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.