No external monitorvia USB-C over Dockingstation

[colorfulsing]

Hi @bnjmnhg,

I installed Megi's 6.5 kernel on my Pinebook Pro today to try it out and I can confirm the USB Type-C display is working, but just as before, it works only when you set the USB-C connector in one way, so if it doesn't work, you just need to flip the USB-C cable and the display should work.

Here is how I installed Megi's kernel it on my Pinebook Pro within my Manjaro KDE installation:

• First download the Megi's kernel version you like from here https://xff.cz/kernels/, for example, I wanted Kernel 6.5 for my Pinebook Pro so I downloaded https://xff.cz/kernels/6.5/pbp.tar.gz and also it's ASC file to validate that the downloaded file wasn't corrupted.
  
  
• Uncompress the pbp.tar.gz file wherever you like, for example, I uncompressed my pbp.tar.gz into my downloads folder and rename it megi6.5 so it the files will be uncompressed on my local /home/myuser/Downloads/megi6.5 directory.
  
  It should have the following files and directories:
  

  headers/
    include/
  modules/
    lib/
      modules/
        6.5.3-00504-gcd616e9bb06d-dirty/
  board.dtb
  board.itb
  board.its
  Image
  Image.lz4
  linux.config
  README

  
  Notice the 6.5.3-00504-gcd616e9bb06d-dirty sub-directory. This directory it's important and it's name will change depending on the kernel version you are installing
  
  
• Now, cd into the uncompressed directory, for example, on my case I uncompressed the pbp.tar.gz into my downloads folder /home/myuser/Downloads/megi6.5 so the command for my computer would be:
  
  Code:

  cd /home/myuser/Downloads/megi6.5
  
  
  
• Next, you need to merge the modules/lib sub-directory you just uncompressed into your local /lib directory (keep in mind that you will need to be root or use sudo to do this):
  
  Code:

  sudo cp -r ./modules/lib/modules/ /lib/
  
  If done right, you will now have the following directory on your computer: /lib/modules/6.5.3-00504-gcd616e9bb06d-dirty
  
  
• Now we need to install the boot files, to do this simply create a new directory in your /boot directory and copy just the files (not the directories) from the uncompressed directory:
  
  Code:

  sudo mkdir /boot/megi6.5
sudo cp ./* /boot/megi6.5/
  
  If done correctly (and assuming you are using Manjaro like me, other distros might vary) your local /boot directory should look similar to this:
  

  
  /boot/
    dtbs/
    extlinux/
    megi6.5/
      board.dtb
      board.itb
      board.its
      Image
      Image.lz4
      linux.config
      README
    idbloader.img
    Image
    initramfs-linux.img
    u-boot.itb

  
  (NOTE: technically speaking you could simply copy the Image and board.dtb files as far as I remember, but I like to keep it in a "better safe than sorry" way and copy every file into it :p)
  
  
• Before we continue to the next step, you should backup your /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file since we are going to modify it and if done wrong, your OS won't boot, so it is always a good idea to keep a copy just in case. Simply copy this file somewhere safe.
  
  
• The next step is to modify the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file to use our /boot/megi6.5/Image and /boot/megi6.5/board.dtb files, for example my /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf look like this before these changes:
  

  LABEL Manjaro ARM
  KERNEL /Image
  FDT /dtbs/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb
  APPEND initrd=/initramfs-linux.img console=tty3 console=ttyS2,1500000 root=PARTUUID=ddc1aee8-62c8-497f-966a-7c91a00c2164 rw rootwait quiet splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles

  
  Notice the KERNEL and FDT parameters that are pointing to the files (relative to your local /boot directory) /Image and /dtbs/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtbd, those are the values we need to change so it points to Megi's files at /boot/megi6.5 directory, like this:
  

  LABEL Manjaro ARM MEGI-6.5
  KERNEL /megi6.5/Image
  FDT /megi6.5/board.dtb
  APPEND initrd=/initramfs-linux.img console=tty3 console=ttyS2,1500000 root=PARTUUID=ddc1aee8-62c8-497f-966a-7c91a00c2164 rw rootwait quiet splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles

  
  As you might have noticed, I have also added MEGI-6.5 on my LABEL, well that one is not required but I wanted to add it so that when my Pinebook Pro boots, it will print Manjaro ARM MEGI-6.5 and let me know that it is loading Megi's kernel instead of the one from Manjaro xD
  
  
• Finally, the last step is to install the kernel headers. As far as I remember (please correct me if wrong) the headers should go inside /usr/local/include directory because it is a custom kernel, while the distro ones should go inside /usr/include, so you will need to copy them using this command:
  
  Code:

  sudo cp -r ./headers/include/ /usr/local/
  
  

And that's it, you can either shutdown/power up your Pinebook Pro or simply restart it and it will use Megi's kernel from now on. The install should also persists your OS updates unless it decides to override the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file.

You should be able to use your external display now, just keep in mind that if it doesn't work at first, then simply flip the USB-C connector on the Pinebook Pro port and it should work (weird bug but that is how the current kernel patches works xD).

I hope this helps!