Linux on the GPD Win

Hi,
One of the main reasons I didn't back the GPD Win on Indiegogo was that I was unsure whether it would run Linux without a lot of pain.

I learned my lesson about a year ago when I bought a Baytrail Z3735F based Windows Tablet/convertible (Toshiba Click Mini) and even now it's barely useable - and that's with help from others. Mostly I feel I wasted my GB£210 ($340 equivalent). I've built custom kernels with lots of interesting patches, imported drivers, swapped in different firmware blobs, all sorts. Still no working sound, cameras, bluetooth, dock/undock, hardware buttons.

So I'd like to know whether GPD have tried linux on this. Or be willing to donate a unit to an expert to try and get linux working?

thanks
Paul

It seems GPD are not manning their own forum.

GPD, where are you?

GPD WIN is booted by UEFI.It can install the Linux system.But cause the working prototype is not finish.so we haven't tried before.Once it finished.we will try it for your all.

Jackfrost71 wrote:It seems GPD are not manning their own forum.  

GPD, where are you?

Sorry for the late response.last week we had 3 day leave cause the May day holiday.
We will check our forum more times later.

If someone has ordered one with the intention of running linux, I will be happy to offer advice, in the hope of hearing about their success, in anticipation of getting my own.
Or even if GPD will loan me a unit I will see how far I get and blog about it - I already documented the work I did on the Toshiba: http://www.maxbyte.co.uk/blog007.html

The last thing in the world I want to be carrying around in my pocket is Windows 10. The GPD Win would have made a great Linux device, but they don't really seem that interested or committed. I ended up going with the Pyra handheld instead.

rickcl wrote:The last thing in the world I want to be carrying around in my pocket is Windows 10. The GPD Win would have made a great Linux device, but they don't really seem that interested or committed. I ended up going with the Pyra handheld instead.

Thanks for concern.Our original design is for a Windows based device.But it also can support Linux.The working prototype will be finished in June.You should be seeing the more different review videos soon.

Hello GPD,
have you had a chance to try linux on this yet?

I'm still interested in being a beta tester for you and writing a review.

regards
Paul

I've got mine boiting from a fedora 24 live image with kde from usb. Screen rotation and wifi have trouble

interesting, thanks kb1qzh for posting that.

there are a bunch of us who used to own a Sharp Zaurus who are very interested in this device, we've been discussing it here:
http://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=34424&view=findpost&p=282541

I'll x-post this to there

I got mine too.
I tried Arch Linux, my favorite. Unfortunately after a few records from the booting process the screen gets black.
Then I tried to boot Ubuntu Gnome 64. This one boots up.

I also have trouble with the wifi (I can see wifi networks but cannot log on to them)
and I have trouble with the screen rotation, too.

Just the portrait screen orientation is working. I can change it to 180° but any change to landscape fails with black screen.
I cannot exit the black screen.

@kb1qzh:
On your screenshot I see that the screen is in landscape. Do you know how to do that, or how do you define your screen problems?
And what are youre wifi problems? Are they same to you?

I also want to get Linux working fine. In best case Arch Linux.

I've been working with a coworker who is better in linux tha I am.

This is using KDE and Fedora 24
For the screen rotation, we waited until the desktop booted and the display options to rotate the screen.
then the kshell processed needs to be killed and restarted for it to behave properly.

Wifi is doesn't work as you know. sees the network but doesn't connect.

for the install, we used a powered USB 3 hub. Fedora 24 KDE on one USB stick and a blank USB stick as the install destination.

Resetting the BIOS after install seemed let it boot better instead of going to the BIOS charging screen

I can rotate the screen by the gnome shell setting to 180°. But if I try to move it to the correct position (90°) the screen gets completely black. Do you have the same phenomenom on Fedora with KDE? How do you kill the process and restart it? Since network is not working I couldn't use SSH.

@Developer: Please help to get the screen and the wifi working correctly. Then it's a nice device for linux as well.

Gnome didn't work when we tried so that's how we ended up with KDE.

I have to try the recent wifi firmware in Windows and see if that helps the linux side. That might be a driver issue. Correct me if i'm wrong but the wifi chip is a BCM4356?

kb1qzh wrote:I've been working with a coworker who is better in linux tha I am.

This is using KDE and Fedora 24
For the screen rotation, we waited until the desktop booted and the display options to rotate the screen.
then the kshell processed needs to be killed and restarted for it to behave properly.

Wifi is doesn't work as you know. sees the network but doesn't connect.

for the install, we used a powered USB 3 hub. Fedora 24 KDE on one USB stick and a blank USB stick as the install destination.

Resetting the BIOS after install seemed let it boot better instead of going to the  BIOS charging screen

Glad you have been successful in getting display rotated.

I have tried Linux Mint, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu, but when I rotated display in Display Settings, the display turned black.

So, would like to try Fedora 24 with KDE and what you did to rotate display.

Do you mean you did the following:

1. Booted up Fedora/KDE

2. Went to Display Settings ( or whatever it is called in KDE...) and rotated display.

3. Then 'killed kshell process'.

4. Re-booted up Fedora/KDE



Could you please clarify step 3 above. What command did you use in terminal to 'kill kshell process' ?

