Linux distributions on PINE64 ?

[joe]

Again , i not sure my point is right ! 
If my wrong , sorry for every one

[UnixOutlaw]

Hi , 

PINE64 total of have which linux  ?

1. Ubuntu
2. Debian
3. Archlinux
4. Centos
5. Fedora
6. Other ......

Thank !

I'd love to add elementary OS to that list...  it would make sense, as it's lot more lightweight on resources than Unity or Gnome3 (even tho elementary is a kinda/sorta fork of Gnome + Ubuntu [trusty])...   I've got it running on my desktop and a Thinkpad X201 tablet/laptop - and just about to wipe my Ubuntu 15.10 laptop (gaming ASUS laptop) and replace with elementary OS Freya 0.3.2...  It's heaps better on battery life on laptop than Ubuntu 15.10 with Unity...  I can barely get two hours out of the battery on the Asus laptop with 15.10 Wily, but previously with elementary running on it - using the onboard Intel GPU, I once got 9 hours out of it!

So - my wishlist is elementary OS on the Pine 64!

---

Holy cr@p.... I just read this whole thread...  starting to get alarmed at this issue (lack of Linux motivation by the manufacturer)... Surely they don't expect the "community" to bootstrap this f--king thing!

Last year in April, I backed the Kickstarter campaign of NextThing's "CHIP" first $9 computer...  The promise was a board delivered with Linux running on it in December, so I ordered two and got them in December (these things are also Allwinner ARM [32 bit] single core [Hardware : Allwinner sun4i/sun5i Families]).  There were bugs, e.g. the two I got wouldn't boot - but within weeks, NextThing had written a NAND repair tool for their hardware which WORKED (from Ubuntu!, a week later they had a native OS/X repair tool, and now a Windows one)!  But they also shipped me another pair just in case! 

It took them more than four months just to get beta boards out to early backers (i.e. they were on time - and didn't promise the sky too early) running their own home-brewed variant of Debian Jessie...  I'm impressed.  Allwinner A10 single core, 512 MB RAM and 4GB NAND - runs nicely with Jessie on kernel 4.3.0, and I can update and install software using my ISP's jessie mirror for ARM.  Getting another CHIP in may with the PocketCHIP (looks like a big calculator, the CHIP plugs into it - works as a keyboard + touch display).

I also (while waiting for the December delivery) ordered a BananaPI which is ALSO an Allwinner (dual core) 32 bit (Hardware : sun7i)- and the manufacturer had various Linux images and Android images ready to run - desktop and headless images for Linux (arch, debian, ubuntu, lubuntu, xubuntu).

Are these guys (Pine people) being realistic?  Will they be "usable" with Linux when delivered in March?  I'm getting a single touch screen with one of them, and probably use it as an android, but long term want 64 bit RISC boxes running some form of *NIX.  I've been using docker and skilling up on it - and read an article on Docker's website saying what a brilliant host the PineA64 would be for hosting 64 ARM docker containers - so I backed the campaign!  Now I'm feeling a bit pessimistic!

Like a few people on here, I've worked with Linux and NIX environments for over 25 years.  Love RISC architectures, got MIPS (SGI) and Sun sparc boxes dotted all over my house.  My first exposure to UNIX was DG-UX running on a Motorola 88010 RISC AViiON machine (compiling POVRay from C source from Compuserve and running raytraces - exponentially faster than on x86 MSDOS pcs!), also AIX, IRIX, SCO/XENIX and OpenServer [yuck], Digital UNIX / OS/F / Tru64, HP-UX.  Free/Net/OpenBSD etc.  First tried Linux over 20 years ago - Slackware, compiling 1.2.13 kernels for specific SCSI cards and ISA NICs (no loadable modules) - don't wanna go there again!  These days I just want stuff to work...

I'm no coder - just a fan of *NIXs and work as a system admin.  No plans on getting low level (haven't done any low lever stuff for over 20 years, 8086 assembly)...

I think these PINE people maybe should take a look at what NextThing did in their Kickstarter campaign... PINE SERIOUSLY need to hire some full time low level kernel hackers to get this project off...  otherwise it's doomed and I've wasted the price of a box/carton/slab/crate of beer!  I really have no use for another Android device...

