[Linux] [IMG] [Dev] [WIP] Debian Unstable for Rootbind [TF101 / TF101G(?)]

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TravellingGuy

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2010
67
39
Updated 2014-05-11!

Well, well, what do we have here? This is a full Debian Unstable installation with the relatively new MATE Desktop Environment http://mate-desktop.org/, which has finally made it's way to the Debian Unstable. MATE is essentially a continuation of the Gnome 2 desktop, and runs great on lower end hardware.

Screenshot:
attachment.php


This DOES NOT have the NVIDIA drivers, as I'm using the very latest X releases. The only thing the NVIDIA drivers really get you is good video playback and 3D performance. I don't find the NVIDIA drivers give better 2D performance.

Minor Issues
  • As you can see in the screenshot, the battery indicator shows as not working. However, if you hover your mouse over the battery indicator, it does show the battery level of both batteries.
  • Systemd recently came the default system and service manager in Debian unstable. Systemd says it requires the AUTOFS4 kernel module, however that module does not seem to exist in @jrohwer's kernel, so you'll see systemd failures during boot. It does boot fine anyway, but see the next bullet point.
  • systemd is unable to do an fsck on the root file system (maybe because AUTOFS4 kernel module) during boot, so it ends up leaving the root filesystem in read-only mode. I have worked around this by adding a line to the /etc/rc.local to remount / as readwrite, which seems to do the trick.
  • Gnome Network Manager has a bit of odd behaviour. After trying to connect to your wireless network for the first time, it will fail, but it will add your network to the list of available networks. Right-click the Network Manager icon, select "Edit Connections...", select your wireless network, click Edit, go to the "Wi-Fi Security" tab and manually enter your wireless passphrase. After doing this once, it will connect normally after that.
  • As before, sound is hit and miss. Powering down and booting again has a tendency to fix it for a while.
  • Periodically, when it boots into MATE, the touchpad will stop working. Undock and dock again and it'll come back.
  • Power management doesn't work.

Good things
  • Touchscreen works!
  • You don't need to undock your keyboard during boot. Nice!

Bluetooth and HDMI was not tested (I don't use them).

DOWNLOAD
http://goo.gl/LfydG7

USAGE
Default user is "debian" with a password of "debian".

INSTALLATION
In Android, if you have an existing linuxroot in your /data/ directory, rename/move it.

Extract the Debian image into /data/

Code:
su
busybox mount -o remount,rw /
mv /data/linuxroot /data/linuxroot-old

cd /data
tar -pxvzf /pathto/debian-unstable-mate-2014-05-11.tar.gz
busybox mount -o remount,ro /

Reboot to recovery, install @jrohwer's kernel and you're away.

THANKS
@jrohwer
@DjDill
@Sni

Below is my original post for anyone that want's the older Debian Unstable with the NVIDIA drivers

**************************
Original Post!

This is a basic Debian Unstable (mostly unstable) image for @jrohwer's rootbind method/kernel found here (see post 3):
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2347581
It uses the 3.1.10-12 oc kernel.

Obligatory Screenshot:
attachment.php


This has the latest Linux For Tegra binary drivers installed (R16.3) and working. es2_info shows the renderer as "NVIDIA Tegra" and I've included a 720p trailer in the Videos directory which can be played with nvgstplayer with great quality and sound. (nvgstplayer --uri "The Simpsons Movie - Trailer.mp4")

HOW I CREATED IT
I started with a Debian stable install and got the NVidia Tegra drivers working with it. Debian stable's X is at ABI 12. I then held the xserver-xorg-core (apt-mark hold xerver-xorg-core) package to prevent it from automatically updating. Then upgraded everything else to the unstable versions. It seems very few packages are dependent on newer X releases. I did try to upgrade X to the last ABI 14 version that Debian did, but got bad screen corruption with newer X releases and the Tegra driver.

I tried get gstreamer hardware accelerated playback by following this guide (http://ac100.grandou.net/hw_accelerated_video_playback) but did not have success.

DOWNLOAD
http://goo.gl/ZSYoZC

(Mirrors welcome! I suspect Google Drive will shut it down if too many people go for it.)

It's 850 MB download.

USAGE
Default user is "debian" with a password of "debian".

