If you’re curious to run Linux instead of Windows, here is an overview what works and does not work in Linux. In Windows the touchpad is really slow. Just try it on Linux.
Note that Linux has many variations that decides whether some features of your laptop will work or not work. The main aspects are:
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kernel version. The kernel has all the drivers. The higher the version the more drivers it has. As the Freebook is a new device, take a distro that has installed the latest kernel version
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desktop. The look and feel of the user interface. The desktop with most of functionality for a 2-in-1 device [touchscreen, screen rotate] is either Gnome or KDE.
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windowing system. Linux desktops move more and more from X11 to Wayland. Chromebooks [which is a kind of Linux distro] has already moved to wayland years before. If you choose the latest Gnome [46] you get Wayland. Wayland on Gnome has no proper fractional scaling yet.
Choice of distro to get wifi/bluetooth working
The intel wifi/bluetooth card AX101 that is inside the laptop makes the choice of the distro important.
Why? Because intel has not provided official linux support yet. Also the kernel-org wiki does not mention the card.
To get automatic screen rotation working, it is also necessary to have kernel 6.9.x, as this has the latest patch for the accelerometer driver [mxc4005] of the Freebook.
So choose a distro with the highest kernel version as possible, so the chance that your wifi/bluetooth will work is the best.
Right now the rolling based distro’s have the newest kernel, e.g. Arch based [Manjaro etc] and RPM based [Fedora, OpenSUSE]. Of the stable release distro only the latest Ubuntu has kernel 6.9.
I prefer stable release distro as it does not have many updates that can make your system break. I tried Ubuntu, not my favourite, however it had too many bugs. Wifi/BT did not work properly.
So I moved to a rolling distro. Arch breaks too often with me. Fedora has too many updates. OpenSUSE has a variant, they call Slowroll, which do full upgrades once a month. So I moved to Slowroll.
OpenSUSE has also implemented snapshots. If after an update something goes wrong, you just boot into an earlier made snapshot before the update.
Wow OpenSUSE feels as stable as Debian 12, the distro of my choice. No issues with wifi/BT. Fast booting. Only new tools I have to get used to e.g. zypper and YaST.
# My linux installation
ed@chuwi-tw:~> inxi -S
System:
Host: chuwi-tw Kernel: 6.9.7-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: GNOME v: 46.3.1 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20240709
# check wifi
ed@chuwi-tw:~> dmesg | grep AX101
[ 6.262182] [ T798] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX101, REV=0x370
# Check bluetooth
ed@chuwi-tw:~> dmesg | egrep -e ibt\|btusb
[ 6.294054] [ T600] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
[ 6.336668] [ T87] Bluetooth: hci0: Found device firmware: intel/ibt-0040-1050.sfi
[ 7.799900] [ T87] Bluetooth: hci0: Found Intel DDC parameters: intel/ibt-0040-1050.ddc
Screen rotation
To get automatic screen rotation working in Gnome is easy.
Just install “Extension manager” from the software store. It’s a flatpak app. And in extension manager search for “Screen rotate”. Install it and on the topright corner panel you will find the toggle “Auto Rotate”.
However the freebook accelerometer sensor does not get the orientation of the display right. It is skewed by 90 degrees.
To correct this, the easiest way is to set the orientation offset in the settings of the Screen rotate to 1.
A more difficult but correct way is to add an extra udev file, so systemd will correct it in the system:
ed@chuwi-tw:~> cat /etc/udev/hwdb.d/61-sensor-local.hwdb
# Chuwi Freebook N100
sensor:modalias:acpi:MDA6655*:dmi:*:svnCHUWI*:pnFreeBook:*
ACCEL_MOUNT_MATRIX=0, -1, 0;1, 0, 0;0, 0, 1
I have added this file as a patch to systemd sensor settings, so you can download it from github.
Tablet mode
Tablet mode means for a 2-in-1 device that when you fold the laptop as a tablet [360 degrees], the touchpad and keyboard will be locked and no accidental input will be registered.
In Windows tablet mode works, as the driver only needs 1 sensor - the accelerometer.
Unfortunately linux needs 2 sensors to have gnome or kde desktop lock keyboard/touchpad. The 2nd sensor, the tablet mode switch, is not available in the freebook:
ed@chuwi-tw:~> sudo libinput list-devices | grep Device
Device: Video Bus
Device: Lid Switch
Device: Power Button
Device: Sleep Button
Device: GXTP7386:00 27C6:0118 Stylus
Device: GXTP7386:00 27C6:0118 Keyboard
Device: GXTP7386:00 27C6:0118
Device: XXXX0000:04 093A:0255 Mouse
Device: XXXX0000:04 093A:0255 Touchpad
Device: Intel HID events
Device: Intel HID 5 button array
Device: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
On another 2-in-1 device, a Chromebook running linux, that I have has a working tablet mode switch:
ed on flex-fc40 ~
❯ sudo dmesg | grep Tablet
[ 1.497034] input: Tablet Mode Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/device:03/PNP0C09:00/GOOG0006:00/input/input3
❯ sudo libinput debug-events | egrep -e Tablet\|SWITCH
-event2 DEVICE_ADDED Tablet Mode Switch seat0 default group2 cap:S
-event2 SWITCH_TOGGLE +0.000s switch tablet-mode state 1
event2 SWITCH_TOGGLE +27.140s switch tablet-mode state 0
event2 SWITCH_TOGGLE +36.730s switch tablet-mode state 1
event2 SWITCH_TOGGLE +47.700s switch tablet-mode state 0
Other features
Night light in Gnome works, however you need to set the schedule right. During day night light is set off.
Other sensors like ambient light, proximity sensor etc are not available in the hardware.
ed@chuwi-tw:~> monitor-sensor
Waiting for iio-sensor-proxy to appear
+++ iio-sensor-proxy appeared
=== Has accelerometer (orientation: normal)
=== No ambient light sensor
=== No proximity sensor
