WORKING Ubuntu on G-Tablet UPDATED With Files

jersacct · Dec 31, 2010

***UPDATE***
Files located at the bottom of the post.

Ubuntu runs fairly nice on the GTab. Find a video below to see it boot. Performance is not as smooth as Android, but I've already narrowed down some kernel tweaks to speed it up.

What works:
USB Devices
Wifi
Video (not accelerated)
Internal/external storage

What doesn't work (yet):
Touchscreen
Softkeys
Volume/Power buttons
Accelerometer
Camera
Audio (pulseaudio hangs, haven't investigated)

To get it working, I used a custom kernel with added support for various drivers, but otherwise pretty much the stock VS kernel. It gets the rootfs from the micro SD card, so it only requires a boot.img flash (so it doesn't destroy any user data or the Android system partition).

Youtube video of my gtab booting into Ubuntu

***Instructions:
Using linux (via an existing install, or a LiveCD), format a 4GB or larger micro SD card as ext3, and untar the karmic-rootfs on it.

Code:

cd /media/sdcard
tar -xzvf /home/user/Desktop/karmic-rootfs.tar.gz

Install the boot-karmic update zip via ClockworkMod Recovery. ***MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP boot update.zip (or grab one from Clemsyn's Kernel Corner)***

Insert the sd card and boot. You will see some yellowish/gold colored text quickly scrolling across the screen - this is normal. This should boot straight to a GDM login screen.

User=gtab Password=gtab

Wireless will work with wicd (not NetworkManager), and you should use a USB hub with a USB keyboard & mouse.

Karmic rootfs tarball (1.1GB)

Karmic kernel update.zip

roebeet · Dec 31, 2010

sweeeeeettttt.

jfholijr · Dec 31, 2010

Will you be creating a Rom from this? If so fantastic!

jneidlinger · Dec 31, 2010

Knew this was just a matter of time...

I'll throw all sorts of support behind this... a stable, fast ubuntu build for this tablet which just push things SO far over the top. Especially since we have that nice usable USB port!

thebadfrog · Dec 31, 2010

Sweet.....keep us updated!!

rcgabriel · Dec 31, 2010

jersacct said:
Ubuntu runs fairly nice on the GTab. Find a video below to see it boot. Performance is not as smooth as Android, but I've already narrowed down some kernel tweaks to speed it up.

What works:
USB Devices
Wifi
Video (not accelerated)
Internal/external storage

What doesn't work (yet):
Touchscreen
Softkeys
Volume/Power buttons
Accelerometer
Camera

To get it working, I used a custom kernel with added support for various drivers, but otherwise pretty much the stock VS kernel. It gets the rootfs from the micro SD card, so it only requires a boot.img flash (so it doesnt destry any user data or the Android system partition).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbLkdvpZVEo

Awesome work. Getting 10.10 working with the Unity interface would actually get me very excited.

I'm sure the touchscreen drivers can be retrofitted into something useful - the drivers themselves are pretty straightforward, I guess they'd need to be made to work with X?

The only concern in terms of making it really usable is getting accelerate X11 support. I found this post which is a bit concerning:
http://tegradeveloper.nvidia.com/tegra/forum/newbie-hoping-port-debian-tegra-2

However, I'm guessing we could always use an older X11 that will work with the supported driver ABI?

LRiley · Dec 31, 2010

This thing just gets better
hope the xoom isn't locked down

thedudevt · Dec 31, 2010

xbmc

Add xbmc to the rom and you'd have a winner.

M 5hizzle · Dec 31, 2010

WOW! Nice work!

But now you got me all worked up....

....Must....have.....ubuntuuuu....................

necromonger89 · Jan 1, 2011

I had no clue what Ubuntu was until a Google search.. looks really awesome. It could potentially make this into a thin touchscreen netbook with all the features of a PC.

Keep up the work!

jersacct · Jan 1, 2011

Now that I know that it's feasible, I'm going to continue work on getting a newer kernel up and running. It looks like a lot of the commits have been related to wireless, touchscreen, etc., so a newer kernel could help, along with a nice shiny Maverick build.

SofaKingWeird · Jan 1, 2011

WOW! Nice, I will be happy just having Android that works with all the features. I've loaded every flavor of Android so far, but still haven't figured out how to get NTFS to work on the microSD. So far I like TnT Lite the best, but VEGAn is really cool too. Thanks to all for making this so fun and useful.

Virtual Pariah · Jan 1, 2011

Aww man.

This would mean I'd have to get a 2nd G-Tab.
Great work.

prscott1 · Jan 1, 2011

xinput_calibrator

Hi, FWIW, with help from yuray (for the customized initramfs) and mozzald at slatedroid, I created a rootfs for xubuntu to run on the zt-180 tablet. yuray created the modified boot.img and mozzwald compiled the xinput_calibrator binary to use. It was perfect in getting the touchscreen to work. I also was able to get the onboard keyboard to work fine.

Thanks to mozzwald - If you enter the following from your ubuntu command line - you can see if the touchscreen is identified:

lshal | grep input.product

and to see if it is really working, enter:

sudo cat /dev/input/event2

(if it is working fine, you should see some garbled output on the screen).

If so then you get the source for xinput_calibrator and compile for your build.

HTH.

Aerv · Jan 1, 2011

prscott1 said:
Hi, FWIW, with help from yuray (for the customized initramfs) and mozzald at slatedroid, I created a rootfs for xubuntu to run on the zt-180 tablet. yuray created the modified boot.img and mozzwald compiled the xinput_calibrator binary to use. It was perfect in getting the touchscreen to work. I also was able to get the onboard keyboard to work fine.

Thanks to mozzwald - If you enter the following from your ubuntu command line - you can see if the touchscreen is identified:

lshal | grep input.product

and to see if it is really working, enter:

sudo cat /dev/input/event2

(if it is working fine, you should see some garbled output on the screen).

If so then you get the source for xinput_calibrator and compile for your build.

HTH.

Any chance of getting a download link to all this?

Sent from my R2-Droid2 using Tapatalk

prscott1 · Jan 1, 2011

Aerv said:
Any chance of getting a download link to all this?

Sent from my R2-Droid2 using Tapatalk

Hi - check out the slatedroid thread found at http://www.topic=9501.com . My post with the download link is around page 11 or 12 (can't remember).

Also, This thread is for the zt-180 tablet which has a different arm version. My build probably will not work on gtablet. Also, the wifi drivers and such are for the zt-180 tablet not the gtablet.

There may be some bits of info that may be helpful though.

Tcsnyder · Jan 3, 2011

Any chance we will be able to dual boot this thing? That would be my best option. I i love ubuntu, but android is awesome also. I hope we can have the best of both worlds

computerwiz_222 · Jan 3, 2011

Tcsnyder said:
Any chance we will be able to dual boot this thing? That would be my best option. I i love ubuntu, but android is awesome also. I hope we can have the best of both worlds

As far as I know, Ubuntu is coming out with a "Tablet" distro. This would mean that it's Ubuntu but optimized for touch screen.

I would also be interested in dual booting also.

vgrade · Jan 5, 2011

Hi Guys,

Do you have boot messages configured.

I'm working blind on the Advent Vega Tablet at the moment.

vgrade

jersacct · Jan 5, 2011

See this post for getting kernel messages to display during the boot process.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=893428

Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0B5.1 using Tapatalk

WORKING Ubuntu on G-Tablet *UPDATED With Files*

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Top Liked Posts

WORKING Ubuntu on G-Tablet UPDATED With Files