(04-20-2019, 02:28 PM)ainline DoMiNeLa10 Wrote: The Pinebook Pro looks pretty interesting, and I have a couple of questions about it:
- Does the SOC it comes with have mainline Linux support so users won't be stuck with outdated kernels provided by the manufacturer?
- Will it have (possibly optional) active cooling so it can sustain clocks under prolonged load?
- Will it be possible to upgrade RAM on it? (4 GiB doesn't sound like much)
- Will it be possible to use an m.2 SSD as a boot drive?
- Since there's discussion of multiple keyboard layouts, would it be feasible to create one with a pointing stick?
I'm having some trouble navigating this forum, and searching through threads is pretty hard, so I'm sorry if any of the questions I've asked is redundant.
I'm just a random person who happened to learn about the Pinebook Pro, so I'm not the best person to reply but I will do my best
So:
- SoC support - pretty good. GPU is the biggest hurdle and this particular Mali got some very welcomed patches in mainline kernel. Since October (? need to check exact timeline and links) there were some very significant boost. It should be almost identical to RockPro64 so you can easily track for specific issues. No idea about trackpad and other laptop specific features but usually they get fixed relatively easy (like trackpad and ignoring the touch when typing, hybernation sleep, etc.). You can follow this blog for
Panfrost development for Mali specifically and it's a great read!
- I don't think active cooling will be of any target as passive cooling is the main focus. The bottom cover is metal so there should be enough headroom. Maybe it could be an interesting DIY project to add a fan though, personally, I don't see the benefit. ARM SoCs are pretty efficient and one of the biggest pros should be that you don't have to care about dust and sound from the active cooling. If you are worried about sustained performance, I would look into the RockPro64 forum threads to see what are the results with and without some sort of heatsink. That should be a very good indication at what level of sustained performance we could expect.
- The SoC doesn't support more than 4GB of RAM. There was a link somewhere in the previous pages. If your aim isn't to run a few virtual machines, I wouldn't worry much about it.
- Need to check the progress for boot on M.2 drive. Probably it won't be possible when the device comes out but some time afterward (no specific timeline given there). I was away for the past two weeks so I haven't looked at the progress.
- I'm not sure if you are talking about a track point (like the Lenovo ThinkPad T series). Given the price and initial target audience, I have my doubts that it be feasible. A solid keyboard and touchpad that works well ought to be the focus for launch. Track points are very specific input devices which don't have a large target audience and the usual implementations do require extra buttons on top of the trackpad. I doubt they will become available unless there is enough demand for the second or third gen of Pinebook Pro.
I hope I didn't mess up some of the information
secondly and more boringly, but for making open source stuff!
