Hi10 X1 - Linux - Debian Bookworm User Support Experience

Windows Tablets Hi10 X1
1

Hello Everyone,
I purchased and have received a Hi10 X1 tablet and immediately set about removing Windows 11.
I have begun the process of installing Linux, my distribution of choice is Debian and as of writing the current version is 12.8.0. I intend to try the KDE Plasma mobile environment.

So far, the experience is not going well and I’m posting this thread in the hope of sharing information.

Issue 1: Intel Wireless not detected

During Debian’s installation, the Intel wireless/bluetooth card is not detected. I had similar problems with my Chuwi Hero box, but I was able to fix this with various workarounds involving installing different firmware and renaming files. The installation finishes without it, but this presents issue #2, which I will get to after describing the steps I took.

  1. I downloaded the https://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free-firmware/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-iwlwifi_20240610-1_all.deb
  2. I copied this .deb file to a USB drive.
  3. I mounted the USB drive on my Chuwi Hi10 X1 and copied the .deb file over.
  4. I ran these commands as root:

dpkg -i firmware-iwlwifi_20240610-1_all.deb
modprobe -r iwlwifi
modprobe iwlwifi

  1. I ran dmesg I saw this message:
    no config found for PCI dev 54f0/0244, rev=0x370, rfid=0x10c000
    I think there was also a -22 reset error.

It’s possible that I might need to run these commands instead:
modprobe -r iwlmvm iwlwifi
modprobe iwlmvm iwlwifi

Lots of hyperlinks:

I might also try to inject firmware files or try again to figure out how to get the wireless firmware to install during the Debian installation.

Issue 2: Rapid Flicker and Top to Bottom Smearing Once Graphics Driver Loaded

This makes the tablet very difficult to use. I suspect that the Intel GPU drivers are not being installed correctly. The way to likely remedy this is to get the wireless driver installed correctly so that various firmware/non-free firmware are installed during the installation.

I might also try the zabbly kernels because they work better with the Herobox. GitHub - zabbly/linux: Linux kernel builds

Next Steps
I might try some other Linux distributions. I will also try to find a USB wireless dongle to at least install the wireless drivers correctly and hopefully complete the installation so I can try some different kernels.

Otherwise, if you are looking for a review, I really cannot say too much about this yet. I bought this device to cover content creation using Microsoft Visual Studio Code with a 60% mechanical keyboard - I have cheap Android tablets, but the coding experience always pales in comparison to using a desktop.

2

I’m on Freebook with AX101 wifi using OpenSUSE. All works well, except for parts of the chuwi hardware that starts failing.

Just try distros with the latest kernel, right now 6.11, like Fedora, Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Wifi will work right away. If your video flickers, just turn off Adaptive Sync.

3

Same here, until kernel 6.11 my minibook x n100 did not work well. I have installed both Fedora Core 41 and Kubuntu 24.10 that have kernel 6.11. They work fine, on the minibook that is.

4

I’m using Linux Mint and have have no problem(s) with the Wifi. I have found that the newer kernel, use by Ubuntu, doesn’t play nice with the Max. As of 11/21/24 the drivers were updated in Kernel and hopefully this will correct some of the problems.

5

Thanks everyone! I installed Debian-Testing (Trixie) with kernel 6.11.7.
This solved the GPU and wi-fi driver issues, but then I had NTP/time errors, so I installed systemd-timesyncd. This let me upgrade to 6.11.9. I then added a virtual keyboard in KDE by installing maliit-keyboard and used im-config set to none. In KDE’s Workspace Behavior virtual keyboards, I selected maliit.

The next thing to solve was the screen orientation was incorrect when rotating the device, which needs to be adjusted -90 degrees in the Z axis.

udevadm info --export-db | grep ACCEL_MOUNT_MATRIX
E: ACCEL_MOUNT_MATRIX=1, 0, 0; 0, 1, 0; 0, 0, 1

I already submitted a pull request to systemd. In case anyone needs to manually adjust it, here are the instructions:

  1. Create a /etc/udev/hwdb.d/61-sensor-local.hwdb
  2. Add this content and save:
# Chuwi Hi10 X1
sensor:modalias:acpi:NSA2513*:dmi:*:svnCHUWIInnovationAndTechnology*:pnHi10X1:*
 ACCEL_MOUNT_MATRIX=0, 1, 0; -1, 0, 0; 0, 0, 1
  1. Then execute these commands:
systemd-hwdb update
udevadm trigger -v -p DEVNAME=/dev/iio:device0
  1. Reboot

I suppose the last, last thing is to swap the volume buttons.

