Pinephone Mainboard Replacement Issues

[p1x3l3d]

I hadn't even read your reply yet, but I also managed to flash the new firmware for the modem (described it here) Unfortunately, as with you, the problems I had before seem to persist. In my case I'm still not able to install any of the Manjaro distributions for the pinephone

On another note, I did try openSUSE yesterday but I found it was less functional than other distributions using Phosh, such as Mobian. In fact, I'm starting to like Mobian a lot! It seems to be pretty fast and most functions seem to work. What kind of issues are you still dealing with?

[Stringbean]

I hadn't even read your reply yet, but I also managed to flash the new firmware for the modem (described it here) Unfortunately, as with you, the problems I had before seem to persist. In my case I'm still not able to install any of the Manjaro distributions for the pinephone

On another note, I did try openSUSE yesterday but I found it was less functional than other distributions using Phosh, such as Mobian. In fact, I'm starting to like Mobian a lot! It seems to be pretty fast and most functions seem to work. What kind of issues are you still dealing with?

I have the same issues as before, Mobian only boots if it is plugged in at all times, will power off immediately if unplugged. Many features don't work such as wifi, flashing firmware didn't help.
Interestingly, if I startup the phone with a battery it will give a percentage that will increase slowly, reinserting will then freeze the percentage but still indicate charging. If I boot with no battery it will say 0% capacity. Power supply app always says health is 'good' and charging at 0.00W even if I boot with no battery.

OpenSUSE works the best for me because it is one of the only distros that actually boot, however it needs to boot for the first time plugged in, after that it can boot on battery until the battery is reinserted where it will then boot to a black screen (acts bricked)

The only image I found that works perfectly now is the one with multiple distros on it. The OSes still fail except for Jumpdrive, and everything can be started on battery.

All the other distros seem to be completely broken, I get either only a splash or notification light and then bootloop or get stuck in black screen.

[p1x3l3d]

It sounds like your issues are much more severe than mine to be honest. The only images I can't boot are the Manjaro ones, and I have a suspicion (based on nothing) it could be because they use different kernel and u-boot versions. All other distro images boot up fine, with or without USB-cable inserted.

I'll try the multi-distro image as well and report back to see how that goes. If I were you I would consider contacting Pine64 support though.

[Stringbean]

I swapped with another 3gb mainboard and now everything works well after flashing firmware. So must have been a defective board somehow even though all the hardware was technically functional.

[p1x3l3d]

Okay, great! Good to hear that it worked out well for you @Stringbean! Did you just buy a new board, or did you receive a new one due to your issues?

Also, if I may ask you a favor, could you try to see if the latest Manjaro Plasma Mobile rom (download here) boots for you? Even after having successfully flashed the firmware I never succeeded in getting it working, and it's bugging me since it could be hardware related. Currently I'm using Danct's Arch + Phosh image (version 23-12-'20) and besides the occasional Phosh crash that's been quite stable (and fast!) for me for days now so I'm not sure what's going on with the Manjaro image...

[Stringbean]

Okay, great! Good to hear that it worked out well for you @Stringbean! Did you just buy a new board, or did you receive a new one due to your issues?

Also, if I may ask you a favor, could you try to see if the latest Manjaro Plasma Mobile rom (download here) boots for you? Even after having successfully flashed the firmware I never succeeded in getting it working, and it's bugging me since it could be hardware related. Currently I'm using Danct's Arch + Phosh image (version 23-12-'20) and besides the occasional Phosh crash that's been quite stable (and fast!) for me for days now so I'm not sure what's going on with the Manjaro image...

I ordered two boards because I messed up the first order, figured it would get cancelled but it didn't.

I tried pmOS because that was the main distro I was planning to use, but since then I noticed it still seems to have issues with many other OSes. I just tried the plasma image, it boots up, but after unlocking it only stays in the desktop for a few seconds before showing the kde splash animation again and then turns off. Since both of my boards and your board have distro related issues but all the hardware is functional I think this is software related.

It is weird though that pmos didn't work at all on my previous board.