Stable OS for Pine?

[franktherobot]

So, I got my Pine64+ 2gb yesterday and started fooling with it. I'm powering it with an external 8 port hub and have had no problems loading various versions of Android. I didn't get the wifi (which was a mistake) so I'm using ethernet.

It seems like every OS I load crashes. I know one version (sorry, Im at work - not sure which version) of Lollipop crashes with the ethernet - a bunch of folks have been talking about this. But on other versions, it just seems like its crashing constantly - sometimes to the point I just have to restart the whole thing.

I know this is early on and there are tons of bugs and we are all working to make a community and figure this thing out, but what is the most stable OS I can run on the Pine at this time?

[Andrew2]

So every OS is crashing? With your board that is powered by an USB hub probably not supplying more than 500mA (the Pine doesn't speak any of these languages[url=usb wikipedia][/url] through his Micro USB connector) and using always the same SD card that might be corrupted?

[franktherobot]

The OS (one of the versions of Android) will boot and will be fine. But if I try to play a video on youtube, it crashes when I go to fullscreen. I constantly get messages that something has stopped or failed. Even if I try to change the wallpaper Im getting crashes. Ill wait until I get home from work to post specifics. I don't think the sd card is corrupted. I formatted with sd formatter and burned the image with phoenix card. It boots up fine? Can you explain a bit about the USB hub?

[Andrew2]

I don't know who recommends using SD Formatter but it's absolutely useless on any SBC expect Raspberry Pi that needs this software when you want to burn a NOOBS image on a SDXC card. Formatting a card before burning an image is either useless and doesn't tell you if the card has errors or not. Only a whole check can tell this: http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6...eit_Drives
 
USB2.0 compatible devices are allowed to provide max. 500mA unless the device in question signals that it's capable of more (see the aforementionend link). Combining a dumb device with a smart charging hub is most of the times simply asking for trouble.

[franktherobot]

Thanks, Andrew. I'm new to all this and ordered the Pine to learn on - so I have little clue of what I'm doing. I appreciate the help.

So, what you are saying is I need to check the integrity of my sd card? Also, what is recommended for powering the Pine? Is there some get started tutorials or something out there that I'm missing? Everything seems scattered.

[Andrew2]

Everything seems scattered.

Correct. And since it gets a bit boring to answer the same questions again and again since the Pine64 folks don't want to provide their users with a quick start guide (and even unpin posts that might help newbies running into the same issues many others ran before and wasted hours of their live), time to stop now

There exist a few well known issues but it seems all users have to find out on their own what to avoid or to do. Maybe they don't want to sell any more boards in the future and hope for a bad reputation? Who knows...

[franktherobot]

Thanks for all the help, Andrew. I will report back with what I've been able to do/solve/etc.

[franktherobot]

Okay, so here's an update...

I bought a 32gb class 10 micro sd card to see if that was the problem (my other card was a 8gb class 6)... It wasn't. The card is legit as was the previous card, no counterfeit problems. So that wasn't that either.

I'm still powering the board from my external usb hub and it seems to do fine. I have a keyboard/mouse controller dongle plugged into the hub and it works perfect. I am using ethernet as I have no wifi and that seems to work as well. I am running Lollipop. 

I successfully downloaded Netflix and Youtube apps from the Google Appstore with no problem. Video and audio is flawless in both. However, I notice when I install a new app and open it, it seems to freeze. I then had to go out of each app and back in for it to refresh. I have no idea what's causing this. I also noticed this in OS itself. I know this sounds crazy but running an app or changing a setting and then turning the machine off and re-running it seems to fix a lot of issues. 

Chrome seems super buggy. Youtube will play in Chrome but if I fullscreen it, it crashes, android restarts and I have no ethernet. I have to physically turn the machine off and back on for it to recognize ethernet.

Sometimes when I try and change the wallpaper I get a screen flicker. Sometimes the screen goes black. Sometimes I get a message saying "Unfortunately, Launcher3 has stopped." Again, I have no clue.

At this point, there are just tons and tons of bugs.

[Harrisburg]

This is a known issue with the 2GB models. Long story short, the devs were only given the 1 GB model to work with, which has a different ethernet controller. There are a few people who have managed to get Debian and Ubuntu installs semi-working, but at the moment there's no "boot 'n' go" solution.

I'm in the same boat as you. Hopefully there will be a fix soon.

[Kevydee]

Hi noob here, my pine is still in the box, i just picked it up today - 2GB model.

I've read a few things now about issues with the board, are there any os's deemed safe as of yet? This is my first foray into single board computers, looking to minimise any mistakes and avoid any big pitfalls! Just looking around for a tutorial to fit the wifi module still.

Edit: Wifi module was straightforward once i took it out the box