PineTab2 freezes on login

[RobMac]

Just received my PineTab2 and am having some difficulty getting logged in. It boots up to the login screen OK.  In the lower-left it is defaulted to "Desktop Session: Plasma (Wayland)". When I entered the correct password for user "alarm", the screen locked up. I waited a few minutes, but nothing, so I hard power-cycled it. If I enter the incorrect password it does its little head shake thing and says Login Failed, but the correct password always results in locking up. So I tried switching it to "Desktop Session: Plasma (X11)". A little more success this time. I get the black & white chevron and three circles logo. The first time I tried X11 I then got the little KDE info wizard.  Step through that OK, but when I hit [Finish] the screen goes black and unresponsive.  Subsequent attempts to login it skips the info wizard and goes straight to blackscreen.

Is there anything I can try short of reflashing the image? This is my first Pine product and I am a little nervous about doing something wrong and bricking it. Particularly since this is a product I am not yet at all familiar with. Is that even a possibility that doing something wrong when reflashing could result in some sort of unrecoverable failure?

Thanks

[KC9UDX]

If the Pinetab 2 is like all prior Pine64 devices, it is totally un-brick-able.

[RobMac]

Reflash process is actually quite simple. The only problem I ran into was the microSD slot would not fully accept the card and click into place. I had to hold the card down into the slot the whole time. But it went through without a hitch and that solved the problem. I am logging OK now. Thanks for the reassurance.

[KC9UDX]

The slot on one of my Pinebooks Pro is like that. The slot is too deep in the case. I have to push it all the way in with something, usually my thumbnail if it gets too long, or my Schweizer Taschenmesser.

[dachalife]

I'm using blunt tip tweezers from my ifak on my PT2 & PBP to seat as well.

[J-S]

Just received my PineTab2 and am having some difficulty getting logged in. It boots up to the login screen OK.  In the lower-left it is defaulted to "Desktop Session: Plasma (Wayland)". When I entered the correct password for user "alarm", the screen locked up. I waited a few minutes, but nothing, so I hard power-cycled it. If I enter the incorrect password it does its little head shake thing and says Login Failed, but the correct password always results in locking up. So I tried switching it to "Desktop Session: Plasma (X11)". A little more success this time. I get the black & white chevron and three circles logo. The first time I tried X11 I then got the little KDE info wizard.  Step through that OK, but when I hit [Finish] the screen goes black and unresponsive.  Subsequent attempts to login it skips the info wizard and goes straight to blackscreen.

Greetings!

I had exactly the same problem that you mention, so it could be that a whole batch of tablets has been flashed incorrectly but in the same way. For me, flashing again the factory image according to the instructions in the wiki solved the problem entirely. I agree that the position of the card holder is a bit too deep but I managed to insert it pressing the card with my nail.

All in all, I would suggest to anyone with this problem to reflash the factory image.

Best regards!

[angeloweb]

I had the freezing problem, so reflashed. Every time I boot now, I get the PineTab2 Factory Tool screen. Even with the uart tool unplugged. Tried reflashing another time, still wind up at the blue screen. Only options it gives me are:
1 Display System Information
2 LCD Test
3 Flash OS to eMMC
4 Load Command Line (sh)
5 Power off tablet

[RobMac]

I had the freezing problem, so reflashed. Every time I boot now, I get the PineTab2 Factory Tool screen. Even with the uart tool unplugged. Tried reflashing another time, still wind up at the blue screen. Only options it gives me are:
1 Display System Information
2 LCD Test
3 Flash OS to eMMC
4 Load Command Line (sh)
5 Power off tablet

Make sure you remove the microSD card you used to reflash? It sounds like you are booting to the reflash utilty.

[angeloweb]

[quote pid="118122" dateline="1687132909"]
That was it, thanks!

Make sure you remove the microSD card you used to reflash? It sounds like you are booting to the reflash utilty.
[/quote]

[rqkeating]

...
I had exactly the same problem that you mention, so it could be that a whole batch of tablets has been flashed incorrectly ...

Any idea how to tell if a PT2 is flashed incorrectly? If mine is, I'll look into a reflash, but if it isn't flashed incorrectly, I'd rather not tempt fate.