https://forum.pine64.org/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:04:54 +0000 MyBB https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4680 Tue, 04 Jul 2017 16:38:30 +0000 Luke]]> https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4680 VDPAU supports using these settings. 

Open SMplayer and press Ctrl+p 

Under general -> video 

• make sure to have vdpau as output driver 
  
• toggle Double Buffering 
  

Under performance 

• toggle Allow Framedrop
  
• Set treads for decoding to 4
  
• Set loop filter to enable
  

That's it. Granted you have a supported video format file, it should play back perfectly fine in 720p and 1080p.]]> VDPAU supports using these settings. 

Open SMplayer and press Ctrl+p 

Under general -> video 

• make sure to have vdpau as output driver 
  
• toggle Double Buffering 
  

Under performance 

• toggle Allow Framedrop
  
• Set treads for decoding to 4
  
• Set loop filter to enable
  

That's it. Granted you have a supported video format file, it should play back perfectly fine in 720p and 1080p.]]> https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4523 Wed, 10 May 2017 16:33:57 +0000 Luke]]> https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4523 14” Pinebook prototype that was used for testing and QA at the beginning of the year.  In the process of testing the unit got damaged and no longer works (which doesn’t matter anyways, as current images are not compatible with this hardware). Since it just sits there and takes up space, I figured that I will tear it down so we can better understand how these things are put together in case someone wishes to mod or repair their unit. Now, those more observant of you will surely notice that this 14” design is different to its production counterpart, and more akin in some respects to the 11” unit, so keep that in mind if you ever want to attempt any repairs or modifications on a production Pinebook.

I think it important to mention that you should not reproduce this disassembly as it may damage your unit and will void your warranty. 

[TL : DR] Here are some key points if you don’t want to read the entire post:

1. Replacing the screen isn’t all ‘that’ difficult and...
   
2. replacing most components isn’t particularly difficult either, with the notable exception of...
   
3. ...  the keyboard, which is rather hard to remove from the chassis.
   

Unfortunately I cannot embed pictures in this post so they will be hyperlinked. You can also find all pictures from the teardown here. 

The first thing I took apart was the screen (stupid of me - I should have removed it from the body first...oh well). The screen is held in place by plastic hooks which run all around the bezel of the screen. There are also four metal pegs holding it in place which located under the squishy pads / standoffs on each corner of the bezel. The plastic hooks release easily when a pry-tool is inserted but the metal pegs require considerably more force to come undone. If you do it super gently few marks will remain on the plastic. I can confirm that the construction is the same is true on the 11” production model.

Inside, the LCD is held in place by four screws - 2 at the bottom and 2 on top. Other than that we also find the webcam, which is connected to the same cable as the LCD panel, and two magnets for the hall switch. That’s pretty much all there is - not that you would expect anything else.  [edit] It appears that on the 11” production unit the wifi antenna is also routed inside the the screen, so one should be careful not to tear it by accident when separating the bezel from the back of the lid. 

To remove the screen from the body of the laptop - which I should have done in the first place - you will need to take of the bottom cover. The bottom cover is only held in place by 10 philips screws so it comes off very easily; lift it from the front and gently pull up. 

To separate the screen from the body, all that is needed is to undo the hinges on both sides and the screen connector located on the main board. The hinges are held in place with philips screws and come right out. After removing the screws, the hinges need to be carefully bent back to a 90* angle (as if the Pinebook would be normally used) and to separate the screen all one needs to do is push it away (back) from the body.  If the hinges are ‘flat’ it is very difficult to separate remove the screen/ lid.

Onto further disassembly. The first thing that needs to go is the battery. The battery connector on the main board pops up and out when gently lifted from the bottom. The battery itself is held in place by a couple of screws - there is no adhesive, so removing it is very easy.  

Next up the daughterboard on the left side of the body (when viewed upside-down from atop). It’s held in place by two large screws and some adhesive tape. There is only one connector for a ffc cable held down by a hinge that needs to be lifted. You will need to gently pull up and away from the plastic case to remove it, because the USB socket sits inside the plastic.

Onto the main board. Here you will have to separate the 5 more cables (from left to right as viewed from atop): the microphone, cable running under the battery to the daughterboard, the microphone, the large flex cable is for the keyboard, trackpad and lastly speakers (LCD + camera and battery have already been removed). For the daughterboard, keyboard and trackpad cables, simply lift up the hinge and slide the cable out. For the microphone and speaker cables, wiggle the connectors out from their sockets (don’t pull by the cables - they look fragile). The mainboard is held in place by 4 more of those same screws as found on the daughterboard. To remove it from the chassis, lift it up on the far end of the board and pull away from the plastic where the Micro SD, USB and headphone sockets sit.

