!Pinebook Pro day 1
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agk's phlog
4 May 2021 @ 2113
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written on Pinebook Pro
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The Pinebook Pro is a $200 14" laptop with big.LITTLE
heterogeneous ARM cluster architecture (two Cortex A72 cores,
four Cortex A53 cores), energy-efficient eMMC storage, and
a black magnesium alloy case.
It has specs like a mid-range Chromebook, but private by
default open architecture that supports and depends on
community-developed software. It ships with Manjaro, an
Arch Linux.
Software notes
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Plasma desktop had to go. I forgot how much I don't like
mouse-dependent floating windowing systems:
> pacman -S i3 # a disappointment.
> pacman -S i3-manjaro # what I was looking for.
After logging back in to i3wm, i3status needed configuration:
> pacman -S micro # install my editor
> micro /etc/i3status.conf
> # change 'battery all' to 'battery 0'
> # format = " %status %percentage %consumption"
> # path = "/sys/class/power_supply/cw2015-battery/uevent"
> # now battery status works
mod-shift-R (restart i3wm)
Konsole terminal emulator is hard on my eyes. I prefer
suckless:
> pacman -S st sterminal
Set nice background image:
> feh --bg-scale /home/agk/Pictures/bg.png
I use plod to keep system admin notes:
> curl -L -O
http://deer-run.com/~hal/plod/plod.shar
> sh plod.shar # extract it
> # edit plod variables (editor, encryption, path to perl)
> # move plod to /usr/local/bin/
Gnucash hasn't been built for arm64 architecture. :(
I struggle to remember names of KDE programs like Gwenview
and Spectacle. I need to know their names to call them with
dmenu. I'm mostly familiar with the lightweight GTK appli-
cations in BunsenLabs, a Debian Linux.
Hardware notes
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- Multi-touch works. Needs usb mouse for middle button.
- Zoom works in firefox but burned all 3.8 GiB of ram
and swapped furiously til I disabled the webcam.
- Microsoft365 stuff works in the browser.
- When done, leave it plugged in or power it off. After a
night unplugged and supposedly suspended with the lid
closed, the battery had no charge and wouldn't charge via
barrel plug (but would via usb-c). Same behavior after
invoking systemctl suspend. Probably a trusted firmware
issue, not a lid magnet/hall effect sensor placement issue.
- Pine64's dongle plugs into the usb-c port to add two
usb-a ports, a charging port, ethernet port, and HDMI
port. Dongle does same for the Pinephone. Super cool.
- To install openbsd, I'll need a 3.3v audiojack to usb-a
serial cable.
Using it
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On desktop 1 I'm listening to snowdusk play Salt-N-Pepa's
1987 hit Push It on tilderadio via mpg123 and writing this on
sdf via mosh with the manpage for tmux open. On desktop 2 I'm
on the web via lynx and monitoring performance with htop and
pstree.
It's burning 3 watts. My little ThinkPad X61 burns 10.5 under
similar load.
The bottom comes off with standard cross screws. The battery
and rockchip single board computer look easily replaceable.
Replacement parts are inexpensive in the Pine64 store.
It's a nice machine.
