Difference between revisions of "PinePhone Pro"

At the time of the release, in late 2021, the PinePhone Pro is in an early development stage. That said, the device has benefited greatly from work done on the original PinePhone, which means that even early development images feature all core functionality, such as: functional UI, sensors and even the modem (to a degree).

The development is expected to proceed very quickly compared to progress done on the original PinePhone as much of the fundamental work can carry over to the new device.

You can follow development efforts on [https://xnux.eu/log/ Megi's blog], the dedicated [[PinePhone Pro Development]] section as well as on individual project’s Wiki’s and repositories.

The PinePhone Pro's internal storage (called ''eMMC'') has a higher boot priority than the microSD card (see [[RK3399 boot sequence#Boot sequence details|boot sequence details]] for details regarding the boot sequence).

The '''Explorer Edition''' comes pre-flashed with an installation of Manjaro (using the Plasma Mobile desktop) on the internal storage. The pre-flashed operating system can be overwritten at any time and it is also possible to wipe the pre-flashed operating system to make the phone boot from a microSD card, please see the [[PinePhone Pro#Installation instructions|installation instructions]] for the details. The eMMC on the Explorer Edition can be bypassed by holding the ''RE'' button underneath the back cover for multiple seconds while booting. Please see the section [[PinePhone Pro#Bypassing the eMMC|bypassing the eMMC]] for details on how to do this.

The '''Developer Edition''', which was an earlier revision intended for development, was coming with an Android factory OS preinstalled. For details regarding how to remove the bootloader and the preinstalled OS of the eMMC for Developer Edition, please see the relevant [[PinePhone Pro Developer Edition#Nuking the factory AOSP installation|article]]. The eMMC on the Developer Edition can be bypassed by shorting two specific contact points, please join the community chat for any questions regarding the process.

{{Template:note|Please ask in the [[Main Page#Chat Platforms|community chat]] if you have any questions regarding the installation.}}

As explained in the [[PinePhone Pro#Boot order|boot order]] section, the eMMC has a higher boot priority than the microSD card. On the '''Explorer Edition''' the default installation of U-Boot shipped by the factory points to the microSD card when holding the power key at boot. If the default installation was corrupted or overwritten by a differently configured bootloader, the eMMC may have to be bypassed to boot from microSD card and to alter the eMMC contents.

{{hint|If the '''battery is fully drained''' U-Boot might fail to boot any installed operating system on the eMMC and microSD card due to a bug.  

If that's the case please start your phone in Maskrom mode and let it charge in that for a few hours. To do that:

* Connect the phone to an USB port of a computer, while still holding the button for some time

* Let the phone charge for multiple hours

It can be checked if the battery is charged or not by putting the phone into Maskrom mode and by removing the USB cable for 30 seconds and reinserting it into the computer. If the device reappears under ''lsusb'' the battery is not drained and the installed operating system on the eMMC is instead corrupted, in that case please see the following flashing instructions.

# Download your chosen image from [[PinePhone Pro Software Releases]]

# Extract the compressed file

#* Using ''dd'': On the device you're flashing the microSD card from, find the correct device under <code>lsblk</code> and then flash the image to the microSD card using <code>sudo dd if=pine.img of=/dev/'''[DEVICE]''' bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync</code>. Make sure the target is the whole microSD card and not its first partition (''sdc1'' or ''mmcblk0p1'' are wrong!).

#* Using ''bmaptool'': Make sure to select the correct device using <code>lsblk</code>. Then run bmaptool with the correct device: Download the ''.img.xz'' and the ''.img.bmap'' files, then run <code>bmaptool copy --bmap image.bmap image.xz /dev/'''[DEVICE]'''</code>. This takes around 2.5 minutes to flash a 4 GB file.

# Insert the microSD card into the top slot of the phone

# Boot the phone. If there is an '''existing bootloader on the eMMC''' (the eMMC has a [[PinePhone Pro#Boot order|higher boot priority]]) you need to [[PinePhone Pro#Bypassing the eMMC|bypass the eMMC]] at boot and you can [[PinePhone Pro#Wipe U-Boot from the eMMC|wipe the bootloader from the eMMC]] to default boot from the microSD card by default in the freshly booted installation.

 

# Boot an operating system from the microSD card. If there is already a bootloader on the eMMC installed see the section [[PinePhone Pro#Bypassing the eMMC|bypassing the eMMC]] to bypass it

# Download or copy the new image to the microSD card

# Check if the eMMC appears under <code>lsblk</code>. If it doesn't appear there you held the ''RE'' button in the eMMC bypass for too long (the eMMC didn't initialize then)

# Reboot the phone

==== Bypassing the eMMC ====

The eMMC can always be temporarily bypassed at boot to be able to boot from a microSD card:

On the '''Explorer Edition''' hold the ''RE'' button underneath the cover for a few seconds, while powering on the device (holding it too long will cause the eMMC to not get initialized after the boot).

On the '''Developer Edition''' short the eMMC bypass contacts while booting.

For details see the section [[PinePhone Pro#Boot order|boot order]].

==== Wipe U-Boot from the eMMC ====

To boot from microSD card permanently, one of the methods is to wipe the bootloader from the eMMC. If no bootloader is found on the eMMC, the phone will boot to the microSD card instead. To wipe U-Boot from the microSD card:

* Wipe the bootloader using <code>sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk2 seek=64 count=400 conv=fsync</code>

The phone should now default to the microSD card at boot.

If there are any issues please join the bridged [[Main Page#Community and Support|community PinePhone channel]] and explain your issue and what you've tried so far.

The [[PinePhone Pro Software Releases]] page has a complete list of currently supported phone-optimized operating system images that work with the PinePhone Pro.