What to do if your PinePhone Pro does not boot

[Simon Belmont]

The sounds are a good sign but a better one would be to check the device manager for an unknown device, which should have the VID 2207 and the PID 330C in the device properties

Yup, it's there.

I didn't necessarily mean, 'have the whole phone installed inside the keyboard case.'

Rather, I meant, "swap the phone's battery in-place-of the keyboard's battery and plug the USB-C into the keyboard unit, thus bypassing any software issues the phone is imposing on its own charging process."

Never-mind that though. I am in the process of returning the keyboard unit now anyway.

I flashed an SD card with Ubuntu Touch, and followed the instructions on booting from the SD card slot (including the missing steps).

Nothing. This extremely vague "push this, then this, but not-this for too long"-crap feels like a practical joke. I've tried many variations of this "let go at just the right moment (not that there's any indication as to what that moment is)"-game. Same result, every time: nothing.

I'll try another OS I guess...

No indication that the battery is even charged, for that matter. Despite being charged via my computer's USB port for over 24 hours... Windows did see the device plugged in, so I assume it was charging (but who would even know?).

I'm all for community sourced solutions. But not when the problem itself already cost me 400 bucks, and has specs worse than my Pi4B.

Ubuntu Touch has no release for the Pro so this is 100% an user error. Are you sure you have the release page of the Pro open? I don't think your battery is drained, I rather think your preinstalled OS is corrupted and you're trying to boot from the wrong images. 

Regarding the RE button I'm sure you can do it, as you already loaded Maskrom mode with it successfully. There is no special timing except for "hold it long enough". If you hold it for too long the only thing "bad" happening is the eMMC not getting initialized in the OS.

And frankly I don't want to see the last part of your reply. As buyer of the early adopters batch you're expected to write the documentation and the software, you know that and the warnings are everywhere. If you don't agree with that, don't buy the early adopters batch. Upcoming batches will likely have more bugs regarding the boot process fixed and they might use Tow-Boot on the SPI.

You are right on all point sir. I apologize, and I removed the remark.