Ubuntu on Swift 3 SF314-51-74FW - black screen after menu on Live USB

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Answers

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Just some quick tests: Used a 16GB USB 2.0 flash drive formatted with Rufus 2.11 to load the "try me" for Ubuntu 16.04 (versions are important) using F12 boot on my R11/R3 (now Swift 1). NP

     

    Kali loaded on a similar flash drive the same way did not appear on the boot list.

     

    Both 64 bit images.

     

    ps Just tried on my Switch 12 and acted exactly the same way.

     

  • GarMouT
    GarMouT Member Posts: 6 New User

    Hi,

    Here is my current status. :

    - ACPI is the main problem on this laptop, kernel linux need a patch and probably bios too. The grub option "acpi=off" is a temporary solution because touchpad, suspend, keyboad shortcut and more are disabled.

    - Linux kernel 4.4 and more recent are clearly unstable with this hardware with acpi enable, 4.1.0rc8 is better but a temporary solution.

     

    Finally, I success installing Linux Mint 18 with acpi, touchpad, wifi and keyboad. Still having kernel panic sometimes and suspend is not working.

     

    Process :
    1.

    - Change bios to legacy mode

    2.

    - Reboot, press F12 and Choose to boot to your usb key with grub option "acpi=off"
    (source : https://01.org/linux-acpi/documentation/debug-how-isolate-linux-acpi-issues)

    3.

    - Install Linux as usual (ex : 1 EFI (150 MB) + 1 EXT4 / (104 GB) + 1 Swap (4GB)

    4.

    - Reboot, change bios to UEFI mode + Enable secure boot mode
    - Add /efi/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi to allowed efi file and give it a name like "Linux"
    - Disable secure boot mode

    5.

    - Reboot, press F12 and Choose to boot to your EFI file : "Linux"
    - Change grub option with acpi=off


    (Now, you should be able to boot to linux mint. The touchpad and wifi are not working, so there is no network and you need an external mouse.)

     


    6.

    - Download last firmware package with another computer :
    http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.161_all.deb
       
    - Copy it to a usb key, mount it and install the firmware package :
    dpkg -i linux-firmware_1.161_all.deb

    7.

    - Configure ath10k_pci for next boot
    (source : https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=196519)
    echo "ath10k_pci" >> /etc/modules
    echo "options ath10k_core skip_otp=y " >> /etc/modprobe.d/ath10k.conf

    8.

    - Configure grub to display menu and show boot output (for debug purpose, can be skip)
    sed -i 's|^GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT.*|#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0|' /etc/default/grub
    sed -i 's|^GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT.*|GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""|' /etc/default/grub
    update-grub

    9.

    - Reboot with grub option "acpi=off"


    (Wifi Network should work now, if not try unload/load module : rmmod ath10k_pci; modprobe ath10k_pci)

     


    10.

    - Upgrade the system and install build-essential for compilation in a next step
    apt-get update
    apt-get dist-upgrade
    apt-get install build-essential
       
    10.

    - Uninstall grub-efi* and all dkms related modules and install grub-pc to be able to boot without UEFI

    Maybe this grub replacement is not really necessary, if you want a dual boot, try without.

    Uninstall virtualbox because this version is not compatible with the kernel i'm going to install next step.
    apt-get remove grub-efi* virtualbox* --purge
    apt-get install grub-pc
    update-grub

     

    11.

    - Install specific linux kernel version : 4.1.0rc8 + Module backport

    Module backport is necessary to have a recent ath10k module compatible with this kernel version
    (source : https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=176951)
    (source : http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/)
     
    - Download kernel package and backport
    wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.1-rc8-unstable/linux-headers-4.1.0-040100rc8-generic_4.1.0-040100rc8.201506150335_amd64.deb
    wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.1-rc8-unstable/linux-headers-4.1.0-040100rc8_4.1.0-040100rc8.201506150335_all.deb
    wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.1-rc8-unstable/linux-image-4.1.0-040100rc8-generic_4.1.0-040100rc8.201506150335_amd64.deb
    wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/2016/03/24/backports-20160324.tar.gz

    (backport compilation is for a next step)

    - Install kernel package :   
    dpkg -i linux-headers-4.1.0-040100rc8_4.1.0-040100rc8.201506150335_all.deb
    dpkg -i linux-headers-4.1.0-040100rc8-generic_4.1.0-040100rc8.201506150335_amd64.deb
    dpkg -i linux-image-4.1.0-040100rc8-generic_4.1.0-040100rc8.201506150335_amd64.deb
    update-grub

    12.

    - Reboot, change bios to legacy mode, reboot, choose linux 4.1.0rc8 kernel in grub menu

    This time, "acpi=off" is not necessary, we replaced the kernel version for that.

    (ACPI and touchpad should work now but not the Wifi Network)

    13.

    - Install ath10k_pci module backport
    (https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2316533&page=2)
    tar -xzf backports-20160324.tar.gz
    cd backports-20160324/
    make clean
    make defconfig-ath10k
    make install

    14.

    - Reboot, choose linux 4.1.0rc8 kernel in grub menu

    15.

    - Uninstall 4.4 linux kernel
    apt-get remove linux-headers-4.4* linux-image-4.4* linux-image-extra-4.4*


    ACPI, Touchpad and Wifi should work now, suspend is not working and sometimes the boot fail with a kernel panic.

     

    Let me know if you have a better solution and success with a more recent kernel.

     

  • CheckMatt
    CheckMatt Member Posts: 3 New User

    Hi,

     

    Thanks garmout for your proposition.It also works for me with Linux Mint and with Lubuntu 16.04 too. Kernel 4.4. I just tried to use the live usb.

    I will tried the same thing with fedora.

  • CheckMatt
    CheckMatt Member Posts: 3 New User

    I just tried with Fedora 25, adding "acpi=off" after "quiet".

    And it works.... Fedora starts, Wifi, keyboard and Bluetooth work, not touchpad. It will look at solutions.

     

    So, it seams to be clear that acpi is the origin of the problem. Do you know what we could do in order to repair this ? Where we can open a bug ticket ? Linux kernel ?