Ensure your tablet is not docked until you get the login screen.

INSTALLATION
In Android, if you have an existing linuxroot in your /data/ directory, rename/move it.

Extract the Debian image into /data/

Code:
su
busybox mount -o remount,rw /
mv /data/linuxroot /data/linuxroot-old

cd /data
tar -pxvzf /pathto/debian-unstable.tar.gz
busybox mount -o remount,ro /

Reboot to recovery, install @jrohwer's kernel and you're away.

MISCELLANEOUS
Wireless works, sound mostly works (it seems to randomly stop working for no apparent reason.. @DjDill complained about the same thing for his Ubuntu image as well. As mentioned, hardware acceleration is working.

I didn't test bluetooth, HDMI, or power management. :)
 

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Last edited:

vbob

Senior Member
Mar 10, 2012
50
4
Cuiabá
I'll test it ASAP and post the results in here.

Meanwhile, I would like to ask some questions about Linux in the TF101G:

1st - Using jrohwer Kernel, I need to extract the IMG to /data/linuxroot, right?
2nd - I should never use the Dock until it boots?
3rd - Using the netinstaller v7 my tab freezes while downloading, using DjDill it wont even boot up :(

I know here is not the right place to ask (hypocrisy), but I'll try ur Debian now and post the results :good:
 
Last edited:

TravellingGuy

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2010
67
39
Hi vbob.

I'll test it ASAP and post the results in here.

Meanwhile, I would like to ask some questions about Linux in the TF101G:

1st - Using jrohwer Kernel, I need to extract the IMG to /data/linuxroot, right?

No, you need to flash jrohwer's kernel in recovery.

2nd - I should never use the Dock until it boots?

Correct. There's weirdness with the kernel, if the dock is connected, it continually logs errors to the console during boot. I think it'll boot up eventually with it docked, but you might be waiting a few hours. :)

3rd - Using the netinstaller v7 my tab freezes while downloading, using DjDill it wont even boot up :(

Sorry, not sure on this one!
 
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Reactions: vbob

vbob

Senior Member
Mar 10, 2012
50
4
Cuiabá
I've managed to install on the TF101G, and it worked like a charm, except there is no wifi! Even running "sudo depmod -a", copying nvram and typing iwlist, etc it refuses to connect.
 

szigeza

Member
Sep 3, 2009
25
2
Hi! I tried this debian image today. Unfortunately the touch screen doesn't work and the usb mouse does not too. If I update from terminal t required xorg-input-abi-20. After this update the xserver crashed.
How did you create this image? Could you create a new stable (wheezy) image?
Thanks!
 

TravellingGuy

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2010
67
39
I've managed to install on the TF101G, and it worked like a charm, except there is no wifi! Even running "sudo depmod -a", copying nvram and typing iwlist, etc it refuses to connect.

Hmm. You could try add this to your /etc/network/interfaces file:
Code:
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    wpa-ssid    <ssid>
    wpa-psk    <passphrase>

This assumes a WPA2 personal protected access point. This will cause the wifi to try to connect when the network interface is brought up, instead of using network manager. See if that works.
 
Last edited:

TravellingGuy

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2010
67
39
Hi! I tried this debian image today. Unfortunately the touch screen doesn't work and the usb mouse does not too. If I update from terminal t required xorg-input-abi-20. After this update the xserver crashed.
How did you create this image? Could you create a new stable (wheezy) image?
Thanks!

Pfft! Who uses a touchscreen nowadays! :) I actually noticed that after the fact as well, but I never really use the touchscreen, so didn't notice. In fact, it seems that if you try to use the touch screen, it actually screws up the touchpad and button click stops working. Maybe that your problem. Don't touch the screen and you'll be golden. :) I tried a USB mouse and it works fine for me.

I can provide the steps I used to create the base stable (wheeezy) image if it would be useful, then you (or anyone else) could build their own.
 

TravellingGuy

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2010
67
39
Hey guys.

Good news, Nvidia has updated their Linux for Tegra driver to 16.4, which has some important fixes.

You can easily download and install it on your Debian image. Head over to my Hardware Acceleration thread for details and installation instructions.
 

TravellingGuy

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2010
67
39
Experimenting with newer X releases

Hey guys.

