How do I dump the BIOS in a file? Then I can share.
Anyway, I wouldn’t use it. What I assume is that Chuwi makes batches of products with the same name. Yet with different parts. That’s how them and us can purchase cheap. But they don’t harmonize their products. You see that because you must specify your serial number to get the right drivers and Windows image. Chuwi is busy patching drivers , BIOS and OS for every new batch. So there is no time to update all these BIOS and drivers for all these batches of products.
That’s why I would not use my BIOS in your minibook. The chance that you mess up your laptop is quite high.
However they do have money (and I hope they pay good wages) to hire a very friendly person that patiently fulfills all requests for standard drivers and images per batch.
If you don’t sell the minibook, I hope the next Linux version will work. Maybe take the hint to install Fedora 40?
I’m happy mine works with Fedora 39, because that is the only way to keep the whole operating system including drivers, updated. Unfortunately not the BIOS,
@sonny@jaap unfortunately, Fedora 40 didnt resolve my problem with keyboard. Screen doesnt melt, though, which is good, i guess, but not good enough.
From userspace the only way i could find which works is to just dd memory section of bios to file, but it only saves 64k of runtime, but not whole ROM, which is requested by bios flasher of american megatrends. Still could be useful for someone, though.
Command is: sudo dd if=/dev/mem of=pcbios.bin bs=1k skip=960 count=64, runtime bios then will be in file pcbios.bin
Sadly, i think ill spare walking around with this notebook and simply sell it, if nothing would come up in this feed in like a week or two. I became too exausted from trying to make this work for two straight days. All the joy from getting such a hardware was gone pretty much in first hour or so.
Too bad for you. Yet reading around and in my own experience, you are not the only one with exemplary linux compatibility issues with the minibook.I can only guess two reasons:
1 the linux kernel and drivers cannot handle too much variation in hardware, after all the N100 is quite new.
2 some minibook batches are too far out of standard specs, compensated by individually tuned bios and tweaked Windows drivers.
Nothing wrong with the latter, the supplied Windows will work, but anything else, including the next release of Windows, might not.
Finally the minibook I have worked fine with Windows, and from what I have learned here, works better with Linux.
I actually have N305 mini pc from Beelink, and using it with linux was as smooth as possible, except for WiFi, which i didnt even need, but was able to use (though not in AP mode, but in STA, but this is Intels’ fault). Anything else was working quite well, i have virtualized router on that host, and a bunch of other VMs.
@jaap@sonny@leledumbo i actually managed to run Manjaro 23.1.4 GNOME perfectly, keyboard & touchpad working, all FN keys too, touchscreen - all without problems. Autorotation is not working, as expected, but its not a deal breaker at least.
All i had to do is stupid BIOS update. Now im running 2.19 which i got from here. Screen issue is still present on this version, at least in Debian derivatives, however in Manjaro and, probably, Fedora 40, as it was before, no issues was found. So, now this little boy would be my main machine which i would use to access my VMs and doing AR stuff. And yes, type-c does support at least Rokid Air AR glasses, which was also huge deal for me.
I will try to contribute my attepmts at refining this notebook, though, if i will discover anything else. Until then, have a great day!
Installed 6.9.0-rc4-1-mainline kernel without issue via AUR. Have accelerometer working (tested via watch -n 0.1 "cat /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device0/in_accel_y_raw" command), and thus autorotation via this gnome extension: github link
Only thing is, if you use video grub parameter to rotate your screen to landscape, you need to change offset of rotation in extension settings.
I think i will write something to disable keyboard and touchpad automagically, just need to figure out the way to do it which would be easy to use.
UPD: maybe i will just do a toggle in quick settings, idk im lazy tbh
Seems the minibook is a good future investment for use with Linux. Especially with BIOS 2.19.
I do like the 10 inch format a lot.
USB-C makes it future proof.
USB-C PD allows the use of Power Banks. Backlit keyboard and key size are great.
Touchpad and screen rotation are a bonus at this price point.
Yeah, so, i checked ACPI tables for something that could relate to sensor driver, and sure enough, it just returns 0x0F constantly. There is just no method in ACPI tables for pulling that data from sensor, even though support for it was added, like, ages ago. First mention i saw was 2016! I am gonna pursuit this issue further, but afaik, there is barely something i could do without deeper knowledge.
Actually, if someone with Windows 11 installed and all drivers could pull DSDT table from their device, that would be great and very helpful. I already configured my device beyond point where i would want to nuke it, so, if you have Windows 11 and want to help with getting minibook fully working on linux - maybe this (https://www.olarila.com/topic/4980-extract-dsdt-windows/) guide will help you in doing so. Or just google “DSDT dump Windows”, probably will work too.
UPD: Nevermind, removed NVMe SSD, connected SATA SSD via USB adapter, and installed windows to SATA SSD with patched installer script from Chuwi. Now i can run Windows any moment i want, albeit it is kinda slow. So, DSDT code is the same in the Windows, and driver works as expected. Honestly, idk where to go with this info.
To me screen rotation is a gadget I don’t want to give up secure boot for. Mainline kernels do not support secure boot. That means I’ll wait until kernel 6.9 or higher is in a final release before further testing.
I just installed Fedora 40 KDE on the minibook x 2023.
Installation is a bit less guided than Ubuntu, but worth the effort.
What I couldn’t get is the login screen in landscape. Any hints?
Terminals and splash are in landscape by setting the kernel parameters:
sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args=“fbcon=rotate:1”
sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --remove-args=“video=DSI-1:panel_orientation=right-side_up”
Desktop is in landscape by Settings, System Settings, Display & Monitor, