Just to be clear, this was my fault. I know that I needed to update AS SOON AS I GOT THE PINEPHONE.
I just forgot and turned it on a couple of times and it crashed..... and then you do an fsck. I just didn't know how to do it in UT.
Maybe make it so that a 10 year old can find it in the FAQ?
Is there a way to tag as solved in this forum?

@rocket2nfinity
I reviewed this and must say that mobian looks OK.
I always keep my eye on debian, although I have stuck with ubuntu.
thanks.

OK, It sort of looked like an entry in the FAQ;
"I did not install an update and I'm stuck on the Pine64 logo after rebooting"

so I tried that and it's back. Looks like you need to update out of the box immediately to keep this from happening.
Thanks much all.

@Keneda
Ya, I get that. Just would like it to turn on.

Yeah so for the time being, after waiting for years to see UT, I'd just like to use it,

I get that if I start exploring, that I may screw up and need to figure my way out of it. (long time using Ubuntu)
In this case, just turned it on and off a couple of times, so if there is some common HW problem, just checking
so I don't dig myself deeper.

OS was on device. I added a card, but have not used it.

So I got a new pinephone and it worked fine for a few days, I avoided anything irregular, just used what was there, powered down when not in use. Then on bootup, got the led sequence, pine 64 logo, then blank screen, black, but a little visible leak. That's it. If I hold power and up button instead, I get the installing update page which stays like that. Is there a FAQ or tutorial for beginning?
bj