Ubuntu on Acer Aspire Switch 10

Ubuntu on Acer Aspire Switch 10.md

Ubuntu on Acer Aspire Switch

The problem

What's the problem with this tablet? Why can't I just insert the USB and mash F12 until it boots? The tablet is made to run Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 only. Some absolute genius at Acer decided to put a 32-bit UEFI on a 64-bit system, which no reasonable Linux distro supports out-of-the-box.

NOTE: This guide focuses on installing Ubuntu alongside Windows. If you're trying to replace Windows, then I assume you know enough about Linux to know which parts to change.

What works:

• Keyboard
• Trackpad
• Touchscreen
• Sound (usually)
• Backlight control (with a patch)

What doesn't work:

• HDMI output
• Micro SD reader (read only)

Requirements

Before you start, there's a few things you need:

• USB flash drive (at least 4GB)
• USB OTG adapter (not always necessary, but recommended)
• 32-bit GRUB UEFI binary (explained below)
• 64-bit Ubuntu ISO
• BIOS v1.20 installed (required for backlight fix - you can only update BIOS from Windows, so do it now!)
• Rufus (or an equivalent image writer)
• USB WiFi or Ethernet card (in case your Wi-Fi doesn't work)

Preparing the USB stick

Installing the ISO (Rufus)

1. Open Rufus
2. Select the correct USB Stick
3. Select "GTP for UEFI computers" as the partition table (if available)
4. "Select the Ubuntu 64-bit iso
5. Click "Create"

Building the 32-bit UEFI GRUB bootloader

If you trust me (and the owner of that repo), you can just download the file here, but remember, downloading binaries from random strangers on the internet is not a good idea.

Building it yourself

To build GRUB, run the following commands in a Linux shell:

# Install build dependencies and tools
sudo apt-get install git bison libopts25 libselinux1-dev autogen m4 autoconf help2man libopts25-dev flex libfont-freetype-perl automake autotools-dev libfreetype6-dev texinfo
# Clone the GRUB repo
git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/grub.git
cd grub
# Configure GRUB
./autogen.sh
export EFI_ARCH=i386
./configure --with-platform=efi --target=${EFI_ARCH} --program-prefix=""
make
cd grub-core
# Build the GRUB image
../grub-mkimage -d . -o bootia32.efi -O i386-efi -p /boot/grub ntfs hfs appleldr boot cat efi_gop efi_uga elf fat hfsplus iso9660 linux keylayouts memdisk minicmd part_apple ext2 extcmd xfs xnu part_bsd part_gpt search search_fs_file chain btrfs loadbios loadenv lvm minix minix2 reiserfs memrw mmap msdospart scsi loopback normal configfile gzio all_video efi_gop efi_uga gfxterm gettext echo boot chain eval

This will create a file called "bootia32.efi".

Copy "bootia32.efi" to "/EFI/Boot/" on your flash drive.

Booting from the USB

1. Open the "BIOS" (F2 when you see the Acer logo)
2. Under "Security" set a supervisor password
3. Under "Boot" set "Secure boot" to disabled
4. Set the USB stick to boot first
5. Press F10 to save changes and reboot

If your USB doesn't show up, try to plug it in to the body directly using an OTG adapter, not via the keyboard dock).

Installing Ubuntu

1. The laptop should automatically boot into GRUB
2. In the GRUB menu choose "Try Ubuntu without installing"
3. Open the terminal and run ubiquity --no-bootloader to start the installer (--no-bootloader isn't usually necessary, but if your installation fails with some bootloader-related error, try this)
4. When prompted, select "Something else" to manually partition the drive
5. Add a root (ext4, "/") and swap (swap, "swap") partition
6. Finish the installation and hope for the best

Booting Ubuntu

In order to boot the Ubuntu we just installed, we need to use the USB GRUB again. Just let the laptop automatically boot from the USB. When in GRUB, press C to open a command line. Run the following commands:

set root=(hd1,gpt5)
linux /vmlinux root=/dev/mmcblk0p5
initrd /initrd.img
boot

If it doesn't work, try with /dev/mmcblk1p5 and/or booting without an SD card inserted.

