Pinebook Pro Initial Impressions

[Watercourse]

Ditto on the Firefox crapout on VPN switch

[richfm]

---

So I fixed the firefox crashing problem by flashing Ubuntu+Mate img to MMC with Wizzard's great instructions. However page loading in Firefox and chromium is very slow. I waited for 11 minutes to load www.pine64.org in firefox and gave up. Reading the "connection information" in the wifi icon on the top menu I get values between 0 and 26 Mb/s on the PBP and 60+ Mb/s on my Asus laptop running Ubuntu+Mate  in the same location in my house and even more in my Mint netbook. Since I bout the PBP mainly to surf the inte4rnet, read email, etc online, this makes the PBP virtually unusable. Thunderbird times out while downloading 4 emails! Does anyone else have this problem?I'm guessing it's either a problem either with the wifi hardware, firmware, the or kernel. I like the PBP other features and look but this is a deal breaker for me. What can I do about this?

I noticed putting processor speed to performance helps a lot...

That worked, Rick! I turned up the processor speed to 2.02 GHz. Thanks you so much. I was on the point of of turning my PBP into a trivet! Internet speed is better.I thought the processor speed was dynamically set to save power? I had it on "interactive" whatever that means.

[User 6582]

---

So I fixed the firefox crashing problem by flashing Ubuntu+Mate img to MMC with Wizzard's great instructions. However page loading in Firefox and chromium is very slow. I waited for 11 minutes to load www.pine64.org in firefox and gave up. Reading the "connection information" in the wifi icon on the top menu I get values between 0 and 26 Mb/s on the PBP and 60+ Mb/s on my Asus laptop running Ubuntu+Mate  in the same location in my house and even more in my Mint netbook. Since I bout the PBP mainly to surf the inte4rnet, read email, etc online, this makes the PBP virtually unusable. Thunderbird times out while downloading 4 emails! Does anyone else have this problem?I'm guessing it's either a problem either with the wifi hardware, firmware, the or kernel. I like the PBP other features and look but this is a deal breaker for me. What can I do about this?

I noticed putting processor speed to performance helps a lot...

That worked, Rick! I turned up the processor speed to 2.02 GHz. Thanks you so much. I was on the point of of turning my PBP into a trivet! Internet speed is  better.I thought the processor speed was dynamically set to save power? I had it on "interactive" whatever that means.

YAY!!  Good show!!
Perhaps down the road, software will better compliment the hardware. Some work to be done before "throttling up" may not be necessary though, at this point

Enjoy your new "trivet"!! :-)

[zaius]

The at (@) symbol is above the single quote mark (') key. Pressing shift with that key (') is supposed to write the @ but it writes the double quote Mark (") instead .

Thanks that explains it.  I wonder if Ayufan is working on this problem

I don't mind having @ be shift-2 where I am used to it being.  The problem is that then the keyboard is physically labeled wrong.  That would need to be fixed with a sticker, replacement key cap, or some other hardware solution.

[richfm]

---

So I fixed the firefox crashing problem by flashing Ubuntu+Mate img to MMC with Wizzard's great instructions. However page loading in Firefox and chromium is very slow. I waited for 11 minutes to load www.pine64.org in firefox and gave up. Reading the "connection information" in the wifi icon on the top menu I get values between 0 and 26 Mb/s on the PBP and 60+ Mb/s on my Asus laptop running Ubuntu+Mate  in the same location in my house and even more in my Mint netbook. Since I bout the PBP mainly to surf the inte4rnet, read email, etc online, this makes the PBP virtually unusable. Thunderbird times out while downloading 4 emails! Does anyone else have this problem?I'm guessing it's either a problem either with the wifi hardware, firmware, the or kernel. I like the PBP other features and look but this is a deal breaker for me. What can I do about this?

I noticed putting processor speed to performance helps a lot...

That worked, Rick! I turned up the processor speed to 2.02 GHz. Thanks you so much. I was on the point of of turning my PBP into a trivet! Internet speed is  better.I thought the processor speed was dynamically set to save power? I had it on "interactive" whatever that means.

YAY!!  Good show!!
Perhaps down the road, software will better compliment the hardware. Some work to be done before "throttling up" may not be necessary though, at this point

Enjoy your new "trivet"!! :-)

Although the wifi speed has improved somewhat with the increased CPU speed, web pages still load much slower than my other laptops. The connection information is still a quarter to half less in the PBP than in the other laptops that I use. I knew that the PBP was a work in process when I bought it but I did expect a machine! that could at least surf the internet, download email, etc. This is a disappointment.

I'm running Ubuntu with Mate now. I'm wondering if changing to bionic lxde would fix this problem? Any suggestions? (I booted biopic lode from microsd and could not connect to my gateway. Starting to think I got a device with wifi hardware problems).

Question. Is there any actual tech support for these devices?

[stanski]

Just wanted to thank everyone reporting their experience with the pinebook pro. I was considering buying the laptop and using it when travelling. I need something light, not especially fast and running Linux (or BSD) instead ChromeOS or android.
By the sound of it, the pinebook pro is very impressive build-wise but the software support has a long way to go.