I've been playing around with a newer X release (ABI 14), which the latest Nvidia drivers support. While it works, I experience disappearing text in mainly GTk applications. QT apps are absolutely fine.

Being able to run a newer X release also allows the latest Gnome to run, which isn't possible with my current Debian image, where X is locked at ABI 12. The good news, Gnome Shell works surprisingly well with the Nvidia drivers. KDE Plasma is not usable, in my experiments, though.

I plan on releasing a test Debian image with various desktop environments installed based on this newer X release and the Nvidia drivers. I suspect it's a buggy Nvidia driver causing the text issues, but maybe if I release it, you guys can help find a workaround or something. Or, you could use it as a QT environment only, where it seems to be fine.
 

jrohwer

Senior Member
Mar 4, 2011
424
286
Hey guys.

I've been playing around with a newer X release (ABI 14), which the latest Nvidia drivers support. While it works, I experience disappearing text in mainly GTk applications. QT apps are absolutely fine.

Being able to run a newer X release also allows the latest Gnome to run, which isn't possible with my current Debian image, where X is locked at ABI 12. The good news, Gnome Shell works surprisingly well with the Nvidia drivers. KDE Plasma is not usable, in my experiments, though.

I plan on releasing a test Debian image with various desktop environments installed based on this newer X release and the Nvidia drivers. I suspect it's a buggy Nvidia driver causing the text issues, but maybe if I release it, you guys can help find a workaround or something. Or, you could use it as a QT environment only, where it seems to be fine.

I can confirm this. Tried upgrading my working Ubuntu 13.04 (ABI13) to 13.10 (ABI 14). Indeed GTk apps (such as firefox or thunderbird) show bad text corruption. The ABI13 Nvidia driver works fine on 13.04. In the end I got it to work by pinning xserver-xorg-core and packages depending on ot to the 13.04 release. I attach my preferences file (remove the .txt extension and copy to /etc/apt/preferences.d). I now have a perfectly working 13.10 installation, and will try to upgrade it to 14.04 which is a long term support release using the same strategy.

I realise this is ubuntu and not debian but under the hood they are very similar in the workings of apt and friends, so some of this might be useful to you. The advantage is that Ubuntu 13.04 has abi 13 which is more recent than abi 12 for debian stable, so you might get compatibility with newer features. If you are adventurous, you might even add the Ubuntu repos in your sources list and install these packages from raring (13.04). Who knows it might work??? :)
 

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  • 5
    Updated 2014-05-11!

    Well, well, what do we have here? This is a full Debian Unstable installation with the relatively new MATE Desktop Environment http://mate-desktop.org/, which has finally made it's way to the Debian Unstable. MATE is essentially a continuation of the Gnome 2 desktop, and runs great on lower end hardware.

    Screenshot:
    attachment.php


    This DOES NOT have the NVIDIA drivers, as I'm using the very latest X releases. The only thing the NVIDIA drivers really get you is good video playback and 3D performance. I don't find the NVIDIA drivers give better 2D performance.

    Minor Issues
    • As you can see in the screenshot, the battery indicator shows as not working. However, if you hover your mouse over the battery indicator, it does show the battery level of both batteries.
    • Systemd recently came the default system and service manager in Debian unstable. Systemd says it requires the AUTOFS4 kernel module, however that module does not seem to exist in @jrohwer's kernel, so you'll see systemd failures during boot. It does boot fine anyway, but see the next bullet point.
    • systemd is unable to do an fsck on the root file system (maybe because AUTOFS4 kernel module) during boot, so it ends up leaving the root filesystem in read-only mode. I have worked around this by adding a line to the /etc/rc.local to remount / as readwrite, which seems to do the trick.
    • Gnome Network Manager has a bit of odd behaviour. After trying to connect to your wireless network for the first time, it will fail, but it will add your network to the list of available networks. Right-click the Network Manager icon, select "Edit Connections...", select your wireless network, click Edit, go to the "Wi-Fi Security" tab and manually enter your wireless passphrase. After doing this once, it will connect normally after that.
    • As before, sound is hit and miss. Powering down and booting again has a tendency to fix it for a while.
    • Periodically, when it boots into MATE, the touchpad will stop working. Undock and dock again and it'll come back.
    • Power management doesn't work.

