NixOS on ARM/PINE64 Pinebook

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PINEBOOK
Manufacturer	PINE64 (Pine Microsystems Inc.)
Architecture	AArch64
Bootloader	Upstream U-Boot
Boot order	SD, eMMC
Maintainer	samueldr

The Pinebook (sometimes referred as pinebook-a64) is a laptop design based on the Allwinner A64 SoC. It was available in two sizes, 11.6" and 14", but is now only available as 11.6". The 11.6" has two resolutions, first models had a 1366×768 panel, while the more recent ones have a 1920×1080 panel.

It can boot from SD or from an included and replaceable eMMC module.

Status

Upstream NixOS AArch64 image boots on the PINE A64-LTS, using the proper upstream U-Boot.

U-boot support has been added 2019-05-18. The bootloader has not been built for now.

Board-specific installation notes

First follow the generic installation steps to get the installer image on an SD card. Copying to the eMMC directly should work, but requires disassembly of the computer.

U-Boot needs to be copied to specific sectors on the microSD card with dd. Download U-Boot for the board (sopine-u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin), and copy it to the correct location with (again, replace /dev/sdX with the correct path to the SD card device):

sudo dd if=sopine-u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1024 seek=8

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: Installation instructions need to be written up to keep space for embedding the bootloader to the SPL. (Discuss in Talk:NixOS on ARM/PINE64 Pinebook#)
Please consult the pedia article metapage for guidelines on contributing.

Serial console

Details about the pinout for the headphone jack are available on the PINE64 wiki. It is also available on their store. The serial settings are the usual Allwinner settings.

On early models^[Which?] serial needs to be toggled via software. On recent models, a physical switch is present on the main board. The linux-sunxi wiki's Pinebook page has details about serial access.

Compatibility notes

Mainline kernel
Display	Does not work yet with the upstream kernel as of 5.1.
HDMI	Hasn't been tested.

Downstream kernel

Note: Keep in mind that using non-upstream forks of the kernel always incurs some risk as far as security goes.

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: Find and document use of a kernel with the added capabilities. (Discuss in Talk:NixOS on ARM/PINE64 Pinebook#)
Please consult the pedia article metapage for guidelines on contributing.

Resources

• Official product page
• [linux-sunxi.org/Pine_Pinebook linux-sunxi wiki page]