About the device: PineTab:
The PINETAB is similar in both form, function and underlying ARM64 architecture to the original 11.6″ PINEBOOK. It is powered by the same Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit Processor used in our popular PINE A64 Single Board Computer. The optional keyboard and trackpad – which doubles-up as a screen cover – effectively converts the PineTab into a petite on-the-go laptop with a touch screen functionality. It runs numerous mainline Linux distributions as well as *BSDs and Android.
As a new open source platform, the PineTab development is an ongoing process and represents a great opportunity to get involved with computing on a different level, to customise and personalise the portable computer experience, to understand what is going on beneath the surface.
How to install:
Download the image/xz file from the download location. Verify that the download completed successfully.
After that, install Etcher (sudo pacman -S etcher if on Manjaro) and burn the to an SD card (8 GB or larger).
The PineTab should recognize the SD card as a bootable device and boot from it.
The premade users are:
User: manjaro
Password: 123456
I received my Pinetab and have been trialling several OS. The SD card works, as I can boot other OS (Mobian, Arch Linux for Pinetab) from SD, but not Manjaro ARM Pinetab Phosh alpha 2 and alpha 1. Both display just a black screen. If there is something else that should be done to boot, please let me know and I will try it out. Also, is there a specific bug tracker for the Manjaro releases for the Pinetab?
Same issue as @PractisingDruid, the latest PineTab Plasma Mobile and Phosh images fail to boot from SD card. Booting Mobian from the same card works just fine.
Pinetab has a different panel as the devices our developers have. That is why our images are not supporting the devices currently available for the public.
Thanks @Strit! I’m more than willing to wait until support is added in an upcoming release. I can’t speak for @PractisingDruid, of course. And thanks for all the work on this, I’ve really been enjoying Manjaro’s Phosh build for the PinePhone.
Okay, I made an uploaded a test image, which can be downloaded here.
It’s a Phosh edition, build on arm-unstable branch with linux-rc kernel that has a patch to use the new panel. I can’t test it, since it breaks the support for the old dev unit I have.
IMG burned and booting now. I see the Manjaro logo!
Phosh doesn’t autostart (it seems that may have been a fluke, another user reported phosh starting correctly when they booted it, in the pinetab channel) I might be missing something, but it doesn’t see the wifi, either. *enabling NetworkManager and rebooting brought wifi back, and Phosh autostarted on second boot, too!
The display seems to be stuck in an upside down portrait orientation. The Phosh menu shows the autorotate options, but does not change based on moving the tab. *I just saw in a reddit post that this is a known issue in the PineTab alpha builds. However it does state that manual rotation works, how is that achieved?
I can’t seem to get the power button to wake the screen after it times out.
If Lomiri is to a state it needs testers, I’d like to offer there, too. I recalled seeing the apps needed a while back, but i think it might have gotten lost in the crash of the prev forums.
Thank you all for the replies and the work on this. I can wait until the next release to try Manjaro again. I use Manjaro on my desktop all the time, so I am looking forward to a workable version for the Pinetab.
