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Installing Ubuntu on ASUS T100 TA

As of November 2018. (20181125)

John Brodie said

The problem with step by step guides. The information is only accurate for up to a few months.

Follow this guide with a grain of salt. Check if something is working before trying to repair it. After fixing it,
verify if it is really working.

Most importantly, backup your data. You already do it monthly, don't you?

Source repository
Contribute to the guide here: https://github.com/5bentz/linux-asus-t100

Resources
Asus T100 Ubuntu group. Ask your questions here!
https://plus.google.com/communities/117853703024346186936
Various tutorials with screenshots https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/
Linuxium and Isorespin: customize Ubuntu ISOs!
https://linuxiumcomau.blogspot.com/2017/06/customizing-ubuntu-isos-documentation.html
(2016) Guide for the T100 Ubuntu 16.04:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4s5KNXf2Z36QW9acnY4RXd3bW8

Other sources that made this guide possible

(old) Latest steps to install Ubuntu on the Asus T100TA: http://www.jfwhome.com/2016/01/04/latest-
steps-to-install-ubuntu-on-the-asus-t100ta/
(old) Installing Debian On AsusT100TA https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/T100TA

The guide starts here!

1. Download Ubuntu 18.04.1

Download the ISO file you prefer. I personally like Xubuntu for its lightweight, yet powerful & customizable
desktop environment.

Ubuntu: https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
 Xubuntu: https://xubuntu.org/download
Other torrents: http://torrent.ubuntu.com/

Note: Download the 64 bit version. 32 bit versions may fail to boot.

2. Flash the installation media

Flash the installation media. We will need to write on it afterwards, so do not use dd or DD mode.

On Windows

Alternatively to this section's instructions, you can follow Ubuntu's tutorial.

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#0

Rufus download: https://rufus.ie/ (Rufus or Rufus Portable)

Run it

The defaults should be alright, I'd just recommend setting the partition scheme to GTP UEFI, since ASUS
T100 and Windows 10 are compatible with it. Make sure you are flashing the correct device.

Partition scheme: GPT UEFI

Name: 11 characters max, for example UBUNTU1804
File system: default (FAT32)
Cluster size: default (8192 bytes)
Image Mode: default (ISO).

3. Add the bootable GRUB file for our IA32-powered ASUS T100.

Once Rufus has finished to flash the media:

Copy the bootia32.efi file in the EFI/BOOT directory. This directory should already contain various EFI
files: probably BOOTx64.EFI and grubx64.efi .

If, like jfwells, you would like to build bootia32.efi by yourself, follow his guide (primarily for Linux Ubuntu
and other Linux Debian-derivatives): https://github.com/jfwells/linux-asus-t100ta/tree/master/boot

4. Boot

Disable Secure Boot

Power on your ASUS T100

Press repetitively the F2 button at boot to prompt the UEFI menu, namely Setup Utility
Go to the tab Security , then Secure Boot menu
Make sure Secure Boot Support is [Disabled]

Boot the installation medium

It is time to boot the installation medium!

 Power on your ASUS T100
Press repetitively the ESC button at boot to prompt the boot menu
Select your installation medium, in our case: UBUNTU1804
Try Ubuntu without installing
You might need to turn keyboard's numeric lock (NumLock) off
FN + numLock (or FN + Inser) on the keyboard
or numlockx off in a terminal
Optionally, change your keyboard layout
setxkbmap countryCode (de for German, fr for French, etc)

Run the installer

In a terminal, run ubiquity -b

Note: The flag -b is necessary in this tutorial. It tells ubiquity not to install a bootloader. Without this flag,
ubiquity would crash when trying to install it (Thanks Steven Andrew Mielke!). The bootloader is installed in
the section Bootloader Installation below.

For novice users

For novice users, follow Ubuntu's tutorial. But do not reboot at the end of the installation. Press the button
Continue testing instead.
When you are done with Ubuntu's tutorial, jump to the section Bootloader Installation in this document.

For more advanced users

For more advanced users, choose the last installation type: Something else. And jump to the next section
Partitioning.

5. Partitioning
The changes done in this section are not effectively written on the disk.
The actual partitioning will happen when we'll run the installation. Therefore, you can go back at any time and
try again.

Note: A new ESP's filesystem is displayed as ext4 in ubiquity when partitioning, before install. This is a
display bug. The ESP is a VFAT or FAT32 partition.

