An unofficial Debian Installer for Pinebook Pro
(09-11-2020, 01:55 PM)xmixahlx Wrote: if it is the neon complier issue... are you using gcc 10? just step back to gcc 9.x. or use a git gcc (master is fixed).

hardware decoding working great with the linux build script in pbp-tools.

It is dependant on gcc version although its not the neon issue that is causing the trouble (since that is easy to workaround). I've seen gcc-9 builds that do work but I'm not willing to ship a kernel that doesn't compile with the default Debian compiler... the installer is supposed to be staying as close as possible to pure Debian (and already has a few too many hacks) and shipping code that cannot be compiled with the default compiler isn't good distro engineering.
PineTime: wasp-os and MicroPython, Pinebook Pro:  Debian Bullseye
Hi,
Just did a fresh install using Thompson Debian 11 installer to emmc. I noticed there is no hardware detected under sound preferences. Output=dummy sound. Does anyone know how to fix the sound? Ive tried to raise volumes/headphone via alsamixer terminal and still did not get anywhere. Everything else appears to be working great though.

:: found answer here for audio fix:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...5#pid63565

:: followed the steps from link above and it did not work. No errors appeared. Sound just doesn't work. Any suggestions?
Help needed Smile

Forgive my noobiness, but I need some help.  I want to make the move from Windows to Linux.   I have used linux for a few years, but not seriously.  Now I am getting serious! 

I was gifted a Pinebook Pro for my birthday and am trying to try out different distris.  Machine was installed with Manjaro, but I wanted Ubuntu, so a friend of mine installed Armbian (on the emmc), which is really lovely, but I want to experiment with other distris on the sd.   

So, I cloned the Git repo for this script described here and it goes through the installation process, seemingly successfully.   When I go to start my machine, it just starts Armbian and ignores the debian installation on the sd card.  This is what I have done to test
  • to make sure my sd drive is working correctly, I inserted the the copy of Armbian which was dd'd to my emmc.   It booted fine.  So SD is not the problem
  • I thought that maybe it could be a dud card, so I tried another one, much quicker, that I know works and I get the same result, nothing and then boots from emmc
  • I've mounted both SDCards and they were successfully written to
So, I am beyond my knowledge at this moment in time.

I would really appreciate some guidance here
Armbian has a fantastic nightly image of debian bullseye. If you are looking for a distro that works out of the box, its definitely worth checking out.
(10-17-2020, 07:02 AM)b1k3b0y Wrote: Help needed Smile

Forgive my noobiness, but I need some help.  I want to make the move from Windows to Linux.   I have used linux for a few years, but not seriously.  Now I am getting serious! 

I was gifted a Pinebook Pro for my birthday and am trying to try out different distris.  Machine was installed with Manjaro, but I wanted Ubuntu, so a friend of mine installed Armbian (on the emmc), which is really lovely, but I want to experiment with other distris on the sd.   

So, I cloned the Git repo for this script described here and it goes through the installation process, seemingly successfully.   When I go to start my machine, it just starts Armbian and ignores the debian installation on the sd card.  This is what I have done to test
  • to make sure my sd drive is working correctly, I inserted the the copy of Armbian which was dd'd to my emmc.   It booted fine.  So SD is not the problem
  • I thought that maybe it could be a dud card, so I tried another one, much quicker, that I know works and I get the same result, nothing and then boots from emmc
  • I've mounted both SDCards and they were successfully written to
So, I am beyond my knowledge at this moment in time.

I would really appreciate some guidance here

This u-boot stuff is quite new to me but based on https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...le_Storage your problem might be that the PBP doesn't even try to boot from SD anymore. The default order for the chip seems to be eMMC then SD and as you have a valid image on you eMMC the SD is never tried.

From what I gather you have two options:
1) Destroy your eMMC install making the chip boot to SD (probably not a good solution)
2) Convince the u-boot on your eMMC to boot from SD.

It is not clear to me if it is possible to do option 2 for one time only like is common with the x86 bios "Select boot device" or if this is a more permanent solution like change a config, build a u-boot, install it to disk and from that moment it will always boot from SD if there is a bootable card in the slot.
I have found armbian's uboot a bit problematic, black screen, but not hard locked. Daily was OK
The only selector uboot is samueldr's, but needs pwm patch for proper screen drive
uboots can be changed, it's not all that hard
But 1st, I would try another (different) distro to see if the problem is armbian uboot or debian install
(09-25-2020, 07:25 AM)danielt Wrote:
(09-11-2020, 01:55 PM)xmixahlx Wrote: if it is the neon complier issue... are you using gcc 10? just step back to gcc 9.x. or use a git gcc (master is fixed).

hardware decoding working great with the linux build script in pbp-tools.

It is dependant on gcc version although its not the neon issue that is causing the trouble (since that is easy to workaround). I've seen gcc-9 builds that do work but I'm not willing to ship a kernel that doesn't compile with the default Debian compiler... the installer is supposed to be staying as close as possible to pure Debian (and already has a few too many hacks) and shipping code that cannot be compiled with the default compiler isn't good distro engineering.
If I'm on Debian sid and kernel 5.9 is available, would I be able to install that without any trouble? I've been using your pinebookpro kernel for Debian until now, but I really want to be able to use wireguard and for that it seems I need the 5.9 kernel based on the Debian package.
(12-15-2020, 05:19 PM)ThatGeoGuy Wrote:
(09-25-2020, 07:25 AM)danielt Wrote:
(09-11-2020, 01:55 PM)xmixahlx Wrote: if it is the neon complier issue... are you using gcc 10? just step back to gcc 9.x. or use a git gcc (master is fixed).

hardware decoding working great with the linux build script in pbp-tools.

