Default OS update log

[tllim]

There is a small switch in the Pinebook Pro mainboard that allows you to disable eMMC and bypass eMMC boot in hardware.

[zaius]

There is a small switch in the Pinebook Pro mainboard that allows you to disable eMMC and bypass eMMC boot in hardware.

Unless you mean it's a three-position switch, wouldn't disabling the eMMC prevent the user from reflashing the eMMC?

[Der Geist der Maschine]

There is a small switch in the Pinebook Pro mainboard that allows you to disable eMMC and bypass eMMC boot in hardware.

Unless you mean it's a three-position switch, wouldn't disabling the eMMC prevent the user from reflashing the eMMC?

During runtime, maybe the switch can be switched back to enable the eMMC flash, again?

If so, ordering the eMMC reader wasn't necessary

[Der Geist der Maschine]

Why does the default OS not come with a swap partition but only a 500MB swap file?

- the swap size is quite small
- why not a partition for faster access

I suspect that suspend to disk will not work with a) a swap file that is b) smaller than physical memory.

[ayufan]

There is a small switch in the Pinebook Pro mainboard that allows you to disable eMMC and bypass eMMC boot in hardware.

Unless you mean it's a three-position switch, wouldn't disabling the eMMC prevent the user from reflashing the eMMC?

Well. Technically. You can disable `eMMC`, boot any system from SD, and at least on my images you have:
`rockpro64_reset_emmc.sh` that you can run after you switch eMMC ON to be able to flash or fix the system.

So, no, it is not needed, as you can force reset of eMMC after boot.

[Thra11]

Why does the default OS not come with a swap partition but only a 500MB swap file?

- the swap size is quite small
- why not a partition for faster access

I suspect that suspend to disk will not work with a) a swap file that is b) smaller than physical memory.

As far as suspend to disk (hibernate) is concerned, there are two important points about the hibernation image:

1. 1. It only needs to contain the contents of memory which is in use (A lot of the time, you won't be using all available memory)
   
2. 2. The image is compressed.
   

This means that you actually have a fairly good chance of hibernating with a swap device which is much smaller than the available RAM.

With Swap Partitions vs Swap Files, in most circumstances the performance differences are minimal, while the advantage of a swapfile is it's trivial to adjust the size while the system is running.

Of course, it's your system, so it shouldn't be too difficult for you to repartition the disk to accomodate a large swap partition if that's what you prefer

[Der Geist der Maschine]

As far as suspend to disk (hibernate) is concerned, there are two important points about the hibernation image:

1. 1. It only needs to contain the contents of memory which is in use (A lot of the time, you won't be using all available memory)
   
2. 2. The image is compressed.
   

This means that you actually have a fairly good chance of hibernating with a swap device which is much smaller than the available RAM.

With Swap Partitions vs Swap Files, in most circumstances the performance differences are minimal, while the advantage of a swapfile is it's trivial to adjust the size while the system is running.

Of course, it's your system, so it shouldn't be too difficult for you to repartition the disk to accomodate a large swap partition if that's what you prefer

Over the last days I educated myself on swap-files. A lot of engineering went into making them efficient.

I'm not yet sure what I will do ... shipping the first batch got delayed and so I have now more time to think about what I will do.

[ac8dg]

Are there plans to add pinebookPro to the pine64 Installer utility ?
https://github.com/pine64dev/PINE64-Inst.../README.md

I find that installer very user friendly in selecting the latest tested versions of OS.

[tllim]

Are there plans to add pinebookPro to the pine64 Installer utility ?
https://github.com/pine64dev/PINE64-Inst.../README.md

I find that installer very user friendly in selecting the latest tested versions of OS.

The Pinebook Pro OS build for sure will add to PINE64 Installer.

[User 6582]

As far as suspend to disk (hibernate) is concerned, there are two important points about the hibernation image:

1. 1. It only needs to contain the contents of memory which is in use (A lot of the time, you won't be using all available memory)
   
2. 2. The image is compressed.
   

This means that you actually have a fairly good chance of hibernating with a swap device which is much smaller than the available RAM.

With Swap Partitions vs Swap Files, in most circumstances the performance differences are minimal, while the advantage of a swapfile is it's trivial to adjust the size while the system is running.

Of course, it's your system, so it shouldn't be too difficult for you to repartition the disk to accomodate a large swap partition if that's what you prefer

Over the last days I educated myself on swap-files. A lot of engineering went into making them efficient.

I'm not yet sure what I will do ... shipping the first batch got delayed and so I have now more time to think about what I will do.

Could the emphasis on a small swap file be to keep the program full in RAM for faster operation?