Pinebook Pro Initial Impressions

[bcnaz]

The PBP antenna,  not the router.

I didn't know the PBP had a wifi antenna. If that is not working properly, then I paid for a defective device and want a working replacement.

I tested the wifi reception on my 3 laptops, the PBP running ubuntu mate, an ASUS laptop running ubuntu mate, and a netbook running ubuntu mate. My house is 1 floor, 2 bedroom, wood frame house with plaster walls. I took each laptop from the room with the gateway to the opposite end of the house and noted the wifi signal strength. The ASUS laptop's signal was steady at 65 mb/s in every room. The Toshiba netbook was steady at 52 mb/s in every room. The PBP varied from 72 to 65 mb/s in the room with the gateway down to 6 mb/s in other rooms! This tells me the wifi hardware in the PBP is defective. I've tried several things to improve page loading on the PBP like increasing the CPU speed to maximum and flashing several OSs to MMC. The signal strength so was still too slow.

So far the Pine Info team has been slow to make suggestions and their suggestions (reboot router and install default Debian) have not made any difference.

richfm:
Other Posts have mentioned checking the antenna connection at the motherboard.
I believe the actual antenna is behind your screen.
*(The fact that it works well close to your router,   shows it does function,   ---   but loses reception quickly as you move away)

* I HOPE that helps

[richfm]

The PBP antenna,  not the router.

I didn't know the PBP had a wifi antenna. If that is not working properly, then I paid for a defective device and want a working replacement.

I tested the wifi reception on my 3 laptops, the PBP running ubuntu mate, an ASUS laptop running ubuntu mate, and a netbook running ubuntu mate. My house is 1 floor, 2 bedroom, wood frame house with plaster walls. I took each laptop from the room with the gateway to the opposite end of the house and noted the wifi signal strength. The ASUS laptop's signal was steady at 65 mb/s in every room. The Toshiba netbook was steady at 52 mb/s in every room. The PBP varied from 72 to 65 mb/s in the room with the gateway down to 6 mb/s in other rooms! This tells me the wifi hardware in the PBP is defective. I've tried several things to improve page loading on the PBP like increasing the CPU speed to maximum and flashing several OSs to MMC. The signal strength so was still too slow.

So far the Pine Info team has been slow to make suggestions and their suggestions (reboot router and install default Debian) have not made any difference.

richfm:
Other Posts have mentioned checking the antenna connection at the motherboard.
I believe the actual antenna is behind your screen.
*(The fact that it works well close to your router,   shows it does function,   ---   but loses reception quickly as you move away)

* I HOPE that helps

Thanks, bcnaz. I have not found any information in the forums about the antenna. I don't see a way to search for certain posts. I found the wifi antenna location at https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...nal_Layout but have no idea what to do with the antenna. Would someone refer me to these  posts.

[Arwen]

...
I found the wifi antenna location at https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...nal_Layout but have no idea what to do with the antenna. Would someone refer me to these  posts.

@richfm, There is an antenna wire coming from the location of the antenna to the main system board. Our comments are to make sure that wire is plugged into the the antenna connector on the main system board. If the antenna cable is loose or completely dis-connected, you may get some WiFi signal, but not very strong. (Notice I say may, this is highly computer design, location and orientation of the device dependant.)

Next, there is a known issue with WiFi power saving. Later versions of various OSes turn off WiFi power saving. So, try a SD card of another OS.

Some details are in a WiFi troubleshooting section of the Pinebook Pro Wiki;

Wiki - Pinebook Pro - WiFi issues

Obviously it's not complete, it's very early days. The first 2 issues aren't yours, you have some functionality. Whence we find someone who actually had a loose or dis-connected WiFi antenna cable and that fixes their problem, I'll add that to the WiFI Issues troubleshooting page.

[forkbomb9]

i had chromium fixed in less than a few minutes but that got me thinking about firefox/iceweasel, which i still cannot get to run.