Permanently installing GRUB

Obviously we can't use the USB GRUB to boot forever. Let's install GRUB: Open the terminal and run the following commands:

# Get the 32-bit UEFI GRUB package
sudo apt-get install grub-efi-ia32 grub-efi-ia32-bin 
# Mount your EFI partition 
mkdir /boot/efi # if the dir already exists, skip the mount command
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot/efi
# Install GRUB
grub-install --target=i386-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi/

If the 32-bit grub package doesn't exist, you can compile it yourself like this:

# Get build dependencies
sudo apt-get install autoconf
# Get the GRUB source
git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/grub.git
# Compile 32-bit UEFI GRUB
cd grub/
./autogen.sh
./configure --with-platform=efi --target=i386
# Install GRUB
sudo grub-install --target=i386-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi/

Adding GRUB to the bootloader

Reboot the laptop and press F12 to go into the boot menu. If you see an option called "ubuntu" and it works, you can skip this part.

1. Go into BIOS
2. Under "Boot" set "Secure boot" to enabled
3. Press F10 to save changes and reboot
4. Go into BIOS again
5. Under "Security", click "Add trusted executable"
6. Navigate to *\HD0\EFI\ubuntu* and select grubia32.efi
7. Enter the name for the bootloader entry and press OK
8. Press F10 to save changes and reboot
9. Go into BIOS for the last time
10. Under "Boot" set "Secure boot" to disabled
11. Press F10 to save changes and reboot

You should not see the entry in the boot menu (F12)

Making things actually work

Screen backlight

See this comment. Note that this will only work if you're on BIOS v1.20.

Wireless

A lot of this has since been upstreamed, so if it works for you, you can safely skip this section.

BRCM80211

I don't have it so if someone got it working, please comment below so I can add it

RTL8723BS

The drivers for this card have been merged into the kernel, so it should work automatically.

If it doesn't work for you:

# Clone the driver repo - if you don't have a wifi card, do this step onto a USB stick from another device
git clone https://github.com/hadess/rtl8723bs
# Build and install the driver
cd rtl8723bs
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe r8723bs

If it doesn't work immediately, reboot.

Keyboard

Not required on modern kernels

To make the keyboard work you need to modify the kernel source and recompile it. Before compiling the kernel, open the file include/linux/hid.h and change the value of MAX_HID_USAGES (default is 12288) to 65536 (On aproximately line 346). Then compile and install the kernel.

To see how to do this, read my other guide.

Sources

• Building the bootloader for the USB: https://github.com/jfwells/linux-asus-t100ta/blob/master/boot/readme.md
• Firmware info and backlight fix: https://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/24132.html

First of all, thank you for this guide. If I hadn't found this I would've gone back to Windows on that device...

Today (18th April 2019) Ubuntu 19.04 released. I thought: Well, I have this spare Acer Aspire Switch with Ubuntu 18.10 (support is over in June or so). Why not install Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo?

On the installation before I had some problems (acer logo appeared only every second time I turn it on, obviously the sound wasn't working, in the grub boot step from usb drive I typed something like /dev/mmcblk1p1 or so, but it was /dev/mmcblk1p3 for me...), but in the end it worked.
Today I managed to install Ubuntu 19.04 without encountering any problems.
Then I found something out: The sound works in Disco Dingo (almost out of the box):
Settings > Sound > turn both the system volume and the system sounds up > select Speakers - Built-in Audio under Output Device
It works flawlessly for me.
Thanks again for this tutorial!

Thanks too from my side!

My experience failed a few times, but there is hope.
Still i tried to install different systems, to check out for results from firmware 1.09.

Android x86 / x64 up to oreo (runs from USB live)
Ubuntu x86 / x64 up to disco (runs from USB live)
Debian x86 / x64 up to testing (runs from USB live)

There are some points of respectless:

• locked from top to boot the sdcard
• boot from the micro-usb would fail in kidding parts of firmware in front of 3 magic bytes
• boot from the USB through the keyboard only seems to run for you

The results are a full of pain and you are right to ask your mind, what they did at the manufacturers side!

If you like to kill the preinstalled lame maleware from microsoft, you have to do two things:

1. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk1
2. terminate any shit from the damn UEFI (keys, etc.)