It is dependant on gcc version although its not the neon issue that is causing the trouble (since that is easy to workaround). I've seen gcc-9 builds that do work but I'm not willing to ship a kernel that doesn't compile with the default Debian compiler... the installer is supposed to be staying as close as possible to pure Debian (and already has a few too many hacks) and shipping code that cannot be compiled with the default compiler isn't good distro engineering.
If I'm on Debian sid and kernel 5.9 is available, would I be able to install that without any trouble? I've been using your pinebookpro kernel for Debian until now, but I really want to be able to use wireguard and for that it seems I need the 5.9 kernel based on the Debian package.

I haven't tried at this point, largely because I thought that graphics wasn't working out of the box... but I've not really checked any details at this point.
PineTime: wasp-os and MicroPython, Pinebook Pro:  Debian Bullseye
(10-17-2020, 07:02 AM)b1k3b0y Wrote: Help needed Smile

Forgive my noobiness, but I need some help.  I want to make the move from Windows to Linux.   I have used linux for a few years, but not seriously.  Now I am getting serious! 

I was gifted a Pinebook Pro for my birthday and am trying to try out different distris.  Machine was installed with Manjaro, but I wanted Ubuntu, so a friend of mine installed Armbian (on the emmc), which is really lovely, but I want to experiment with other distris on the sd.   

So, I cloned the Git repo for this script described here and it goes through the installation process, seemingly successfully.   When I go to start my machine, it just starts Armbian and ignores the debian installation on the sd card.  This is what I have done to test
  • to make sure my sd drive is working correctly, I inserted the the copy of Armbian which was dd'd to my emmc.   It booted fine.  So SD is not the problem
  • I thought that maybe it could be a dud card, so I tried another one, much quicker, that I know works and I get the same result, nothing and then boots from emmc
  • I've mounted both SDCards and they were successfully written to
So, I am beyond my knowledge at this moment in time.

I would really appreciate some guidance here

I ran into the same issue and I have two solutions for you.

1. Open the laptop and physically remove the emmc module and boot the laptop from an sdcard. You'll have to reinstall the emmc module mid boot for the OS to recognize the emmc module (i.e. if you pop the emmc back in too soon you'll boot off emmc and if you wait too long the OS won't mount the emmc). Once you've booted from the sdcard you can flash an image to the emmc. You'll probably want to put an iso on a usb thumb drive for this purpose. I did this but I don't recommend this since my friend also had the same problem with Armbian and he did #2.

2. Boot the laptop (you'll be running the OS installed on the emmc) then using dd flash a disk image to the emmc. You are overwriting the running OS. Then reboot. Should work. Sounds nuts but it worked for him.
(12-04-2019, 03:34 AM)danielt Wrote: I've recently spent a little while hacking together a quick 'n dirty Debian installer for the Pinebook Pro.

https://github.com/daniel-thompson/pineb...-installer


It is not a fully fledged installer... just some code that run on the Pinebook Pro itself using an existing Debian (or maybe Ubuntu) distro. It will install an operating system from scratch to an alternative media. Nevertheless it is a "real" installer in that sense that there is no downloadable image, no default password and you get to choose the keyboard layout, locale, timezone and desktop environment for yourself!

It uses upstream Debian packages for everything except the kernel and bootloaders. Actually... on that subject I deserve no credit for the kernel (which is the v5.4 close-to-mainline kernel that @tsys has has been hacking on) or the bootloaders (which are simply the binaries from @Mrfixit2001 's update repo).

So far I have only used it to author SD cards (from a distro running from eMMC) however it has been tested with the eMMC disabled so we can be confident the bootloaders work. That means that, in principle, it is also suitable for installing to eMMC when running from SD card. I've also only tested text mode and the Gnome desktop environment (wayland, panfrost, gnome 3.34).

One interesting feature of this installer is that it is trivial to switch from arm64 (default) and armhf (add ARCH=armhf to the make command line). This allows you to run identical distros with the two different instruction sets... which could make for some interesting benchmarks if someone wants to make them.

Check out the Pine64 wiki for feature status, known issues and workarounds.



2019-12-14: Partial LUKS rootfs support, automatic kernel updates, enable audio DAC by default, faster boot times.

2019-12-31: Rewrite as a shell script, automatic unmounting on error, better co-existance of installs to different media on the same machine (e.g. micro SD and eMMC installs).

2020-01-21: In response to user requests, @e-minguez created a wiki page (above) to share features status, known issues and workarounds. Please contribute and help keep it up to date! Note that if you have a forum login then you already have a wiki login.

2020-02-14: Wow! Over 250 posts about a relatively humble bit of code. To be clear this thread is still the best place to discuss and seek support. There's no need to read all the posts... after reading *this* post perhaps skip to the end and only read the last three pages or so to find out what issues people currently care about most!

2020-03-02: Kernel updated to v5.5 (which will also be delivered to existing installs via apt upgrade), direct installation of buster is supported  (and documented) RELEASE=buster is now an install option, installed some extra firmware to help with BT, update to latest u-boot and made it easier to disable panfrost if needed.


Daniel, thanks for your contributions to the Pinebook Pro forum. I am trying to update to Debian from Manjaro and I'm getting and error when trying to do the install. Says: "error: could not lock database; file exists, if you are sure a package manager is not already running, you can remove /vsr/lib/pacman/db/lck"
ANy suggestions to get this installed....???


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