tf701t

Linux for Asus Transformer Pad tf701t || Author of most stuff: Geometry | Posted by Trel725

Using the pre-built rootfs

Installation (for Xubuntu 14.04 rootfs)

1. Download the file http://d-h.st/hNmV | updated mirror https://mega.co.nz/#!mo4kHLpB!K3m8FbU0JpRJIHRX5MF1LGPYzXZbjldL_U_nNpQl8Cg

2. create the directory "/data/media/linuxroot" on your device's internal storage

3. extract (as root) the file to this directory

• $ su
• $ cd /data/media/root
• $ tar -xf {path to tf701t-xubuntu-14.04-rootfs.tar.gz}

As well as installing to internal storage, you can install the rootfs on an SDcard just by unpacking it to SD, formatted in ext4 file system. In that case, edit the file "/etc/fstab" in the rootfs, uncommenting the line that starts with "/dev/mmcblk0p14".

Booting

Download the "boot-media-linuxroot-15.img" file from ~/prebuilt or build it yourself. Go to the bootloader on your tablet (power + volume down). From your PC boot the tf701t via fastboot: (assuming you run linux)

• $ sudo fastboot boot boot-media-linuxroot-15.img

The standard user is called "ubuntu" with real name "Test User" and password "ubuntu".

It won't destroy any data. When you reboot, you'll get the same android system without any changes.

If you like linux and want to install it permanently, you can flash boot-media-linuxroot-15.img instead of recovery using this command:

• $ sudo fastboot flash recovery boot-media-linuxroot-15.img

You will not be able to go into recovery, but instead get a completely different OS. You can get your recovery back just by re-flashing it.

If you've installed the rootfs in the first partition of an SD card inserted into the keyboard dock slot use boot-sda1-15.img from ~/prebuilt instead of boot-media-linuxroot-15.img

Recommendations:

• In the settings, turn off light locker.
• Switch action for power button to "nothing" in power settings.
• Turn on battery status icons in power settings.
• If the lid is closed and opened again the screen might be blank. Simply bring it back to life by pressings the "increase brightness" button.
• Change window theme to default-xhdpi. [To do: describe installation of this theme.]

Adding touch screen support to the pre-built rootfs

Put the following files into a directory DIR in the rootfs:

• xserver-xorg-input-mtev_0.1.13ubuntu2_armhf.deb from ~/components. This is the touch screen driver package as it works for the tf300t.
• "xorg-conf-mtev-tf701t.tar.gz" (~/components) This configuration file lets X associate the touch screen with the driver.
• "touch-wrapper-3.tar.gz" (~/components) This includes additional libraries, initiates the rm-wrapper program to link Android libraries, and includes a modified Android linker. Without this, the driver does not work for the tf701t.

Assuming you are running the rootfs:

• $ cd DIR
• $ sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-input-mtev_0.1.13ubuntu2_armhf.deb
• $ cd /
• $ sudo tar xvf DIR/xorg-conf-mtev-tf701t.tar.gz
• $ sudo tar xvf DIR/touch-wrapper-3.tar.gz

Now reboot the rootfs and the touch screen should be working.

If at some point the touch screen should stop working you might try to reenable it by issuing this command:

• $ sudo service touch-wrapper restart

Improved keyboard mapping

Extract the file "tf300t-dock-trusty.tar.gz" (in ~/components) to the rootfs and reboot. To enable this improved dock keyboard remapping select "Asus TF300T Dock" in the keyboard settings.

Graphics corruption issues

Waking up from suspend cases a graphics corruption issue with xfwm4, the xfce4 window manager. As a fix for this, a small program that restores xfwm4 upon wake up is already included in the rootfs. So you should not notice anything. However, the same issue can occur in other contexts, especially when connecting to an external display via HDMI. It is therefore convenient to be able to invoke this program as a stand alone when needed. Extract the file ~/components/nvpmxfce-2.tar.gz to the rootfs. This makes available the program "/usr/bin/xfwm_restore". Call this program when the corruption issue occurs. It is convenient to define for this a key combination in "Settings" -> "Keyboard" -> "Application Shortcuts".

Kernel

The image comes with the kernel version 3.4.105-cmaalx-15 installed, see ~/kernel. It is recommended to use the more recent kernel version 3.4.113-cmaalxhb-12 instead. It has kexec-hardboot support, is more secure and comes with the BFQ I/O scheduler that should improve I/O latency. Just extract the file "kernel-3.4.113-cmaalxhb-22.tar.xz" to the rootfs and boot with the images ending in *-22.img from ~/prebuilt. Also you will need to copy or link the following firmware files from Android to /lib/firmware of the rootfs for wifi to work:

• /data/misc/wifi/nvram.txt
• /system/vendor/firmware/bcm43341/fw_bcmdhd.bin

You may then delete the directory /lib/modules/3.4.105-cmaalx-15 and its contents to save space.

