Boots just fine. Can not install new image.

[willpine]

Boots and runs just fine, however the Linux Mate is a little heavy, runs slow, bogs down etc. I wanted to try a lighter O.S. I have three SD cards, used three installer types including the Etcher remix made for Pine64. Once I install the image on the SD card/s it will not boot. The power button symbol just flashes until I remove the card, then it continues to boot just fine into Mate. I have used all three of these sd cards to boot a live image of the android-for-pine but that too was sluggish and unresponsive.

TL;DR SDCards I have worked previously, they do not work when I image DietPi.

Is there a preboot screen, verbose, or a bios type screen to monitor the boot process?

This unit came pre-flashed from the factory.

[pfeerick]

If you are running the stock Ubuntu Mate image that came with the pinebook, you'll find it both slower than the current ayufan builds (plus all the inevitable bug fixes and tweaks that have come over time). 

You will find android quite slow on the pinebook via microSD card unless you use a card with good random I/O performance. I would recommend that if you intend to be booting from the SD for stuff, that you get yourself a could of Samsung EVO cards... they have the best random I/O performance and have proven to be very reliable. The best setup if you want to be able to use android AND linux is to install android to your eMMC as that will give Android the best performance, and then use Linux from your microSD.

Unfortunately there is no BIOS/preboot screens. If you get a USB to serial adapter though, you could enable the serial UART on the headphones jack, and see what is going on, but I can almost guarantee that if you try a different card type you won't have any issues (since you've used Etcher and corrupt or faulty microSDs shouldn't be an issue). 

I believe there may be an issue with 64GB+ cards (as they going into the XC class), but I need to find out more about that.

[willpine]

If you are running the stock Ubuntu Mate image that came with the pinebook, you'll find it both slower than the current ayufan builds (plus all the inevitable bug fixes and tweaks that have come over time). 

You will find android quite slow on the pinebook via microSD card unless you use a card with good random I/O performance. I would recommend that if you intend to be booting from the SD for stuff, that you get yourself a could of Samsung EVO cards... they have the best random I/O performance and have proven to be very reliable. The best setup if you want to be able to use android AND linux is to install android to your eMMC as that will give Android the best performance, and then use Linux from your microSD.

Unfortunately there is no BIOS/preboot screens. If you get a USB to serial adapter though, you could enable the serial UART on the headphones jack, and see what is going on, but I can almost guarantee that if you try a different card type you won't have any issues (since you've used Etcher and corrupt or faulty microSDs shouldn't be an issue). 

I believe there may be an issue with 64GB+ cards (as they going into the XC class), but I need to find out more about that.

My question: How do I reimage this device?

I'm unable to get anything to boot or install. I have three different USB SD card readers. Four SD cards, five if I use my gskill 64 gig card. The Stock Ubuntu Mate is not unusable, but it keeps me from picking up the device and performing anything efficiently. DietPi sounds interesting.

How can I re-image this device with something other than Ubuntu Mate? Symptoms are every SD card - no matter the image, no matter the card - causes the machine to not boot and the light for the power just flashes. I have high end Samsung cards, SanDisk, Patriot, Gskil, etc. Once I remove the SD card it boots into the factory image just fine.

[pfeerick]

My question: How do I reimage this device?

I'm unable to get anything to boot or install. I have three different USB SD card readers. Four SD cards, five if I use my gskill 64 gig card. The Stock Ubuntu Mate is not unusable, but it keeps me from picking up the device and performing anything efficiently. DietPi sounds interesting.

How can I re-image this device with something other than Ubuntu Mate? Symptoms are every SD card - no matter the image, no matter the card - causes the machine to not boot and the light for the power just flashes. I have high end Samsung cards, SanDisk, Patriot, Gskil, etc. Once I remove the SD card it boots into the factory image just fine.

Ok, I'll first ask the really, really dumb question... because all have use have done this one time or another with the pine64 installer...  Did you make sure that you choose pinebook from the drop-down menu at the top? It defaults to the pine64 images, which won't work on the pinebook.

If you want to try a newer build of mate, you can also use this one. This is the build that is currently considered 'stable' (direct link) for Ubuntu Mate, and if you want to give i3 a try instead (it is an acquired taste though), you can download this image instead (direct link). For another lightweight desktop environment, give the Armbian builds a try, as they are using XFCE instead IIRC.

[tllim]

Not aware that Armbian has released a build for Pinebook, download now.

[willpine]

"Did you make sure that you choose pinebook from the drop-down menu at the top?"

I did not. I have no excuse.

Pressing on.