Linux distro on minibook x?

Laptops MiniBook
7

Hi, I’ve had a Minibook X with Linux working.

tl;dr

almost works but some issues.

distro: Gentoo Linux
kernel: 5.17.6-gentoo-x86_64
Desktop Environment/WM: sway

  • Boot: works
  • USB: works
  • Screen Rotation: works with customization
  • Touch Screen: works
  • WiFi: works
  • Bluetooth: works
  • Camera: works
  • Keyboard: works but a issue
  • Touchpad: works but a issue
  • Power Management: works but some issue

Some comments

Screen rotation and calibrating touch screen

The screen of Minibook X is initially adjusted to portrait layout. You can fix it by adding a kernel parameter to your bootloader(grub, systemd-boot, etc)

fbcon=rotate:1

On GUI environment (GNOME, KDE, sway and others) you may set screen rotation by each setting. Here is an example of sway($HOME/.config/sway/config)

output DSI-1 transform 90

In sway, you can adjust touch screen and stylus input by adding the parameter to sway config. But I don’t test both well (just works)

  input "10182:282:GXTP738:00_27C6:011A" {    
    map_to_output DSI-1                       
  }                                           
                                              
  input "10182:282:GXTP738:00_27C6:011A_Stylus" {    
    map_to_output DSI-1                       
  }

WiFi & Bluetooth

Works well with the latest kernel and linux-firmware combination. It seems no trouble. Here is the output of dmesg of iwlwifi driver.

[   10.343107] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   10.344889] Loading firmware: iwlwifi-7265D-29.ucode
[   10.349901] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Found debug destination: EXTERNAL_DRAM
[   10.350108] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Found debug configuration: 0
[   10.350650] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: loaded firmware version 29.4063824552.0 7265D-29.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[   10.478392] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 3165, REV=0x210
[   10.564629] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Applying debug destination EXTERNAL_DRAM
[   10.596987] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Allocated 0x00400000 bytes for firmware monitor.

Camera

No trouble. works with uvcvideo driver. Confirmed with Google meet on Chromium browser.

Keyboard

Works well but sometimes hang for a while, chattering. Maybe it occurs in overheated situation.

Touchpad

Works well but often hang for a while. Maybe it occurs in overheated situation. Using a bluetooth mouse reduce your stress significantly:)

Power Management

Charging is good both AC adapter(12V) port and USB-C port. I don’t test power management feature deeply, like power drain issue and others.

The shutdown and reboot doesn’t work well. The shutdown process is not completed in spite of executing shutdown(systemctl poweroff) command. The power LED remains on, the system remains powered. Reboot process isn’t ether. The system isn’t rebooted, stop at the same stage of shutdown(remains powered)

I hope @ChuwiService development team will fix it in the UEFI firmware.

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