Arch Linux

As well as installing Xubuntu, you can install Arch. It is not so friendly and some some things working worse. Installation is same, but you should download arch rootfs: https://mega.co.nz/#!b8w3VJaJ!SpD1GTIkNiiAmYiCUxmhOYjX6NYN8IeFPhiY6N9Xtkc, directory for installing should be "/data/media/archlinux" and you should use boot-media-archlinux-15.img instead of boot-media-linuxroot-15.img. If you like booting from SDcard, you can use same boot-sda1-15.img

Building the Xubuntu rootfs from scratch

(These instructions yield a rootfs that already includes touch support and improved keyboard mapping.) The rootfs is constructed in a modular and step-wise fashion as described in the following. To reproduce, I assume you use a linux system and have installed the packages "qemu-user-static", "abootimg" and "android-tools-fastboot" (that is how the packages are called under Ubuntu). You will build up the rootfs entirely on your linux system. I write ROOT for the directory that serves as the file system root.

1.) Extract the following files to ROOT:

• "ubuntu-core-14.04.2-core-armhf.tar.gz" (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-base/releases/14.04/release/ubuntu-base-14.04.5-base-armhf.tar.gz) from the Ubuntu core repository. This is a generic minimal rootfs.
• "kernel-3.4.113-cmaalxhb-22.tar.xz" from ~/kernel. This provides kernel and modules.
• "fstab_bind.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This assures mounting of the Android /system partition
• "inet-tf701t-trusty.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This sets a hostname and sets up the ubuntu software repository.
• "initramfs-bindmount.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This enables bind mount for the initramfs.
• "initramfs-no-modules.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Makes sure that the initramfs does not include extra modules as these would make it too large.
• "root_media_linuxroot.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This makes sure the initramfs looks for the rootfs at "/data/media/linuxroot". Change this if you want to put it in a different directory.
• "init-tf701t.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Some necessary or useful initialization commands for the tf701t after boot.
• "bluetooth-tf701t.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This makes bluetooth work. It works similarly as done previously for the tf300t.
• "udev-tf701t.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Some necessary device settings for the tf701t.

2.) Now do:

• $ cd ROOT
• $ sudo mkdir install
• $ sudo mkdir data
• $ sudo ln -s data host
• $ sudo mkdir system
• $ sudo ln -s data/misc/wifi/nvram.txt lib/firmware/
• $ sudo ln -s system/vendor/firmware/bcm43341/fw_bcmdhd.bin lib/firmware/

"install" will serve to hold some instalation files. The other directories are for mount points and for the kernel to find the wifi firmware. You may later replace the symbolic links for the firmware by actual copies of the files.

3.) Copy "androcompat.sh" (in ~/scripts) to ROOT/install/ and copy "/usr/bin/qemu-arm-static" to ROOT/usr/bin/ (Make sure "androcompat.sh" is executable)

4.) Enter the rootfs via chroot:

• $ LC_ALL=C sudo chroot ROOT /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash -i

In the chroot do the following:

• # apt-get update
• # apt-get dist-upgrade
• # /install/androcompat.sh
• # adduser USERNAME
• # addgroup USERNAME adm
• # addgroup USERNAME sudo

The apt-get commands initalize the Ubuntu software repository and update packages. The "androcompat.sh" script changes the base UID to 5000 and adds users by default to some Android groups. This is useful for better compatibility with Android. You can omit this setp if not desired. The adduser command adds a user. Choose the name you like as USERNAME. Leave the chroot with "exit"

At this point the rootfs is a fully functional non-graphical Ubuntu 14.04. If this is what you want skip to step 9. If you want a system with GUI, proceed.

5.) You need a number of xorg packages from previous Ubuntu releases. Get these from the corresponding Ubuntu armhf repositories:

• from 12.04: libxi6 (this is more up to date than the 13.04 version)
• from 13.04: xserver-xorg-core libxfixes3 xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-multitouch xserver-xorg-video-dummy (might not be necessary)
• from 13.10: libgl1-mesa-dri

Also get the package "xserver-xorg-input-mtev" from ~/components. Copy all these packes to ROOT/install/

Also copy "graphics-setup-tf701t.sh" (in ~/scripts) to ROOT/install/ Make sure this is executable.