Also, do you have to do all the steps each time you re-boot the WIN ?

Thank you for your help.

Mark

As it was explained to me, killing kshell won't kill the desktoplike it would if you did it in gnome so restarting kde as a whole wasn't necessary.

As mentioned, we tested in on a live usb and tgen installed on another usb stick. I'm still too chicken to install to the on board storage.

You might want to try ine if those usb 3 Ethernet adaptes with built-in in usb hub so you get network.
I did the wifi patch that was posted earlier in Windows but it doesn't help linux wifi. That might be a kernel thing. I out in bug reports to fedora.

I'll try to get better instructions for the weekend

kb1qzh wrote:As it was explained to me, killing kshell won't kill the desktoplike it would if you did it in gnome so restarting kde as a whole wasn't necessary.

As mentioned, we tested in on a live usb and tgen installed on another usb stick. I'm still too chicken to install to the on board storage.

You might want to try ine if those usb 3 Ethernet adaptes with built-in in usb hub so you get network.
I did the wifi patch that was posted earlier in Windows but it doesn't help linux wifi. That might be a kernel thing. I out in bug reports to fedora.

I'll try to get better instructions for the weekend

Thank you for your help.

Understand about live usb...I've been testing the linux distros with live usb flash drive too...

I did buy a nice combination usb ethernet adapter with 3 usb ports made by j5create. Works great.

Look forward to more instructions if you can get them. It would be very helpful.

I installed Majaro with KDE. Unfortunately I don't have a usb to ethernet adapter.
When I try to turn the screen it will get black (as mentioned before). When I power off and reboot, I can still log on. After logging on the screen keeps black.
The before mentioned "3. Then 'killed kshell process'." should also have worked after a shut off and restart but it still keeps black. I guess this is related to the log on screen which is still 90° turned. So after logging on it seems to have issues with the screen rotation and stays black. Maybe a startup script which does the kill would help.

We need some more experienced Linux guys :-)



Futhermore somebody mentioned a patch for wifi.

From Indiegogo:
@Georg Schmitz, for the linux problem I can’t help you, but for the WiFi, try this. It worked for me: download the patch here:
https://mega.nz/#FUpJJIfKVqJ6d9HEBZRWvqw
Then extract it and run it as administrator. After rebooting WiFi will work again.

Next message:
@Georg Schmitz:
You need to get the file in the link posted below by Juan Rodríguez Vita and extract the text file. You need to copy this file in the /lib/firmware/brcm folder. For the filename to use, look in /var/log/kern/log, you’ll see messages that indicates where the broadcom driver is looking for.
For me it still doesn’t see 5GHz networks, but at least it can finally connect to 2.4GHz networks.
For the rotation and black screen I have exactly the same problem and couldn’t resolv it.


The link to the patch doesn't exists. Does anybody know where to find it?

And maybe it wouldn't be necessary to turn the screen but just turning the output. I could live with 90° turned console if the GUI is in the right angle.

It seem there is a way to get wifi (2.4ghz) and correct screen orientation work. Even if it is with a dirty patch.
I could also live with KDE but I would prefer GNOME, XFCE, Cinnamon, or Mate.

@FuLgOrE

Agree that it would be nice to use something more 'lightweight' than KDE on the WIN.

User 'Phawx' over at Dingoonity.org forums, has booted up a version of Xunbuntu and was able to rotate screen successfully from Display Settings in XFCE.

However, when I tried it, the screen turned black.

Same thing happened with Linux Mint, and Lubuntu that I tried.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I could probably figure out what is the problem and how to fix it.

In meantime, would be nice to at least get Fedora with KDE working....

ArchiMark wrote:

kb1qzh wrote:I've been working with a coworker who is better in linux tha I am.

This is using KDE and Fedora 24
For the screen rotation, we waited until the desktop booted and the display options to rotate the screen.
then the kshell processed needs to be killed and restarted for it to behave properly.

Wifi is doesn't work as you know. sees the network but doesn't connect.

for the install, we used a powered USB 3 hub. Fedora 24 KDE on one USB stick and a blank USB stick as the install destination.

Resetting the BIOS after install seemed let it boot better instead of going to the  BIOS charging screen

Glad you have been successful in getting display rotated.

I have tried Linux Mint, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu, but when I rotated display in Display Settings, the display turned black.

So, would like to try Fedora 24 with KDE and what you did to rotate display.

Do you mean you did the following:

1. Booted up Fedora/KDE

2. Went to Display Settings ( or whatever it is called in KDE...) and rotated display.

3. Then 'killed kshell process'.

4. Re-booted up Fedora/KDE



Could you please clarify step 3 above. What command did you use in terminal to 'kill kshell process' ?

Also, do you have to do all the steps each time you re-boot the WIN ?

Thank you for your help.

Mark

I first attempted Fedora 24 Workstation, and while that worked, rotating the screen caused it to go black and not come back. I switched to Fedora 24 KDE. Switching the orientation doesn't break the screen with the Plasma Desktop on Fedora, though the desktop looks weird. Fixing that was as simple as launching Konsole by right clicking on the desktop, doing "pkill plasmashell", then "plasmashell &". The desktop properly reorients.