I think this highlights the challenges independent hardware makers face when trying to create a product that could potentially rival an offering by an established industry player.
As a consumer you have no choice but to jump into the clutches of the Lenovos of the world.

Having something that "just works" is a product of countless hours of labour and well-established processes (thanks to first making a lot of mistakes).

Good for everyone contributing to this very exciting project!

[User 6582]

---

So I fixed the firefox crashing problem by flashing Ubuntu+Mate img to MMC with Wizzard's great instructions. However page loading in Firefox and chromium is very slow. I waited for 11 minutes to load www.pine64.org in firefox and gave up. Reading the "connection information" in the wifi icon on the top menu I get values between 0 and 26 Mb/s on the PBP and 60+ Mb/s on my Asus laptop running Ubuntu+Mate  in the same location in my house and even more in my Mint netbook. Since I bout the PBP mainly to surf the inte4rnet, read email, etc online, this makes the PBP virtually unusable. Thunderbird times out while downloading 4 emails! Does anyone else have this problem?I'm guessing it's either a problem either with the wifi hardware, firmware, the or kernel. I like the PBP other features and look but this is a deal breaker for me. What can I do about this?

I noticed putting processor speed to performance helps a lot...

That worked, Rick! I turned up the processor speed to 2.02 GHz. Thanks you so much. I was on the point of of turning my PBP into a trivet! Internet speed is  better.I thought the processor speed was dynamically set to save power? I had it on "interactive" whatever that means.

YAY!!  Good show!!
Perhaps down the road, software will better compliment the hardware. Some work to be done before "throttling up" may not be necessary though, at this point

Enjoy your new "trivet"!! :-)

Although the wifi speed has improved somewhat with the increased CPU speed, web pages still load much slower than my other laptops. The connection information is still a quarter to half less in the PBP than in the other laptops that I use. I knew that the PBP was a work in process when I bought it but I did expect a machine! that could at least surf the internet, download email, etc. This is a disappointment.  

I'm running Ubuntu with Mate now. I'm wondering if changing to bionic lxde would fix this problem? Any suggestions? (I booted biopic lode from microsd and could not connect to my gateway. Starting to think I got a device with wifi hardware problems).

Question. Is there any actual tech support for these devices?

I think that answers will be more "community supported" than some tech person with a dedicated job.
And to be more specific, we're the test drivers.. So with that comes all of us working together for answers.

WiFi is not a strong point with these devices, BUT there's been discussion earlier of software improvements to make WiFi better. We'll see.

In the meantime, please read through the forum posts and you may get some info that will help with some of this.

And to any question that starts out with "Should I try..." ABSOLUTELY!!! As we're all learning here, anything that helps move us toward greater enlightenment has gotta be a plus....And maybe, get us closer to a Pinebook Pro smooth operation :-)

[richfm]

I noticed putting processor speed to performance helps a lot...

That worked, Rick! I turned up the processor speed to 2.02 GHz. Thanks you so much. I was on the point of of turning my PBP into a trivet! Internet speed is  better.I thought the processor speed was dynamically set to save power? I had it on "interactive" whatever that means.

YAY!!  Good show!!
Perhaps down the road, software will better compliment the hardware. Some work to be done before "throttling up" may not be necessary though, at this point

Enjoy your new "trivet"!! :-)

Although the wifi speed has improved somewhat with the increased CPU speed, web pages still load much slower than my other laptops. The connection information is still a quarter to half less in the PBP than in the other laptops that I use. I knew that the PBP was a work in process when I bought it but I did expect a machine! that could at least surf the internet, download email, etc. This is a disappointment.  

I'm running Ubuntu with Mate now. I'm wondering if changing to bionic lxde would fix this problem? Any suggestions? (I booted biopic lode from microsd and could not connect to my gateway. Starting to think I got a device with wifi hardware problems).

Question. Is there any actual tech support for these devices?

I think that answers will be more "community supported" than some tech person with a dedicated job.
And to be more specific, we're the test drivers.. So with that comes all of us working together for answers.

WiFi is not a strong point with these devices, BUT there's been discussion earlier of software improvements to make WiFi better. We'll see.

In the meantime, please read through the forum posts and you may get some info that will help with some of this.

And to any question that starts out with "Should I try..." ABSOLUTELY!!! As we're all learning here, anything that helps move us toward greater enlightenment has gotta be a plus....And maybe, get us closer to a Pinebook Pro smooth operation :-)

Rick, thanks for your reply.  I understand this is a community project but what if my wifi problem is a hardware problem?  I've tried everything everyone has suggested as you can see from my posts but it's almost impossible to use the PVP with any internet application. I've seen no one else here describing this problem so I'm assuming my PVP problem is unique. It's not that wifi is a weak point, it's practically unusable. I'm used to working with Linux on arm chromebooks so know something about the architecture. I'm flashing the original debian img file to the PVP now so we'll see.   However it's been a week since I received the device and have not been able to get it working satisfactorily yet.

Sorry to be such a downer here but I think my problem may be a hardware issue. Have contacted pine64.org tech support.