Notice: If you´re rebooting as warm, you will busted from the slapsticks on top. So take the seconds and invest into hard-poweroff and repower again. Otherwise the memory and non-documented functions will block your mind and work! Up to here you are just kicked off the secret services for a moment. If you´re turn back to UEFI aka "secure mode" the "backdoor" is opened again. Maybe - it's your decision, that left for!

The manufacturer (ACER) deceives fraudulently and will be punished according to their own kind. Forcing the trash out of Redmond will be the most expensive fun anyone has ever been charged with. Microsoft is against the rules and since its inception. I do not care what you think about these scams, they are thieves like the losers at Apple. Take a MacBook Pro 2013 off the battery and then pay attention to the system performance! It did'nt surprise me, that the whole performance has a price, who nobody would pay voluntarily.

Please remember, that the hidden construct of observation is splitted into 3 parts:

1. the network-adapters by protocol - same way, like cellulars and silent sms injections
2. the cpu/gpu by layout
3. and firmware by dirty bits of TPM and finally the "logger" ;)

The homelands are waiting on non documented functions, which are unhideable through fuzzing. As consumer (a stupid user) you dont have to think about, if they ever are the braves.

Sure, that these words were very hard, but they are needed, to invoke by brain. If there is no way out, you loose control against your life forever. I'll boot just from USB without the kidding security, so it's a solid power without connectivity for the agents. The other message is, that a few days before the RSA was broken officially. 15 years erlier than calculated from MIT. AES was broken before, so you result just in a illusion of cryptography. So these ways are functionally, but no longer secure.

I'll hope, that you are understood these lines. Take care and save your devices - which means your smart devices too!

I think you have a typo in the grub instructions, more speicifically you say to type linux /vmlinux ... instead of linux /vmlinuz .... Thank you for an otherwise flawless tutorial.

@pichel26 Man, you saved me!! Oh my gosh....I feel very stupid, I was missing to write the name into the box...it looked weird but I just kept adding EFI images to the list. I tought that I was adding them, but in fact I wasn't!

I've installed Fedora Workstation 30, and my hardware version is SW5-012.

To do a quick recap:

Preparation steps

1. I've downloaded the tool from fedora website, which automatically downloads the os image, and creates the usb for you.
2. Set the password in the UEFI Setup, then disabled Secure Boot, set USB to be the first drive to boot. Save and exit.

Fedora Setup

3. Configure keyboard layout, then I've entered the drive setup section, you have leave selected the drive, then you can choose 3 options, I've selected the middle one, it's something like "manual setup", then I decided to completely wipe the windows stuff and made the partition table (GPT) like this:

mount point - partition type - size

• /boot/efi - EFI - 256 MB
• /boot - Ext4 - 256 MB
• /home - Ext4 - 8,6 GB (This is optional, you can leave this space to the root partition)
• swap - swap - 4 GB (I've followed the documentation, twice the ram is ok, you need 4 GB for hibernation)
• / - Ext4 - 18 GB

Fine, now set your timezone and launch the setup!

Boot from internal HDD

4. Enter again the UEFI Setup, go to "Boot" then Enable the Secure Boot, go back to Security and click
   "Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing:", Now click HDD1, , , and finally shimia32-fedora.efi

Now I have to say again a HUGE thank you to @pichel26! Thank you!!!! :-D

Ok, in the popup, write down a name, it's not important, it's just the label that will appear into the boot order menu. Confirm.
Finally, Disable the Secure Boot, Save and Exit!

5. Last step: when you see the acer logo, smash the F2 button, until you will be asked for the password, enter it, then go to "Boot".
   If you have done everything correct, there will be a new entry, with the name that you've choosen before. Set it up as first boot image, Save and Exit.

Now cross your fingers!

If everything is ok, you will see the Acer logo staying on screen much longer and then....voilà!
The Fedora logo will appear on the same screen, with the spinner indicating that the OS is booting.

You will land on the welcome page, in order to setup the main settings... (email account, user, etc).

I'm so happy! I was struggling....usb was booting, why hdd not?!. Now I will do a stress test. My Pc was giving random BSOD on windows, now I hope that with linux it will work a little faster and without any issues.