I have firefox working perfectly, no crash and everything works. I only had to do a small sound fix.
Download Firefox from http://ports.ubuntu.com/pool/main/f/fire..._armhf.deb
Run in terminal dpkg -i firefox_70.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_armhf.deb (it didn't work double-clicking it).

Sound fix: Open about:config, create the variable media.cubeb.backend and set it to pulse. Restart the browser.

[Jeb5Blovrueb]

Sound fix: Open about:config, create the variable media.cubeb.backend and set it to pulse. Restart the browser.

Thanks for the tip. I've upgraded my pinebook pro to Debian Buster, but had the problem that some video's on youtube doesn't play sound. Your tip fixes this 

[Luke]

Sound fix: Open about:config, create the variable media.cubeb.backend and set it to pulse. Restart the browser.

Thanks for the tip. I've upgraded my pinebook pro to Debian Buster, but had the problem that some video's on youtube doesn't play sound. Your tip fixes this 

How did you update to Buster?

[Jeb5Blovrueb]

How did you update to Buster?

My first failed attempt was:
 - edit /etc/apt/sources.list
 - apt update
 - apt upgrade or apt dist-upgrade (don't remember exactly)

After that, the system was broken.
So, I've used dd to restore the original mrfixit Debian.

After that, I've done something like:
 - edit /etc/apt/sources.list
 - apt update
 - apt install package
I've repeated to install package by package, fixed conflicts by hand (don't remember al the details), until everything was upgraded.

Note, that I don't recommend this. It was fun to do , but for example my webcam doesn't work (don't need it) and I'm sure there are other things broken too.

I've also installed dwm, so that I have a "desktop environment" that suits me best...

[Luke]

How did you update to Buster?

My first failed attempt was:
 - edit /etc/apt/sources.list
 - apt update
 - apt upgrade or apt dist-upgrade (don't remember exactly)

After that, the system was broken.
So, I've used dd to restore the original mrfixit Debian.

After that, I've done something like:
 - edit /etc/apt/sources.list
 - apt update
 - apt install package
I've repeated to install package by package, fixed conflicts by hand (don't remember al the details), until everything was upgraded.

Note, that I don't recommend this. It was fun to do , but for example my webcam doesn't work (don't need it) and I'm sure there are other things broken too.

I've also installed dwm, so that I have a "desktop environment" that suits me best...

You should also hold back xorg as that is custom.

[Jeb5Blovrueb]

You should also hold back xorg as that is custom.

Thanks for the tip. I'll remember it when I'll break things again and start over from scratch 

[richfm]

...
I found the wifi antenna location at https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...nal_Layout but have no idea what to do with the antenna. Would someone refer me to these  posts.

@richfm, There is an antenna wire coming from the location of the antenna to the main system board. Our comments are to make sure that wire is plugged into the the antenna connector on the main system board. If the antenna cable is loose or completely dis-connected, you may get some WiFi signal, but not very strong. (Notice I say may, this is highly computer design, location and orientation of the device dependant.)

Next, there is a known issue with WiFi power saving. Later versions of various OSes turn off WiFi power saving. So, try a SD card of another OS.

Some details are in a WiFi troubleshooting section of the Pinebook Pro Wiki;

Wiki - Pinebook Pro - WiFi issues

Obviously it's not complete, it's very early days. The first 2 issues aren't yours, you have some functionality. Whence we find someone who actually had a loose or dis-connected WiFi antenna cable and that fixes their problem, I'll add that to the WiFI Issues troubleshooting page.

I opened the bottom of the PBP and compared the layout to the specifications picture on the wiki. It looked the same as the wiki photos. I checked the antenna connection after removing the tape. It seemed to be seated firmly. So I replaced the tape. I didn't touch anything else but screwed on the bottom panel.

Does anyone see anything wrong with the wifi antenna or the connections? I'm sending these pictures to the Pine Info team.