6.) Now enter a chroot as in step 4. In the chroot:

• # dpkg -i /install/*.deb
• # apt-mark hold xserver-xorg-core libgl1-mesa-dri
• # apt-get -f install

Exit the chroot. In the first step the xorg packaes are installed. Ignore the error messages. The second step ensures that they will not be updated to newer (and incompatible) versions. The third step fixes the missing dependencies.

7.) Now you need the nvidia graphics drivers for Tegra 4, from this page. Download the Dalmor driver packages file and codec packages file. Extract the following files to ROOT:

• "nvidia_drivers.tbz2" to be found inside the extracted driver file
• "nvgstapps.tbz2" also inside the extracted driver file
• "restricted_codecs.tbz2" from inside the extracted codecs file Also extract:
• "xorg-conf-graphics-tf701t.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Main configuration file for xorg.
• "xorg-conf-transformer-multitouch.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Xorg configuration for touchpad driver.
• "xorg-conf-mtev-tf701t.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Xorg configuration for touch screen driver.
• "xorg-conf-display-size-tf701t.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Make xorg aware of display size for correct dpi.
• "brightness-fix-tf701t.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This fixes the display brightness issues for lightdm and upon suspend/resume, includes saving and restoring display brightness values.
• "touch-wrapper-3.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This links Android libraries needed for the touch screen to work.
• "nvpmxfce-2.tar.gz" (in ~/components) This fixes display corruption upon resume, as for the tf300t, see: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=58148975&postcount=615
• "tf300t-dock-trusty.tar.gz" (in ~/components) Provides improved keyboard mapping scheme, as for the tf300t, see: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60032762&postcount=137

8.) Enter again the chroot:

• # /install/graphics-setup-tf701t.sh
• # apt-get install language-pack-en xubuntu-desktop
• # apt-get remove gnome-power-manager unity-control-center unity-settings-daemon gnome-session-bin gnome-user-share gnome-bluetooth indicator-session indicator-datetime indicator-bluetooth indicator-keyboard indicator-power
• # apt-get autoremove

And exit. The first step sets up some nvidia graphics libraries. The second step installs the xubuntu system. This may take some time. The remaining setps clean up some superfluous packages.

9.) Still in the chroot do:

• # apt-get clean
• # update-initramfs -c -k 3.4.113-cmaalxhb-22

The first setp is to clean the package cache so that the rootfs becomes smaller. The second step generates the initramfs.

10.) For additional clean up remove the files in ROOT/install:

• $ sudo rm -r ROOT/install

Now the rootfs in finished and you may wrap it up. For example with tar:

• $ cd ROOT
• $ sudo tar czv --acl --xattrs -f TARGETFILE.tar.gz .

This you deploy to the tf701t as described at the beginning of the post.

11.) Boot image generation

It remains to generate the boot image. To this end copy the file "bootimg.cfg" from ~/kernel to a directory. Then, copy "initrd.img-3.4.113-cmaalxhb-22" (the initramfs) and "vmlinuz-3.4.113-cmaalxhb-22" (the kernel) from ROOT/boot/ to this same directory. In this directory create the boot image with the "abootimg" tool:

• $ abootimg --create boot-media-linuxroot-22.img -f bootimg.cfg -k vmlinuz-3.4.113-cmaalxhb-22 -r initrd.img-3.4.113-cmaalxhb-22

This procedure should be easily adaptable to other ubuntu flavours, by replacing "xubuntu-desktop" in step 8 with "lubuntu-desktop" for example, also KDE might be worth a try. (standard Ubuntu itself does not work, however, as it needs an up to date xserver.) I hope that many of the provided ingredients could also be useful for other linux distros.

Using kexec bootloader

First, you need zImage and initrd.img for every system you want to boot. Use abootimg to get it from boot image:

• $ abootimg -x boot.img

Create "Boot" dir into /sdcard, aka /data/media/0/. Create subdirectories "android" and "linux". Copy zImage and initrd.img of Ubuntu and Android to appropriate directories. It is two default systems. Next, flash multiboot.img from ~/prebuilt into boot partition by command:

• $ sudo fastboot flash boot multiboot.img

If you want to boot more systems, put zImage and initrd.img of every system into your boot directory (/data/media/0/Boot) and rename it to zImage-X initrd.img-X, where X is any number, e.g. 1. Then use appropriate item into multiboot menu.

More info about kexec-hardboot: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2104706