01-07-2021, 07:31 AM
(01-01-2021, 01:20 PM)bifo Wrote: It appears that leaving it plugged in with a different charger with USB-C got it to finally accept a charge. Doing a bit more research the low battery issue may have been caused in part because I'm running Manjaro with a 5.9 kernel and there appears to have been some issue with charging causing the blinking light problem. Comments I've read say the issue appears after 5.7 kernel versions.
I really don't see how any changes to the Linux kernel could actually affect the PineBook Pro's battery charging, at least not if you use the barrel connector as the power input. The battery charger IC inside the PineBook Pro is pretty much "dumb" and has no communication with the rest of the laptop or the operating system. The only way of communicating its status is through the red LED next to the charger connector.
The Type-C power input is a little bit different. Its separate control IC could be programmed to use different voltage modes offered by the Type-C chargers, but that would also require some hardware modifications to the power path inside the laptop. However, the same above-described "dumb" charger IC is still used to actually charge the laptop battery. Reprograming the Type-C control IC without the necessary hardware modifications would cause damage to the laptop.
AFAIK, nobody has made the above-described hardware modifications yet, so currently no changes to the Linux kernel can have any effects to the actual battery charging, no matter which power input is used.