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Support
If something isn't working for you, you can get in contact with Mobian developers and the Mobian community in various ways. All of them are listed here.
Installation
This document guides the user how to install Mobian on their ?PineTab, an open source tablet designed by Pine64 to run Linux distributions
Prerequisites
Mobian on the ?PineTab requires that Tow-Boot is installed on the mmcboot partition of the device's eMMC. However, there is no Tow-Boot distribution for the ?PineTab yet (help welcome). The last image we recommend for the ?PineTab is the one including u-boot from March 27, 2022 (and upgrading from there). REMOVE KERNEL 6.1 AFTER UPGRADE AND MAKE SURE THAT 5.10 IS THE ONLY AVAILABLE KERNEL, OTHERWISE YOUR DEVICE WON'T BOOT AFTER UPGRADING.
Obtain the image
Pre-built Mobian images for the ?PineTab can be downloaded from this link. Installer images are available here.
Verifying the images
Mobian images come with multiple files:
- .img.gz: The flashable image
- .img.bmap: The bmaptool input for the image (See Method 1a below)
- .sha256sum: A file of SHA256 hashes of the image file.
- .sha256sum.sig: A detached signature for the .sha256sum file.
To verify the download, use the following steps:
Import the Mobian signing key from here. Once downloaded, the key can be imported with gpg --import mobian.gpg.
Verify the signature with gpg --verify <downloaded file>.sha256sum.sig.
If the signature is valid, check the other files with shasum -c <downloaded file>.sha256sums
- If this prints OK for all files the download is verified.
Flash the image
In order to flash the Mobian image, you need to identify the device attached to target. **Be careful not to write to the wrong device! Replace the "X" in /dev/mmcblkX or /dev/sdX or use /dev/disk/by-id/.**
Be advised that the first boot will take longer due to the automatic resizing of the filesystem.
Installation to eMMC
You can install the image to eMMC by flashing the installer image to an SD card which will then provide the option to install to eMMC.
Method 1a: bmaptool using an URL
bmaptool is a comfortable means to flash your image. It handles sparse files, so it can be considerably faster than plain dd. It also handles both .bmap and .gz files and can dowload them directly from an URL. Execute
sudo bmaptool copy https://images.mobian-project.org/pinetab/CHANGEME $BLOCKDEVICE
with $BLOCKDEVICE the blockdevice to flash, e.g. /dev/mmcblkX, /dev/sdX [in the case of jumpdrive], or /dev/disk/by-id/XXXXXX).
Example:
sudo bmaptool copy https://images.mobian.org/pinetab/weekly/mobian-pinetab-phosh-20230625.img.gz /dev/sdb
Method 1b: bmaptool with a local image file
You can also use bmaptool to flash a local image. As it handles sparse files, it can flash considerably faster than plain dd
- sudo bmaptool copy $IMAGE $BLOCKDEVICE
with $IMAGE, the path to the compressed or uncompressed image file and $BLOCKDEVICE the blockdevice (/dev/mmcblkX or /dev/sdX - if you are using jumpdrive - or /dev/disk/by-id/).
Example:
- sudo bmaptool copy mobian-pinetab-phosh-20220327.img.gz /dev/disk/by-id/mmc-SU16G_0x1d6654fd
Method 2: dd
To use dd, you need to unzip the image using one of the following commands:
- gunzip mobian-pinetab-YYYYMMDD.img.gz gzip -d mobian-pinetab-YYYYMMDD.img.gz
Then flash with the following command:
- sudo dd bs=64k if=mobian-pinetab-YYYYMMDD.img of=/dev/mmcblkX status=progress
(the status= option will display some progress while flashing, dd is awfully silent otherwise)
Default pin and password
The default user is **mobian** and has the password: **1234**. It is also used as PIN on the unlock screen.
The root-user is locked by default.
You should change the user password - please see ?changing password about the right way to do so. If you want to access your phone via ssh, you need to ?set it up to do so.
Automatic resizing of your filesystem on first boot
After flashing the image and booting for the first time, Mobian will resize the root filesystem to take all possible space on the disk. This can take a while and will only happen on first boot. So grab a ${DRINK_OF_CHOICE} and be patient.