With most of the stuff out already the harder part begins, namely trackpad and keyboard removal. First things first - unclip the cable that connects the trackpad to the mainboard by lifting the hinge and sliding out the cable. I will return to the trackpad in a bit…
Onto the keyboard. The keyboard is located under the metal cover which held in place by a couple of philips screws and plastic ‘tabs’. After removing the screws comes the hardest part of the disassembly as you will have to remove, one by one, all the plastic tabs protruding through the metal. I chose to cut of the tips of the plastic using a precision knife and it took me a long time. It’s clear that this part of the assembly was never meant to be removed by the end user (do note,  I have since reassembled the keyboard and removing the plastic tabs has significantly affected the rigidity not only of the keyboard but also entire bottom section). Once all tabs are cut, you can lift it up and push it towards the back and the keyboard will slide right out as it is not held in place by glue or adhesive tape. About the keyboard; the keycaps come right off and snap back with ease. The keys have a butterfly-like assembly under which there is a dome.

Back to the trackpad. To remove the trackpad I first lifted the a bottom lip using a pry-tool. It’s held in place with a lot of adhesive and quite hard to remove. Once the lip was out I pushed firmly in the place that the lip was protecting, towards the outside of the case. The trackpad is held in place with a lot of adhesive tape, so I ended up using a bit of hot air to make it come out.

Lastly, there are the speakers. They are held down with adhesive but can easily be popped out by placing a pry tool in the cable-routing hole and gently pushing up.

And so the teardown is complete. I also managed to reassemble everything without relative ease. I don't know if anything was broken in the process (other than the sturdiness of the keyboard) since the unit was already broken in the first place. If I were iFixit I'd probably rate this device a solid 10/10 because the unit is, for the most part, put together using regular screws and clamps which make things easy to remove and refit. Also, very little adhesive and glue was used on this particular pinebook which is a big plus for repairability.]]> 14” Pinebook prototype that was used for testing and QA at the beginning of the year.  In the process of testing the unit got damaged and no longer works (which doesn’t matter anyways, as current images are not compatible with this hardware). Since it just sits there and takes up space, I figured that I will tear it down so we can better understand how these things are put together in case someone wishes to mod or repair their unit. Now, those more observant of you will surely notice that this 14” design is different to its production counterpart, and more akin in some respects to the 11” unit, so keep that in mind if you ever want to attempt any repairs or modifications on a production Pinebook.

I think it important to mention that you should not reproduce this disassembly as it may damage your unit and will void your warranty. 

[TL : DR] Here are some key points if you don’t want to read the entire post:

1. Replacing the screen isn’t all ‘that’ difficult and...
   
2. replacing most components isn’t particularly difficult either, with the notable exception of...
   
3. ...  the keyboard, which is rather hard to remove from the chassis.
   

Unfortunately I cannot embed pictures in this post so they will be hyperlinked. You can also find all pictures from the teardown here. 

The first thing I took apart was the screen (stupid of me - I should have removed it from the body first...oh well). The screen is held in place by plastic hooks which run all around the bezel of the screen. There are also four metal pegs holding it in place which located under the squishy pads / standoffs on each corner of the bezel. The plastic hooks release easily when a pry-tool is inserted but the metal pegs require considerably more force to come undone. If you do it super gently few marks will remain on the plastic. I can confirm that the construction is the same is true on the 11” production model.

Inside, the LCD is held in place by four screws - 2 at the bottom and 2 on top. Other than that we also find the webcam, which is connected to the same cable as the LCD panel, and two magnets for the hall switch. That’s pretty much all there is - not that you would expect anything else.  [edit] It appears that on the 11” production unit the wifi antenna is also routed inside the the screen, so one should be careful not to tear it by accident when separating the bezel from the back of the lid. 

To remove the screen from the body of the laptop - which I should have done in the first place - you will need to take of the bottom cover. The bottom cover is only held in place by 10 philips screws so it comes off very easily; lift it from the front and gently pull up. 

