|
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|
|
<html lang="en">
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
|
<meta charset="UTF-8">
|
|
|
<title>Pinebook Pro, The Ultimate ARM Laptop | tait.tech</title>
|
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/style.css">
|
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
|
|
|
<meta name="author" content="Tait Hoyem">
|
|
|
<meta name="keywords" content="">
|
|
|
<meta name="description" content="">
|
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
|
<div id="wrapper">
|
|
|
<header>
|
|
|
<h1>tait.tech</h1>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<nav>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<a href="/" class="nav-link" >Home</a>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<a href="/blog/" class="nav-link" >Blog</a>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<a href="/ideas/" class="nav-link" >Ideas</a>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<a href="/links/" class="nav-link" >Links</a>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<a href="https://github.com/TTWNO/" class="nav-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" >Github</a>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</nav>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</header>
|
|
|
<main>
|
|
|
<article>
|
|
|
<header>
|
|
|
<h1 class="post-title">Pinebook Pro, The Ultimate ARM Laptop</h1>
|
|
|
<time datetime="21-06-02" class="post-date">Wednesday, June 02 2021</time>
|
|
|
</header>
|
|
|
<hr>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>I recently got my Pinebook Pro.
|
|
|
It was more expensive than I was expecting, coming in at (including shipping and handling) at C$335.
|
|
|
I always forget the exchange rate and assume it’s similar to the U.S. dollar, but it never is, haha!
|
|
|
Anyway, this is just my first impressions and what I did to fix a few issues.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="initial-impressions">Initial Impressions</h2>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>My first impressions of this are quite good.
|
|
|
I like the keyboard; it is firm and not mushy for the price.
|
|
|
It actually has a similar keyboard to my school-supplied Dell, which I quite enjoyed typing on.
|
|
|
The shell is aluminium and doesn’t feel <em>too</em> cheap, but I should note that it sure doesn’t feel like a Macbook if that’s what you’re expecting.
|
|
|
All in all build quality seems pretty good for a product in this price range.
|
|
|
I’m actually using it right now to write this article, and I’m actually typing faster than I would on my desktop.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The screen is bright enough and has anti-glare applied to it. I can use it with moderate light behind me, but not a sunset. Decent, and I can’t even use my phone with a sunset right on it, so that’s not a huge loss at all as I think my phone costs more than this haha!</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The trackpad is fine.
|
|
|
I don’t use the mouse very often, and if I need it I’m more likely to bring an external one.
|
|
|
It works for what I need though.
|
|
|
I can’t seem to get the glossy protector off the trackpad though so maybe it would be better if I did haha!</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The temperatures are okay. I would consider them not ideal.
|
|
|
The left side closer to the hinge can get quite warm when I push it.
|
|
|
To be expected in some respects, but the metal case certainly makes the heat come out fast and hot!
|
|
|
It is also passively cooled, so a bit of heat makes sense and is reasonable.
|
|
|
I wonder if I could mod this to have an active low-profile fan?
|
|
|
A project for later, I suppose.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The keyboard is pretty standard for a 14-inch laptop.
|
|
|
No numpad (except with function key), has F1-12 and media keys using function+F1-12.
|
|
|
Screen brightness, sound up, down and mute, and num and scroll lock.
|
|
|
These seem to work no matter what distribution you have (I’ve used Manjaro KDE and Manjaro Sway).
|
|
|
Perhaps this would react differently on Arch for ARM with no key bindings.
|
|
|
I’m not sure if this is implemented in software or hardware.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The speakers and very tin-y and do not sound good at all.
|
|
|
That said, they look very replaceable, so I’ll look into a mod in the future.
|
|
|
The Pinebook Pro comes with a headphone port, so you could just use that if the sound bothers you.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="some-suggestions">Some suggestions</h2>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>I had some issues when it first arrived.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<ol>
|
|
|
<li>Reboot did not work. The display would glitch out and show horizontal lines. It would only work after a full shutdown.</li>
|
|
|
<li>Booting would sometimes not work at all. My SD card would sometimes boot, sometimes not. eMMC would sometimes work and sometimes now. Sometimes I would even get to the login screen, or fully logged in before it decided to freeze/hang. I could “drop to console” (Ctrl+Alt+Fx), but it only made my mouse stop showing, it would not actually display a console. This problem was worse when not plugged in.</li>
|
|
|
<li>Performance was not stellar, even for the RK3399.</li>
|
|
|
<li>I don’t like the Manjaro logo that displays during boot.</li>
|
|
|
</ol>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3 id="dont-use-kde">Don’t use KDE</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>KDE for me is a bit slow.
|
|
|
It is not a keyboard-driven desktop.
