Serial console

[Thra11]

Does the Pinebook Pro have a way to access a serial console for debugging? I see this in the pinebook section of the store, but it doesn't say whether the same cable also works with the Pinebook Pro.

[Luke]

Does the Pinebook Pro have a way to access a serial console for debugging? I see this in the pinebook section of the store, but it doesn't say whether the same cable also works with the Pinebook Pro.

Yep! Very much the same.

[vincele]

Yep! Very much the same.

You should update the pinebook pro & serial cable pages to add this info, I almost asked the same question, hopefully I searched first ;-)

[hmuller]

I have the PBP and the serial cable sold in the store. The serial console developer guide referenced in the store gives instructions for use with the original Pinebook, which uses a different SoC.

The file /sys/class/sunxi_dump/write is not present on the PBP rk3399 based system.

So it is not yet clear how to use the serial cable with the PBP.

UPDATE

The wiki defines how the serial cable is to be used. The bottom of the PBP must be removed, and a switch must be toggled. See the wiki for further guidance.

[belfastraven]

I have the PBP and the serial cable sold in the store. The serial console developer guide referenced in the store gives instructions for use with the original Pinebook, which uses a different SoC.

The file /sys/class/sunxi_dump/write is not present on the PBP rk3399 based system.

So it is not yet clear how to use the serial cable with the PBP.

UPDATE

The wiki defines how the serial cable is to be used. The bottom of the PBP must be removed, and a switch must be toggled. See the wiki for further guidance.

I have found that once the switch is flippedd, in the default build I can use serial condole to see u-boot messages.  I get as far as the login prompt,  and then don't seem to be getting any response .  On Ayufans' bionic lxde running from the sd card,  I can't get any response at all on the serial console.  Are their some progs/services that need to be enabled or disabled?

[hmuller]

I have the PBP and the serial cable sold in the store. The serial console developer guide referenced in the store gives instructions for use with the original Pinebook, which uses a different SoC.

The file /sys/class/sunxi_dump/write is not present on the PBP rk3399 based system.

So it is not yet clear how to use the serial cable with the PBP.

UPDATE

The wiki defines how the serial cable is to be used. The bottom of the PBP must be removed, and a switch must be toggled. See the wiki for further guidance.

I have found that once the switch is flippedd, in the default build I can use serial condole to see u-boot messages.  I get as far as the login prompt,  and then don't seem to be getting any response .  On Ayufans' bionic lxde running from the sd card,  I can't get any response at all on the serial console.  Are their some progs/services that need to be enabled or disabled?

Unclear at this point. I tested cable on the Debian desktop installed on microSD. Tomorrow I will look at the default installation on eMMC, and then at ayufan's bionic on microSD. Will let you know the results.

UPDATE: The default installation on eMMC emits data properly on the serial cable. Ayufan's bionic on microSD also emits data properly, but it stops at a certain point as Ayufan has disabled bootconsole [uart0].

[danielt]

Unclear at this point. I tested cable on the Debian desktop installed on microSD. Tomorrow I will look at the default installation on eMMC, and then at ayufan's bionic on microSD. Will let you know the results.

I've also been struggling to use the UART cable.

It appears that the PBP is detecting that the cable is attached and behaving differently when the cable is attached. In my case "differently" means the system won't boot correctly and locks up instead

It is not the presence of the jack that causes the system to hang. It only hangs when the adapter is attached to the USB host. I'm thinking of hacking together a custom cable try and stop the PBP detecting that someone is listening to the UART messages...

[danielt]

Unclear at this point. I tested cable on the Debian desktop installed on microSD. Tomorrow I will look at the default installation on eMMC, and then at ayufan's bionic on microSD. Will let you know the results.

I've also been struggling to use the UART cable.

It appears that the PBP is detecting that the cable is attached and behaving differently when the cable is attached. In my case "differently" means the system won't boot correctly and locks up instead

It is not the presence of the jack that causes the system to hang. It only hangs when the adapter is attached to the USB host. I'm thinking of hacking together a custom cable try and stop the PBP detecting that someone is listening to the UART messages...

So... after a bit of experimenting I gave up on my official pine64 UART cable and soldered together something of my own instead (which sounds grander than it is... in reality it is just a stereo jack soldered to jumper cables). It looks like my official cable doesn't work with the PBP but the UART is working just fine using my breakout cable and an off-the-shelf (3.3v) TTL UART I had lying around.

If you are running the factory image (and have opened up the case and set the selector switch to UART mode) then you should see something on the UART as the image boots. The kernel is configured with a very high logging threshold so you won't see any kernel messages... but there are a few messages as systemd boots then then a getty (login prompt) comes up.

[hmuller]

Unclear at this point. I tested cable on the Debian desktop installed on microSD. Tomorrow I will look at the default installation on eMMC, and then at ayufan's bionic on microSD. Will let you know the results.

I've also been struggling to use the UART cable.

It appears that the PBP is detecting that the cable is attached and behaving differently when the cable is attached. In my case "differently" means the system won't boot correctly and locks up instead

It is not the presence of the jack that causes the system to hang. It only hangs when the adapter is attached to the USB host. I'm thinking of hacking together a custom cable try and stop the PBP detecting that someone is listening to the UART messages...

So... after a bit of experimenting I gave up on my official pine64 UART cable and soldered together something of my own instead (which sounds grander than it is... in reality it is just a stereo jack soldered to jumper cables). It looks like my official cable doesn't work with the PBP but the UART is working just fine using my breakout cable and an off-the-shelf (3.3v) TTL UART I had lying around.

If you are running the factory image (and have opened up the case and set the selector switch to UART mode) then you should see something on the UART as the image boots. The kernel is configured with a very high logging threshold so you won't see any kernel messages... but there are a few messages as systemd boots then then a getty (login prompt) comes up.

I had issues with my serial cable in the beginning too. It wasn't being recognized by the USB subsystem. I later determined that it was the USB connector on the cable, it either wasn't seating properly, or the contacts were not clean. It had since been operating normally.

I have added this information to the wiki.

[danielt]

So... after a bit of experimenting I gave up on my official pine64 UART cable and soldered together something of my own instead (which sounds grander than it is... in reality it is just a stereo jack soldered to jumper cables). It looks like my official cable doesn't work with the PBP but the UART is working just fine using my breakout cable and an off-the-shelf (3.3v) TTL UART I had lying around.

I had issues with my serial cable in the beginning too. It wasn't being recognized by the USB subsystem. I later determined that it was the USB connector on the cable, it either wasn't seating properly, or the contacts were not clean. It had since been operating normally.

I've have no problems with USB enumeration and the adapter works fine with u-boot but shortly after the kernel starts the display and serial port stop working if the adapter is left plugged in. This does not happen with my handmade adapter.