New Pinebook users start here (01.11.2018)

[Luke]

Congratulations on your new Pinebook! This post relates primarily to the updated IPS 1080p Pinebook with KDE Neon as default OS, which began shipping in November 2018. That said, some of the points relate to non-1080p Pinebooks and other OS'.

In this post I will cover two basic topics which are bound to come up: 1) tweaks to the default KDE Neon build and 2) alternative OS selection.

The KDE Neon build that ships with the Pinebook is very polished, but there are some areas where you can significantly improve your experience. There is also a bug that prevents suspend from working correctly, which is thanfully easily solved.

[edit 08.11.2018] Looks like the default KDE Neon build as well as Ayufan's builds have the incorrect display refresh-rate. Unfortunately, the refresh rate in BSP is hard-coded. In other words, if you want non-tearing / smoother feeling desktop then you may want to not get too used to your current installation, as its unlikely you'll be able to just update / upgrade to get 60hz working in the near future.  

KDE Neon Tips and Tricks (Build date 28.10.2018):

• [edit 06.11.2018] Installer language. On the first boot you will find the OS language  is set to Chinese - don't worry about it (clearly the people at the factory needed to make this alteration to flash the eMMC). The first thing you want to do is connect to your WiFi. After connecting to your access point, click the installer on the desktop.  In the installer you can select the language of your choice. 
  

• Trackpad Sensitivity. The default sensitivity of the trackpad is too low to be usable. Click the KDE menu and type 'mouse' - click the mouse settings, which should be the first option that pops-up, and navigate to advanced. Increase the pointer acceleration and threshold to your liking. I am linking my settings, which I found to work well.
  
  
• Font and Display Scaling. The updated Pinebook rocks a high DPI screen for an 11.6" laptop. This means that all icons and text will appear tiny by default. Thankfully there is a simple fix to both the small font and icons, buttons, etc., Click the KDE menu and type 'fonts'; this is pretty self explanatory - select the size that you are comfortable with. The other important setting is scaling. To access it, open the KDE menu and type 'displays'. In the 'displays' menu navigate to -> 'Scale Display'. Here you will find a slider that will allow you to scale-up desktop components. N.B. You will need to restart the Pienbook after scaling the display. Picture for reference:
  

• Speaker Volume Settings. The speakers (and headphone output) on the Pinebook can be made somewhat louder. Navigate to the terminal by typing 'konsol' in the KDE menu. In terminal type
  alsamixer. Scroll using right arrow key to the far end of the extensive selection of options until you encounter 'speaker volume' setting. By default, its set to 74 but can be increased to ~85 without much distortion. Picture for reference:
   
  

• Wake from suspend issue (important). There is an issue related to screen locking that prevents the Pinebook from resuming from suspend. The solution to the problem is, at the time of writing, to disable screen lock on resume as well as screen locking after a preset period of time. To access the relevant menu type 'screen locking' in KDE menu and hit enter. You will need to uncheck BOTH 'lock screen automatically after: [time in minutes]' and 'lock screen on resume'. [edit] if you still experience problems please read rookieone's post here.This will make the Pinebook wake up as expected; picture for reference:
  
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Alternative OS' and where to find flashing instructions:

[edit 12.11.2018] Users are putting together a list of all available OS images here. 

It will take some time for other OS images to become compatible with the 1080p panel. However, already at launch there already is a fair number of images to try out:

• AOSC (deb)
  
• Arch Linux
  
• Ubuntu 18.04 with Mate, Ubuntu 18.04 with LXDE, Debian Stretch (no desktop).
  
• NetBSD
  

I do not know what the state of *BSD compatibility is with the 1080p Pinebooks at launch, nor [edit] NetBSD - and likely other *BSD - OS images for the Pinebookk work out of the box. I do not  know whether default android builds for earlier iterations of the Pinebooks will work. I'll update this post once i find out. Current Android images do not work on the Pinebook - an Android image for the Pinebook will be released in the future.

I will also update the list of compatible Linux OS images as they become available.

All OS images can be flashed using different methods to the internal eMMC. For instructions on how to flash the Pinebook with a new/ different OS' please read the NOOB section on the wiki.