|
|
|
To give it some credit though, it does at least have zoom support built in; this is something I wish other desktops would have enabled by default.
|
|
|
I’m looking at your, Xfce.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>I switched to Manjaro Sway, which is a Wayland-based i3-like tiling window manager.
|
|
|
I’ve used this on my Raspberry Pi 4, and it is by far my preference among other default distro configurations.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>This can be done by flashing an SD card with any random Linux distro, then download <a href="">Manjaro Sway ARM for the Pinebook Pro</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Quickly, we should prepare the eMMC. Open <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">fdisk</code> with your eMMC module and remove all partitions.
|
|
|
If you have issues with this, check if any partition is mounted, unmount it, then try again.
|
|
|
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">fdisk</code> is well documented elsewhere, so I won’t cover it here.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Once your .xz file is downloaded, <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">unxz</code> the .xz file downloaded.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<pre class="terminal">
|
|
|
$ cd ~/Downloads
|
|
|
$ unxz Manjaro-Sway-ARM-pbp-20.10.img.xz
|
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Not exactly those commands, but close.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Once you have that, flash your eMMC by using <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dd</code>.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<pre class="terminal">
|
|
|
# dd if=./Manjaro-Sway-ARM-pbp-20.10.img of=/dev/mmcblkX bs=1M conv=fsync
|
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Now remove your SD card.
|
|
|
U-Boot will prefer your SD card over your eMMC, so if you leave it in, it <em>will</em> boot to your SD card.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3 id="flash-your-u-boot-bsp">Flash Your U-Boot (BSP)</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>U-Boot appeared to be the solution to my other two issues.
|
|
|
I was able to flash a new U-Boot program by using the following commands.
|
|
|
Be sure to run <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">lsblk</code> beforehand to know which <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/dev/emmcblk</code> to write to.
|
|
|
Replace <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">X</code> with the correct number for your system.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<pre class="terminal">
|
|
|
# pacman -S uboot-pinebookpro-bsp
|
|
|
# dd if=/boot/idbloader.img of=/dev/mmcblkX seek=64 conv=notrunc
|
|
|
# dd if=/boot/uboot.img of=/dev/mmcblkX seek=16384 conv=Notrunc
|
|
|
# dd if=/boot/trust.img of=/dev/mmcblkX seek=24576 conv=notrunc
|
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dd</code> instructions are printed out after installing the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">uboot-pinebookpro-bsp</code> package, so make sure to follow what is printed there if it is different that what I have provided.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>After doing this, not only have I since booted 100% of the time,
|
|
|
but my display now works correctly after a reboot without a full shutdown.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Whew! Looking good!!!</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3 id="maybe-get-some-of-the-accessories">Maybe get some of the accessories</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>I didn’t buy any accessories from Pine64.
|
|
|
I regret this somewhat.
|
|
|
For one thing, without an accessory to read the eMMC over USB, you need to have a working Linux distro on the SD card to get anywhere with it.
|
|
|
Flashing directly to the eMMC would have saved me a <em>lot</em> of time.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The other accessory I could see the occasional use for is the Ethernet adapter.
|
|
|
When downloading a big update (1GB+), it could be useful to wire in just temporarily.
|
|
|
Not a huge deal, but worth mentioning.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>I would also be interested in the other batteries they have available.
|
|
|
Even though it comes with a battery, and I also don’t think you can install a second one, I would be interested to see if I could get more life out of it with an improved battery.
|
|
|
If this is a standard battery (Pine64 tends to use standard parts), then I would consider getting it from a supplier as well.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The Pinebook Pro does not come with any HDMI ports.
|
|
|
It comes with a USB type-C port that can be adapted to HDMI.
|
|
|
Or you can get a display that supports USB type-C.
|
|
|
I do not have a display that supports USB type-C, so it might be worth it for me to buy an adapter or find a compatible one more locally.
|
|
|
Shipping from Hong Kong ain’t cheap.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3 id="replace-the-boot-logo">Replace the boot logo</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The boot splash screen can be replaced, but I haven’t figured out how yet.
|
|
|
I will post an update to the blog when I do find out.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>I really want to use the Pinebook Pro more.
|
|
|
Pine6t4 do a lot for the open-source community and they do their best to use only open hardware.
|
|
|
They do fail in some respects, but they do much better than the mainline distributors like Dell, HP or ASUS.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Thanks, Pine64! I’m excited to use your products!</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Happy ARM hacking :)</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</article>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</main>
|
|
|
<hr>
|
|
|
<footer>
|
|
|
This page is mirrored on <a href="https://beta.tait.tech/2021/06/02/pinebook-pro/">beta.tait.tech</a>.
|
|
|
|
|
|
</footer>
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
</html>
|