An unofficial Debian Installer for Pinebook Pro

[moonwalkers]

Installed debian for LUKS via the Thompson installer.
After doing apt update and upgrade at this point in time something breaks the system and it won't boot.
Anyone else having the same issue?

I had Debian installed on my PBP since AFAIK late January or early February, few days after I got it in the mail. The only times when system completely failed to boot was when I tried installing kernel from Debian's main repositories instead of danielt's repo. I still keep a microSD card handy with another Debian install that I barely touch, that way I can always boot from it if I need to recover the main system on eMMC. When I need to recover I just boot off microSD, chroot into eMMC, and make necessary repairs (usually switching the default boot item in /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf is sufficient). As to the updates - all I can recommend is pay attention to the packages being installed or (especially) removed. Also make sure you have up-to-date u-boot, as older versions don't bring up big cores correctly and the system may appear as if it is not booting for IIRC few minutes because it is too slow.

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Hi,

I am a new pinebook pro user and very excited to set up this machine to match my workflow. I was not happy with Manjaro KDE that came with default flash drive. So, I ended up switching to Debian testing using a micro sd card. Currently, Manjaro KDE is in the flash and I am using Debian Bullseye (Gnome). I am having some problems.

1. When I shut down the computer for a while and boot (let's say after an hour); Manjaro KDE on the flash comes instead of the Debian on the micro sd. How can I prevent this?

2. My output device is set to "Headphone - Built-in Audio" by default in the sound settings of Gnome even though no headphone is connected. I am not sure if this would be the correct setting. If not, how can I set it to the correct one? I checked the alternative device and I have the other option as "Multichannel Output - Built-in Audio". Are these settings correct? If not, how can I set the sound card correctly?

3. After hitting the gdm and login to my account. I am hearing strange "poff" noises. Are these related to my sound card settings? How can I prevent this noise? It becomes annoying after a while and I want to learn the reason.

I would be appreciative of receiving any help or suggestions.

Best,

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I forgot to ask about the display settings. On the Manjaro KDE plasma the screen was flickering with black screen occasionally. Debian testing feels much better. However, it flickers sometimes. Would you recommend anything to make the display better?

1. Install Debian onto eMMC :-D
Jokes aside - Manjaro is keeping more up-to-date with hardware-specific developments on PBP, but unless you're using A1-class microSD your system will run faster of eMMC, so if you prefer Debian over Manjaro (like I do) - just install it on eMMC. But keep a working microSD handy for recovery purposes.

2. Someone else will have to help you here - I forgot when was the last time I even used sound on my PBP...

3. If you're talking about popping sounds I think it may have something to do with audio device power state toggling. I have heard those on PBP and quite a few other laptops even with sound muted. It is indeed annoying, though it never bothered me enough to actively search for a solution, if you find one - please share it with everyone.

4. Sorry, never observed any screen flickering. I'm on kernel 5.7.4-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel built using pbp-tools by xmixahlx@ with Mesa 20.1.4-1 from Debian repos.