ESP stands for EFI System Partition.

Note: Ignore the device with a single partition of 8014 MB, namely /dev/mmcblk0 .

Make up space for Ubuntu

2 scenarios: keep Windows or ditch Windows.

Keep Windows

You should have already shrunk Windows's partition in Windows (Disks)

 Windows 7: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309169.aspx
Windows 10: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/shrink-a-
basic-volume#BKMK_WINUI

Ditch Windows

Delete each partition, except the ESP. The ESP is probably one of the first partition, its size is 100 MB,
and may be labeled SYSTEM .
Select the partition you want to delete
Press the - button to delete it.

Note: Alternatively, if you know what you are doing, you can create a new partition table and a new ESP.
Backup the old ESP, just in case.

Create the partition for Ubuntu

Select the Free Space

Press the + button to add a new partition
Size: the rest (this is the default)
Use as: ext4 journaling file system
Mountpoint dropdown-menu: /
OK

6. Installation
Make sure 'Device for bootloader installation' is the right device, probably /dev/mmcblk2
Install now
…Installation…
When finished, Continue testing

7. Bootloader Installation
From now onward, we will run the commands as root. To obtain superuser privileges, execute
sudo -s
Do not use sudo for each command, since it fails with some commands ( for and > ).

Enable WiFi

/!\ Theses filenames are for T100TA and T100CHI only. Other T100's (T100TAF and 100H*) have other
brcmfmac numbers. See the troubleshooting section No WiFi at the end of this document.

/!\ The filename ends with sdio.txt. Do not overwrite the file ending with sdio.bin.

cp /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-* /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.txt #useful now

cp /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-* /target/lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.txt
#useful after reboot
modprobe -r brcmfmac
modprobe brcmfmac
Now, you should be able to connect your ASUS T100 to your network.

Chroot in the new system

Find the EFI System Partition. This should be the VFAT partition next to /target
In the example below, it is mmcblk2p1
If you are unsure, check its size with lsblk , it should be about 100M.
lsblk -f

$ lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
loop0 squashfs /rofs
sda
└─sda1 ntfs Restore 0A32F68B32F67AD1
sdb
└─sdb1 vfat XUBUNTU_18_ D85F-FC95 /cdrom
mmcblk2
├─mmcblk2p1 vfat 1DA4-A881
└─mmcblk2p2 ext4 a1994fa2-ddf3-...ff /target
mmcblk2boot0
mmcblk2boot1
mmcblk0
└─mmcblk0p1 vfat 9016-4EF8 /media/xubuntu/9016-4EF8

Mount the EFI System Partition on the new system

mount /dev/mmcblk2p1 /target/boot/efi
Then, we have to mount some other filesystems before chrooting:

for dir in /dev /dev/pts /proc /run /sys;

do mount --bind "$dir" /target/"$dir";
done

Here we go!
chroot /target /bin/bash

Install the Bootloader

Verify that /dev /dev/pts /proc /run /sys and /boot/efi are mounted
findmnt

TARGET
/
├─/dev
│ └─/dev/pts
├─/proc
├─/run
├─/sys
└─/boot/efi

Install grub for EFI-IA32 architecture, and update its config file
 apt update
apt install grub-efi-ia32 #grub-pc removed is normal behavior
grub-install --efi-directory /boot/efi
update-grub
Run efibootmgr to see if ubuntu is in BootCurrent and if it is first in BootOrder, as shown below:

$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0002
Boot0001* ubuntu
Boot0002* UEFI: USB stick

8. Boot options
Boot options must be edited in the file /etc/default/grub
nano /etc/default/grub

Power saving

Edit kernel command-line parameters to add intel_idle.max_cstate=1 before quiet

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="intel_idle.max_cstate=1 quiet splash"

cstate <= 1 is STABLE in 2018.

cstate >= 2 is NOT stable.

GRUB boot screen

If you want the system to boot faster, let's say 1 second after the GRUB boot screen

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=1

Update the grub configuration file in /boot/efi/grub/grub.cfg

update-grub

9. Feel free to do other things in the chroot environment, then

reboot

When you are done. Just execute exit .

Before the reboot
umount /target/boot/efi
Reboot on the new system.
10. Sound
/!\ T100TA and T100CHI only. Other T100's (T100TAF and T100H*) has other audio device numbers. You will
find files for your device on the Asus T100 group drive.

