New pinebook owner and user - ideas?

[erchache2000]

Hi Everyone!

I just picked up my Pinebook from the post office. Though because my country is far away from where they are produced and consequently I had to pay over double the price to get my hands on one, fate smiled upon me and I received one without dead pixels (I heard this is a possibility) and even the blue plastic casing is completely intact so I can re-use that (probably glue some protection inside to use it as a travel case). Though not new to Linux this is my first venture into a project this technical and also my first non X86 machine ever (phones aside ofcourse). 

I bought it because of sheer enthusiasm - I support community projects like this (hence I didn't mind paying the premium) and I like the look of the Pinebook. 
Also, the community support here seems very nice. 

So... my plans. For the moment I think it would be best to tailor the notebook to be a lightweight travel companion. I'd like to take it with me when traveling by plane, motorcycle travels... just to have a small and lightweight companion for basic webbrowsing, email and the like. There are some things I want to find out, though. Because I borked the password from the get-go I ended up reinstalling the thing 30 minutes after unboxing it   so I'm happy to see the process was straightforward: Just flash the SD card, insert, press yet and Bob is your uncle (though mine is not called Bob, but that's beside the point I think). 


First: Storage. I bought the cheapskate 16GB EMMC variant. I understand it can boot from SD too (just used it to reinstall) but EMMC is faster.
What are my options to boot from EMMC and use an SD card as sort-of permanent storage? Won't it try and boot from said SD card everytime? Or can I avoid that by not having a boot loader on the SD card?

Secondly: Replacing EMMC storage. I understand this is pretty straightforward, but what's a reliable source of 128gb EMMC modules? Can I just source any module, or are there better/worse ones? 

Thirdly: Backlighting. Call me a princess but I love to have keyboard backlighting. Being that this laptop was built to tinker with, what's stopping me from soldering a few LED's inside the case, right? I can solder alright but if you have any idea's/tips to share concerning, I am willing to listen and learn. 

Last but not least: Alternative OS'es. I've seen the options the installer gives me, and several of them mention being "SD boot only" or EMMC capable. 
Specifically: this list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...edit#gid=0

mentions Armbian (I am a Debian fan) should be EMMC capable, but it's not listed in the installer (flash utility). 
Should I download a custom image somewhere else (where?) and supplant that? I'd rather run from EMMC to keep the SD slot free because of point #1. 


Loving the experience so far, hoping to get some lovely ideas from you. 
And other mods interesting or pertaining to my intended use are very welcome as well, of course. 

Greetings from the Netherlands!

Repling first: You must to tune sd and emmc to disable sd boot, or plug/unplug on real time... ;( You need lastest kernel to get running emmc 5.1.
Process is simple, use first sd card, upgrade sd card, config your os at your taste and dd it to emmc. If you use an older os img you can't recognize emmc 5.1 directly.

Second: I think max. storage are 64 gb emmc, I don't know if you can use more storage or recognized by any os.

Third: Yes, you are a princess... ;-P It's a prototype laptop, If you want a better keyboard use an external usb.