[umiddelb]

You may checkout this tutorial describing the setup procedure for Debian on the Pine64.
Please refer to this script when setting up Docker on the Pine64 directly.

Code:

debian@p64:~$ uname -a
Linux p64 3.10.65+ #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Feb 28 00:26:04 CET 2016 aarch64 GNU/Linux
debian@p64:~$ docker info
Containers: 0
Running: 0
Paused: 0
Stopped: 0
Images: 36
Server Version: 1.11.0-dev
Storage Driver: aufs
Root Dir: /var/lib/docker/aufs
Backing Filesystem: extfs
Dirs: 25
Dirperm1 Supported: true
Execution Driver: native-0.2
Logging Driver: json-file
Plugins:
Volume: local
Network: bridge null host
Kernel Version: 3.10.65+
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)
OSType: linux
Architecture: aarch64
CPUs: 4
Total Memory: 979.5 MiB
Name: p64
ID: 3U5S:UCOW:I2VV:OTLU:JIO6:BEO7:WPVS:RBL2:NXND:MSSX:OHTZ:OG2E
Debug mode (client): false
Debug mode (server): false

If you're unhappy with Debian you may try Archlinux instead, which supports running Docker out of the box as well.

[Xeonman]

Irregardless what said about it vs linux I purchased pine64 +  and thats what makes these things fun. work at it this is open source community not microsoft. Even if it takes the people to do it,hey that always awesome. When we work together we get things done. Just look how far linux has come(since what like 1991) despite lil things here and there. Peace out all. 

[patrickhwood]

Last year in Apri l, I backed the Kickstarter campaign of NextThing's "CHIP" first $9 computer...  The promise was a board delivered with Linux running on it in December, so I ordered two and got them in December (these things are also Allwinner ARM [32 bit] single core [Hardware : Allwinner sun4i/sun5i Families]).  There were bugs, e.g. the two I got wouldn't boot - but within weeks, NextThing had written a NAND repair tool for their hardware which WORKED (from Ubuntu!, a week later they had a native OS/X repair tool, and now a Windows one)!  But they also shipped me another pair just in case! pid='2015' dateline='1455115711']

It took them more than four months just to get beta boards out to early backers (i.e. they were on time - and didn't promise the sky too early) running their own home-brewed variant of Debian Jessie...  I'm impressed.  Allwinner A10 single core, 512 MB RAM and 4GB NAND - runs nicely with Jessie on kernel 4.3.0, and I can update and install software using my ISP's jessie mirror for ARM.  Getting another CHIP in may with the PocketCHIP (looks like a big calculator, the CHIP plugs into it - works as a keyboard + touch display).

The big difference here is that the A64 is very new, and the A10 is very old.  The first version of Ubuntu running on the A10 was around June of 2012: http://liliputing.com/2012/06/how-to-run...stick.html (unaccelerated graphics at the time).  GPU accelerated versions started appearing in late 2013: https://olimex.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/...eleration/

Also, the mainlining effort on Allwinner chips started with the A10 a long time ago.  For the A64, looks like it started a few weeks ago.

I also (while waiting for the December delivery) ordered a BananaPI which is ALSO an Allwinner (dual core) 32 bit (Hardware : sun7i)- and the manufacturer had various Linux images and Android images ready to run - desktop and headless images for Linux (arch, debian, ubuntu, lubuntu, xubuntu).

The A20 (sun7i) was the second Allwinner chip to appear around the end of 2012, and GPU accelerated linux desktops started showing up in early-2014: http://www.cubieforums.com/index.php/topic,568.0.html.  So it's not surprising there are plenty of products based on it that support various linux images and that mainlining efforts on it are also further along.

Are these guys (Pine people) being realistic?  Will they be "usable" with Linux when delivered in March?  I'm getting a single touch screen with one of them, and probably use it as an android, but long term want 64 bit RISC boxes running some form of *NIX.  I've been using docker and skilling up on it - and read an article on Docker's website saying what a brilliant host the PineA64 would be for hosting 64 ARM docker containers - so I backed the campaign!  Now I'm feeling a bit pessimistic!