Download the following folder

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4DiU2o72FbuOXdwRXhfZ3ZmOFE
Extract it and enter the folder
Follow the instructions from the file README.txt
sudo rm /var/lib/alsa/asound.state
sudo mkdir /usr/share/alsa/ucm/bytcr-rt5640
sudo cp HiFi bytcr-rt5640.conf /usr/share/alsa/ucm/bytcr-rt5640
Verify the file are correctly installed, as shown below

$ ll /usr/share/alsa/ucm/bytcr-rt5640
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8552 Aug 1 21:35 HiFi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 118 Aug 1 21:35 bytcr-rt5640.conf

sudo alsactl restore

We have sound devices in Pulseaudio now :3 But still no sound.
Lower the sound volume, just in case.
Reboot
a new asound file is generated (created before or after reboot), but still no sound
sudo cp kernel4.5.xand4.4.x.asound.state /var/lib/alsa/asound.state
sudo alsactl restore
Now we have sound!

If you have no sound, make sure Pulseaudio is correctly set:

pavucontrol
Configuration pane
Card Name: off
Built-in audio: Play HiFi quality music
Input device: ignore it, this is for your micro.
Output device
Port: Headphones or speaker playback
You are good!

If you still have no sound, see the troubleshooting section No Sound at the end of this document.

11. Backlit control

Use xbacklight. Working for kernel >= 4.13 (Ubuntu 1804 has kernel 4.15)

xbacklight -inc 1 and xbacklight -dec 1

xbacklight requires to configure Xorg: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
 Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
EndSection

12. Hardware video decoding

With hardware video decoding, a video player should use around 25% CPU when playing a 720p, h264 video
fullscreen, instead of 70-100% without hardware decoding.

apt install ubuntu-restricted-addons

reboot
apt install vainfo
vainfo

13. Disable numlock at boot

Numlock is especially annoying in the login screen, when typing the password…since we do not see the
actual characters.
apt remove numlockx

14. Bluetooth
/!\ Same warning as Sound and WiFi, the following file is for T100TA and T100CHI only. Other T100's
(T100TAF and T100H*) have other Bluetooth device numbers.

Bluetooth should already partially work. For a better support, e.g. pairing and bonding, we need the firmware
file BCM4324B3.hcd in the folder /lib/firmware/brcm/ .

This file can be found in Windows' partition, in the folder C:\Windows\system32\drivers .

Or, download it from: https://launchpad.net/asust100-ubuntu/+milestone/bluetooth-t100ta
Install it
mv BCM4324B3.hcd /lib/firmware/brcm/
Reboot.

Troubleshooting

1. No WiFi
We have to find out which file your system needs.

Run dmesg
sudo dmesg
Find the following line, ignore the ...
brcmfmac ...: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmacVWXYZ-sdio.bin for chip ...
For example, a T100TAF needs brcmfmac43340-sdio.txt .
 You can download it on the ASUS group:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4s5KNXf2Z36cUpzSURqaTk1TE0

2. No Sound

Solution A: Turn realtime-scheduling off for pulseaudio

For any software, the rule of thumb is to override the configuration by creating a new .conf file in
/etc/software/directory.conf.d/ instead. In this way, the system won't complain during an upgrade of the
configuration file (Here daemon.conf for pulseaudio).

Obtain superuser privilege (root)

sudo -s
Create a new directory for our configuration file
mkdir -p /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/
Create the configuration file
echo 'realtime-scheduling = no' > /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/50-fix_pulseaudio.conf
You can change the name of the file, provided you keep the .conf extension though.
For more information
man pulse-daemon.conf

Solution B: Disable sound over HDMI

Obtain superuser privilege (root)

sudo -s
echo 'blacklist snd_hdmi_lpe_audio' > /etc/modprobe.d/fix_audio.conf
Reboot

3. T100TAM Touchscreen

Add these kernel command-line parameters: tsc=reliable clocksource=tsc

History
20181125

Verify the mounts before installing bootloader

Add an audio fix: Disable sound over HDMI
Add a fix for T100TAM Touchscreen
C-state >= 2 is not stable
Minor changes

20181024

Mention the source repository

Improve the style
Create the file README.md
20181007

Advise to become root instead of using sudo

Add a Bluetooth section
Add a Troubleshooting chapter with 2 sections: No WiFi and No Sound

20180815

Use 64 bit ISOs

Disable Secure Boot
Keep the ESP instead of wiping it

20180802

First version