Thursday 29 December 2016

Cherry Picked Patches for Cherry Trail Devices

Benefits Bay Trail devices as well.

UpdateThis work is superseded by my 'isorespin.sh' script which can respin an official ISO suitable for use on Intel Atom devices.

I've updated my 4.9.0-11.12 kernel to include Len Brown's patch to address kernel freezes (https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109051#c628), Laszlo-Fiat's patch to stabilize the RTL8723BS driver (https://github.com/hadess/rtl8723bs/issues/76) and Hans de Goede's patches to address wifi issues (https://github.com/hadess/rtl8723bs/issues/80).

To upgrade your kernel download the shell script and after making it executable (enter 'chmod 755 <script>') you can install it as 'root' (by entering 'sudo <script>'). Once the script has finished executing the device will need to be rebooted to use the updated (patched) kernel.

4.9.0-11.12 (superseded)

Additionally I've respun yesterday's Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) Daily Build (Alpha 281216) ISO to include this updated 4.9.0-11.12 kernel together with firmware to support the Broadcom BCM4330 wifi chip (e.g. Tronsmart Ara X5) and the Broadcom BCM43340 wifi chip (e.g. ASUS EeeBook X205TA).

To try the ISO download it from the link below (in red) and write it to a USB using either 'Rufus' in Windows or 'dd' in Linux.

Ubuntu 17.04 Alpha 281216 (Daily Build) ISO (superseded)
Ubuntu comes with everything. All the essential applications, like an office suite, browsers, email and media apps come pre-installed and thousands more games and applications are available in the Ubuntu Software Centre.

To turn on wifi for mini PCs with Broadcom wifi chips it is often necessary to reload the driver. In a terminal window enter 'sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac' followed by 'sudo modprobe brcmfmac'.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Do these patches apply to 4.4 kernels?

Anonymous said...

Up and running on a Lenovo ideapad 100s, with an extreme fluidity (Intel atom z3735f), all works except bluetooth and battery. There is this repo for bluetooth https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8723bs_bt wath do you think about it?
Thanks for your work! I really love running linux here, and the kernel without patches freezes (also the 4.9, less then 4.8).

Unknown said...

First of all, thank you so much for all your work. Without this blog, I'd have never found out why my bigger laptop keeps freezing ever since I installed Linux.

Now I've bought a laptop and tablet hybrid called Trekstor Surftab twin 11.6 and I've been trying to install linux on it since it got delivered about three days ago.

This darn thing is giving me headaches :-) Even with your isos, it's not working.

16.10 won't boot at all, just shows a black screen, 16.04 freezes during install and 17.04 beta can be installed, but won't boot.

I think the problem is that I try to install it on an SD card because I want to keep Windows 10 until the whole system works flawlessly:

After installation and reboot, I end up in grub rescue terminal. It says that the UUID can't be found. I've digged into that topic and learned that grub doesn't seem to recognize the SD card at all. All I get is the internal eMMC drive and its partitions which grub can't read except for the 'msdos' partition which is the 'SYSTEM' partition that contains EFI and boot information.

Now I wonder if the tablet is capable of booting from an SD card at all ...

The main reason why I don't delete Windows and install Ubuntu on the main MMC drive is that Wifi is not working an the touch panel is behving bitchy: Already while booting, the screen turns 180 degrees. This can be fixed with 'xrandr', of course. But the touch screen is inverted, too: When the display shows everything correctly, the touch screen is upside down (and vice versa!). Although there's a command to invert the touch device, the commands don't work on the tablet. Don't know why, yet.

Interestingly, linuxium 16.04 loads the screen correctly, no need to invert it. However, the touch device is upside down there, too.

I won't give up yet. But if anyone could help me out and tell me how to get Wifi working, show battery status and invert the touchscreen that'd be great.

Regards,
N. Hof.

Linuxium said...

They would probably need to be back-ported. Is there any specific need to run the 4.4 kernel?

Linuxium said...

The bluetooth repo is included in the build but you need to install my ISO as it includes the necessary firmware.

Unknown said...

For me there is. Any newer kernel I've tried causes slow Wi-Fi speeds. I have an ASUS Eee Book X205TA with a Broadcom chipset running Peppermint 7 ('buntu 16.04).

Linuxium said...

I would not attempt the SD card installation at the moment until you have all the other issues resolved. One alternative however is to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu while you experiment. Which Ubuntu ISO works best as a LiveUSB?

Linuxium said...

What is the wifi performance like on your ASUS Eee Book X205TA with my new ISO above as this is the first time I've included support for the Broadcom BCM43340 wifi chip (noting the need that a 'sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac' followed by 'sudo modprobe brcmfmac' might be needed to initiate the wifi)?

Unknown said...

I haven't tried your ISO's yet, only the 4.4 kernels. Yes, there's a script called reloadmodules.sh that runs at boot:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
if [ "${1}" == "pre" ]; then
echo
elif [ "${1}" == "post" ]; then
modprobe -r elan_i2c
modprobe elan_i2c
modprobe -r brcmfmac
modprobe brcmfmac

I'm using a custom script to create my ISO I found here: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2254322

gtrak said...

I was able to get brcmfmac to show up as wlan0 on 43430 with firmware in description here, using the new zesty kernel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSTxdKngs2A


on a X5-Z8350 atom stickpc from china/ebay.

direct firmware link: http://www.wesolowski.eu.org/downloads/brcmfmac43430-sdio.tar.bz2

unfortunately, it wouldn't connect to my home network, but it did connect to a public unsecured 2.4GHZ 802.11N hotspot.

Feels so close!

Linuxium said...

Please try my latest Ubuntu pseudo Alpha 2 ISO as this is included now.

Unknown said...

Hello, I downloaded your Zesty ISO just now. Boot fine
has sound & wifi, Bluetooth is off, if I switch it on
it just switches itself off again. Touchpad does not work
at all. Strangely the same ISO works on my Jumper Ezpad 5s
with wifi & touchpad, but no sound. Thanks for your work

Unknown said...

Hi gaamda! Are you using the lenovo ideapad 100s-11.6?

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