Pinebook Pro Initial Impressions

[jazzmans]

Hey all!
I've had my Pinebook Pro for 24 hours now,  and  I must say, I'm very happy with this device.  It ain't perfect, but it sure is nice!  
I missed the first batch of beta machines window  by a few hours

I have a weird debian apt problem,  when I initiate anything,  it sits at 'connecting to' for up to ten minutes, without doing anything, then suddenly works, and downloads everything without delays or problems.  It's almost as if the os is waiting for 'something' before finally processing whatever apt install I've initiated.  This problem occurs with mr fixits update script, and never did get any further then 'checking for dependencies'

firefox doesn't work (yet)  I'm assuming it's because of the lack of mr fixit script update.


I did the keyboard/trackpad firmware update without issue.

one other problem I've discovered;

There are two different instructions for changing the rock user to user name of choice on the wiki,  and I can say,  the first truncated instructions do not work properly, and do somewhat b0rk the system,   maybe this could be edited? (I'm not qualified enough on the workings of the PBP to edit anything on wiki yet,  I'm gonna baby step it)

I've  only charged the battery once,  and haven't messed with the usb C display yet,  I'm going to work on getting to know the basics of this device first.

Congratulations to the team who designed and manufactured this device,  it's a fantastic little device, I hope it'll serve me well for a long, long time.

It might be trying to use IPv6 which can cause a large delay.  Something like this will disable it for apt*:

Code:

$ echo 'Acquire::ForceIPv4 "true";' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99force-ipv4

You might want to run 'netstat' in another terminal window while apt-get or an updater is active to see what's going on tcp socket wise.

Code:

$ netstat -tn
Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
tcp        0      0 1.2.3.4:1234 5.6.7.8:5678      ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0    280 fe80::1:2:3::22 fe80::4:5:6:22 ESTABLISHED

Basically you should normally see a connection from your local ip address to a foreign address that would be a debian repo or similar, probably on port 80, maybe on 443.  An active / open / working connection is ESTABLISHED as above, but a connection that is being attempted would say SYN_SENT for example.
If your apt-get or script is trying to use IPv6 it would be pretty clear  as you would see an IPv6 style address (like second line above with ':' in addresses) and SYN_SENT under the State field.  Adding the config file to apt.conf.d to force IPv4 should fix that and make connections quick.

The first option, (slightly modified as I don't enable sudo) to disable IPv6 did it.  Thanks!

echo 'Acquire::ForceIPv4 "true";' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99force-ipv4

Firefox now works, and my system is updated.

Does anyone know how to tell the wm to start XFCE4 instead of mate by default?  There doesn't  seem to be a GUI option to choose desktops.  (not a fan of gnome, never have been) XFCE4 is fully installed, including goodies.

Bluetooth is working fine, (for audio purposes, haven't tried a bluetooth keyboard or mouse yet)
And this machine is really fun, light, and cool (both in temperature, and in fashion)  I really dig the absolute lack of branding anywhere but the magic key.

Thanks again!