Linux(Fedora, Ubuntu, etc) on the Nexus 10

I'm sure its possible to run as a chroot, and vnc in, but if I could actually use the accelerated GPU, I'd hook up a mouse and keyboard with OTG, it'd be a high res laptop replacement.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda premium

I am very interested in this. I've got F17 and Gentoo running on my ARM Chromebook (and I have a N10).

What are you thinking for multiboot control, moboot?

dalingrin said:

Chroot isn't really what I'm wanting either. Hoping to eventually get close to or full hardware support natively.



Probably not moboot. LittleKernel was used as a base for moboot which has only really been used on Qualcomm architectures. This, of course, made it perfectly suited for us to use on the HP TouchPad. I'm not sure it would be worth the work required to port it to the Nexus 10.

That said, I don't think a multi booting bootloader is something we need to worry about right now. We can work with simply fastboot to load a different kernel and ramdisk while we work on native Linux. The bootloader can be worked on later after we get a better idea of what we are up against.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I'm no developer. But as a Ubuntu user I would love to see you bring this to us! I'd be happy to test anything related.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 2

dalingrin said:

That said, I don't think a multi booting bootloader is something we need to worry about right now. We can work with simply fastboot to load a different kernel and ramdisk while we work on native Linux. The bootloader can be worked on later after we get a better idea of what we are up against.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Heh, this is the exact conclusion we came to on the Open webOS project for the gnex.

Sounds good to me.

dalingrin said:

For now this post is primarily a feeler to see if there are any other developers that want to work on dual booting Android and a Linux distribution. My Nexus 10 has shipped but has not yet arrived so I've not done any work on it yet.

The Samsung Chromebook is able to run Ubuntu without issues and it has the same SoC. Hopefully, the Nexus 10 kernel will be similar and can easily use the Linux GPU blobs without a lot of work.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=samsung_chrome_a15&num=1

The Nexus 10's fast CPU in combination with a keyboard case should result in a relatively good experience when running a traditional Linux distribution with KDE Plasma Active or the like.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

(1) Thanks for the initative! I'm still enjoying your work with the Nook Color, and I really look forward to a native port of ubuntu on the N10.

(2) I'm not a developer but I would be delighted to help out with testing etc.

(3) I know that development has yet to begin, but do you envison being able to use N10 both (ie. some sort of dualboot?) as an android device and as a light laptop -- latex, light C coding? And if so, would 16g be enough or would it need 32g to be useable (as opposed to just playing around....)? I'm to order the N10 and I have a limited budget; your advice on this is most appreciative.

Thanks!

case-sensitive said:

...would 16g be enough or would it need 32g

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

http://www.indiegogo.com/pengpod

Pengpod1000 has 8GB for dual boot.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda app-developers app

In terms of space, Windows 8 requirements on ARM is the same 4 - 5 GB.

It is interesting that Exynos 5 dual core supports Direct X11 which indicates it was designed to also target Windows.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda app-developers app

I would also like to help beta testing. Ive also got an idea of programming but i think i would just slow down the production...

I would support this too.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

is there any way to get this

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation

running in dualboot on the nexus 10?
Maybe a bootmenu like on gokhan's siyah kernel on the SIII ?

I just chroot-installed lubuntu 12.04 on my N10, using http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1585009 This is just for curiosity's sake, to see what ubuntu is like on the N10, both in terms of usage/GUI and in terms of performance (knowing full well that performance will take a big hit under chroot/VNC). Here my little report, in case it would be of use as a reference for developing/running linux natively on the N10.

In short: lubuntu is almost usable. Graphics is sluggish (as expected?); as you move xterm across the screen you actually see a series of rectangles and it takes a few seconds for the DE to clean it up. Once you're inside the xterm then the system seems fairly responsive. I was able to apt-get install latex and libreoffice (!) and both work. Curiously scp does not work (ssh does) and I didn't spend much time investigating scp. I can't install dropbox.

