Pine64

Hello!

I purchased a PinePhone UBPorts version when it was first available a while ago, but I didn't have the time to play with it then. I just turned it on and updated the Ubuntu Touch, and I am surprised that the most recent update in the Stable branch is from the end of 2020. I see that there have been more recent releases of Ubuntu Touch for other devices, but they do state the following:

The Pine64 PinePhone and PineTab are updated independently of the rest of these devices. The stable channel for the PinePhone and PineTab will not receive an update labeled "OTA-23".

This website confirms that latest stable release of Ubuntu Touch for the PinePhone is from 2020.

I couldn't find any statements on this, but I suppose that UBPorts is no longer interested in supporting the PinePhone - or atleast it is not one of their priorities.

I am trying to figure out what to do with this phone now. The wiki has a wide selection of distros here, but doesn't give much info about them. Seems like it would take some effort to sift through each one of them. Do any of you use any of these and can recommend one? Is it even worth to invest the time to install one of these at the moment - or are all of the projects equally stale?

at r/PINE64official

r/linux

r/pine64official

Not to start a long depressing discussion, that won't get things any better for anyone, and are really out of most readers control, but this is really sad to read.

I do hope the pinephone pro to be a success, though it's not quite there yet, and controversy as this doesn't really help. Less devs won't help at all either, :(

TL;DR

Housekeeping
    New PineTalk episode is out 
    Quarterly Q&A on August 13, at 8:00PM CEST (UTC+2)
    Alternative payment methods available in Pine Store again
    The Pinebook Pro is available 
    PINE64 EU has launched 
Pinecil (V2)
    New RISC-V SoC 
    Adds BLE – opening potential for OTA updates & remote telemetry
    Automatic detection of tip resistance
    Compatible with existing peripherals and accessories, including cases
    Range of new, shorter 6.2ohm tips for higher power level 
    IronOS already ported 
    Counterfeit protection; future option for users to verify if their Pinecil V2 is legit
    Available very soon
Star64
    Congratulations to Gav for being the first to solve the riddle!
    Star64 is in final layout stages and we want to bring it to the market soon
    Uses StarFive JH7110 64bit CPU paired with BXE-2-32 GPU
    Available in 4 and 8GB RAM configuration
    Equipped with 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports (a variant with 1x GbE will be available later on for $5 less), PCIe, USB 3.0 as well as 2x USB 2.0 and GPIO
    Follows Quartz64 model-A pricing and footprint
PineSound
    PineBuds plastic molding is now complete and first test molds underway
    Hoping to being PineBuds to the market as soon as possible – maybe in October
    Similarly to the Pinecil and PineTime, PineBuds have been built to deliver a great out-of-the-box experience for everyone, while also offering depth for tinkerers and those who wish to hack
QuartzPro64 & Quartz64
    QuartzPro64 dev units started shipping; we’re still accepting coupon requests from developers
    Quartz64 receives DietPi support; now supported by Armbian, Manjaro, DietPi as well as giving option to run Arch Linux and NetBSD
    Pillow submitted patches enabling PCIe and analog audio, a fix for fast SD cards has been accepted upstream, and patches enabling JPEG encoder have been merged
PineTime
    Infinitime 1.10 released with many changes & improvements under the hood
    It is now possible to dismiss notifications
    Tweaks to display, colour and gamma settings – making things look better
    InfiniSim new features include animations & allows screen capture in GIF format
    Ongoing work to improve memory situation by leveraging additional 4MB of internal flash
    InfiniTime has 584 forks

reddit comments

I mean, gnu+linux desktop jami-qt client. I'd guess as it's Qt, it might work just fine on gnu+linux phone, but the UI should be totally different...

Original link: https://mobile.twitter.com/thepine64/status/1420769527030296584

This is a point of conflict for me. On one hand, Pine64 does quite a bit for open source software development, but one of their staple chip vendors is Allwinner, whose processors are used in their most popular products like the Pinephone, Pinetab, Pinebook, SOPINE and many of their single board computers. Allwinner has a history of GPL violations, such as failing to provide source code and including proprietary binaries in GPL codebases. They also don't seem that eager to properly support open source or open source their own code.

What do you think? Does it matter to you? If so, what chip brand would you prefer Pine64 switch to?

I have a SOPINE module on the Model A baseboard, with the 7 inch touchscreen kit installed. However, when I try to boot an OS from the SD card, neither the touchscreen nor the HDMI port output anything (my monitor doesn't even detect the connection). I have tried imaging the card with dd, vanilla etcher, and the Pine64 installer. Nothing has worked. The power lights on both the board and the module light up, and the processor gets somewhat warm to the touch, but not hot or even that warm, so I suspect that it's just not booting.

What are the steps for diagnosing a situation like this? I'm starting to worry that I got a defective part.

How good is the experience of running postmarketOS the regular Pine64 SOPINE module with the carrier board and the official touchscreen attachment? It has the same processor as the PinePhone, so can I expect a similar level of performance, and will things like the touchscreen work plug and play?

The Pine64 website didn't make that clear and I want to make sure which one it is.

Genode OS is adding Pine Allwinner A64 with the intention to eventually support the PinePhone by end of 2021.

A detailed blog describes the journey.