Hi. - I am a PinebookPro user. I run a special Ubuntu Mate release that can be found through the PinebookPro wiki (https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Pro#User_Guide ). I run it from an SD card and it is a little slow compared to the default Debian/Mate release, but I prefer it in spite of this. See also https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Pro_Software_Release#Bionic_Mate . I hope that you enjoy your PinebookPro!
1 Like
I saw that Bionic Mate release, and I was planning on trying it out. I was sure if it was an "official" Ubuntu Mate release. I'm looking forward to the Pinebook Pro and while I will play with Manjaro I am probably going to move to something more familiar pretty quickly.
Thanks!
You are welcome. - BTW, I have tried the Manjaro release as well. It worked well except for one difficulty that may not bother you. I was unable to connect to an epson wireless printer with Manjaro. With Mate, it was a simple matter.
I've just got my Pinebook Pro and I'm running an arm64 Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 on it:
I'm testing it booted from a microSD card, but it works quite well and I'm going to replace the factory pre-installed Manjaro with it. The only snag I've found with the Ubuntu-MATE arm64 image so far is that sound doesn't work, and I had to change the default Window manager to "Marco (Adaptive compositor)" to avoid the screen being corrupted by animations that were not completely erased .
I'm now running "Armbian" 64-bit Ubuntu focal booted from eMMC on my Pinebook Pro after trying out many other images. I've replaced the Armbian default XFCE desktop with Ubuntu-MATE and it seems to work quite well. My NVMe SSD and sound input/output are working, but I've not got BT working yet.
The latest version of Armbian Ubuntu focal supports Bluetooth on the Pinebook Pro:
https://redirect.armbian.com/pinebook-pro/Focal_current_desktop
The default desktop is XFCE, but it's simple to install the MATE desktop:
apt list 'ubuntu-mate*'
Listing... Done
ubuntu-mate-artwork/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-core/focal,now 1.263 arm64 [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-core/focal 1.263 armhf
ubuntu-mate-default-settings/focal,now 20.04.3 arm64 [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-default-settings/focal 20.04.3 armhf
ubuntu-mate-desktop/focal,now 1.263 arm64 [installed]
ubuntu-mate-desktop/focal 1.263 armhf
ubuntu-mate-guide/focal,focal 20.04.2-0ubuntu1 all
ubuntu-mate-icon-themes/focal,focal,now 20.04.2 all [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-lightdm-theme/focal,focal,now 20.04.2 all [installed]
ubuntu-mate-live-settings/focal,focal 20.04.3 all
ubuntu-mate-themes/focal,focal,now 20.04.2 all [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-artful/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-bionic/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-common/focal,focal,now 20.04.2 all [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-complete/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-cosmic/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-disco/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-eoan/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-focal/focal,focal,now 20.04.2 all [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-legacy/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-photos/focal,focal,now 20.04.2 all [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-utopic/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-vivid/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-wily/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-xenial/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-yakkety/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-zesty/focal,focal 20.04.2 all
ubuntu-mate-wallpapers/focal,focal,now 20.04.2 all [installed,automatic]
ubuntu-mate-welcome/focal,focal 18.10.0 all
Installed it by copying the Armbian image onto the internal 64GiB eMMC storage and with /home mounted on a 500GB intel SSD using the optional Pine64 NVMe adapter.
That’s great! I would love to try it out but I have ended up getting 2 lemons from Pine64. I’m still trying to get a working one but the process is pretty slow and painful. I will definitely try that out once I have a fully functional PBP.
Works well, except for the MATE panel, which is a bit flakey, but I don't think that's just an arm64 issue because it's also flakey on my Intel Xeon desktop: Items added to the panel are sometimes duplicated or missing after logging out then back in again. Otherwise Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 is rock-solid (pun intended) on the Pinebook Pro 
What's the difference between armbian and Ubuntu distribution?
Armbian is a Linux environment for ARM development boards:
https://www.armbian.com/
The version I'm using for the Pinebook Pro is based on Ubuntu Focal (20.04 LTS):
https://www.armbian.com/pinebook-pro/
The Armbian desktop for the Pinebook Pro uses XFCE, but I've replaced it with MATE, using the package manifest from Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 as a reference.
It works quite well, except for the stability of the MATE panel and missing panel definitions for MATE-Tweak - Only panels for GNOME2 and openSUSE are present in my current version, but I'm trying to find out why the Ubuntu-MATE panels are not there.
HTH,
Tony.
1 Like
I tried to install ayufan image of ubuntu 20.04 and upgrade to 20.10. It went smooth however I noticed that the keyboard mapping is not set for the keyboard. Nor does the sound work. Does anyone know how to fix this issue? Manjaro has a repo with the sound and keyboard fixes but it did not appear to work... I may have done it incorrectly or they just don't work. Unless there is a way to upgrade armbian to kernel 5.9 and add groovy ppa?
Hi, I found that the Armbian Ubuntu 20.04 image works a lot better:
https://redirect.armbian.com/pinebook-pro/Focal_current_desktop
I've used the Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 manifest for amd64 and the output from "dpkg --get-selections" on a chroot of Ubuntu-MATE for the Raspberry Pi as a template.
I'll post full instructions about how to run Ubuntu-MATE on the Pinebook Pro when I've got it working properly - Almost there, now that I've installed Plank 
HTH,
Tony.
2 Likes
Thank you, that would be great!
Hey Tony --
I tried just installing the packages on a XFCE Armbian, but it didn't configure the desktop choice, etc. I probably did something wrong -- I'll have another go.
If you have any notes to share, it would be great. I just don't like XFCE and Whisper Menu!
T
Hi, sorry about my slow reply - Basically, you just need to do:
sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-desktop
This should install all the dependencies required to run a MATE session, but you then have to select a MATE session on the login 'chooser' screen instead of XFCE because more than one desktop session is available, click on the icon and choose Ubuntu-MATE. I removed all XFCE packages, because I don't want to use XFCE.
HTH,
Tony.
1 Like
Thanks, Tony! I have done this. Initially I had an error with the Brisk Menu on boot. I trouble shoot there was a message about a library that was no longer needed. After an apt autoremove, I have not had the issue anymore.
Two questions though:
-
Do you have a problem with your indicator applet? My top right panel shows a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi logo and then next to them, it says "No Indicators."
-
How did you remove the XFCE packages? Is it one big pack like xfce-desktop or is there a list that I can reference to remove them? I have read that having the other packages can cause problems.
Hi, Eric.
Try resetting the panel (right-click on the panel).
I removed XFCE like this:
sudo -i
apt purge '*xfce*'
apt autoremove
apt purge $(dpkg -l | awk '/^rc/{print $2}')
apt autoclean
apt update
apt full-install
HTH,
Tony.
Tony,
Thanks for the help!
Resetting the panel did not fix it, so I am guessing that it might be a conflict with a xfce package..
I think I'm doing something wrong with the purge, because it is erroring out.
eric@pinebook-pro:~$ sudo apt purge '*xfce*'
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package *xfce*
eric@pinebook-pro:~$ sudo apt purge *xfce*
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package *xfce*
Any ideas?
Hi,
You need to list the "XFCE" packages that are installed like this:
sudo apt purge $(dpkg -l '*xfce*' | awk '/^ii/{print $2}')
HTH,
Tony.
1 Like
Thanks Tony
That seemed to work.
I do not own Pinebook, but I see that Armbian now provides Ubuntu-based test builds with MATE desktop - focal, 20.04 LTS (!) or hirsute, 21.04 .
1 Like