Working out of the box

• WiFi : yes
• External Keyboard: yes
• Touch screen(and onscreen keyboard): yes
• Screen brightness: no
• Audio: yes! (Select "Speakers" into Settings > Audio. Headpones are working too, but it will not switch to them automatically)
• Sleep (Fn+F4): The first time that I've tried it, it did power off completely (no blinking lights). I tried various combinations but it didn't power on. Then I did press the power for long, and it rebooted. Now if I press again Fn+F4 the screen goes black immediately, but the backlight won't turn off...maybe it is related with the brightness settings which is not fixed yet. Anyway it seems like sleep is working.
• Hibernation: I've installed a gnome extension to enable this button, but it works the same as i press Fn+F4.
• Battery management: It seems ok, battery's chariging and when I unplug the power, it switches to battery power and percentage is shown.

I hope that this guide can still help somebody. I didn't read the last posts after @pichel26 magic message :-D
My Pc is working fine, definetely faster than windows. I'm sure that tweaking it a little can squeeze some more juice, but for now it is okay.

Good luck guys ;)

I've been struggling a long time with the UEFI boot choice. In fact, when one navigates and chooses the efi file for booting, a field is presented to the user : this should not be let blank ! Fill in a name such as Mint or Ubuntu or whatever you like (wouldn't dare too exotic characters though) and it will work. If you let it blank (which is faulty allowed) the system won(t boot with a no bootable drive message.

Anyone here succeeded installing Linux on a SW03-16 ?
Ubuntu via live mode kept freezing on me, although sound, wifi, touch screen, etc. works fine out of the box which surprised me

Hi everyone, after two years, seems that now this is possible! The latest version of fedora makes everything work out of the box, only adding the bootia32.efi on the USB. Everything works, keyboard, sound, wifi, bluetooth, touch, headphones, suspend on close or on button pressed....

Now I´m gonna try the latest version of Ubuntu (20.04), i´ll tell you what happens.... But this seems good :)
Tested everytime with an Acer One S1002

Ok, tested with a clean ISO of ubuntu 18.04 x64 with the bootia32.efi. Except the sound (script posts ago...) everything works fine. Maybe the time of our dreams have comed, cause now I can use Ubuntu at 100% on my convertible. Bye Windows!

Ok, tested with a clean ISO of ubuntu 18.04 x64 with the bootia32.efi. Except the sound (script posts ago...) everything works fine. Maybe the time of our dreams have comed, cause now I can use Ubuntu at 100% on my convertible. Bye Windows!

How did you do it? I have acer aspire switch 10e After installing there is no grub menu and it does not recognize my internal emmc.

Hi. I downloaded an Ubuntu 18.04 iso and burned with Rufus in MBR (important, in GPT my S1002 does not recognize anything) to an USB key, downloaded the bootia32.efi and moved it into the efi/boot folder on the USB. Then, I just followed the usual steps. Insert USB, press F12, select drive and boot. Ubuntu recognized everything at first.

Note that Fedora 31/32 works out-of-the-box without major issues (hangs when ram is full :( ).

Ok, tested with a clean ISO of ubuntu 18.04 x64 with the bootia32.efi. Except the sound (script posts ago...) everything works fine. Maybe the time of our dreams have comed, cause now I can use Ubuntu at 100% on my convertible. Bye Windows!

Do you have an tutorial? Like i have to usb my usb to get ubuntu working or boot.

Ok, tested with a clean ISO of ubuntu 18.04 x64 with the bootia32.efi. Except the sound (script posts ago...) everything works fine. Maybe the time of our dreams have comed, cause now I can use Ubuntu at 100% on my convertible. Bye Windows!

Do you have an tutorial? Like i have to usb my usb to get ubuntu working or boot.

Hello Carol, if you want to try to install linux, just create the usb drive with the image reported as working, then the important part is to enable the efi image in the bios, like stated here (point #4)

Hi guys,
for anyone still interested in this convertible - there is a way to get backlight working! It saves battery life in a big way (and your eyes too).
On Ubuntu 20.04 just download kernel from ubuntu mainline ppa v5.7 (maybee v5.6 is enough) (https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.7.9/).

