This past week I thought I had run into just a transient fluke with my #Armbian #Ubuntu #PinebookPro, but it turned out to be a bigger issue.
I'm hoping to fix this. Details in link below (mine is the first reply in the thread; not the post). If you have ideas, please feel free to reply either here or there. Thank you!
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/33086-displayport-via-usb-c-dock/#findComment-229723
Just verified the current #wmlive version for arm64 boots just fine on a #PinebookPro, thanks to #towboot enabling UEFI booting. This also includes the graphical #Debian installer, so no more fiddling with the serial console.
Just verified the current #wmlive version for arm64 boots just fine on a #PinebookPro, thanks to #towboot enabling UEFI booting. This also includes the graphical Debian installer, so no more fiddling with the serial console.
@hellomiakoda @ramin_hal9001 @nonehitwonder
I had an ARM laptop: A #PinebookPro. I mean, I still have it, but it's in a state of relative disrepair.
On the pros, the physical hardware was amazingly nice for the price ($220), and it gave me at least four years of really great use.
But the drivers kinda sucked, the kernel wasn't mainline, just the typical litany of #ARM pain points. XD
I have a #pinebookpro and I've concluded manjarno is too out of date. I like the continious release model, but looks like arch dosen't for arm is poorly supported? Any thought on what works well oi this? I like bsd so #netbsd is my first thought but it looks like is is lacking support for basics (?) #postmarketos seems to come up a lot but I'm not sure how useful it is. This is my daily driver most everything so I don't want to spend to much time fighting unsupported stuff__
RE: https://indieweb.social/@data0/112631247141940220
@nobodyinperson Sorry to hear! Reminds me of an issue I had with the #PinebookPro. I semi-bricked it by installing Manjaro. But it only seemed dead. In reality, it was (probably) stuck trying to load the bootloader and draining the battery below safe levels in doing so, eventually killing it. Luckily the battery came back to life somewhat after leaving it on the charger for a while and doing a few charging cycles.
Updated my #PinebookPro to #Fedora 43! This is my first major release upgrade on my laptop and it went very well.
Thanks @fedora and contributors for making it happen!
Gonna install #NetBSD 11 beta on my #PineBookPro, wish me luck
Here it is on my #PinebookPro!
There is video cache on this platform, so video_sync() needs to be called every time.
Maybe I should not switch to 8x16 on the second screen too early (the content stays on screen even if you change the font) and that would be nicer.
Source code for this U-Boot fork: https://github.com/Danct12/u-boot/tree/awardmodularbios
Are you an #Armbian developer or contributor?
You rock. You make my #PinebookPro a joy to work with.
I know I'm a #LaptopAddict, guys...
But I'm actually thinking about buying a super-cheap HP Stream 11 when they go on sale in a month or two to have an always-on-the-go cheap-and-light laptop with me at all times to use my phone a lot less. XD
Basically, it's a modern #NetBook. :D
(And it's actually a bit lighter than the #PinebookPro, though not the original #Pinebook, which is no longer for sale)
Any other recommendations for a cheap, stupidly-light, touch-typeable laptop?
Trying to run the #clang test suite on my #PinebookPro with #NetBSD to verify a pull request.
The poor notebook is really struggling. 4G of RAM plus 8G of swap is barely enough (or not) for a single linker invocation. Oof.
Now testing a fresh install #Debian 13 on a #PinebookPro, previously to get this to work some manual intervention was required, let's see if I can just do it directly now
@linmob @danct12 @driftini @PINE64 I tried to download Manjaro for the #pinephone but found just beta releases from march 2024😮 at github using the links for stable versions on the #pine64 wiki page
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Software_Releases
Is that the version that is shipped with the pinephone?
I know that #manjaroarm is not supported for my #pinebookpro anyway
😞
I use #armbian on it instead. Works fine.
Folks running #postmarketOS on the #PinebookPro, I'm thinking about requiring Tow-Boot[1][2]for booting the OS so we can EFI boot and use a current kernel[3]. Your response here will be very helpful 😀
2. Or any u-boot build w/ EFI enabled, the main thing is we would stop embedding u-boot in pmOS images so you have to flash *something*
3. https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/merge_requests/6738
I really like my new (used) ARM laptop #thinkpadx13s with Linux. A big step from my previous #pinebookpro in snappyness.
#opensuse and #ubuntu work really well. Ubuntu even has a no frills standard out of the box installer.
LEGO Island (isle-portable) on the #PinebookPro at playable framerate.
Thanks Anders Jenbo for the patch (https://github.com/isledecomp/isle-portable/pull/348)
I was thinking about this because I realised part of the reason I can still use my #PineBookPro for daily stuff is that 4GB is still a perfectly serviceable amount of RAM for normal work in 2025. Yeah, you'd like more, but you can make do with it just fine.
Bah, my #pinebookpro seems to be experiencing some swollen battery issues. It was enough that when I took the back cover off to check, one of the screws partially let go. Unfortunately it was one of the hinge ones, which will make closing the lid more delicate going forward I fear.
Really hope the consumer space gets more Linux-capable ARM laptops soon. (with US keyboard) Looking like I might need a replacement. :(
@futurebird It's not the strangest computer I own or have access to, but it is the strangest one I use for "normal" fediverse access. It's a £100 ARM-based #PineBookPro I bought back when they were new, and installed #PostmarketOS on. It saved me in a pinch at work when I had a laptop die on me, although I definitely drove it harder than it wanted that day.
I'm running absolute nerd-bait stuff on this thing: #sway, #waybar, etc. My normal laptop is straight GNOME, usually.
