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

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HOW-TO: Ubuntu on Asus Transformer Prime TF201

Port by lilstevie (thank you for your hard work)
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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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 )
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...

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- 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 !

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- 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

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- 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...

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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...

Here is a video of the current status.


There is a blog post coming soon.

Emblema said:

You have pubblished new files ?
We are anxiously awaiting

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

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!

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!