[Q&A] Ubuntu on the Transformer (eMMC install)

braernoch · Jan 15, 2012

Compile errors

I'm running into an odd error when compiling the kernel. The weird part is that it only happens on one PC - on the other everything works fine. I'm using gcc 4:4.6.1-2ubuntu5 and dtc 1.3. Any ideas?

Three changes I had to make to get kernel to compile:
1) Edit kernel/cpuset.c and change "!= task)" to "!= tsk)"
2) Edit drivers/net/wireless/bcm4329/Makefile and delete the flag -Werror. *The latest revisions to gcc force it to treat the warning as an error in dhd_linux.c.
3) Edit arch/arm/mach-tegra/board-ventana-misc.c and remove the entire if-statement that uses the instantiated-but-uninitialized variable g_NvBootArgsGPSPreemption. Remove the variable declaration, too. It's declared as an int, used as a boolean, and never given a value to begin with.

Your make should now succeed.

v0id_walker · Jan 15, 2012

noob asks:

hi there,
i would like to buy this device and use it as a tablet and linux netbook (i am using archlinux netbook right now)
I noticed that there are at least 2 ways how to run a full-fletched OS on this device (asus tf101)
First was to run the ubuntu in chrooted environment and second was to install as native OS. (as far as i know there are supposed to be more ways to do this too)
So my questions are:
1. Which one is better/has more stuff(like bluetooth/wifi or network/touchscreen) working. Can it run stuff like eclipse/lazarus/gcc?
2. Is it possible to have a dual-boot (Android/Ubuntu)?
3. The device needs to be rooted, i guess?
4. Is there a problem with rooting/unrooting?

Thanks to anyone willing to answer those questions, i guess someone already asked them but i could not find it.

braernoch · Jan 16, 2012

listen to rdnetto and lilstevie.

rdnetto · Jan 16, 2012

v0id_walker said:
hi there,
i would like to buy this device and use it as a tablet and linux netbook (i am using archlinux netbook right now)
I noticed that there are at least 2 ways how to run a full-fletched OS on this device (asus tf101)
First was to run the ubuntu in chrooted environment and second was to install as native OS. (as far as i know there are supposed to be more ways to do this too)
So my questions are:
1. Which one is better/has more stuff(like bluetooth/wifi or network/touchscreen) working. Can it run stuff like eclipse/lazarus/gcc?
2. Is it possible to have a dual-boot (Android/Ubuntu)?
3. The device needs to be rooted, i guess?
4. Is there a problem with rooting/unrooting?

Thanks to anyone willing to answer those questions, i guess someone already asked them but i could not find it.

1) chroot may have issues with hardware stuff where Android already has exclusive locks on things. Where this is not the case, things which do not currently work on Ubuntu may work under it.
I would like to stress that the reason no-one uses chroot if they can help it is because it is painfully slow, and borders on unusable. Not to mention that 756 MB can still be a little restrictive for Ubuntu (you can fill it up with Firefox and a few dozen tabs), which means Android's overhead can be rather problematic.

2) Yes, dual boot is supported by OLiFE.

3) Strictly speaking, no. Rooting involves modifying (or replacing) the Android ROM so you have root access under it. You could theoretically flash the device with Ubuntu and stock Android, and it would work just fine. However, this has the same effects on your warranty as rooting does, since you effectively have a different kind of root access under Ubuntu.
This is because root access and the ability to flash the device are two different things.

4) Depends on the model. The original Transformers can be flashed (incl. SBKv2 devices, I believe). Primes have more sophisticated DRM (see androidroot.mobi for details) and cannot currently be flashed, AFAIK.

lilstevie · Jan 16, 2012

braernoch said:
3) Yes. You must unlock the bootloader for the script to nvflash the kernel, boot, system, ROM, and OS images. Several one-click root options are available.
.

nonononononononononononononono(takes a breath)nonononononononononono.

