PBP disappointment

[eKeith]

“Paulie420”
Thanks for your input!
You are absolutely right; “for me, the PBP is less of a tinker toy and more of an ARM based laptop to be used and compatible WITH my tinker toys. (Raspberry Pi projects, etc.)”
FYI
I read or heard it somewhere, that if you chose to install the package that boots the Pi from USB, if something goes wrong, the Pi becomes useless.
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I wanted to have a fully operational linux laptop, to get away from that damnable, inferior windows monstrosity. The Raspberry Pi did that but it is not a laptop machine. If I would be able to THROW OUT the rock board that doesn’t rock at all and install the Pi, I would not hesitate for a moment.
One can’t do too much with the PBP, as far as hardware hacking goes. The Raspberry Pi is really the platform for hardware hackings and projects.
I’m going to try to etch (Yes, with Balena etcher) another SD card but as of now, the long awaited PBP is collecting dust...until I go out and do some target shooting.
Thanks again for everybody who had or has any meaningful input to solve this problem...if solvable.

I do disagree with you; I use RPi's... and they are great but the ONLY thing they have that the Pine64 equipment doesn't is support. They have a larger community and novice-level tools that allow you to let someone else do the work...

I use them for most of my projects... however, I'm super happy for a company, Pine64, that offers what that level of support doesn't allow...

The PBP, an ARM-based *laptop*... the PinePhone, which is even less developed than the PBP but... a Linux Cell Phone with capability of a Linux desktop?? Thats ground breaking... the PineTime; EVEN less developed - but so much possibility.

I am sorry that the process didn't go novice-level for you; however I hope that you stop. Stop repeating the things that didn't work. (I don't mean stop TALKING about it but.. lets stop the things that AREN'T working, and get your PBP fixed perfect.)

I do want you to know, that... if some of the users here had their hands on your PBP, they would have it booting fine in less than an hour.

Since *WE* aren't them, lets iron this out... how can I help?
I gaurantee that we can get it back to day 1 status as if you just opened it... and didn't make a mistake. (OR, I think your original issue was locale was set incorrectly; so your passwords didn't match, but then you changed the underlying system and took steps that are now roadblocks you it working correctly for YOU.)

I've never flipped the eMMC switch, and know that that comes with some issues that we have to deal with now.

I hope you'll start a new thread, and write facts so that WE can help you overcome them...

The PBP was always sold as a development platform for tinkerers... and I hope that you end up liking the tinker part. [emoji14] We can get this computer working the way you want.

I think you'd be served well with:

MANJARO installed on the eMMC, setup just so that it CAN be booted with no SDcard inserted...
And then, the SDcard slot WORKING as boot #2 - when inserted, the PBP boots from the SDcard thats inserted...

Would that be a system that would work for you?

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I have to disagree about the PBP not being hardware hackable.  But in any case

Put your favourite OS (NetBSD, yes??) on an SD card. 

If you can boot to it, erase the eMMC.  `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rdk3 bs=8m` or Linux command to fit.

If you cannot boot to the SD card, you must switch off the eMMC, and switch it back on after the SD starts booting.  Be careful: the PBP is very fragile, flimsy, and loose (important) parts fly out if you're not extremely careful.  Then, erase the eMMC as above.

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Thanks "KC9UDX!

The question is, which release do I need for the PBP?

https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/

It is stated in the link "However, the single GENERIC/GENERIC64 kernel now supports a range of machines..."
BUT
it doesn't point to that "GENERIC/GENERIC64" file I can download.
WHERE do I find this "GENERIC/GENERIC64" file?

If your suggestion doesn't work, honest to goodness, I'll rename the PBP to PAIN BOOK PRO.
I FAIL TO SEE WHY it doesn't boot manjaro from the SD card I etched and I FAIL TO SEE WHY it doesn't turn on from battery!

Thanks!

I'd suggest Manjaro burned to an SDcard; then burned to eMMC *just* so theres a normal system on the eMMC...

After that, I like Elementary Ubuntu... its easy and works pretty great on an SDcard.

Well said! I like your approach to supporting the community...[emoji106]

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