6

How is the screen quality? I know it is 1280x800. I scale to that resolution on the Minibook X N100 to be able to read text comfortably. But do you get nice colors?

7

That’s interesting, have you tried any DPI scaling function? The resolution and the size of the display on the Minibook X n100 looked very nice. I was considering getting one, but it was not available in my region until recently and I was concerned about the keyboard. I prefer my 60% mechanical keyboard over the cheap chiclet keyboard it came with.

At 149.45 PPI, the pixel grid is definitely noticeable. I chose the Hi10 X1 over the Hi10 Max because I figured the having 1/4 of the pixels might offer better battery life and not tax the n100 CPU as much. I definitely knew what I was buying: one of the cheapest and lightest x86 devices available. I didn’t buy it to do work which requires highly accurate colors nor did I buy this to enjoy HDR content, I bought for coding away from home and accept the compromises. In the past I tried to use ChromeBooks, iOS, or Android devices, but I wanted an x86 device I could completely control and not have to hack to get things running.

I do want to share the weight of each component. This isn’t listed on the website.

618.5 g = tablet
247.3 g = case
232.4 g = keyboard
892.8 g = tablet + case, which has the kickstand
1,125 g = tablet + case + keyboard

8

I feel I should give some more feedback on your question.
Back in 2014 I purchased an 11 inch MacBook Air which had a 1366x768 pixel screen with a 135.09 PPI. I bought it because I had used an iPad Air with a retina screen for about a year and a half by that point. I ended up selling it after barely using it because it was so hard to look at. The Hi10 X1’s PPI is 10% better, but the quality of the screen is a lot better, the viewing angles are better, and the and glossy screen is fine. I prefer matte displays, but those are getting rarer and rarer, both on the desktop and in laptops.

1 Like
9

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That is what I did.

With a scaling factor of 150% for a screen of 1920x1200 you get the character size of a screen of 1280x800. That’s the same as my old Acer Aspire One 522 netbook, and your Hi10 1X tablet.

Indeed, good enough for reading and writing.

Now and then I watch some YT clips. I can watch them in Full HD. That works well too on the Minibook.

Cheers, Jaap

10

That’s great.

I have one more update I would like to share for KDE users regarding the pesky lack of a virtual keyboard in SDDM when trying to log in. Here’s how to enable the virtual onscreen keyboard in SDDM:

  1. Create a file /etc/sddm.conf.d/10-wayland.conf.
  2. Include this content:
[General]
DisplayServer=wayland
GreeterEnvironment=QT_WAYLAND_SHELL_INTEGRATION=layer-shell --inputmethod maliit-keyboard
  1. Save and reboot.

Upon arrival at the SDDM login screen there should be a “Virtual Keyboard” button in the bottom left corner in front of the “Desktop Session: Plasma (Wayland)” selector button icon. Or simply tap the password box and the virtual keyboard should appear.
To add languages to the onscreen keyboard use this command pattern from the konsole app:

gsettings set org.maliit.keyboard.maliit enabled-languages "['en', 'de', 'emoji']"

Adding new keyboards to SDDM from systemsettings5> Starup and Shutdown > Login Screen (SDD), “Apply Plasma Settings”, did not work.

These instructions were taken from Arch Linux Wiki > SDDM > Wayland, but they apply here too.

I really like the maliit-keyboard better than “onboard” and am trying to get it to work in my other non-touchscreen enabled Debian desktops.

Now, only a couple other items left:

  • In Debian Trixie KDE Connect needs a firewall rule for clients to start showing up:
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=kdeconnect
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
  • Visual Studio Code installs, but hangs at 100% load, which requires manually killing.
11

One more fix in Debian Trixie for swapping the volume button function using input-remapper:

  1. Manually install the pkexec package:
sudo apt install pkexec
  1. Launch input-remapper from KDE breeze.
  2. Select “AT Translated Set 2 keyboard” > “New”.
  3. Rename the preset to “Swap Volume Buttons”.
  4. On the Input tab click +Add. Type “XF86AudioLowerVolume”.
  5. On the Output tab select Type > Key or Macro, then Target > keyboard, and then type “XF86AudioRaiseVolume”.
  6. Repeat steps 5 and 6 swapping the input and outputs.

Luckily this does not impact a connected keyboard.

12

Thanks iwuhC, very helpful.

Did you ever try Fedora Core 41 KDE with Plasma Mobile? It has an Android alike UI. I didn’t like it on a Linux laptop but looked promising for a Linux tablet.

Cheers, Jaap