Dell Venue Pro 8/11 with ubuntu?

[Tom_Deblauwe]

Hello,

Just to share some info about the 5130 dell venue 11:

- boot: just write an "amd64" variant of your distro's ISO to an USB stick with a windows-only program called "Rufus" and select "GPT partitioning scheme". Then copy a file called "bootia32.efi" to the "EFI/BOOT" directory. That file is a 32bit efi grub2 bootloader file. When starting, select the usb stick in the bios and it boots.
- WIFI: I got it working using the "ath6kl_sdio" wifi driver. However, I needed to use one with firmware 3.0 support, and that is in the "wireless-testing" repo, and not in 3.16. The 3.0 firmware itself you can download from http://github.com/qca/ath6kl-firmware and extract it into /lib/firmware. Also needed is to tell the ath6kl driver that it can support the chip with SDIO id 0271:0418. It is a line like:

{SDIO_DEVICE(MANUFACTURER_CODE, (MANUFACTURER_ID_AR6004_BASE | 0x18))},

you have to add to the struct "static const struct sdio_device_id ath6kl_sdio_devices[]" in the file sdio.c of the ath6kl driver so it will handle the device.

Then the wifi works here.

For me the mobile keyboard is not working okay: at startup, the mouse works, but then the mousepointer stops moving as soon as I type one letter... really any solutions to that?

Best regards,
Tom,

[Dragonbite]

Is the Dell Venue the only Windows 8 tablet that runs 32-bit UEFI, or is that standard for Windows (ARM) tablets? Or is this issue only occurring with the Dell?

Also, is this an issue with the Android-based version?

[axFelix]

Thrilled that you got the wifi working so (relatively) easily! I think all I'm waiting for at this point is for a kernel that actually consistently works with the touchpad and touchscreen, then ...

afaik, the 32-bit UEFI issue is common to the entire first generation of Bay Trail hardware (that is, all of the 64-bit quad-core x86 Atom chips shipping in the past year). It's supposed to be gone in Cherry Trail (which is the mostly-similar revision due out later this year).

[Tom_Deblauwe]

Little update: The dell mobile keyboard issue I described above is solved with the patch for 3.16 mentioned here:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=80091

Best regards,
Tom,

[keaton2]

I've been scanning this thread, but I cannot find a definite answer. I have a Venue 11 Pro 7139 that I have yet to successfully boot to a desktop GUI. It gets stuck at error: cannot initialize the agpgart module. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[keaton2]

Back again, I got the Fedlet installation USB to install and I am currently working on installing Win8 to get the newest BIOs

[José Serra]

I'm having problems to boot {venue 8} with kernel versions 3.15.1 onwards. It hangs just after Loading initial ramdisk... I tried modifying kernel options {video or nomodeset} and nothing... It only boots if I press volume before grub loads, and manually select the uefi option.

With Kernel 3.16.1 still no BT or Wifi, but the screen can be rotated in "displays" window

[ravindran.k]

Just got this one Using Intel AMT/vPro I can remotely see the Ubuntu GUI loading fine. It is mostly the HD4200 Driver.. will look more and let you all know..
if you want to play arund remotely .. install Intel SCS https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&DwnldID=20921 and connect thru the AMT tools
Ofcourse, all this if your Dell venue 11 pro is a Vpro version

[David_Go]

I've attempted to compile a 3.17 kernel on my i5 version of the Venue 11 Pro to see what the progress is (using the default settings from Ubuntu on top of a base install of the latest 14.10 besta, and default new settings for the kernel). My initial results for the things I could try are:

Batteries - including mobile keyboard - Works
Mobile Keyboard - works
Mobile Touchpad - partial - it works, but stopped suddenly. I think closing screen and then turning system on again brought it back to life.
USB3 port - works
Touchscreen - Broken
Graphics - Works
Audio - Works
Sleeping when closing lid - Works
Volume control using Audio Buttons - Works
Wifi Broken (Even after additionally following tom_deblauwe post above )
Screen Orientation Broken
Power button does not send any extinction signal
Change backlight intensity: works

[antux2]

Hi guys,
someone has also tested docking station with Ubuntu?Ethernet, usb ports, hdmi and display ports work?

Thanks,

Antonio