It’s a link to instructions how to make a bootable microSD, which is what most people want. Most people aren’t interested in how to change the u-boot configuration files to make the eMMC have first boot priority.
True, but someone who wants to know that level of detail, probably also wants to know that the PinePhone doesn’t have the ability to boot from the USB port like the Librem 5, which makes it much faster to try out different configurations/distros on the Librem 5, because it takes longer to rewrite a microSD card, than altering files on a PC’s SSD/HDD. I think another row in the table is required to explain all these differences.
For that matter, I think it likely that the Kioxia chip on the Librem 5 has better wear leveling and block replacement than the Kimtigo chip whose documentation doesn’t even mention wear leveling or health reporting functions, which makes me question its long-term reliability.
Edit: I rechecked the Kimtigo documentation and see on page 20-21, there is some heath reporting and there is a TRIM command, so maybe it isn’t as bad as I thought.
Couldn’t there also be security implications of the default booting from the microSD card? Malicious software on eMMC could write it’s own bootloader to the card and get full control of the system. And the “obsolescence” part may also concern the users.
I wonder why booting from USB OTG isn’t documented for the PinePhone. Is this an issue where PINE64 hasn’t enabled in the PinePhone hardware or is it a simple matter of changing a U-boot configuration file or did nobody document it in the PinePhone wiki? Hard to know, but I can’t list this as a feature until it is documented how to use it. I feel the same way about the Librem 5’s boot via USB. Right now Purism hasn’t documented it, so I’m not going to list it in the table, because it isn’t usable for normal people.
Thank you for the clarification. I had no doubt that it technically works; I just meant that it’s not in the interface yet, which is what users typically want to know.
USB-OTG means that the phone is able to work in two roles: as a device connected to a host (like, phone connected to a PC) or a host with a connected device (like, a keyboard connected to the phone). That’s by itself unrelated to moving files.
Most phones use MTP to move files around over USB these days. There’s also USB mass storage, which makes it appear like a regular USB drive. You can set up both by yourself already, but they’re not there by default yet.
did you get a chance to test the Librem-Drive (usb-type-c-stick) connected to the L5 ? i got a couple of those already and i’d like to have my expectations curbed … or not ?
I had hoped that this indicated that PINE64 was going to pay for more software development, but that apparently isn’t the case according to the blog post. The future PINE64 regional stores will also be online so you aren’t paying for bricks and mortar, but you are paying $100 extra for a normal 1 year warranty (or 2 year warranty in Europe and Australia), shipping in a couple days, and normal customer support with a normal RMA process.
Essentially the $150 price gives you batch production where you preorder and can wait up to 2 months for shipping, a 1 month warranty and zero customer support beyond a guarantee that the hardware works on arrival, and it assumes that you are Linux enthusiast, who can figure out how to install and maintain the software yourself and will use the community forum for support.
I wonder what percentage of PinePhone buyers will go for the $250 retail version over the $150 Community Edition?
Some people think it’s a mistake by Pine64 and that customers will just look for the “best deal” without thinking and then still demand the support. As a solution, “ssh store” was suggested .
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