You don't just unlock the bootloader, APX is below the bootloader, it requires knowing the secure boot key, which is known for devices with a serial below B7O, there is no "do this and it will unlock nvflash access" you either have it, or you don't.

canedha · Jan 16, 2012

lilstevie said:
nonononononononononononononono(takes a breath)nonononononononononono.

haha, i like ur style!

btw. thx for this awesome stuff ur doing here

the first time i put ubuntu on my tf i used franks tools.
i want to reinstall everything again with OLife for being able to use CWM even with ubuntu installed (the option where ubuntu boot is removed, cwn installed, used and removed and ubuntu installed back again).
after frank tools i had root right on, will this be like this with OLife as well or will i have to use razorclaw/nachoroot whatsoever?
what will happen to my data, programs in ubuntu etc when using cwm as mentioned above? will only the bootloader be overwritten for the time being or the whole partition? (i thinks its the first option but i dont want to risk it ^^)

thx again

yalkowni · Jan 16, 2012

You don't need to reinstall everything just to use olife just go straight to flashing cwm through Olife

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

canedha · Jan 16, 2012

thx and what about root?

rdnetto · Jan 16, 2012

canedha said:
haha, i like ur style!

btw. thx for this awesome stuff ur doing here

the first time i put ubuntu on my tf i used franks tools.
i want to reinstall everything again with OLife for being able to use CWM even with ubuntu installed (the option where ubuntu boot is removed, cwn installed, used and removed and ubuntu installed back again).
after frank tools i had root right on, will this be like this with OLife as well or will i have to use razorclaw/nachoroot whatsoever?
what will happen to my data, programs in ubuntu etc when using cwm as mentioned above? will only the bootloader be overwritten for the time being or the whole partition? (i thinks its the first option but i dont want to risk it ^^)

thx again

CWM does not touch your programs or data - it only writes to the LNX partition which the bootloader reads from. However, if you use OLiFE to flash a new configuration (as opposed to flashing a single partition), then you will lose all data saved on the device.

If you use OLiFE with any non-stock ROM (e.g. Prime), then you do not need to root it.

shaola · Jan 16, 2012

creating custom debian image

Hi, i am creating a custom debian image, in order to use your OLIFE script to install it.

I have a couple of doubts.

I have some issues with debootstrap in debian wheezy/unstable/experimental. Nothing i couldn't fix, I also have a sheeva plug (arm architecture) with debian installed.

Anyway, i am writting too much. Let's cut the cheese:

First question:
all /dev/* devices already created in your ubuntu.img... are they especially created for the transformer? does not the kernel create them the first time you boot? did you use mknod to make them?

Second question:
I've seen the fstab in your ubuntu.img. How did you create it? I mean... how do you know de UUID of the disk even before "format/repartition" it? ¿could i use the same one?

Third question:
You haven't create any user in your installation, is it really necesary to be root to use ubuntu? I think that's a security issue,

Last question:
My transformer is very new (christmas present), and its b70, but sbkdetect sais it's sbk1 so i guess there is no much risk (i now there is allways a risk) because a could use nvflash to restore it. couldn't i?

Thanks and sorry for so many questions, but i didn't find enough information en both threats or in the wiki.

cheers

lilstevie · Jan 16, 2012

shaola said:
Hi, i am creating a custom debian image, in order to use your OLIFE script to install it.

I have a couple of doubts.

I have some issues with debootstrap in debian wheezy/unstable/experimental. Nothing i couldn't fix, I also have a sheeva plug (arm architecture) with debian installed.

Anyway, i am writting too much. Let's cut the cheese:

First question:
all /dev/* devices already created in your ubuntu.img... are they especially created for the transformer? does not the kernel create them the first time you boot? did you use mknod to make them?

Second question:
I've seen the fstab in your ubuntu.img. How did you create it? I mean... how do you know de UUID of the disk even before "format/repartition" it? ¿could i use the same one?

Third question:
You haven't create any user in your installation, is it really necesary to be root to use ubuntu? I think that's a security issue,

Last question:
My transformer is very new (christmas present), and its b70, but sbkdetect sais it's sbk1 so i guess there is no much risk (i now there is allways a risk) because a could use nvflash to restore it. couldn't i?

Thanks and sorry for so many questions, but i didn't find enough information en both threats or in the wiki.

cheers

1) /dev is kernel maintained not files in the system.

2) I know the UUID because I got it with blkid.

3) Your user is created on the first boot with oem-config.

4) there is no chance of bricking if you do have an sbkv2 device because quite simply you need nvflash to install, not having nvflash access means no chance of bricking.

shaola · Jan 16, 2012

lilstevie said:
1) /dev is kernel maintained not files in the system.

2) I know the UUID because I got it with blkid.

3) Your user is created on the first boot with oem-config.

4) there is no chance of bricking if you do have an sbkv2 device because quite simply you need nvflash to install, not having nvflash access means no chance of bricking.

1) that's why i get kind of surprise when i mounted ubuntu.img and found files in /dev, i guess you backed up that img

2) right, i know that, but again, you got it after or before install ubuntu? If i make bigger or smaller image and partition i guess i'll have to change it.

