[UBUNTU][Testing] How-to install it on the Prime

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lilstevie

lilstevie

Senior Recognized Developer
Apr 17, 2009
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if you can get remote access to the device (ssh or adb)
Code: 
sudo apt-get autoremove pulseaudio
there is a problem with the kernel conflicting with how pulseaudio does mutex unlocking, the result is it crashes which ever program has loaded pulse.

As for the "I thought 12.04 has native tegra3 support" I don't know how clear I can be (I said this a page back) Userland does not care in the slightest about the underlying userland, there is only one thing that really cares about the SoC, and that is the acceleration driver, which by default is not installed.
 
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Emblema

Emblema

Senior Member
Jun 5, 2006
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lilstevie said:
if you can get remote access to the device (ssh or adb)
Code: 
sudo apt-get autoremove pulseaudio
there is a problem with the kernel conflicting with how pulseaudio does mutex unlocking, the result is it crashes which ever program has loaded pulse.

As for the "I thought 12.04 has native tegra3 support" I don't know how clear I can be (I said this a page back) Userland does not care in the slightest about the underlying userland, there is only one thing that really cares about the SoC, and that is the acceleration driver, which by default is not installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks now I'm trying again, I first installed the touch recovery.

Just finished upgrading the delete pulseaudio and then restart system.

edit:
ok working, after launch I'm try backup and restore.
 
Last edited:
E

etienne51

Member
Sep 25, 2005
32
30
lilstevie said:
if you can get remote access to the device (ssh or adb)
Code: 
sudo apt-get autoremove pulseaudio
there is a problem with the kernel conflicting with how pulseaudio does mutex unlocking, the result is it crashes which ever program has loaded pulse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Oh, thank you for this advice ! And yes, I confirm it works properly after uninstalling pulseaudio.
 
B

BeringBullet

Member
Jul 8, 2011
37
2
Lino Lakes
Hello Everyone, I am new to this form, not really new to rooting and ROMing my phone. I really like this idea of getting Ubuntu on my Prime but I am also new to Linux. So, I have some questions.
I am reading about the support for the Tegra 3 and talk about this boot.image is 2.6 and it need to be 3.2 to support Tegra 3?
Where is Lilsteve's website, how do we see progress and his idea on that is next/supported. and change logs?
If I have this right, it looks like once we install this build we can remove pulseaudio and run the Ubuntu updater? And this will bring it to the latest build (12.04). Does this update the kernel to 3.2? Is pulseaudio needed? can you dual-boot this with android easily? Last one, What does not work after updating everything.
I am existed to get into this world and will be dual-boot my home PC.
please keep in mine we all had to start somewhere.
Thanks for you help.
 
D

dotnerdify

Member
Dec 21, 2010
49
7
Mississauga, ON
BeringBullet said:
Hello Everyone, I am new to this form, not really new to rooting and ROMing my phone. I really like this idea of getting Ubuntu on my Prime but I am also new to Linux. So, I have some questions.
I am reading about the support for the Tegra 3 and talk about this boot.image is 2.6 and it need to be 3.2 to support Tegra 3?
Where is Lilsteve's website, how do we see progress and his idea on that is next/supported. and change logs?
If I have this right, it looks like once we install this build we can remove pulseaudio and run the Ubuntu updater? And this will bring it to the latest build (12.04). Does this update the kernel to 3.2? Is pulseaudio needed? can you dual-boot this with android easily? Last one, What does not work after updating everything.
I am existed to get into this world and will be dual-boot my home PC.
please keep in mine we all had to start somewhere.
Thanks for you help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't answer most of your questions, but yes, if write the .img file to an sd card, after installing, booting, etc you'll be eventually asked if you want to upgrade to 12.04 (took me about 15 hours to upgrade). The kernel version is 2.6.36 after I upgraded to 12.04.

To dual boot, it's fairly easy but not very practical. Basically you'll have to follow the instructions in the OP.

The performance on Unity is not good even after 12.04 upgrade. I'm trying to install xfce to see if it's any better. It is fairly bugged, not really ready to be used other than testing. Sometimes the screen blinks and you lose control of the windows, and can't really recover. The lack of trackpad support is also very annoying.

Anyway, give it a try. I hope development continues, but I'm fairly regretful of buying the ATP instead of a notebook and so far I couldn't find any great use of it.
 
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REAVER117

REAVER117

Senior Member
Feb 3, 2010
255
26
London, ON
SimonErich said:
This doesn't sound good. Do you think it will work better in the future or is this due to the limited ram or gpu ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

This is a very early leaked alpha, you can't really expect too much. Just installing XFCE4 and updating to 12.04 brings considerable improvements, I have no doubt that the Prime will be on the same level as the average netbook once littlesteve pushes his latest work (i.e. 3.x kernel, armhf). Hopefully some other members from the development community can start to contribute and help alleviate littlesteve.
 