To separate the screen from the body, all that is needed is to undo the hinges on both sides and the screen connector located on the main board. The hinges are held in place with philips screws and come right out. After removing the screws, the hinges need to be carefully bent back to a 90* angle (as if the Pinebook would be normally used) and to separate the screen all one needs to do is push it away (back) from the body.  If the hinges are ‘flat’ it is very difficult to separate remove the screen/ lid.

Onto further disassembly. The first thing that needs to go is the battery. The battery connector on the main board pops up and out when gently lifted from the bottom. The battery itself is held in place by a couple of screws - there is no adhesive, so removing it is very easy.  

Next up the daughterboard on the left side of the body (when viewed upside-down from atop). It’s held in place by two large screws and some adhesive tape. There is only one connector for a ffc cable held down by a hinge that needs to be lifted. You will need to gently pull up and away from the plastic case to remove it, because the USB socket sits inside the plastic.

Onto the main board. Here you will have to separate the 5 more cables (from left to right as viewed from atop): the microphone, cable running under the battery to the daughterboard, the microphone, the large flex cable is for the keyboard, trackpad and lastly speakers (LCD + camera and battery have already been removed). For the daughterboard, keyboard and trackpad cables, simply lift up the hinge and slide the cable out. For the microphone and speaker cables, wiggle the connectors out from their sockets (don’t pull by the cables - they look fragile). The mainboard is held in place by 4 more of those same screws as found on the daughterboard. To remove it from the chassis, lift it up on the far end of the board and pull away from the plastic where the Micro SD, USB and headphone sockets sit.

With most of the stuff out already the harder part begins, namely trackpad and keyboard removal. First things first - unclip the cable that connects the trackpad to the mainboard by lifting the hinge and sliding out the cable. I will return to the trackpad in a bit…
Onto the keyboard. The keyboard is located under the metal cover which held in place by a couple of philips screws and plastic ‘tabs’. After removing the screws comes the hardest part of the disassembly as you will have to remove, one by one, all the plastic tabs protruding through the metal. I chose to cut of the tips of the plastic using a precision knife and it took me a long time. It’s clear that this part of the assembly was never meant to be removed by the end user (do note,  I have since reassembled the keyboard and removing the plastic tabs has significantly affected the rigidity not only of the keyboard but also entire bottom section). Once all tabs are cut, you can lift it up and push it towards the back and the keyboard will slide right out as it is not held in place by glue or adhesive tape. About the keyboard; the keycaps come right off and snap back with ease. The keys have a butterfly-like assembly under which there is a dome.

Back to the trackpad. To remove the trackpad I first lifted the a bottom lip using a pry-tool. It’s held in place with a lot of adhesive and quite hard to remove. Once the lip was out I pushed firmly in the place that the lip was protecting, towards the outside of the case. The trackpad is held in place with a lot of adhesive tape, so I ended up using a bit of hot air to make it come out.

Lastly, there are the speakers. They are held down with adhesive but can easily be popped out by placing a pry tool in the cable-routing hole and gently pushing up.

And so the teardown is complete. I also managed to reassemble everything without relative ease. I don't know if anything was broken in the process (other than the sturdiness of the keyboard) since the unit was already broken in the first place. If I were iFixit I'd probably rate this device a solid 10/10 because the unit is, for the most part, put together using regular screws and clamps which make things easy to remove and refit. Also, very little adhesive and glue was used on this particular pinebook which is a big plus for repairability.]]> https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4516 Tue, 09 May 2017 12:14:00 +0000 Luke]]> https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4516 is not something you have to do, but rather something you may wish to do.  

First things first; before you start tweaking things to your liking, make sure to download the Installer utility to your computer and flash the newest Ubuntu Mate OS image to your Pinebook.
Now you are ready to roll: 

1) Creating a new user

Creating a new user may just be the first thing to do after the initial boot. All first and third party images (bar Armbian) come with a preset user and password. The stock user on the Pinebook Ubuntu image is called ‘pine64’.  Many if not most users will be perfectly fine with being referred to as ‘pine64’ and having a home folder called ‘pine64’s home folder’, but some of you may wish to have a user and home folder in your prefered name. Now, there are ways to rename the existing user and home folder, but they require a bit of tinkering in the command line. Therefore the easiest option is to create a new user from scratch in GUI. To do so, logged in as pine64 navigate to: System → Administrations → Users and Groups. Once the Users Settings window opens, click +Add in the lower left corner and follow instructions. Once you’ve created your user, select your newly creased profile and navigate to Account Type and select Change. You will be given two options, make sure to set your new user as Administrator and exit. Now you can log off pine64 and log into your user name. Logged in as your new user, you can now remove pine64 by navigating to Users and Groups, selecting ‘pine64’ and clicking Delete.  