[User 6582]

That worked, Rick! I turned up the processor speed to 2.02 GHz. Thanks you so much. I was on the point of of turning my PBP into a trivet! Internet speed is  better.I thought the processor speed was dynamically set to save power? I had it on "interactive" whatever that means.

YAY!!  Good show!!
Perhaps down the road, software will better compliment the hardware. Some work to be done before "throttling up" may not be necessary though, at this point

Enjoy your new "trivet"!! :-)

Although the wifi speed has improved somewhat with the increased CPU speed, web pages still load much slower than my other laptops. The connection information is still a quarter to half less in the PBP than in the other laptops that I use. I knew that the PBP was a work in process when I bought it but I did expect a machine! that could at least surf the internet, download email, etc. This is a disappointment.  

I'm running Ubuntu with Mate now. I'm wondering if changing to bionic lxde would fix this problem? Any suggestions? (I booted biopic lode from microsd and could not connect to my gateway. Starting to think I got a device with wifi hardware problems).

Question. Is there any actual tech support for these devices?

I think that answers will be more "community supported" than some tech person with a dedicated job.
And to be more specific, we're the test drivers.. So with that comes all of us working together for answers.

WiFi is not a strong point with these devices, BUT there's been discussion earlier of software improvements to make WiFi better. We'll see.

In the meantime, please read through the forum posts and you may get some info that will help with some of this.

And to any question that starts out with "Should I try..." ABSOLUTELY!!! As we're all learning here, anything that helps move us toward greater enlightenment has gotta be a plus....And maybe, get us closer to a Pinebook Pro smooth operation :-)

Rick, thanks for your reply.  I understand this is a community project but what if my wifi problem is a hardware problem?  I've tried everything everyone has suggested as you can see from my posts but it's almost impossible to use the PVP with any internet application. I've seen no one else here describing this problem so I'm assuming my PVP problem is unique. It's not that wifi is a weak point, it's practically unusable. I'm used to working with Linux on arm chromebooks so know something about the architecture. I'm flashing the original debian img file to the PVP now so we'll see.   However it's been a week since I received the device and have not been able to get it working satisfactorily yet.

You're welcome!

Clearly, there's a chance you could of got a klinker piece of hardware.

If it were me, I'd open a support request. From the pine64.org "start" page, along the top is tab listed as "Order Support". Click on it and submit a ticket (did I miss you've already done this?) for the problem. I, for one, will be interested to see how that plays out. If you're dissatisfied with that, perhaps a PM to an administrator, founder or someone like Luke might help it along....

There's absolutely no doubt that, despite best efforts, a hardware glitch could get through. You'll be helping not only yourself, but the rest of us see how the support function works here...

Does that help? :-)

[richfm]

YAY!!  Good show!!
Perhaps down the road, software will better compliment the hardware. Some work to be done before "throttling up" may not be necessary though, at this point

Enjoy your new "trivet"!! :-)

Although the wifi speed has improved somewhat with the increased CPU speed, web pages still load much slower than my other laptops. The connection information is still a quarter to half less in the PBP than in the other laptops that I use. I knew that the PBP was a work in process when I bought it but I did expect a machine! that could at least surf the internet, download email, etc. This is a disappointment.  

I'm running Ubuntu with Mate now. I'm wondering if changing to bionic lxde would fix this problem? Any suggestions? (I booted biopic lode from microsd and could not connect to my gateway. Starting to think I got a device with wifi hardware problems).

Question. Is there any actual tech support for these devices?

I think that answers will be more "community supported" than some tech person with a dedicated job.
And to be more specific, we're the test drivers.. So with that comes all of us working together for answers.

WiFi is not a strong point with these devices, BUT there's been discussion earlier of software improvements to make WiFi better. We'll see.

In the meantime, please read through the forum posts and you may get some info that will help with some of this.

And to any question that starts out with "Should I try..." ABSOLUTELY!!! As we're all learning here, anything that helps move us toward greater enlightenment has gotta be a plus....And maybe, get us closer to a Pinebook Pro smooth operation :-)

Rick, thanks for your reply.  I understand this is a community project but what if my wifi problem is a hardware problem?  I've tried everything everyone has suggested as you can see from my posts but it's almost impossible to use the PVP with any internet application. I've seen no one else here describing this problem so I'm assuming my PVP problem is unique. It's not that wifi is a weak point, it's practically unusable. I'm used to working with Linux on arm chromebooks so know something about the architecture. I'm flashing the original debian img file to the PVP now so we'll see.   However it's been a week since I received the device and have not been able to get it working satisfactorily yet.

You're welcome!

Clearly, there's a chance you could of got a klinker piece of hardware.

If it were me, I'd open a support request. From the pine64.org "start" page, along the top is tab listed as "Order Support". Click on it and submit a ticket (did I miss you've already done this?) for the problem. I, for one, will be interested to see how that plays out. If you're dissatisfied with that, perhaps a PM to an administrator, founder or someone like Luke might help it along....

There's absolutely no doubt that, despite best efforts, a hardware glitch could get through. You'll be helping not only yourself, but the rest of us see how the support function works here...

Does that help? :-)

Yes it does help, thanks. I've contacted tech support. I'll keep you posted.