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E

etienne51

Member
Sep 25, 2005
32
30
lilstevie said:
I would just like to warn everyone that any install using this image will not be portable to the next version due to differences in how the rootfs is handled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The rootfs is still on the MicroSD card ? We need to restore Android system before installing the release version, that's it ?

One other question... What kind of SD card are you using ? I have a basic Transcend Class 6 and it's has really poor performance. What about Class 10, or UHS-1 ? Is it a real performance improvement for the system reactivity ?
 
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    etienne51
    -----------
    HOW-TO: Ubuntu on Asus Transformer Prime TF201

    Port by lilstevie (thank you for your hard work)
    --------

    DISCLAIMER:
    I wrote this how-to from my experience installing successfully Ubuntu on my Prime.
    I am in no way responsible for what you do with your Prime, even when you are following my instructions.
    There is always the risk of making it worse, hardbricking your device, and this risk is completely down to you !
    This is not a final version. This port is currently very unstable !
    Install Ubuntu on your TF201 for testing purposes only !


    HOW-TO Unbrick your Prime (or not...):
    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1514088

    --------

    VERSION:
    v0.1: First version of the tutorial

    ABOUT:
    - Working:
    Wifi – Same patch as for the TF101
    Keyboard (if you have a dock)
    USB Host (if you have a dock)

    - Partially working:
    Graphics Acceleration (only 2D at this point)
    Touchscreen (it works but every few touches are off target by 1/2 the screen)

    - Not working:
    Bluetooth
    Trackpad
    Sound
    Sensors (ALS, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, GPS, magnetometer)
    Shutdown, Reboot, Suspend

    --------

    Links:
    Bootimage http://173.244.200.139/ports/prime-sdlinux.blob
    RootFS http://173.244.200.139/ports/ubuntu-prime.img.gz
    Fastboot http://alpharev.nl/wintools.zip

    MD5:
    9625d336062b2ff7eb9530dd5e48fb9e prime-sdlinux.blob
    1a59e7918c199a85f805cb62ca130dae ubuntu.img
    81238957a42b207213442cba7eeff684 wintools.zip

    --------

    Hardware:
    Asus Transformer Prime TF201 (bootloader unlocked & with data/charge cable)
    A computer with Linux installed
    MicroSD card of at least 4GB (a fast card is better)

    --------

    Pre-requisities:
    1. You need to have an already unlocked Prime.
    To unlock it, use the official Asus Bootloader Unlock Tool APK on Android.

    2. You need to have the latest ClockWorkMod (CWM) Recovery installed to easily backup & restore your device.
    To install it, you can use the Android tool 'ROM Manager' from Play Store if you system is already rooted.
    Otherwise, you can use the 'Fastboot' tool along with this tutorial (BE CAREFUL!):
    HOW-TO 1: http://www.theandroidsoul.com/install-cwm-5-8-2-0-on-transformer-prime/
    HOW-TO 2: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1576937

    (You can also install the Touch version of CWM to avoid destroying your volume buttons while navigating :D)
    CLASSIC : http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-5.8.2.0-tf201.img
    TOUCH : http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.1.8-tf201.img

    3. Before trying to do anything with your device, make a full nandroid backup of the current WORKING Android system.

    To do that:
    - Reboot on CWM (see the sticky, at the end)
    - Navigate to 'backup and restore', then 'backup'
    - Wait until the full backup is done...

    --------

    - INSTALL Ubuntu -

    Introduction:
    To have a working Ubuntu system on the Prime, you have to:
    - Extract the root file system on your MicroSD card
    - Flash the bootimage right on the device

    While installing Ubuntu, the only thing you modify about Android, is the bootimage. You leave the system intact,
    so you'll be able to do a pseudo-dualboot between Ubuntu, and Android (we'll see that later).

    HOW-TO:
    Extraction of the root filesystem:
    - Connect your MicroSD card on the computer running linux (ex: /dev/sdc)
    - Umount all current partitions from the card
    - Using fdisk, fully erase it, rebuild partition table, and create one partition (ex: /dev/sdc1)
    - Format it in 'ext4' (ex: $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1)
    - Using 'dd' command, extract the 'ubuntu.img' filesystem to the recently created partition
    (ex: $ dd if=ubuntu.img of=/dev/sdc1)
    - Wait until extraction completes... (It takes a while...)
    - Mount the partition to verify that the extraction completes successfully (ex: $ mount /dev/sdc1 folder)
    - Umount it, eject the card and put it on the Prime (ex: $ umount /dev/sdc1)
    - Your Ubuntu filesystem is ready to use !