2) The desktop environment layout
 
Out-of-the-box the Mate desktop looks near identical to old-school Gnome2 that many longtime Linux users recognise and enjoy. While this is great for (some) old-school users accustomed to this type of workflow, those of you coming from Windows or Mac OSX may find it a bit alien. Luckily the mate desktop comes with a pretty nifty utility called Mate Tweak which allows you to quickly and easily adjust the desktop environment to your liking. You will find the Mate Tweak utility under: System → Preferences → Look and Feel → MATE Tweak.  The utility has three tabs: Desktop, Interface and Icons. Under Desktop you can choose which icons, if any, will appear on your desktop. Interface allows you to change the actual layout of the desktop. The first drop-down menu has a number of preset layouts which you can choose from. Surely many of you will quickly recognise that Cupertino and Redmond (Apple and Microsoft’s campus towns) refer to Mac OSX and Windows layouts. Lastly, in the Windows panel you can also switch the close, minimise and maximise button position from right to left by switching from ‘traditional’ to ‘contemporary’.


  Mate Tweak.png (Size: 65.54 KB / Downloads: 833)

3) Themes and Icons

There is nearly an endless amount of themes available for the Mate desktop. The stock theme that ships with the image is alright and functional, but I find darker and ‘flatter’ themes easier on the eyes.  To change the desktop theme, navigate to System→ Preferences → Look and Feel → Appearance.  You will find that Mate comes with a number of preset themes which you can choose from. It is also possible to further mix and match the look of the desktop by clicking the Customise button. The Customise button with open an new panel in which you’ll find Controls; Colours; Window Border: Icons; and Pointer tabs, all of which are pretty self-explanatory. Aside from the various pre-existing themes and icon-sets, you can also download many others from Noobslab and other similar sites. Noteworthily, you can also set your wallpaper in the appearance window – just navigate to the ‘Background’ panel. Wallpapers can also be set by right-clicking the desktop and selecting ‘Change Desktop Background’. 


  Appearance.png (Size: 103.4 KB / Downloads: 812)

4) Applets and custom launchers

Applets are indicators which can be added to the top and/or bottom panel(s). Custom applets can display weather, notify you of new email, relay SoC performance, allow you to adjust some GUI parameters on the fly, etc. To add new applets right-click a panel and select ‘Add to panel’ - a new window will open and you will be presented with a number of applets to choose from. On the pinebook, I strongly suggest adding the LCD Brightness applet, which allows you to easily set the desired brightness levels of your screen. You can also create your own application launchers. Launchers can run applications in both GUI and the terminal. I will use Chromium browser as an example; if you follow Prophesi’s guide to installing Chromium, you will notice that it requires a flag to work. Rather than launching Chromium from the terminal, you can create custom launcher to include the required flag. Select and add ‘Custom Application Launcher’, name the launcher Chromium and paste the command including the flag in in the ‘Command’ box. The launcher should recognise the application name and set the correct icon for it automatically; if it doesn’t, you can manually select an image by pressing the icon box. Your Chromium launcher is now ready to use.      


  Custom Launcher.png (Size: 21.82 KB / Downloads: 846)

If you know what sort of desktop experience you’re after then completing points 1-4 should take no longer than a couple of minutes. I find that it's worth putting in the time and making the desktop experience suit your needs and preferences – after all this is Linux, so it's all about how you prefer to interact with the operating system. 
Did I forget about something or leave out some important information? - let me know.

Edit: Having tinkered a bit with the desktop I arrived at this - I'm enjoy Apple's desktop paradigm, hence the dock and the top bar. Unfortunately I can't embed the image because there's a limit on the number of attachments ]]> is not something you have to do, but rather something you may wish to do.  

