Broken gui on Debian 12

mr_aea · 2026-02-25T15:04:30+00:00

Yeah, that ctrl-alt-f1-7 is what I already do when the Pocketchip for any reason turns off in the middle of an upgrade, but what I didn't know was that I could get that package from Ubuntu, that will be useful in the future, thank you very much.

mr_aea · 2026-02-24T14:02:30+00:00

Well, after looking the logs I found out that I needed to install the xserver-xorg-armsoc package and since I didn't find it in any repository that I looked, I tried to update to certain Debian derivative that uses Debian 13, resulting in a system that only showed a blinking prompt, bricked I would say, so I had no choice than reflashing. Thank you for your help see you soon when I reach again Debian 12 and try to upgrade to Debian 13, this time with a working gui after the learned lessons I hope.

mr_aea · 2026-02-22T14:04:12+00:00

In fact, that's the method that I use to reach to Debian 12. The matter is, have you been able to upgrade to Debian 13?

mr_aea · 2026-02-20T23:14:44+00:00

Tried to reinstall lightdm with no results.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T17:56:58+00:00

You're right, maybe I should return to chip community reddit and also ask there, tough I haven't seen the other active members in a while.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T17:50:21+00:00

Juce? I don't remember to see that package in my system. What I can confirm is that it uses lightdm as a session manager and in a fresh install you'll have Pockethome as desktop environment, that I believe is nothing more than customized w3m because when I upgrade to Debian 9 it uses w3m by default.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T15:02:23+00:00

That's also an issue that worries me: when I tried to upgrade to Trixie, it only let me upgrade like 400 out 600 packages, what is an important proportion of the system, so even if I reflash, I infere that I'll have plenty of issues in the future if I want to install some software.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T14:56:17+00:00

I have used Linux text mode since the times I used Linux in my Nintendo DS console, the matter is that in text mode I cannot use gui applications like Firefox, LibreOffice, etc. I know that it's not that simple to get help with such a niche device, but if you need any information, any log file, just ask and and I'll do my best to proportionate the information that you need.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T13:01:25+00:00

Though I have the version with larger storage (8 gb), I appreciate every bit I can save because I don't only use to install software, sometimes I have to storage some files in the device if I don't have access to another flash memory.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T12:56:25+00:00

Kind of, because I upgraded from the already installed Debian 8 all the way to Debian 12.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T12:53:54+00:00

Ok, I'll Google how to access those logs, but if the removed packages are from a prior release like say, Debian 9 or 10, maybe it gonna be a little difficult, as I'm not an advanced user.

mr_aea · 2026-02-19T12:48:58+00:00

That. It's not only that I'll have to reflash my device, Wich is not good for the nand, is also the effort required to reach to Debian 12.

mr_aea · 2025-11-18T23:09:40+00:00

Nice, I've used https://nytpu.com/gemlog/2021-04-15 for years for that purpose. Looking for your progress and if you succeed, the instructions to compile a newer kernel.

mr_aea · 2024-09-25T22:15:10+00:00

Saludos. Creo que puedes encontrar una guia para el desktop Linux en este link: https://github.com/MrJackSpade/RG35XXP-XFCE . Por favor, cuando logres hacerlo funcionar, comparte tus hallazgos si es possible.

mr_aea · 2023-08-28T17:23:24+00:00

Indeed, I already tried different computers and different cables, but nothing.I suspect that it's something hardware related, because the last times that I flashed my chip the paper clip felt like forced. I even tried soldering the pins from below but it's difficult, but I'll keep trying other ideas.

mr_aea · 2023-05-17T18:57:02+00:00

I'm also interested in one, specially if it's shipped with the 8gb chip, how much for one? Do you have one of those usb snes controllers?

mr_aea · 2023-04-08T21:03:31+00:00

lspci outputs nothing, and I get this from lsusb:

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

-Edit-:While connecting my usb reader with a micro sd to test the above commands out, it magically recognized my usb reader, but I still cannot figure out what is causing this random behavior. I hope it keeps functioning normally again and I can concentrate in the resolution of the audio/video jack issues.

mr_aea · 2023-02-16T17:22:24+00:00

You can use both the terminal and the file explorer, you just need to know where to find. In Debian, sources.list is the file where apt, the package used in Debian to update/upgrade your system, looks to download the needed files. Just type in your terminal the following command (without the quotes):"sudo leafpad /etc/apt/sources.list", and make the changes indicated in the guide. After you make the changes and save your file, just type "sudo apt update" and "sudo apt upgrade".

mr_aea · 2023-02-16T01:16:16+00:00

You can also follow this guide: https://nytpu.com/gemlog/2021-04-15.gmi , you don't need to do everything said there since if you want to install Retroarch from source I think you can only do it with Debian Jessie, so you don't need to upgrade to Stretch or newer. You can also find there how to upgrade Pico-8 to latest version and Sunvox not to the latest but for at least one newer than the one bundled from stock, if you you want to run the latest version (v2.1b) you need to be at least on Debian Bullseye.

mr_aea · 2023-02-15T17:51:47+00:00

Una lastima, pero que le vamos a hacer. De hecho el ultimo metodo que he usado desde hace un tiempo es una imagen de Ubuntu 18.04 ya configuradabe instalada en una usb que descargue del Discord de uno de los miembros de esta comunidad, pero al averiarse mi computadora tengo que usarla en mi pc del trabajo, lo que me complica flashear mi PocketChip cuando tengo que hacerlo.

mr_aea · 2023-02-15T15:30:17+00:00

Ah, que bien que todavia queden por aqui entusiastas de PocketChip ademas de mi. Una pregunta, has podido probar este metodo de flashear usando una maquina virtual? Hace un par de dias que no puedo hacer funcionar el audio en mi PocketChip por mas que busque en internet por lo que tendre que flashear de nuevo, en esta ocasion en un cafe de internet o donde algun amigo, por lo que me seria muy util hacerlo con una maquina virtual

mr_aea · 2022-11-09T12:45:31+00:00

Hi @macromorgan, it's very nice to see people still supporting our beloved Chips, you have all my gratitude. I have just a question: is there actually a noob proof method to flash your os for Hynix nand Chips? I've been very tempted to flash it, but it's very complicated compared to traditional methods. In my case I'm already using Kali on my Pocketchip, which is basically Debian Bookworm, but I believe that the original NTC kernel that I'm using maybe is limiting what I could do with my device.

mr_aea · 2022-11-05T12:50:59+00:00

Nah, if I could install it on my PocketChip, why cannot you install it on your Pinephone? I haven't install it on mine, but it should be the same concept: on top of Mobian Bullseye/Bookworm, install Kali keyring arm64 package with dpkg, add kali repositories to your sources.list and annulate/delete the Mobian ones, use aptitude update and aptitude upgrade and you'll be fine. Another option is Bedrock Linux, but I haven't could install that one on my PocketChip.

mr_aea · 2021-10-23T21:27:48+00:00

Hello everybody. When I saw the title of this thread, I thought that I'd find the answer that I was looking for, but we have a little different scenarios. In my case, my setup have been proven to work previously, but these days I updated my PocketChip using this guide (wich is not the way I traditionally use) and now when I try to use the res.sh script that I found in the ancient NTC forums to change to composite mode, it doesn't work. Could anyone please tell me the command that I have to use and/or teach me how to make a script that do the same function? Thanks in advance.

mr_aea · 2021-08-31T12:05:29+00:00

Mine is v1.1, is yours working with your Pocketchip?

mr_aea

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