pinebook 1080p crash and fix
#1
My pinebook 11" 1080p crashed and failed to boot - and how i recovered it.

In may 2019 I received my new 11" pinebook 1080p laptop with the default ubuntu bionic 18.04 and kde neon 5.14 desktop. I used it only a few times and after installing some seemingly innocuous packages using the software manager "discover" and also python pip it failed to boot. It displayed the circle splash screen on startup, but then remained blank and did not display the login request. (I had previously set it to NOT auto boot to the desktop).
I was able to get a console login using  CTRL-ALT-F2 and login as root. I use a wired lan connection via a usb ethernet adaptor and I had "automatic" internet access from the console.(May be more difficult using wifi). I ran startx, but it failed and "could not connect to server". "X -configure" did not fix the x server either. I used apt-get update (or upgrade, I forget which) and it downloaded about 100Mb of updates. This took a while and you need to press the shift key occasionally or the system goes into screen shutdown and cannot be woken-up. Shift does nothing and seems to prevent inactivity-shutdown.
Now the system would boot to the login screen, but this would only flash briefly and you could not login and the screen remained blank. I downloaded the current distribution image (20190428) from the pine64 website https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Main_Page  . Be careful to get the 1080p version or standard version for your laptop screen resolution. I put this on a flash-memory card but this would not boot at all, not even the circles splash screen at startup.

I returned to using the console, booting off the internal MMC and tried to use apt-get again. This gave a message to use pkcon instead on this ubuntu version! I used 'pkcon update' which was messy, but downloaded more updates and installed them. (use the shift key trick above to avoid inactivity sleep blanking!)

The system now booted correctly. It had updated KDE neon to 5.15. It was able to boot from the flash disk that previously failed to boot.

Main points:
1) use CTRL-ALT-F2 to get a console. (It must partially boot to do this)
2) use "pkcon update" to update the entire system. its not the same as apt-get update! There are many updates to the factory supplied version
3) Booting from a flash-memory card can apparently be disabled by some unknown software issues on the MMC disk.
4) Use a USB-LAN adaptor and wired network if wifi does not work from the console.

Despite the recommended changes to "settings", "desktop behaviour", "screen locking" it still suffered unrecoverable inactivity shutdowns. (perhaps closing and opening the lid works - i did not try that) I have changed the shutdown time to maximum allowable 99 mins, but this does not help either! To prevent unrecoverable sleep events I have used the forum comments to use a separate profile, not the default, and set this to never sleep. This works. (settings > power management > activity settings > *define special behaviour, *never shutdown screen, *never suspend )
#2
(06-08-2019, 12:06 AM)nano2 Wrote: My pinebook 11" 1080p crashed and failed to boot - and how i recovered it.

In may 2019 I received my new 11" pinebook 1080p laptop with the default ubuntu bionic 18.04 and kde neon 5.14 desktop. I used it only a few times and after installing some seemingly innocuous packages using the software manager "discover" and also python pip it failed to boot. It displayed the circle splash screen on startup, but then remained blank and did not display the login request. (I had previously set it to NOT auto boot to the desktop).
I was able to get a console login using  CTRL-ALT-F2 and login as root. I use a wired lan connection via a usb ethernet adaptor and I had "automatic" internet access from the console.(May be more difficult using wifi). I ran startx, but it failed and "could not connect to server". "X -configure" did not fix the x server either. I used apt-get update (or upgrade, I forget which) and it downloaded about 100Mb of updates. This took a while and you need to press the shift key occasionally or the system goes into screen shutdown and cannot be woken-up. Shift does nothing and seems to prevent inactivity-shutdown.
Now the system would boot to the login screen, but this would only flash briefly and you could not login and the screen remained blank. I downloaded the current distribution image (20190428) from the pine64 website https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Main_Page  . Be careful to get the 1080p version or standard version for your laptop screen resolution. I put this on a flash-memory card but this would not boot at all, not even the circles splash screen at startup.

I returned to using the console, booting off the internal MMC and tried to use apt-get again. This gave a message to use pkcon instead on this ubuntu version! I used 'pkcon update' which was messy, but downloaded more updates and installed them. (use the shift key trick above to avoid inactivity sleep blanking!)

The system now booted correctly. It had updated KDE neon to 5.15. It was able to boot from the flash disk that previously failed to boot.

Main points:
1) use CTRL-ALT-F2 to get a console. (It must partially boot to do this)
2) use "pkcon update" to update the entire system. its not the same as apt-get update! There are many updates to the factory supplied version
3) Booting from a flash-memory card can apparently be disabled by some unknown software issues on the MMC disk.
4) Use a USB-LAN adaptor and wired network if wifi does not work from the console.

Despite the recommended changes to "settings", "desktop behaviour", "screen locking" it still suffered unrecoverable inactivity shutdowns. (perhaps closing and opening the lid works - i did not try that) I have changed the shutdown time to maximum allowable 99 mins, but this does not help either! To prevent unrecoverable sleep events I have used the forum comments to use a separate profile, not the default, and set this to never sleep. This works. (settings > power management > activity settings > *define special behaviour, *never shutdown screen, *never suspend )

Thanks on sharing. Manjaro release their new build with KDE and welcome to try out. You can locate their build at PINE64 wiki.
#3
Hello,
And thanks for your post. This sounded like the solution to my problem, except ...

I got to the KDE neon 5.16 login prompt using CTRL-ALT-F2, but I haven't been able to login as root. I've tried various combinations I've found on the Pine64 wiki, and elsewhere on the Internet ... No luck.

My Pinebook crashed while upgrading, My username/password don't work. I don't know how to get to the BIOS (tried holding down the shift key ...) I'm not that technical, so it didn't take me long to run it of ideas.

Would you tell me -- privately if you'd prefer -- just how you logged in as root? Or pass along any other suggestions?

Thanks, R.M.


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  DietPi OS for Pinebook MichaIng 3 5,075 03-11-2024, 05:02 PM
Last Post: oxoocoffee
  Slarm64 on Pinebook [Slackware Arm - 64 bit] KRT 46 59,206 09-26-2023, 03:18 PM
Last Post: mara
  Broke pinebook GUI, what to do, fix or install new? acruhl 2 738 07-13-2023, 05:43 PM
Last Post: acruhl
  Orignal PineBook jwp1000 1 583 07-10-2023, 07:44 AM
Last Post: tophneal
  Pinebook no longer boots rjtanner 12 3,129 04-13-2023, 01:09 PM
Last Post: tophneal
  Stock Debian on original Pinebook moonwalkers 1 3,081 01-29-2022, 10:37 PM
Last Post: cel
  Write image to eMMC - Pinebook 11.6" irongarment 4 3,611 01-04-2022, 09:22 PM
Last Post: irongarment
  E: The repository 'http://pinebook.kde.org.uk bionic Release' no longer has a Release pixelpaperyarn 3 5,050 05-07-2021, 10:20 AM
Last Post: tophneal
  pinebook.kde.org.uk no longer has release file?? supermassive 1 3,691 01-20-2021, 11:18 AM
Last Post: tophneal
Question Ran apt update on my Pinebook.. ford442 0 2,716 12-25-2020, 04:40 PM
Last Post: ford442

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)