Download custom dsdt img from Hans de Goede
(https://fedorapeople.org/~jwrdegoede/initramfs-acer-sw10-sw5-012-dsdt-overlay.img)

After ppa kernel is installed, copy initramfs-acer-sw10-sw5-012-dsdt-overlay.img into your /boot and then:

mv initrd.img-current_version initrd.img-current_version.orig
cat initramfs-acer-sw10-sw5-012-dsdt-overlay.img initrd.img-current_version.orig > initrd.img-current_version

You need to do this every time you update initrd.img and every time you install new kernel (maybe there is some hook, that can do this automatically)

This should be enough for Ubuntu 20.04. Now reboot into ppa kernel, and you should be able to control backlight using DE slider, or
echo $value_0-100 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness )

(for people compiling own kernel - ACPI_TABLE_UPGRADE kernel config must be enabled, and also keep in mind that you must have i915 build as module, and lpss drivers in initrd (/etc/initramfs-tools/modules) or build-into kernel, so that lpss drivers are loaded before i915 driver)

One question for you guys. How do you "right click" on touchscreen? I was unable to get any gestures working when using touchscreen. Any help appreciated.

Thank you

Hi @drlr85, I was playing with intel drivers on another pc the last week, I've seen that intel video drivers have some options regarding backlight, maybe they will do the job!
You can see them with modinfo -p i915 | grep backlight, but I don't know if the acer aspire switch is based upon i915 (I don't think so), anyway, those options should be available in the respective version too.
Bye

No need to fiddle with i915 parameters... Solution I described in previous post just works :o) Backlight PWM was missing in Acer Switch 10 ACPI tables. Initramfs overlay added those PWM, so i915 could probe and bind pwm device to its lpss drivers.

Yup I see, good job, I posted it just in case :-)

EDIT: it looks like nothing was actually bricked and the tablet just happened to experience a pretty common issue at the same time I did this. My advice at the bottom is still a good idea though.

Heads up to anyone giving this another try like I did: it is possible to hard-brick this machine (and I do mean hard brick - no display, no power LED).

After installing Pop OS (which doesn't use GRUB, so I had to install it first), I did the following:

• installed grub-efi-ia32-bin and grub2
• ran grub-install (realized it defaulted to i386-pc)
• ran grub-install --target=i386-efi (this threw an NVRAM error)
• ran grub-install --target=i386-efi --no-nvram
• rebooted - after this, I haven't been able to get the laptop to even POST

My current theory is that efibootmgr managed to break something in the NVRAM when it got executed by grub-install in order to add itself as a boot entry.
An alternative theory is that the laptop was storing something in the bootsector and accidentally installing the -pc version of GRUB wiped it.

My suggestion is to remove efibootmgr and all grub packages containing -pc, and always run grub-install with --target=i386-efi and --no-nvram. This way, none of the things that I screwed up can happen to you. I hope this helps someone not kill their machine...

@franga2000 did you mange to make the pc boot again? Try with this procedure, it may help!
It's quite strange that a software from the OS has the rights to write on protected areas of the BIOS!

Try with this procedure, it may help!

I tried it with no luck, but then I kept trying things and at some point, it started up. I haven't been able to do it again, but at least I know it's still possible. I was already preparing to do a ROM reflash directly to the SPI chip, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I'll post an update when I figure out a proper fix.

It's quite strange that a software from the OS has the rights to write on protected areas of the BIOS!

UEFI allows the system to write to only a very specific part, but if the ROM has a bug in it, it is possible to write something that will trigger the bug and cause it to crash. This was how a pretty infamous bug worked a few years back, where the firmware would refuse to boot if the NVRAM was more than 50% full, and since the system was able to write to the variables section of it, it was able to fill it up and cause it to not boot - I assumed something similar was happening here.