I set the resolution of the VNC viewer to be 2560x1500 (leaving room for the android buttons). That was a mistake; menu/window frames/scroll bars etc are TINY. I should have used a smaller resolution and then pinch-zoom. Suggestion for developer: Make everything bigger.

According to top, just running the VNC viewer takes 110-120% of the CPU. That means if we can run linux naively we should expect much better performance.

Finally, I installed "System Profiler & Benchmark". Here's the output of the benchmark for the N10 vs that of an N270 atom netbook with 1G of ram and my Quad Core Q9400 @ 2.66GHz (for all benchmarks below except for cryptohash: a smaller number is better):

CPU Blowfish
Q9400 2003 MHz 3.283
N10 Unknown MHz 24.159
netbook 1600MHz 16.305 <-- not typo
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz (null) 26.1876862
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) (null) 172.816713

CPU CryptoHash
Q9400 356.041
N10 67.604
netbook 57.059

CPU Fibonacci
Q9400 3.021
N10 5.861
netbook 8.358
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 8.1375674
PowerPC 740/750 58.07682

CPU N-Queens
Q9400 17.614
N10 15.616 <-- not typo
netbook 17.852

FPU FFT
Q9400 1.560
N10 13.498
netbook 17.646

FPU Raytracing
Q9400 19.257
N10 20.286
netbook 33.042
Intel (R) Celeron (R) M processor 40.8816714
PowerPC 740/750 161.312647

I would love to see a Linux distribution running on the Nexus 10.
My preferred one is Mer and the user interface of my choice is Plasma Active (this would later allow a port of Sailfish OS, if a tablet UI gets available).

Is anybody else interested in accomplishing this port?

My previous experience is a proof-of-concept port of MeeGo/Mer to the HTC Desire HD:

So is there any plans on someone trying to get this on the N10?

fr8cture said:

So is there any plans on someone trying to get this on the N10?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Just got my Nexus 10 and I'll definitely look into this - although some help wouldn't be bad.

case-sensitive said:

I just chroot-installed lubuntu 12.04 on my N10, using http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1585009 This is just for curiosity's sake, to see what ubuntu is like on the N10, both in terms of usage/GUI and in terms of performance (knowing full well that performance will take a big hit under chroot/VNC). Here my little report, in case it would be of use as a reference for developing/running linux natively on the N10.

In short: lubuntu is almost usable. Graphics is sluggish (as expected?); as you move xterm across the screen you actually see a series of rectangles and it takes a few seconds for the DE to clean it up. Once you're inside the xterm then the system seems fairly responsive. I was able to apt-get install latex and libreoffice (!) and both work. Curiously scp does not work (ssh does) and I didn't spend much time investigating scp. I can't install dropbox.

I set the resolution of the VNC viewer to be 2560x1500 (leaving room for the android buttons). That was a mistake; menu/window frames/scroll bars etc are TINY. I should have used a smaller resolution and then pinch-zoom. Suggestion for developer: Make everything bigger.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I've got a Debian chroot running on mine until we get a proper dual-boot solution using a slightly modified from of this script: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1328742

Running LXDE, its definitely usable for text heavy stuff like office. While the visuals would be a little muddy, I'd recommend running at 1280x752. That's a perfect fit while leaving room for the buttons, and things are large enough that you could realistically use it. If you wanted to run at full res, use 2560x1504.

If you're using a bluetooth mouse with yours, I highly recommend using Jump Desktop as your VNC viewer. Its the only one I know of that supports right clicks. The only drawback is you cant run it at full resolution unless you lower the color depth, it crashes immediately otherwise.

I would love to see this happen!

I'm taking my first programming classes this semester, and I'd love to see Ubuntu come to the N10. That would be pretty dang sweet. :cyclops:

I can't see any framebuffer output (enabled VT and FB in .config) and I really don't know why.. Nothing suspicious in /proc/last_kmsg after reboot (it just hangs at some point, watchdog reboots)

Will take some time to debug this odd behaviour (maybe anybody has some clues what could have gone wrong?)