    Flashing the bootimage (BE CAREFUL!):
    - Reboot in fastboot mode (see the sticky, at the end)
    - Connect the Prime to the computer, and be sure the drivers are correctly installed
    You can find the drivers here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1426502
    - Extract the fastboot archive 'wintools.zip' and move the file 'prime-sdlinux.blob' in the same folder
    - Execute the command: fastboot -i 0x0b05 flash boot prime-sdlinux.blob
    (WARNING! This command will overwrite the bootimage of your Prime! Be sure you know what you're doing!)
    - Wait until the flash completes... (it generally takes a few seconds...)
    - When the blue progress bar is full, on the Prime, hold the Power switch to reboot the device
    - Be sure that the MicroSD card is in the Prime
    - Your Prime is now booting on Ubuntu, you should see some text displaying on the screen
    - Wait until the system initializes... (It takes a while for the first boot...)
    You should see kernel verbose booting, displaying something saying the system is resizing a partition
    on the MicroSD card...
    - Your Ubuntu system is installed ! You can do the graphical basic setup, then do a hard reboot of the device !
    - Good luck with your freshly installed Ubuntu on your awsome Asus Transformer Prime !

    --------

    - RESTORE Android -

    Introduction:
    After installing Ubuntu, to have Android back on the Prime, you have to:
    - (OPTIONAL: Do a full nandroid backup to be able to restore the Ubuntu bootimage directly from the CWM later)
    - Simply restore the Android bootimage from the nandroid backup made before the installation of Ubuntu

    HOW-TO:
    To do that:
    - Reboot on CWM (see the sticky, at the end)
    - Go to 'backup and restore', then 'advanced restore'
    - Choose the Android backup made before installing Ubuntu
    - Choose 'Restore boot' option
    - Wait until the restore is done...
    - Choose 'reboot system now' to boot in Android

    --------

    - DUALBOOT Android/Ubuntu -

    Introduction:
    We can note that the both systems are installed on two different storage devices.
    Android is directly on the device and Ubuntu is on the MicroSD.
    The only thing that changes between the two systems is the bootimage.
    If you have a nandroid backup of each WORKING systems, you can do an advanced restore of the boot 'boot.img'
    of Ubuntu to boot it from the MicroSD card, or restore the boot of the Android backup to boot on Android !

    HOW-TO:
    To do that:
    - Reboot on CWM (see the sticky, at the end)
    - Go to 'backup and restore', then 'advanced restore'
    - Choose the correct backup (the Android one, or the Ubuntu one)
    - Choose 'Restore boot' option
    - Wait until the restore is done...

    --------

    STICKY:
    - Booting the Prime on recovery mode (CWM):
    1. Power off the device (using Android, or by a long press of the power switch)
    2. Power it on, by keeping simultaneously pressed the power switch and the volume down button
    3. When text displays on top of the screen, release all, and press the volume up button
    4. Wait a few seconds and CWM will appear on the Prime...

    - Booting the prime in fastboot mode:
    1. Power off the device (using Android, or by a long press of the power switch)
    2. Power it on, by keeping simultaneously pressed the power switch and the volume down button
    3. Wait until the message saying 'OS will coldboot in 10 seconds' etc... then release all buttons
    4. Use the volume down button to select the USB icon
    5. Validate with volume up
    6. You can connect your device to a computer to send fastboot commands...
    View
    17
    lilstevie
    lilstevie
    Here is a video of the current status.


    There is a blog post coming soon.
    View
    10
    lilstevie
    lilstevie
    Emblema said:
    You have pubblished new files ?
    We are anxiously awaiting :D
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    there is a major bug with the 3.1 kernel which is holding things up at the moment, there is a race condition which means the boot needs to be broken out into an initrd shell and resumed to work
    View
    10
    T
    tux_mind
    Emblema said:
    Can You write on How-to for install one distro complete ?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    no, and the reason will make you happy!
    just now i've got kexec works! :laugh:

    PLEASE STOP TESTING ROOT_CHOOSER v5.
    configuration files syntax will change for support external kernel loading.

    so, let me make root_chooser v6 and a custom kernel for boot everything.
    i'll update you soon!

    Cheers!
    View
    9
    T
    tux_mind
    i did it!
    the touchpad WORKS!
    ensure to have xf86-input-synaptics package installed ( on ubuntu should be 'xserver-xorg-input-synaptics' ).

    as usually you can find everything here: https://github.com/tux-mind/tf201-dev
    for update your TF201 follow this guide: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Asus_Transformer_Prime#INSTALLING_THE_KERNEL

    we ALWAYS provide the source code, for now all our kernel changes are in the JB15.patch file.
    if you want to contribute i'll add you to the repository collaborators.

    cheers!
    View

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