My steps for installing were the following:

1. Flash Fedora 24 KDE to a USB flash drive
   
2. Select to boot from it from the BIOS
   
3. Install to the eMMC, erasing Windows (I don't need no stinkin' Winderz!)
   
4. Reboot
   
5. Upon login, set in the display settings under system settings to rotate it 90 degrees.
   
6. Open Konsole by right clicking on the desktop wallpaper and selecting it.
   
7. In the terminal, run "pkill plasmashell"
   
8. In the terminal, run "plasmashell &"
   
9. Type "exit" to quit (DO NOT close the terminal through clicking X)
   

A few issues I've encountered, though it seems they have been reported:

• The device does not boot with kernel 4.8.4
  
• The Wi-Fi chip can see networks, but not connect to them
  
• If the display goes to sleep, it doesn't come back
  

Stay on the kernel that ships with Fedora 24, or at least make sure it doesn't get uninstalled so you have it as a fallback.

The Wi-Fi and display issues I also encountered on Windows, so I expect there may be bugs in the hardware or firmware. Automatic reorientation isn't supported, but I suspect that's because nothing is wired up to listen for those reorient events. If someone writes something to make that work in Plasma 5 on Fedora, that'd be awesome.

Thank you for your detailed info and instructions, Conan!

Will try it and see what happens....

As for WiFi and display turning off and then coming back, it works well for me on my WIN in Win 10. It also worked when I tried the other linux distros I mentioned.

Only issue I have had with linux is the display rotation issue.

I tried around a bit. Could start Arch linux and wifi

Starting Arch Linux:
You have to boot the usb flashdisk and as soon as you are in the boot menu of linux press "e" to edit the kernel parameter. Scroll to the end of the parameter and add " nomodeset" and press ENTER.

Wifi:
You need the before mentioned txt file.
I copied it to a micro-sd which I had inside during booting. I copied the TXT file to /lib/firmware/brcm/ and named it "brcmfmac4356-pcie.txt"
After that you have to
ifconfig wlp1s0 down
modprobe -r brcmfmac
modprobe brcmfmac
ifconfig wlp1s0 up
wifi-menu

and here you go

Hi Guys,

I'm happy for now with my GPD Win setup Manjaro XFCE 16.10 x64, some things still left to do and for some drivers to wait or write .

Working:
* WIFI 2.4 + 5GHz
* screen orientation and framebuffer orientation
* touchscreen + orientation
* integrated speaker
* games recognize all the controller modes xbox + directinput + mouse kb

Work in progress:
* battery indikation (can't currently tell if battery is nearly dead)
* screen brightness (is currently not adjustable)
* volume keys (keys not recognized)
* sd card reader is not detected
* headphones is not detected and gives no sound if forced to enable

Install:
* created bootable USB stick from manjaro-xfce-16.10-stable-x86_64.iso (1.6 GB)
* after boot (default option) manually change screen orientation in display manager
* Installed it to internal emmc storage (including full disk encryption nice - especially important on the go)
(basically the install was as easy as windows. next, next, finish)

After reboot the the config stuff

Wifi
copy the contens of brcmfmac4356-pcie.txt into the file /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4356-pcie.txt

Code:


nano /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4356-pcie.txt


reboot -> works

Screen / Touchscreen / Framebuffer
Add the following kernel parameters to change the framebuffer orientation "video=efifb fbcon=rotate:1", then reboot

Code:


# nano nano /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="... video=efifb fbcon=rotate:1"
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg


reboot -> works

I then created a bash script which rotates my screen an touchscreen every-time i login. (Settings -> Startup and Session -> Application Autostart)

Code:


#!/bin/bash
# rotate screen
xrandr -o right
# change touchscreen orientation
xinput set-prop 'Goodix Capacitive TouchScreen' 'Coordinate Transformation Matrix' 0 1 0 -1 0 1 0 0 1


@Conan @kb1qzh

Or Anyone Else Here.....

Have not been able to get Fedora 24/KDE to boot....tried both the 32 and 64 bit versions....checked checksums on both iso's.....

Can't figure out why the problem....

See lines of text in console for 64 bit as it tries to boot then think it has kernel panic, then get to 'emergency prompt'.....

Nothing happens if I try to boot up the 32 bit version.



Any suggestions or move on to Arch or Manjaro?........

@ArchiMark:
I got Arch 64 working so far.
The wifi works and the screen orientation is fine. To not get a black screen I had to set "nomodeset" as a kernel parameter.
Could anybody with GUI working tell me, which kernel parameters are set? I would like to get rid of nomodeset.

At the moment I'm stuck at getting Gnome working.

If I try to start Gnome with "startx" it complains about a missing screen.
If I try to start Gnome via GDM the cursor starts blinking in a strange way and nothing happens.

By the way:
It also works fine if I delete "video=efifb" out of the kernel parameter. But it doesn't fix the Gnome issue.

Unfortunately I have not so much time to work on it.

I'm open for new ideas, especially for a full set of kernel parameter of a working GUI system.