Getting started with Mobian...stuck

[LG123]

Hello, I'm working on setting up a pinephone for the first time. When it boots up, the Mobian logo comes up briefly. Then the phone enters what looks like a Command centre with a keyboard at the bottom. 

No matter what I enter, I get this string momentarily before I'm back at the keyboard: begin: mounting root file system ... Begin: running scripts/local-top ...

These are the six icons I see when looking at the pinephone's contents on my mac: boot.scr, image.gz, initramfs.gz, sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.0.dtb, sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.1.dtb, sun501-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb

The phone also only boots up when connected to a power source. 

Will I need to get an SD card and try to follow the instructions to flash a new OS onto the phone that way? Anyone else encountered this problem?

[C0ffeeFreak]

Hello, I'm working on setting up a pinephone for the first time. When it boots up, the Mobian logo comes up briefly. Then the phone enters what looks like a Command centre with a keyboard at the bottom. 

No matter what I enter, I get this string momentarily before I'm back at the keyboard: begin: mounting root file system ... Begin: running scripts/local-top ...

These are the six icons I see when looking at the pinephone's contents on my mac: boot.scr, image.gz, initramfs.gz, sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.0.dtb, sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.1.dtb, sun501-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb

The phone also only boots up when connected to a power source. 

Will I need to get an SD card and try to follow the instructions to flash a new OS onto the phone that way? Anyone else encountered this problem?

Sounds like you corrupted your installation or initial update. Don't worry you didn't ruin anything permanently and it's easily fixed. That first keyboard at the bottom is your decryption keyboard to decrypt the phone. Read this thread linked below, watch the installation video on flashing and read the Mobian update blog. The thread is pretty short and all the instructions and resources/file links are there. It will all be ok and you will be a lot smarter when you are done. Welcome to the forum.

 https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=13275

[xalius]

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The phone also only boots up when connected to a power source. 

...

Have you removed the battery transport protection?

[spaetz]

Hello, I'm working on setting up a pinephone for the first time. When it boots up, the Mobian logo comes up briefly. Then the phone enters what looks like a Command centre with a keyboard at the bottom. 

No matter what I enter, I get this string momentarily before I'm back at the keyboard: begin: mounting root file system ... Begin: running scripts/local-top ...

These are the six icons I see when looking at the pinephone's contents on my mac: boot.scr, image.gz, initramfs.gz, sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.0.dtb, sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.1.dtb, sun501-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb

The phone also only boots up when connected to a power source. 

Will I need to get an SD card and try to follow the instructions to flash a new OS onto the phone that way? Anyone else encountered this problem?

Well, a factory MObian CE will have run the installer which prompted you for a password. This is the password prompt when you chose to encrypt the disk. Enter you password and your will be allowed to proceed.

[LG123]

Sounds like you corrupted your installation or initial update. Don't worry you didn't ruin anything permanently and it's easily fixed. That first keyboard at the bottom is your decryption keyboard to decrypt the phone. Read this thread linked below, watch the installation video on flashing and read the Mobian update blog. The thread is pretty short and all the instructions and resources/file links are there. It will all be ok and you will be a lot smarter when you are done. Welcome to the forum.

 https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=13275

Thank you for the info and the vote of confidence. I don't have an SD card yet, but I'll run out to get one today and give it a go.

[LG123]

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The phone also only boots up when connected to a power source. 

...

Have you removed the battery transport protection?

I have. I'm going to get an SD card so I can reflash an image to the phone and see if that fixes this issue too.