Manjaro reinstall to factory setting?

[Paulie420]

Hey team PBP! I have loving this Pinebook Pro - it has really been everything that I'd hoped and a little more...

I have a question that I hope someone can steer me to an answer/how-to/wiki for:

I received a Pinebook Pro on 9/15/2020, installed with Manjaro ARM on the internal eMMC storage. I'm having a good time playing around with Manjaro, and really want to mess around with the build and see what I can get out of this hardware and how much compiling and building I can squeeze out of the PBP - however, when one does this it changes Manjaro - sometimes in ways that you don't want permanently....

However, I know this isn't an issue because I can just reinstall Manjaro as if it were brand new in the box - as I received it on day 1.

I know that there is a NOOBS SDcard creation application.... but what is the proper way to revert a modified Pinebook Pro system to back to stock/vanilla Manjaro?

Is there a wiki or how-to on this? I want to reinstall Manjaro to the state it was brand new.

Thanks in advance, I really appreciate the help as I begin to learn about Pine64 products. (I am not a beginner, but am brand new to Pine64 products and the Pinebook Pro.)

[tllim]

Pinebook Pro wiki page: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=Pinebook_Pro

[robgriff444]

I know that there is a NOOBS SDcard creation application.... but what is the proper way to revert a modified Pinebook Pro system to back to stock/vanilla Manjaro?

1.Download ISO from Manjaro.
2.Flash to SD Card.
3.Insert SD Card & PBP will boot from it.
4.Use Manjaros home-grown ARM Flasher tool to put the ISO on the internal eMMC. NB. You may need to unmount the eMMC before the tool shows the options to flash to it.

Manjaro is the easiest because of this flasher tool.

[crazytalk]

What is this flashing tool called? How do I find it. I can boot from the SD but cannot figure out what to do next after its setup!

[Paulie420]

1.Download ISO from Manjaro.
2.Flash to SD Card.
3.Insert SD Card & PBP will boot from it.
4.Use Manjaros home-grown ARM Flasher tool to put the ISO on the internal eMMC. NB. You may need to unmount the eMMC before the tool shows the options to flash to it.

Manjaro is the easiest because of this flasher tool.

Hey thanks for this reply; it answered my questions and I will search the wiki for more information on the ARM flasher.

This might be a redundant question, better answered by reading the wiki for each individual OS build... but...

Can I use this flasher to flash over OTHER OSes to eMMC in this same way? At any rate, thanks for your reply...

[robgriff444]

What is this flashing tool called? How do I find it. I can boot from the SD but cannot figure out what to do next after its setup!

manjaro-arm-flasher

I assumed it would be installed on the ISO by now (as it is on the Manjaro Pinephone ISO) so if it's not in the menu, just install it with pamac.

NB. there is also manjaro-arm-emmc-flasher (this runs on each boot so not what you want) : Manjaro gitlab readme

@Paulie420 
'Can I use this flasher to flash over OTHER OSes to eMMC in this same way? At any rate, thanks for your reply...'

No problem, but I doubt it, Manjaro have no reason to make this support other distros schemas and conventions but you could look at their code on gitlab and see for yourself.

Here's a Manjaro forum post about using it and having to unmount emmc before it worked.

[Paulie420]

So I just wanted to reply to give you my run down of using manjaro-arm-flasher and a small howto...

This is easy stuff.

If you want the current, original Manjaro back on your eMMC storage of your Pinebook Pro:

Just download the Manjaro (For SDCard & eMMC) version 20.08 at the link above.
Burn it to an SDcard and insert SDcard into your Pinebook Pro.
Boot in, and login with all the questions it has for you.
Update your Manjaro to current, Add/Remove Software - UPDATE.
Then use the same pamac software to search and download manjaro-arm-flasher.
Run manjaro-arm-flasher.
Select Pinebook Pro, KDE Plasma Edition (or what you want), Version 20.08, and mmcblk2.
**If mmcblk2 isn't listed, you need to unmount it with umount /dev/mmcblk2p1 and umount /dev/mmcblk2p2.
Then, select mmcblk2 in manjaro-arm-flasher.
Click GO, flash, start...
When finished, take shutdown.
Take out your Manjaro SDcard.
Reboot the Pinebook Pro with no SDcard inserted and you will see it is back to factory settings as it was when you first got it.

Simple pimple, this Pinebook Pro. Most issues are user error; if you give it the right data and input, this thing will purr along. REMEMBER, it only does what you tell it to - so... the answer is just a correct answer or three away.