I tried it with no luck, but then I kept trying things and at some point, it started up. I haven't been able to do it again, but at least I know it's still possible. I was already preparing to do a ROM reflash directly to the SPI chip, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I'll post an update when I figure out a proper fix.

really?! by soldering wires on the chip? :-D
Anyway I had a similar problem, and with some button long press + combination it started again. Btw this pc is a bit buggy in my opinion, mine freezes after some time, I bought it 2nd hand and never used it unfortunately. I thought it was due to the installed OS it came with, but it didn't fix the problem.
I'm torn about reflowing the motherboard or not, in fact I've got another equivalent pc, I will try something else in spare time :/

really?! by soldering wires on the chip? :-D

No way, my hands are waay too unsteady 😅 (though I've seen people do that).
I was going to use a standard SOIC8 clip to just clip onto it and program it directly on the board. You can get them for some change from China and they come in really handy if you brick things as often as I do.

I installed some ps2 modchips ages ago...SOIC8 it's doable with a lens! That clips must be handy by the way :-)
Luckily I never fried a bios, I've got an unstable asus mobo (z270 chipset..for kabylake and company), sometimes it doesn't boot, the screen remains black. A couple of times it revived just by disassembling all the components and assembling them back ... the last time it didn't work. It's a gaming motherboard, I have to give those clips a try :-) thanks for the hint

Regarding the problem that happened with update-grub (with nvram), it's possible that in your bios settings, the secure boot (enabled) or TPM setting is protecting the nvram?

Fedora 33 kernel 5.10.9 - suspend/resume - display is OK. Display rotation is OK. Unfortunately after suspend, when close lid computer wakes up. Hibernate is OK, but after restart WiFi id down.

Fedora 33 kernel 5.10.9 - suspend/resume - display is OK. Display rotation is OK. Unfortunately after suspend, when close lid computer wakes up. Hibernate is OK, but after restart WiFi id down.

Maybe the problem comes from the network device, you can check that it's configured properly, lspci can help you to find the network device name

Thanks a lot for those instructions!

I managed to install xubuntu on my Acer Aspire Switch 10, I didn't followed them exactly here are some notes if anybody need them:

• I booted into a xubuntu USB key (followed the instructions)
• I installed xubuntu normally (I did a clean install so wiped out my windows install)
• I started my new installation with the grub of the USB key (my root was (hd0,gpt2) and my device was named /dev/mmcblk1p2)
• From there I connected to the internet and installed the grub 32 bit (I needed to uninstall first the grub 64 bit package, then install the grub 32 bit ones, also the boot partition was already mounted)
• Then followed exactly the same instructions to add the UEFI executable (with the BIOS/Secure Boot stuff)

It's quite similar to the instructions but they assume you're doing a dual boot, also I didn't bother and ran the installation with the booloader installation (didn't use ubiquity -b).

Everything is working properly and I have a clean partition scheme with only two partitions (1 boot 1 linux root)

Hi guys,
for anyone still interested in this convertible - there is a way to get backlight working! It saves battery life in a big way (and your eyes too).
On Ubuntu 20.04 just download kernel from ubuntu mainline ppa v5.7 (maybee v5.6 is enough) (https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.7.9/).

Download custom dsdt img from Hans de Goede
(https://fedorapeople.org/~jwrdegoede/initramfs-acer-sw10-sw5-012-dsdt-overlay.img)

There is an extremely important thing that everyone planning to replace Windows with Linux on this tablet should know: this hack only works with BIOS v1.20, and it's impossible to update BIOS unless Windows is installed.
See the original article by Hans de Goede for details.
Unless you want to install Windows back just to update BIOS and finally get your backlight PWM working, update BIOS before installing Ubuntu.

See the original article by Hans de Goede for details.

No wonder my WiFi didn't work... I tried different Linux distros until I finally gave up and reinstalled Windows so I could have internet connection with it
Gotta love Acer

Thanks for the guide

I've installed Linux Mint 20.3 Mate Edition without a problem.
You might want to read this guide too.

Follow the guide until Installing Ubuntu step

Installing Mint

1. The laptop should automatically boot into GRUB
2. In the GRUB menu choose "Try without installing"
3. Open the terminal and run:

apt update
apt install grub-efi-ia32 grub-efi-ia32-bin

4. Start install
5. I've choosen a clean, auto install (erase and install)
6. After install follow Adding GRUB to the bootloader step.
   You might want to enter bios one last time and rearrange the boot order. It take a lot of time to pass network boot :)