Official Linux Distro

[Powie]

My question, is there or will there be an official linux distro for Pine?

[nomadewolf]

My question, is there or will there be an official linux distro for Pine?

I think the developers will only support Android, and will relly on the comunity for Linux.

[Luke]

By 'official' do you mean something like Raspbian on the Pi? Is there truly a need for that ? With the original Pi there was a need to develop Raspbian because, well, there were no other single-board computers on the market (at least not broadly available). Not to mention that the software had to be tailored to the - even then - underpowere CPU and 256/512mb RAM. In contrast, the Pine64 has entered a relatively mature market and a mature/ flexible product - and with different people using the Pine64 for a wide array of different purposes, I cannot see a reason for a flagship linux distro. But, hey, there may just be some other reasons I haven't thought of ...

[Leoncito81]

I think most of us in the Linux side are just looking for a kernel update. After that, it's easy to add whatever flavor of Linux you want...

[nomadewolf]

I think most of us in the Linux side are just looking for a kernel update. After that, it's easy to add whatever flavor of Linux you want...

And proper uboot sources

[Leoncito81]

True. Forgot about uboot.

[tedder]

It would be nice to have something more legitimate than "hey, download an image from this random dropbox url".

[Ghost]

It would be nice to have something more legitimate than "hey, download an image from this random dropbox url".

There is a kind of 'official' Linux offering on the Pine64 wiki, but apparently it does not get updated as often as those that may be found here on the forum.

Edit: in fact, it seems a new image has been posted on the wiki yesterday, here.

[tkaiser]

It would be nice to have something more legitimate than "hey, download an image from this random dropbox url".

Forget about all the 'featured' stuff in the Pine64 wiki and choose the original: longsleep's Ubuntu Xenial image: http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=376 (all other partially outdated OS images are also based on longsleep's stuff but do not use all of the available features). You can add your desktop environment of choice using this installer script.

Unlike others this OS image will be maintained and constantly improved, it also features already 2D and video HW acceleration. Nearly every instruction for Raspbian can be used. Other instructions you find on the web also work after switching on the brain (see my instructions to get Plex server up and running on Ubuntu). And this OS image receives the most developer attention or the other way around: developer's work will not be thrown in the bin like with other OS images (that do not have latest kernel and u-boot fixes applied)

EDIT: Wow, can't believe it. I only watch the recent changes in the wiki via feed but it seems they do update stuff there but started with hidden edits in the Wiki: http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Special:RecentChanges. That's sick...

[rahlquist]

The thought is neat and cute. So who will finance it?

Ahhh I see.

I wouldn't expect to see them push a flavor of linux. That wasn't their goal. They created a platform, their marketing created a demand for it and now they are selling it. It is usp to the users to create what they want. Again the pi foundation is a charity organization the Pine folks are not. The Pi foundation will get tax deductible resources thrown at it, the Pine will not.

longsleep's code is hosted at github where a vast majority of open source is shared. From what I have seen he knows what he is doing. Since his is the only kernel out there, he could host it on AOL for all I care.

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EDIT: Wow, can't believe it. I only watch the recent changes in the wiki via feed but it seems they do update stuff there but started with hidden edits in the Wiki: http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Special:RecentChanges. That's sick...

Yeah completely off topic, did you notice the A64 documents marked confidential all disappeared?