    Good things
    • Touchscreen works!
    • You don't need to undock your keyboard during boot. Nice!

    Bluetooth and HDMI was not tested (I don't use them).

    DOWNLOAD
    http://goo.gl/LfydG7

    USAGE
    Default user is "debian" with a password of "debian".

    INSTALLATION
    In Android, if you have an existing linuxroot in your /data/ directory, rename/move it.

    Extract the Debian image into /data/

    Code:
    su
    busybox mount -o remount,rw /
    mv /data/linuxroot /data/linuxroot-old
    
    cd /data
    tar -pxvzf /pathto/debian-unstable-mate-2014-05-11.tar.gz
    busybox mount -o remount,ro /

    Reboot to recovery, install @jrohwer's kernel and you're away.

    THANKS
    @jrohwer
    @DjDill
    @Sni

    Below is my original post for anyone that want's the older Debian Unstable with the NVIDIA drivers

    **************************
    Original Post!

    This is a basic Debian Unstable (mostly unstable) image for @jrohwer's rootbind method/kernel found here (see post 3):
    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2347581
    It uses the 3.1.10-12 oc kernel.

    Obligatory Screenshot:
    attachment.php


    This has the latest Linux For Tegra binary drivers installed (R16.3) and working. es2_info shows the renderer as "NVIDIA Tegra" and I've included a 720p trailer in the Videos directory which can be played with nvgstplayer with great quality and sound. (nvgstplayer --uri "The Simpsons Movie - Trailer.mp4")

    HOW I CREATED IT
    I started with a Debian stable install and got the NVidia Tegra drivers working with it. Debian stable's X is at ABI 12. I then held the xserver-xorg-core (apt-mark hold xerver-xorg-core) package to prevent it from automatically updating. Then upgraded everything else to the unstable versions. It seems very few packages are dependent on newer X releases. I did try to upgrade X to the last ABI 14 version that Debian did, but got bad screen corruption with newer X releases and the Tegra driver.

    I tried get gstreamer hardware accelerated playback by following this guide (http://ac100.grandou.net/hw_accelerated_video_playback) but did not have success.

    DOWNLOAD
    http://goo.gl/ZSYoZC

    (Mirrors welcome! I suspect Google Drive will shut it down if too many people go for it.)

    It's 850 MB download.

    USAGE
    Default user is "debian" with a password of "debian".

    Ensure your tablet is not docked until you get the login screen.

    INSTALLATION
    In Android, if you have an existing linuxroot in your /data/ directory, rename/move it.

    Extract the Debian image into /data/

    Code:
    su
    busybox mount -o remount,rw /
    mv /data/linuxroot /data/linuxroot-old
    
    cd /data
    tar -pxvzf /pathto/debian-unstable.tar.gz
    busybox mount -o remount,ro /

    Reboot to recovery, install @jrohwer's kernel and you're away.

    MISCELLANEOUS
    Wireless works, sound mostly works (it seems to randomly stop working for no apparent reason.. @DjDill complained about the same thing for his Ubuntu image as well. As mentioned, hardware acceleration is working.

    I didn't test bluetooth, HDMI, or power management. :)
    4
    MATE Desktop

    Hey all.

    Original post updated with a new image, full Debian Unstable with the new MATE Desktop. This image DOES NOT have the NVIDIA drivers, so it's a full on Debian Unstable image. See original post for details.
    3
    For those interested, I made a guide for setting up rootbind linux :

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2684854

    I'll update and link your thread too ;)

    Thanks to all dev/users making img for our TF101, it's really great to make it a working laptop :)

    Thanks for your work.
    1
    Hi vbob.

    I'll test it ASAP and post the results in here.

    Meanwhile, I would like to ask some questions about Linux in the TF101G:

    1st - Using jrohwer Kernel, I need to extract the IMG to /data/linuxroot, right?

    No, you need to flash jrohwer's kernel in recovery.

    2nd - I should never use the Dock until it boots?

    Correct. There's weirdness with the kernel, if the dock is connected, it continually logs errors to the console during boot. I think it'll boot up eventually with it docked, but you might be waiting a few hours. :)

    3rd - Using the netinstaller v7 my tab freezes while downloading, using DjDill it wont even boot up :(

    Sorry, not sure on this one!