With thousands of Pinebook Pro laptops and PinePhone smartphones shipping in the next days and weeks, I felt that a short introductory blog post aimed at newcomers was in order. To this end, the primary purpose of this entry is to give you an overview of all the resources at your disposal.
You can follow the shipping progress of both devices in a dedicated PINE64 forum thread.
I will update the thread on a need-be basis as new information becomes available. Support and Info teams receive the same status updates that I post on the forum, so there is no need to email them for general shipping queries.
If your device ships using DHL Express, then you’ll most likely be notified of shipment via SMS and/or email immediately as your order gets scanned into the DHL database. You will also receive a shipping confirmation email from us in days following the DHL shipping notification.
If your PinePhone ships via Asendia then you’ll receive your tracking number directly from us. Due to the high volume of shipments, it may take a couple of days before the dispatch team emails you your shipping number. Please be patient.
A quick PSA first: the factory left the WiFi privacy switch (as well as potentially also other privacy switches) turned ON during testing on some Pinebook Pro laptops, so you may have to disable the switch to re-enable WiFi. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. The Pinebook Pro ships with Manjaro which features the KDE Plasma desktop. Manjaro is a phenomenal Linux distribution with an equally great and thriving community. The developers are our friends and colleagues, and they can be reached on their and our forums as well as in our chats.
To learn more about the Manjaro build which ships with your Pinebook Pro please see the following:
For more general information about Manjaro Linux distribution please see:
Manjaro is just one of many options at your disposal. The Pinebook Pro is able to run a vast number of other Linux and BSD operating systems, which can be booted from a SD card or installed to internal flash storage instead of Manjaro. For instance, you can boot Recalbox from SD (or USB) for recreation and retro gaming while keeping your full operating system on the Pinebook Pro’s internal flash storage.
You can find an up-to-date list of available operating systems on PINE64 Wiki.
The Pinebook Pro sub-section of the PINE64 Wiki also contains a wide variety of information concerning the laptop’s hardware, including:
The greatest resource we have to offer, however, is our community. There are literally thousands of community members willing to help you out with getting started at any given time. Regardless of if you’re just interested in asking a quick question or wish to engage in testing and development on a daily basis, there are numerous ways to get in touch.
Here are your options:
This Community Edition of the PinePhone ships with Ubuntu Touch, a popular Linux community maintained smartphone operating system. While still a work in progress, Ubuntu Touch is one of the fastest progressing operating systems on our platform. We’re very good friends with the developers, and you can direct your questions to them both on their and our forums and chats (listed further down).
To learn more about the UBports Foundation and its history:
For general news and to follow ongoing development:
Although this Community Edition ships with Ubuntu Touch, you can use many different mobile OSes on your device. Most if not all well established Linux-based systems are represented on the PinePhone so there are plenty of options to choose from. You can give any – or all – of them a risk-free spin by booting from a SD card.
You can find an up-to-date list of operating systems on PINE64 Wiki
The PinePhone sub-section of the Wiki is a valuable community maintained information hub which, amongst others, includes:
The most important resource at your disposal, however, is the PinePhone community. We have fostered a sizable social platform that spans across multiple mobile Linux projects and is composed of developers, enthusiasts and end-users. Everyone is welcome to join in, be it to ask a quick support question or to actively engage with the project.
Here are the community platforms:
All software support queries should be asked on the forums or in the chats listed above. Usually, hardware related problems and questions are also handled quickest by the community.
There are, of course, instances where the community will be unable to provide support; for shipping related queries please email: info@pine64.org. For hardware support, please file a support ticket at https://support.pine64.org.
Lastly, I encourage you to subscribe to this blog to keep up-to-date on everything PINE64. Every 15th day of each month I publish a community update detailing what we have been up to in the past ~30 days and what we have in store for the coming weeks and months. I usually also take a look at the development status of the various devices and throw out ideas for you to comment on.
Once again – Welcome into the community! I hope you found this post useful.
25 responses to “Welcome New Community Members!”
Thanks! Even for those Community Members (like me) who don’t consider themselves “New”, such a list of links is useful to keep as a reference!
Yeah it’s nice to just get a little refresher sometimes! 🙂
Glad you found it useful 🙂
Hello Lukasz.
Are there news about the shipment of Pine Phone?
Order #133574
Thanks
Stefan Natzler
Thanks for the informative post. I look forward to information on the upcoming PineTab pre-order process.
Keep reading about this wonderful new Manjaro distro but haven’t been able to boot it or install it on my Pinebook Pro.
None of the links to install work.
It would be nice to have an image that I can install.
Drop by the chats – someone will help you getting it installed. Have you reached out to the devs on their or our forum?
Thanks for this reply. I have scouted forums, Manjaro pages, and Wiki and asked for help. Unfortunately I just end up with simple answers… Just boot from this image (which doesn’t work) or some combination of complicated steps (which don’t work). I would like an image that I could burn using Etcher, boot and install. So far no boot, no install.
Bywasz na matrixie lub czacie? Jakoś nie mogę Cie nigdzie znaleźć by pogadać
Any service providers for sure for the Pine64 Ubports Edition?? Git the phone a couple days ago and can’t find a singke carrier here in Missouri, USA. Please, can anyone help me with a name?!? Thanks!😉
From what I have heard about the pinebook pro
– Keyboard and track-pad requires proprietary firmware.