3) is this make by script of yours? or is this ubuntu feature? i haven't use ubuntu in so much time so i don't know. I am a (not official) debian mantainer and this is the first time i've hearded about oem-config, maybe i am missing something.
EDITED: nevermid, i found oem-config package in ubuntu, doesn't exits in debian, i'll see if i cand rebuild it for this purpose in orde to other people can use debian image.

4) sbkdeteck sais my device is sbk1 but i had to use a livecd to check it because y got segfault in my debian instalation, i think it's because a diferent version of
libthread.so

Thanks again.

lilstevie · Jan 16, 2012

shaola said:
1) that's why i get kind of surprise when i mounted ubuntu.img and found files in /dev, i guess you backed up that img

2) right, i know that, but again, you got it after or before install ubuntu? If i make bigger or smaller image and partition i guess i'll have to change it.

3) is this make by script of yours? or is this ubuntu feature? i haven't use ubuntu in so much time so i don't know. I am a (not official) debian mantainer and this is the first time i've hearded about oem-config, maybe i am missing something.

4) sbkdeteck sais my device is sbk1 but i had to use a livecd to check it because y got segfault in my debian instalation, i think it's because a diferent version of libthread.so

Thanks again.

1) No, I did not "backup" that image, it is a modified live image from OMAP.
2) No, the UUID is generated with the filesystem.
3) oem-config is based off ubiquity, and it an ubuntu feature.
4) if it said sbkv1 then it will be

shaola · Jan 16, 2012

lilstevie said:
1) No, I did not "backup" that image, it is a modified live image from OMAP.
2) No, the UUID is generated with the filesystem.
3) oem-config is based off ubiquity, and it an ubuntu feature.
4) if it said sbkv1 then it will be

well, this is going to be harder than i thougth, anyway i am going to give it a try. Thanks for your help again.

braernoch · Jan 17, 2012

Kernel Source - SoC Audio

rdnetto said:
I'm running into an odd error when compiling the kernel. The weird part is that it only happens on one PC - on the other everything works fine. I'm using gcc 4:4.6.1-2ubuntu5 and dtc 1.3. Any ideas?

My most promising lead is one you're much better suited to try. I'm a coder, and I lack y'all's understanding of the architecture just yet. Perhaps we keep audio support included in the kernel and just modify the .c and .h files it uses to build its drivers from the get-go. I'm looking in particular at

1) "linux_kernel_TF101/sound/soc/tegra/tegra_soc_wm8903.c"
2) "linux_kernel_TF101/sound/soc/codecs/wm8903.h"

Theoretically, you can tweak the codec registers and define how the driver interacts with the card before compiling. Hopefully you can do something with that. I'll keep looking.

(Aside)
Have you tried adjusting sound card configuration through "/var/lib/alsa/asound.state"? Run "alsactl --help" to see that that's the default config file, adjust it, then run "alsactl restore 0" to load changes. I've had no luck there.

I thought "alsa-info.sh" from alsa-project.org might be helpful, but it looks for most of its info in lspci which is not supported on ARM devices. The closest tool I found was "lshw", but that doesn't really help.

v0id_walker · Jan 17, 2012

More questions

How is the speed of the device with ubuntu running on top of it? Is it comparable with Atom netbooks?

Will the update to ICS make it impossible to root the device?

As always, thank you for the answers.

conizius · Jan 17, 2012

I got some problems updating my android kernel.
I'm using a dualboot setup with ubuntu as recovery.
What I'm trying to do is flashing the oc kernel from roach (Prime 2.0.6).
I tried extracting the blob from the provided zip, renaming it and placing it into images/.
Then running OLiFE -> Update -> Android Kernel -> Turn on Device
Flashing finished, but afterwards neither system is booting.
Thought I could copy the missing kernel modules from Ubuntu or maybe even from Android, but there is no way.
Android is looping at the EeePad screen and Ubuntu reboots with a kernel panic.
When I turn around and flash the original boot.img everything is back to normal, Android as well as Ubuntu boots as if nothing has ever happened.

Is there any step I'm missing? Or am I just to tired to see the obvious mistake? Does I have to tell anything the size of the new kernel (it's a few bytes different).
Thanks for help

Btw. in frustration also tried with the kernel from Revolver Rom with the same result...

v0id_walker said:
How is the speed of the device with ubuntu running on top of it? Is it comparable with Atom netbooks?

Will the update to ICS make it impossible to root the device?