First things first; before you start tweaking things to your liking, make sure to download the Installer utility to your computer and flash the newest Ubuntu Mate OS image to your Pinebook.
Now you are ready to roll: 

1) Creating a new user

Creating a new user may just be the first thing to do after the initial boot. All first and third party images (bar Armbian) come with a preset user and password. The stock user on the Pinebook Ubuntu image is called ‘pine64’.  Many if not most users will be perfectly fine with being referred to as ‘pine64’ and having a home folder called ‘pine64’s home folder’, but some of you may wish to have a user and home folder in your prefered name. Now, there are ways to rename the existing user and home folder, but they require a bit of tinkering in the command line. Therefore the easiest option is to create a new user from scratch in GUI. To do so, logged in as pine64 navigate to: System → Administrations → Users and Groups. Once the Users Settings window opens, click +Add in the lower left corner and follow instructions. Once you’ve created your user, select your newly creased profile and navigate to Account Type and select Change. You will be given two options, make sure to set your new user as Administrator and exit. Now you can log off pine64 and log into your user name. Logged in as your new user, you can now remove pine64 by navigating to Users and Groups, selecting ‘pine64’ and clicking Delete.  


2) The desktop environment layout
 
Out-of-the-box the Mate desktop looks near identical to old-school Gnome2 that many longtime Linux users recognise and enjoy. While this is great for (some) old-school users accustomed to this type of workflow, those of you coming from Windows or Mac OSX may find it a bit alien. Luckily the mate desktop comes with a pretty nifty utility called Mate Tweak which allows you to quickly and easily adjust the desktop environment to your liking. You will find the Mate Tweak utility under: System → Preferences → Look and Feel → MATE Tweak.  The utility has three tabs: Desktop, Interface and Icons. Under Desktop you can choose which icons, if any, will appear on your desktop. Interface allows you to change the actual layout of the desktop. The first drop-down menu has a number of preset layouts which you can choose from. Surely many of you will quickly recognise that Cupertino and Redmond (Apple and Microsoft’s campus towns) refer to Mac OSX and Windows layouts. Lastly, in the Windows panel you can also switch the close, minimise and maximise button position from right to left by switching from ‘traditional’ to ‘contemporary’.


  Mate Tweak.png (Size: 65.54 KB / Downloads: 833)

3) Themes and Icons

There is nearly an endless amount of themes available for the Mate desktop. The stock theme that ships with the image is alright and functional, but I find darker and ‘flatter’ themes easier on the eyes.  To change the desktop theme, navigate to System→ Preferences → Look and Feel → Appearance.  You will find that Mate comes with a number of preset themes which you can choose from. It is also possible to further mix and match the look of the desktop by clicking the Customise button. The Customise button with open an new panel in which you’ll find Controls; Colours; Window Border: Icons; and Pointer tabs, all of which are pretty self-explanatory. Aside from the various pre-existing themes and icon-sets, you can also download many others from Noobslab and other similar sites. Noteworthily, you can also set your wallpaper in the appearance window – just navigate to the ‘Background’ panel. Wallpapers can also be set by right-clicking the desktop and selecting ‘Change Desktop Background’. 


  Appearance.png (Size: 103.4 KB / Downloads: 812)

4) Applets and custom launchers

Applets are indicators which can be added to the top and/or bottom panel(s). Custom applets can display weather, notify you of new email, relay SoC performance, allow you to adjust some GUI parameters on the fly, etc. To add new applets right-click a panel and select ‘Add to panel’ - a new window will open and you will be presented with a number of applets to choose from. On the pinebook, I strongly suggest adding the LCD Brightness applet, which allows you to easily set the desired brightness levels of your screen. You can also create your own application launchers. Launchers can run applications in both GUI and the terminal. I will use Chromium browser as an example; if you follow Prophesi’s guide to installing Chromium, you will notice that it requires a flag to work. Rather than launching Chromium from the terminal, you can create custom launcher to include the required flag. Select and add ‘Custom Application Launcher’, name the launcher Chromium and paste the command including the flag in in the ‘Command’ box. The launcher should recognise the application name and set the correct icon for it automatically; if it doesn’t, you can manually select an image by pressing the icon box. Your Chromium launcher is now ready to use.      


  Custom Launcher.png (Size: 21.82 KB / Downloads: 846)

If you know what sort of desktop experience you’re after then completing points 1-4 should take no longer than a couple of minutes. I find that it's worth putting in the time and making the desktop experience suit your needs and preferences – after all this is Linux, so it's all about how you prefer to interact with the operating system. 
Did I forget about something or leave out some important information? - let me know.

Edit: Having tinkered a bit with the desktop I arrived at this - I'm enjoy Apple's desktop paradigm, hence the dock and the top bar. Unfortunately I can't embed the image because there's a limit on the number of attachments ]]>