– WiFi and Bluetooth require proprietary firmware( but have free and open source drivers)
– Display needs proprietary firmware. (https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8207&pid=51875#pid51875)
I know this is far less proprietary blobs than normal laptops. Just wish to know how much of the above are true.
znalazłem coś takiego https://www.tindie.com/products/ttgo/lilygor-ttgo-t-watch-2020/?
cena akceptowalna. Pytanie czy dało by się używac wspólnej platformy programowej.
Ja sam nie uzywalbym ani pine zegarka ani tego, ale może komuś się przyda. BTW jak duże jest zainteresowanie zegarkiem? Obawiam się że marne.
Zróbcie ankiete dotyczacą klawiatury. Jak ma być, żewnetrzna, jaka w laptopie. Jest tu ogromna społeczność i wiedza mogła by dużo dać przy projektowaniu. Ja np. chciałbym klawiatury programowalnej. Open source, z przyciskami i pokrętłami multimedialnymi i najlepiej z miejscem na instalacje jakiejś płytki raspbery pi zero lub podobnej. Taki komputer w klawiaturze. Albo komputer, który podpinam pod tablet i mam komputer (tablet robi za ekran i mam normalny komputer z dyskiem itd.) albo podpinam pod ekran i mam komputer z ekranem a sprzet w klawiaturze robiłby za synchronizacje (git+ssh) w ten sposób mam ze soba cały kod a praduje albo na mocnym sprzęcie, albo mobilnie (w ekstremalnym wypadku na komórce) i mam porzadną klawiaturę z mechanicznymi przyciskami a nie niskoprofilowe klikadło.
Trochę narzekamy na bloby, ale niewiele możemy na to poradzić. Tymczasem powstaja projekty https://hackaday.com/2020/06/02/an-open-source-hdmi-implementation-for-fpgas/ dość ciekawe.
Mogło by się okazać, że w nowej wersji płyty głównej (do laptopa) można było by wstawić np. 3-4 fpga o niskim poboorze prądu. Pozwoliło by to na obycie się bez kilku zamkniętych komponentów. Można było by rozważyć też jakąś fizyczną metodę wyłączenia pewnych rzeczy. np. wyłączamy ethernet fizycznie i podłączamy do jakiegoś łącza (np. gpio) moduł fpga z wejściem ethernet. I tak wiele wyjść musi być łaczonych kablem zatem z zewnątrz sprzęt wyglądałby tak samo. Może prędkość nie była by idealnie taka jak w zamkniętym rozwiązaniu, ale byłby to kolejny krok w kierunku wolnego sprzętu dla mas.
Dziś interfejsy komunikacyjne są największym złem i najniebezpieczniejszym wektorem ataku na sprzęt.
Tradycyjnie zapytam jak tam rozmowy z laptop.org czyli popularnym jednym laptopem na jedno dziecko. Fundacja jest naturalnym sprzymierzeńcem, myślę, że też Caritas światowy chciałby mieć komputery ze wsparciem i takie, które będą działac bardzo długo. Oszczędzanie energii było by na pewno kluczowe (i pewne formy paneli slonecznych) ale akurat taka mobilnośc pasuje do społeczności hakerskiej.
Where is HardRock64? ?
+1
Hello Lukasz,
I received your beautiful machine promptly, nice! The wifi privacy switch was not enabled so thank you for your notice and i was able to enable it and get wifi going on. Curious thing though, after first update i was not able to connect to my home wifi. It cannot find the connection. But when i go to the library i can connect to their wifi. Can you help me, i am not only digitally challenged but also new to Linux.
Much thanks,
Alfredo
Are the library and your home Wifi on different encryption methods? I have an HP laptop that happily connects to unsecured networks, e.g. Starbucks and lbrary, but hasn’t connected to WPA2 even though the SSID shows up high on lists of available networks. (The sample size is rather small, but the security level appears to be the issue.) It doesn’t inconvenience me enough to justify much debugging, but it sounds like your problem.
Hello Alan,
Wow, thank you for your response regarding my issue. Whatever it was, it resolved itself. So now when I turn it on, it connects immediately!
I appreciate your time and effort coming back to me. I’m new to Linux and so far very happy experimenting and exploring.
Be safe out there,
Alfredo
Still NTC (CHIP/PocketChip) in my mind…….
It looks like Pine64 opened a new door.
Powerful, friendly and well driven.
To all of us: Please keep it friendly open.
Don’t kick or smash.
/Maba
Hi,
does pine64 laptop available outside of US (India). or will be shipped to India.
Thanks
anvv sharma
I really appreciate your blog information that has explanation on laptop. If anyone faced any laptop problem then laptop repair service center can be solve problem.
A community or group of people who are expert at something is always needed. Hope this will be helpful for DIY process with latest techniques. But one should be aware and know the basic and work methodology when try to repair on their own.
how do i get lollipop to recignise my sd card? The card is fat64. mp3’s downloaded from music in ubuntu. i am using mobian on pinephone.
i wanted to check the box saying notify me of new posts by email 🙂
Have tried to log-in, forgotten password, it’s telling me my email is wrong, what am l meant to do?