Dead PinePhone 64 - does not power on at all
It's most likely the OS on the eMMC that has become unbootable.
It has happened a second time.
The first time, the battery had indeed been totally discharged. Probably by using the dock (hdmi+usb+ethernet).
It seemed completely dead, not even the screen's backlight would come on.
The only way I could get it to work again was by flashing a (random, I went for Postmarket but anything would have worked) distro to an SD card and boot the phone from the SD card.
I was ever so relieved to see it turn back on!
I flashed Mobian to the eMMC again and got started again, from scratch. It ran fine for a day.
Then it happened a second time - really for no apparent reason. I turned the phone off (through the interface). I wanted to prevent it from becoming completely discharged again. It had some 25% charge on the indicator.
A few hours later, back home, it just would not turn on again. Completely dead. Does not respond to charging, power button (long or short presses), anything. Only an SD card with an OS on it can bring it back to life.
The one similarity between both cases is that I "properly" turned the phone off. Once from the cli (sudo reboot) - then it died. Once through Posh's UI (power button - power off).
The big question now is.... what would cause the OS on the eMMC to become suddenly unbootable? Should one never turn their PinePhone off? I had installed several things onto it (Wireguard, ssh-server, I signed in to my FireFox account) but everything worked absolutely beautifully. Turning it off to then just not turn on anymore... it's very strange.
I fully realise that this is most likely a Mobian issue - so I will post this to their forum too. I will just leave this here in case it would help anyone else.
Marking this as SOLVED because the phone does turn on again.
In the worst case there's something wrong with the eMMC.
"Best case" scenario - it's a bug in Mobian.
Long story short:
PinePhone was completely dead. It would not turn on at all - no matter what I tried.
It may have been the battery fully discharging. It most likely, however, is that the OS on the eMMC became unbootable. (No idea why.) It was running Mobian both times it happened.
Flashing another OS to it revived it.
It has happened a second time.
The first time, the battery had indeed been totally discharged. Probably by using the dock (hdmi+usb+ethernet).
It seemed completely dead, not even the screen's backlight would come on.
The only way I could get it to work again was by flashing a (random, I went for Postmarket but anything would have worked) distro to an SD card and boot the phone from the SD card.
I was ever so relieved to see it turn back on!
I flashed Mobian to the eMMC again and got started again, from scratch. It ran fine for a day.
Then it happened a second time - really for no apparent reason. I turned the phone off (through the interface). I wanted to prevent it from becoming completely discharged again. It had some 25% charge on the indicator.
A few hours later, back home, it just would not turn on again. Completely dead. Does not respond to charging, power button (long or short presses), anything. Only an SD card with an OS on it can bring it back to life.
The one similarity between both cases is that I "properly" turned the phone off. Once from the cli (sudo reboot) - then it died. Once through Posh's UI (power button - power off).
The big question now is.... what would cause the OS on the eMMC to become suddenly unbootable? Should one never turn their PinePhone off? I had installed several things onto it (Wireguard, ssh-server, I signed in to my FireFox account) but everything worked absolutely beautifully. Turning it off to then just not turn on anymore... it's very strange.
I fully realise that this is most likely a Mobian issue - so I will post this to their forum too. I will just leave this here in case it would help anyone else.
Marking this as SOLVED because the phone does turn on again.
In the worst case there's something wrong with the eMMC.
"Best case" scenario - it's a bug in Mobian.
Long story short:
PinePhone was completely dead. It would not turn on at all - no matter what I tried.
It may have been the battery fully discharging. It most likely, however, is that the OS on the eMMC became unbootable. (No idea why.) It was running Mobian both times it happened.
Flashing another OS to it revived it.