Better (than default Debian/MATE) Linux distro?

[RotatingNut]

@mspohr thank you very much for this system, I am using it as a daily driver.
I am just curious, are you doing some kernel update from time to time? If so, how?

I am using the default distro (Debian GNU/Linux 9) but it doesn't seem to be very well supported. I can't update Chromium to the latest version; printing is flaky; etc. I regularly do a sudo apt-get update/upgrade but not much seems to change.
I'd like to try Manjaro or Ubuntu but I'm not clear on how to install them. I've downloaded Manjaro and used Etcher to put it on a card but it won't boot. I did get some earlier version of Manjaro to boot but it didn't support dual monitors and some other stuff and I wasn't able to install it on the internal memory.

Looking for some clear instructions on how to install other distros.

Seconded.

I'm using the default distro, too. It works mostly fine, but I think there are better options for the PBP out there. Having some sort of "definitive install guide" for e.g. Manjaro would be awesome, especially now since the PBP will be shipped with Manjaro by default (right?).

I recognise that there are some install guides out there, but they do not cover the PBP pertaining differences, e.g. the CPU speed governor would be one such missing detail.

[InsideJob]

@mspohr thank you very much for this system, I am using it as a daily driver.
I am just curious, are you doing some kernel update from time to time? If so, how?

Iḿ curious about that too. And I would wish there was someone who could roll this into a a complete image. I think that's a bit above my current level of ablility, but I'd be willing to try if there were others who could point in the right directions on how to do this.

Everything is a file in Linux (or used to be before Poeterring) so just specify the drive instead of the partition, e.g. if=/dev/sdb not /dev/sdb2. To keep the image size small shrink root (with something like gparted) then get the last sector number of the last partition (gparted provides this info too) and pass that number +1 (for sector 0) to dd as the count= parameter. So if last sector of last partition is #99999 then count =100000. That's it, you just made a complete image.

[mlentink]

@mspohr thank you very much for this system, I am using it as a daily driver.
I am just curious, are you doing some kernel update from time to time? If so, how?

Iḿ curious about that too. And I would wish there was someone who could roll this into a a complete image. I think that's a bit above my current level of ablility, but I'd be willing to try if there were others who could point in the right directions on how to do this.

Everything is a file in Linux (or used to be before Poeterring) so just specify the drive instead of the partition, e.g. if=/dev/sdb not /dev/sdb2. To keep the image size small shrink root (with something like gparted) then get the last sector number of the last partition (gparted provides this info too) and pass that number +1 (for sector 0) to dd as the count= parameter. So if last sector of last partition is #99999 then count =100000. That's it, you just made a complete image.

Thanks! We learn everyday!

[digeratus1.]

I've been running the "stock" Debian/MATE Linux and it has been improving but it still randomly crashes and has odd problems with video, audio and printers.
Another issue is that many of the packages in this distro are out of date and many versions behind current releases.
(Most recently Kdenlive, Firefox)
Can anyone recommend a more functional and up to date distro?

I haven't tried Ayufan's Ubuntu 20.04 build but my vote so far goes to postmarketOS - http://images.postmarketos.org/pinebookpro/ from @MartijnBraam and the rest of postmarketOS team.

[s3rvant]

I recently received my PBP and am interested in running Ubuntu as discussed here however I've hit a snag:

I flashed my SD card as described by @mrjay by setting up a new partition table and partition, setting the bootable flag and then using dd to copy over the partition image and expanding it to fill the entire drive:

I'm flashing it with command:

sudo dd if=generated/ubuntu_20.04_gnome.img of=/dev/mmcblk1p1 bs=1024k status=progress

The system initially booted into Manjaro however restarting the machine did boot into Ubuntu and appeared to be working fine

The PBP originally had 2 partitions where the 2nd partition appeared to have similar content to the Ubuntu partition so I dd's the Ubuntu partition image to that 2nd PBP partition and restarted. The PBP power light turned solid green however the screen remained black.

I tried several reboots via CTRL+ALT+DEL as well as cold boots until it finally booted to SD again after reseating the SD card and cold booting.

I figured the PBP probably needed the same partitions as the SD card to boot so made a new partition table on PBP with single partition set to boot and dd'd the image over again to PBP.

Now it will not power on at all.

PBP is plugged in and power cable has solid red light however power button doesn't appear to do anything at all. No others lights regardless of how long I hold the power button.

Any way to recover the machine?

Update: Was able to recover by using a USB eMMC adapter and 2nd PBP to dd their entire eMMC to mine