Gentoo/Funtoo on x86 Tablets?

Shiggity · n00b Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Posts: 12

Hey all... Since I won't be able to afford a new laptop for a long while I've been trying to get Funtoo running on my 1.2 GHz (OC'd to 1.728 GHz) dual-core ARMv7a-HFP based HP TouchPad tablet, and I can only get as far as running it in a chroot. I'd like it working, but there are other hurdles that myself and others are trying to work through.

I also have an LG GPad 8.3 that's basically the same as my TouchPad, except it's quad-core and has more RAM, among other minor differences like screen size and resolution.

Then, an idea came to me. What about installing Gen/Funtoo on an x86 tablet such as one of these?:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=410605

http://www.microcenter.com/product/429776/VivoTab_Note_8_Tablet_-_Black

Its CPU is the Intel Baytrail-T Z3735D 1.33GHz Quad-Core and here are its specs:

http://ark.intel.com/products/80272/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z3735D-2M-Cache-up-to-1_83-GHz

Also, if possible I'd like to dual boot Windows 8.1 and Gen/Funtoo so I can maybe even do some gaming and otherwise have some app compatibility etc. I don't think that'd be that hard since the hardware is x86 based and there's an SD card slot. A 64 GB microSD card would do nicely with Gen/Funtoo, leaving the onboard flash where Windows 8.1 resides totally untouched.

With all that said, what do y'all think? Would this work as smoothly as one would think since it's got an Intel CPU vs an ARM CPU?

Thanks,
Shiggity

CrankyPenguin · Apprentice Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Posts: 283

Just one point to consider, is that you might face some problems with compiling. One of the strengths and weaknesses of Gentoo is the requirement that most packages are built from source. That's why I love it but I also use it on systems built for compilation. Tablet machines in general aren't built to compile or, perhaps more importantly, vent heat terribly well. Thus you may find that the effort of building the system will lead to long term problems for your machine.

While this may sound heretical, I know that Ubuntu has a setup for tablets and there is also the Vivaldi system and the KDE Plasma Active for multi-touch devices. You may want to think about one of those as well.
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AaronPPC · Guru Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 522 Location: Tucson, AZ

It is good to see that Micro Center is still around. I remember their HUGE catalogues in the 80's.

It is my understanding that tablets have secure boot enables, which will make it difficult to install Linux. There are solutions, but I do not know how well they work.
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v_andal · Guru Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 541 Location: Germany

Hm. One can buy laptops for 250 Euro, this is not much different from the price of tablet.

Shiggitay · n00b Joined: 15 Aug 2014 Posts: 2

Hey guys! Since I posted this thread I was able to get a Quantum View 10.1" Windows Tablet that has the same or similar CPU as I mentioned before. I do have Funtoo running on it, but I'm having some issues getting everything running properly. Mainly it's the GPU acceleration that's being annoying, but I'll get it working soon enough. I've yet to get it to dualboot like I had wanted, but I'll do that eventually as well.

Thanks for the responses!

eccerr0r · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 1:00 am Post subject:

I guess this is related...

I've been having one heck of a time trying to build a kernel that works with a UEFI32 tablet to boot. As it doesn't support MBR, this is the only way it will boot, as UEFI64 binaries will not run on it.

Secure boot is off. Gotta make sure that's out of the way.

I was able to build grub2 32-bit through Gentoo, and though it doesn't perfectly work, it runs on the tablet - hinting that secure boot is indeed off. As I think I can eventually figure it out how to build a proper grub2, I swiped the Fedora Tablet project's grub in the lack of time, and used that so I can work on the real problem: building the kernel.

However I can't seem to build a kernel that will run on this tablet whatsoever. Turned on about all of the EFI options, from CONFIG_EFI, CONFIG_EFI_STUB, to FB_EFI and more, but whenever I try to make Grub2 or the built in EFI boot manager, the tablet would just hang there. No text at all from the kernel. I would think that having the wrong drivers the kernel should at least die with "unable to start init" but show *something* to the screen.

However if I use the Fedora Tablet project's kernel... it runs! I don't know what kind of magic Fedora put in, other than it looks like their secureboot patches are in.

I must be overlooking something. Tried the 3.12.35, 3.16.5-gentoo, and 3.18.1 kernels and all do the same thing and just hangs dead when I select and try to boot the kernel...

Anyone have a working .config for UEFI32 handy? What gcc and kernel are you using?
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eccerr0r · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 9:33 pm Post subject:

Just as a follow up, I got past UEFI32, and onto debugging Linux.

The kernel and drivers are *not* ready for these x86 tablets. People have gotten varying degrees of success running on these things and not everything works yet. Stilll looking for drivers, and the graphics driver does not work perfectly on my tablet...
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Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?