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

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JaceAlvejetti

Senior Member
Aug 26, 2007
222
35
Detroit, MI
Finally got it to work!! Now I rmember reading about removing pulse so I went about that and am now in the process of upgrading to 12.04, its been going for over two hours and claims it has fifty five minutes left

EDIT: Just checked the Workings and not workings and figured i would put this up, Mine shows the batteries as (not present), food for thought :) thanks for all the work!

Edit 2: After upgrade completes I get a blinking screen about two seconds after the logon screen first shows ups, re DD'ing me SD
 
Last edited:
E

edzilla

Senior Member
Jan 14, 2007
173
11
To report on my experience: a fast micro SD really boosts performance.
With my 16go transcend micro SD, it takes around 1 hour to upgrade to 12.04, which seems pretty good (maybe even better than my atom powered netbook)
 
H

hairdewx

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2009
675
276
So how is it performance-wise on the prime? Is it comparable to running Ubuntu on a netbook?
 
E

edzilla

Senior Member
Jan 14, 2007
173
11
JaceAlvejetti said:
Finally got it to work!! Now I rmember reading about removing pulse so I went about that and am now in the process of upgrading to 12.04, its been going for over two hours and claims it has fifty five minutes left

EDIT: Just checked the Workings and not workings and figured i would put this up, Mine shows the batteries as (not present), food for thought :) thanks for all the work!

Edit 2: After upgrade completes I get a blinking screen about two seconds after the logon screen first shows ups, re DD'ing me SD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I had the same issue, and I got an answer: even if you remove pulseaudio, it gets reinstalled on the upgrade to 12.04.
You need to remove it again right after the upgrade, BEFORE you reboot!

Also, after you upgrade to 12.04 the battery works.

---------- Post added at 12:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 AM ----------
hairdewx said:
So how is it performance-wise on the prime? Is it comparable to running Ubuntu on a netbook?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I haven't been able to test it extensively yet (and I'm still running Unity), but so far it's quite usable, at least as fast as my netbook (which has a small SSD, but a completely encrypted LUKS root partition, so the hard drive performance should be comparable)
 
J

JaceAlvejetti

Senior Member
Aug 26, 2007
222
35
Detroit, MI
Ok Quick question, I love linux and have looked and found the same resize tool, (resize2fs) on my desktop ubuntu installation, Can one run this from the desktop so the Prime does not have to?
 
R

razgriz8426

Senior Member
Mar 1, 2011
74
23
Merrhhh, I finally said heck with it, downloaded all of the files to set this up, and then after reading every post in the thread decided to call it off until the next release. Can't wait man, it's going to be like Christmas!!
 
J

JaceAlvejetti

Senior Member
Aug 26, 2007
222
35
Detroit, MI
Ok got it all working on 12.04, When i try to apt-get almost anything it cant find it, Including xfce so my newest question is how did you install xfce in this?
 
T

TanKCR

Senior Member
Jan 19, 2011
86
10
Spokane
The Blob???

Hey guys, I have been working on re-building the kernel myself injecting the drivers and what not, trying to get it to run a little better. Anyway I unblobbed the file and noticed two things fairly quickly. 1: There is no blob header in the file? 2: I can not open the prime-sdlinux.blob.LNX-kernel.gz no matter what I try it fails saying that it is not gzip format!!! Can anyone help???:confused:
 
lilstevie

lilstevie

Senior Recognized Developer
Apr 17, 2009
1,339
1,040
TanKCR said:
Hey guys, I have been working on re-building the kernel myself injecting the drivers and what not, trying to get it to run a little better. Anyway I unblobbed the file and noticed two things fairly quickly. 1: There is no blob header in the file? 2: I can not open the prime-sdlinux.blob.LNX-kernel.gz no matter what I try it fails saying that it is not gzip format!!! Can anyone help???:confused:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have no idea what you have done, kernel.gz?

strip the first 28 bytes and the blob will be fine, it is just to appease the bootloader cause even in an unlocked state it expects the signature stuff to be present even though it totally ignores it.

the resulting file should be prime-sdlinux.LNX, not some -kernel,gz what ever is extracting it is doing something wrong, the kernel is a binary.
 
T

TanKCR

Senior Member
Jan 19, 2011
86
10
Spokane
lilstevie said:
I have no idea what you have done, kernel.gz?

strip the first 28 bytes and the blob will be fine, it is just to appease the bootloader cause even in an unlocked state it expects the signature stuff to be present even though it totally ignores it.

the resulting file should be prime-sdlinux.LNX, not some -kernel,gz what ever is extracting it is doing something wrong, the kernel is a binary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

So once I end up with the prime-sdlinux.LNX how do I extract the files that are inside of it? blob.LNX = boot.img correct?
 
H

hartej

Senior Member
Dec 10, 2004
159
54
From the Transformer forum, but should be the same. Blob.lnx is the same as boot.img:

rayman84 said:
  • blob.HEADER - Header stuff (ignore it)
  • blob.APP - system.img
  • blob.LNX - boot.img
  • blob.SOS - recovery.img (e.g. regular boot.img)
  • blob.EBT - bootloader.bin (ignore)

The system.img is ext4 and can be mounted as a loop fs in linux.
The rest of the files..well..If you don't know how to extract them, you have no use of these blob tools ;) (*hint* http://github.com/AndroidRoot/BootTools)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Have you tried using BootTools on it?
 
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C

chrischdi

Senior Member
Aug 30, 2010
81
19
Stuttgart
Just wanted to ask if it would be possible to use KDE Plasma/Active.

I think it's much more optimized for tablets. I know, first the problems of the kernel need to be fixed.
 
T

TanKCR

Senior Member
Jan 19, 2011
86
10
Spokane
lilstevie said:
I have no idea what you have done, kernel.gz?

strip the first 28 bytes and the blob will be fine, it is just to appease the bootloader cause even in an unlocked state it expects the signature stuff to be present even though it totally ignores it.

the resulting file should be prime-sdlinux.LNX, not some -kernel,gz what ever is extracting it is doing something wrong, the kernel is a binary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

For some reason when I unpack the blob file it is not unpacking the blobname.header file, but all I need is the original header from ASUS right? Do you know where I can get that file?
 
T

TanKCR

Senior Member
Jan 19, 2011
86
10
Spokane
for some reason restoring the boot from advanced restore did nothing for me, I ended up having to reinstall my kernel to get back into android.
 
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    E
    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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