WIP stuff to get started on the pinebook pro.

Using in your configuration

Clone this repository somwhere, and in your configuration.nix

{
  imports = [
    .../pinebook-pro/pinebook_pro.nix
  ];
}

That entry point will try to stay unopinionated, while maximizing the hardware compatibility.

Compatibility

Tested

• X11 with modesetting
• Wi-Fi
• Brightness controls
• Speaker output

Untested

• Bluetooth

Known issues

• Suspend (or resume) fails.

Tips

The backlight can be controlled using light (programs.light.enable).

Image build

$ ./build.sh
$ lsblk /dev/mmcblk0 && sudo dd if=$(echo result/sd-image/*.img) of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=8M oflag=direct status=progress

The build.sh script transmits parameters to nix-build, so e.g. -j0 can be used.

Once built, this image is self-sufficient, meaning that it should already be booting, no need burn u-boot to it.

The required modules (and maybe a bit more) are present in stage-1 so the display should start early enough in the boot process.

The LED should start up with the amber colour ASAP with this u-boot configuration, as a way to show activity early. The kernel should set it to green as soon as it can.

Note about cross-compilation

This will automatically detect the need for cross-compiling or not.

When cross-compiled, all caveats apply. Here this mainly means that the kernel will need to be re-compiled on the device on the first nixos-rebuild switch, while most other packages can be fetched from the cache.

u-boot

NOTE: The following instructions are for if you haven't installed U-Boot to the SPI flash.

Assuming /dev/mmcblk0 is an SD card.

$ nix-build -A pkgs.ubootPinebookPro
$ lsblk /dev/mmcblk0 && sudo dd if=result/idbloader.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512 seek=64 oflag=direct,sync && sudo dd if=result/u-boot.itb of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512 seek=16384 oflag=direct,sync

The eMMC has to be zeroed (in the relevant sectors) or else the RK3399 will use the eMMC as a boot device first.

Alternatively, this u-boot can be installed to the eMMC.

Updating eMMC u-boot from NixOS

NOTE: The following instructions are for if you haven't installed U-Boot to the SPI flash.

Caution: this could render your system unbootable. Do this when you are in a situation where you can debug and fix the system if this happens. With this said, it should be safe enough.

$ nix-build -A pkgs.ubootPinebookPro
$ lsblk /dev/disk/by-path/platform-fe330000.sdhci && sudo dd if=result/idbloader.img of=/dev/disk/by-path/platform-fe330000.sdhci bs=512 seek=64 oflag=direct,sync && sudo dd if=result/u-boot.itb of=/dev/disk/by-path/platform-fe330000.sdhci bs=512 seek=16384 oflag=direct,sync

Alternative boot order

If you rather USB and SD card is tried before the eMMC, pkgs.ubootPinebookProExternalFirst can be installed, which has an alternative patch set added on top that will change the boot order.

The SD image is built using the "alternative boot order" u-boot. Thus, flashing the image to your eMMC keeps external devices bootable.

Keyboard firmware

 $ nix-build -A pkgs.pinebookpro-keyboard-updater
 $ sudo ./result/bin/updater step-1 <iso|ansi>
 $ sudo poweroff
 # ...
 $ sudo ./result/bin/updater step-2 <iso|ansi>
 $ sudo poweroff
 # ...
 $ sudo ./result/bin/updater flash-kb-revised <iso|ansi>

Note: poweroff must be used, reboot does not turn the hardware "off" enough.

About pre-built images

It is assumed that the official binary cache can be trusted. Any other source for images is of unknown trustworthiness.

As a broader goal of trust within the NixOS community, we strongly recommend users build their own images on hardware they trust so they know the provenance.

This is why this repository does not offer pre-built images. I would also like that no third party pre-built images are produced.

Once the upstream kernel fully supports the Pinebook Pro, it will not be an issue as the generic AArch64 images will work with the Pinebook Pro.