Once you've installed Ubuntu onto the Windows tablet and rebooted into it for the first time, you'll once again need to set the desktop orientation to landscape via Screen Display under System Settings. Now open Firefox on your tablet and download two more scripts from here and here respectively.
Both improve the hardware support for devices sporting the Linx 1010's Z3735F Atom chip, and while they don't appear to add any extra functionality to the Linx, they do ensure the processor is correctly identified.
You need to chmod both scripts following the same procedure as outlined in step 2 of the Grub step-by-step guide, then install them one after the other, rebooting between each. Finally, download and install the latest Ubuntu updates when offered.
You'll notice the login screen reverts to portrait mode when you first log in – don't worry, landscape view is restored after you log in, and you can now review what is and isn't supported on your tablet. In the case of the Linx 1010, not an awful lot is working at this point.
There's no ACPI support, the touchscreen isn't detected, and there's no camera support or sound (although the sound chip is at least detected). The internal Wi-Fi is thankfully supported, as are the USB ports, Bluetooth, keyboard/trackpad and internal flash. Later versions of the kernel should improve compatibility – this is why we were keen to see if we could install Ubuntu 15.10 or 16.04 on the Linx.
We were thwarted in this respect – touch support is present, but we had to manually add the bootia32.efi file to the EFI\Boot folder to get the live environment to boot, and installation failed at varying points, probably due to the spotty internal flash drive support. We're hoping the final release of 16.04 may yield more possibilities, but if you can't wait for that and are willing to run the risk of reduced stability read on.
If you're desperate to get touchscreen support for your tablet, and you've got a spare USB Wi-Fi adaptor handy (because updating the kernel breaks the internal Wi-Fi adaptor), then upgrade your kernel to 4.1 or later. We picked kernel 4.3.3 – to install this, type the following into a Terminal:
$ cd /tmp
$ wget \kernel.ubuntu.com/ kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.3-040303_4.3.3-040303.201512150130_all.deb
$ wget kernel.ubuntu.com/ kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.3-040303-generic_4.3.3-040303.201512150130_amd64.deb
$ wget \kernel.ubuntu.com/ kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3.3-wily/linux-image-4.3.3-040303-generic_4.3.3-040303.201512150130_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-4.3*.deb linux-image-4.3*.deb
Once complete, reboot your tablet. You'll discover you now have touch support at the login screen (this is single touch, not multi-touch), but once you log in and the display rotates you'll find it no longer works correctly. We'll fix that shortly.
First, you need to be aware of the drawbacks. You'll lose support for the internal SDIO wireless card (we had to plug in a spare USB Wi-Fi adaptor to get internet connectivity back) and the sound is no longer recognised. There may also be issues with stability that you can fix with a rough and ready workaround by configuring Grub:
$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub
Look for the line marked GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and change it to this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="intel_idle.max_cstate=0 quiet"
Save your file, exit nano and then type:
$ sudo update-grub
Reboot, and you'll reduce the potential for system lockups, but note the kernel parameter increases power consumption and impact on battery life, which is a shame because the ACPI features still don't work, meaning that the power settings remain inaccurate: battery life is always rated at 100%, even when it's clearly not.
Fix the touchscreen
Moving on, let's get the touchscreen working properly. First, identify its type using xinput . In the case of the Linx 1010, this reveals it has a Goodix Capacitive TouchScreen. What we need to do is instruct the touchscreen to rotate its matrix when the display does, which means it'll work in both portrait and landscape modes. You can do this using xinput :
xinput set-prop "Goodix Capacitive TouchScreen"
'Coordinate Transformation Matrix' 0 1 0 -1 0 1 0 0 1
You should now find the touchscreen works correctly in horizontal landscape mode. As things stand, you'll need to apply this manually every time you log into Ubuntu, while the touchscreen won't work properly if you rotate back to portrait mode.
If you want to be able to rotate the screen and touchscreen together, then adapt the rotate-screen.sh script (switch to Raw view, then right-click and choose 'Save page as' to save it to your tablet).
Then open it in Gedit or nano to amend the following lines:
TOUCHPAD='pointer:SINO WEALTH USB CompositeDevice'
TOUCHSCREEN='Goodix Capacitive TouchScreen'
Save and exit, then use the script:
$ ./rotate_desktop.sh
Substitute with normal (portrait), inverted, left or right to rotate both the screen and touchscreen matrix. Before using the script, you need to first undo the current screen rotation using Screen Display – restore it to its default view, then run ./rotate_desktop.sh right to get touchpad and touchscreen on the same page.
From here we suggest creating a startup script: open dash and type startup , then launch Startup Applications. Click 'Add'. Type a suitable name etc to help you identify it, click 'Browse' to locate and your select your script – when done, click inside the 'Command' box and be sure to append right to the end of the script.
Click 'Save', reboot and after logging in you should find your tablet and touchscreen now work beautifully with your plug-in keyboard and touchpad. You've now successfully installed Ubuntu on your Bay Trail tablet. What next? Keep an eye out for the latest kernel updates and forums to see if entrepreneurial folk have found the workarounds and tweaks required to get more of your tablet's hardware working properly. As for us, we're off to see if we can get the internal sound and Wi-Fi working again before turning our attention to the ACPI settings.