As always, thank you for the answers.

Well the speed is comparable in my opinion, but keep in mind that you have pretty limited ram

And you have an arm-architecture, so binary releases will never work for you unless they are released for arm. Beside that it's great! And we all love lilstevie for that!

For ICS you could just wait for a Prime release with ICS. And if you have a skb1 device nobody can lock you out... maybe you just have to get down to honeycomb until a rooted rom is released (and pre alpha builds are already floating around).

shaola · Jan 17, 2012

braernoch said:
Because built-in kernel drivers aren't apparent as modules and therefore can't be toyed with, I thought I'd rebuild the kernel with all audio support modularized. The kernel compiles, but the modules simply won't. Suddenly, they think all of their variables are undefined. Does anyone know why?

if you are talking about tipical unknown symbol (see dmesg) when you try to load de module with modprobe try to execute depmod -a as root or with sudo.

This will generate /lib/modules/modules.* files needed to be able to load that modules.

---------- Post added at 12:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 AM ----------

shaola said:
if you are talking about tipical unknown symbol (see dmesg) when you try to load de module with modprobe try to execute depmod -a as root or with sudo.

This will generate /lib/modules/modules.* files needed to be able to load that modules.

v0id_walker said:
How is the speed of the device with ubuntu running on top of it? Is it comparable with Atom netbooks?

I've been making my own tests with a custom debian image with lxde and it's fast as hell, much faster than ubuntu with gnome (obviusly) but it's still pretty unsable because i haven't been able yet to make work wifi or other important drivers, but i guess if you customize that image with another lighter enviroment it will be quite fast.

lilstevie · Jan 18, 2012

conizius said:
I got some problems updating my android kernel.
I'm using a dualboot setup with ubuntu as recovery.
What I'm trying to do is flashing the oc kernel from roach (Prime 2.0.6).
I tried extracting the blob from the provided zip, renaming it and placing it into images/.
Then running OLiFE -> Update -> Android Kernel -> Turn on Device
Flashing finished, but afterwards neither system is booting.
Thought I could copy the missing kernel modules from Ubuntu or maybe even from Android, but there is no way.
Android is looping at the EeePad screen and Ubuntu reboots with a kernel panic.
When I turn around and flash the original boot.img everything is back to normal, Android as well as Ubuntu boots as if nothing has ever happened.

Is there any step I'm missing? Or am I just to tired to see the obvious mistake? Does I have to tell anything the size of the new kernel (it's a few bytes different).
Thanks for help
Btw. in frustration also tried with the kernel from Revolver Rom with the same result...

Well the speed is comparable in my opinion, but keep in mind that you have pretty limited ram And you have an arm-architecture, so binary releases will never work for you unless they are released for arm. Beside that it's great! And we all love lilstevie for that!

For ICS you could just wait for a Prime release with ICS. And if you have a skb1 device nobody can lock you out... maybe you just have to get down to honeycomb until a rooted rom is released (and pre alpha builds are already floating around).

you cant just flash an nvblob, that is its own format and needs to be unpacked first

braernoch · Jan 18, 2012

shaola said:
if you are talking about tipical unknown symbol (see dmesg) when you try to load de module with modprobe try to execute depmod -a as root or with sudo.

This will generate /lib/modules/modules.* files needed to be able to load that modules.

At first, "make modules" from the kernel source wouldn't even compile the modules. I think I just needed a good "make mrproper". Now that I have my modules, yes, I'm getting that error, but I already tried depmod as root. I get:

Code:

root@braer-tf101:/# depmod -a
WARNING: Loop detected: /lib/modules/2.6.36.4-1210+/kernel/sound/soc/codecs/snd-soc-wm8903.ko needs headset.ko which needs snd-soc-wm8903.ko again!
WARNING: Module /lib/modules/2.6.36.4-1210+/kernel/sound/soc/codecs/snd-soc-wm8903.ko ignored, due to loop
WARNING: Module /lib/modules/2.6.36.4-1210+/kernel/sound/soc/tegra/tegra_soc_controls.ko ignored, due to loop
WARNING: Module /lib/modules/2.6.36.4-1210+/kernel/sound/soc/tegra/tegra_soc_wm8903.ko ignored, due to loop
WARNING: Module /lib/modules/2.6.36.4-1210+/kernel/sound/soc/tegra/headset.ko ignored, due to loop

Trying to see if I can edit manually. Grr...

[Q&A] Ubuntu on the Transformer (eMMC install)

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