Now these are valid questions.  Not sure about the first.  My guess is that they went into this more as hardware guys who listened to Allwinner's claims (whatever they are) of android and linux support.  Usable is subjective.  For headless servers (and basic text console or lightweight desktop on HDMI), they're usable now (I've got one running Arch and Ubuntu) with the 3.10.65 kernel.  Others have run docker and KVM, and packages that don't require special kernel features or HW graphics acceleration should work just fine on that kernel.  (Note that the 3.10.65 kernel is essentially a fork of the mainline tree with both android-specific patches and allwinner-specific patches; while it works and looks solid, I wouldn't expect any support for it from the linux-sunxi "community" going forward.  They're mostly focused on mainline support for all allwinner SoCs, not just this one)

I think these PINE people maybe should take a look at what NextThing did in their Kickstarter campaign... PINE SERIOUSLY need to hire some full time low level kernel hackers to get this project off...  otherwise it's doomed and I've wasted the price of a box/carton/slab/crate of beer!  I really have no use for another Android device...

Like I said, NextThing, had it relatively easy.  That's not an excuse for Pine64 to slack off, but if there's a delay on getting a linux kernel running with a 4.x distro, it's understandable.

As for Mali MP2 support... Well, it's supported with X11 on the A20. I believe it's only a matter of time before it's supported on the A64; however, it'll require patches to the mainline kernel (this has been done in the past for other manufacturers' SoCs, and for plenty of android kernels), as Mali contains a huge proprietary blob.  This is something that the Pine guys might want to look into supplying and maintaining themselves (the kernel and at least one desktop distro with Mali baked in).

[Tiszai Istvan]

I think, if Ubuntu is run the PIN64 board, then the Lubuntu also?
http://lubuntu.net/

[texadactyl]

Pine A64/A64+ was a kickstarter effort.  They do not have the cash that Intel, AMD, etc. have.  It is ridiculous to think that they should have leverage with the keepers of the various Linux and Unix distributions.  Just like how the Raspberry Pi began a few years ago, the various communities need to support software.

Keep watching this space for software evolution: http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6...re_Release

---

I think, if Ubuntu is run the PIN64 board, then the Lubuntu also?
http://lubuntu.net/

It appears not to be "Ubuntu" (main distro) but actually Xubuntu (based on Xfce4).  Xfce was probably the favorite desktop of the person who built this image.  My advice would be to try it out as Lubuntu and Xubuntu are both light-weight distros with similar desktops.

[tllim]

I think, if Ubuntu is run the PIN64 board, then the Lubuntu also?
http://lubuntu.net/

The Ubuntu that longsleep contributed is Xubuntu.

[androsch]

I think, if Ubuntu is run the PIN64 board, then the Lubuntu also?
http://lubuntu.net/

The Ubuntu that longsleep contributed is Xubuntu.

No, thats not correct. He provides Ubuntu Xenial, thats just the basic system (16.04 LTS version) and has nothing to do with the GUI you are using on it. One can install different GUIs on top of the basic system, so if you like Lubuntu, you need to install the lxde-desktop, if you like Xubuntu, you can use the xfce-desktop. There even is a script to install those different GUIs, see in the Software section (can not c&p at the moment)...

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[texadactyl]

I think, if Ubuntu is run the PIN64 board, then the Lubuntu also?
http://lubuntu.net/

The Ubuntu that longsleep contributed is Xubuntu.

No, thats not correct. He provides Ubuntu Xenial, thats just the basic system (16.04 LTS version) and has nothing to do with the GUI you are using on it. One can install different GUIs on top of the basic system, so if you like Lubuntu, you need to install the lxde-desktop, if you like Xubuntu, you can use the xfce-desktop. There even is a script to install those different GUIs, see in the Software section (can not c&p at the moment)...

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On http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6...ge_Release, the latest (20160421) link to a Ubuntu download is http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6....2C_Pine64

When you download, unzip, and dd the resultant xubuntu-xenial-20160421-longsleep-pine64-8GB.img file to some media, you can clearly see that Xfce4 has already been included in this build.  Upon detail examination of the file system, this clearly looks like a typical Xubuntu system.  Now WHO exactly built it, I have no idea.

When I finally receive my Pin A64+ board, I will take it out for a spin.