome. - Thanks

Regards Adrian

MTP stopped Working. Any idea what might be wrong?

I am looking to sell my Pinebook Pro in or around Helsinki. It’s in perfectly working condition, there’s a small cosmetic problem on the palm rest that’s a result of overzealous sticker removal, but it’s not visible unless you look for it.

The reason why I’m selling it is simply that I don’t have time for this hobby anymore and I’m unlikely to have it anytime soon, nothing to do with the device itself.

The price I’ve had in mind was 200 EUR, which seems quite fair considering how much it costs with shipping and VAT. But I’m open to other offers.

Please PM me if interested.

The following is an idea that may not be feasible for this version of the Pinephone, but it generally came to my mind and I do not know where else to raise it:

My problem with the Android soft keyboard is that I very often get the characters wrong and hit adjacent keys. It has perhaps something to do with the fact that my fingers do not hit the screen in an exact vertical fashion but at a slight angle.

The haptic feedback (brief vibration) does not help, unfortunately.

In another post, I was talking about my old Palm Treo 680 and how easy its physical keyboard was to use. In fact, the Treo 600 was even better, because the rows of keys were not curved:



I took those old phones out of their cupboard recently and started them up. And even after not using them for over 5 years, I was surprised how quickly and error-free I was able to type on them.

Here is my idea:

In the picture above, the keyboard takes up half of the front of the phone, which is not acceptable nowadays. However, why can't we have a screen with in-built little nobbles, representing the keys in the the picture above? They would need to protrude just enough to be felt under your fingers but smooth enough to swipe over, if necessary. No need to have a physical press action, just those nobbles in the glass.

Why hasn't any manufacturer thought of this?

Oh, hang on, now I've got it: Why not have a screen protector with such nobbles? It can't be that difficult!

(Sorry I was developing the idea while typing.)

Being aware of the various Firefox related sound issues with Youtube, I'm adding this up.

After updating everything, then uninstalling FF completely, then installing MrFixit version of FF, I'm still finding this issue:

The following video will play sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqMFS8MBzXc

While this one (as well as most other youtube video) won't produce any sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSJ1vUubkTc

Of course, everything works as it should in Chromium.

A random guess: some codecs are not working in FF. How to explain this otherwise?

Please test the links in both Firefox and Chromium and hear for yourself. Does it work for you?

Thanks

 
   I cannot find the requirements for the Pine phone SD card, except it is 'microSD'

     and it supports SDHC and SDXC

     No mention of supported speed  ?

    IF we are testing the Brave Heart from the SD card,  I would like to use the fastest that it supports, 
       but not too excessively faster...

     I looked in the wiki,  that is where I found the above information.

             Did I miss it somewhere  ? 

        Thanks for any info,   BC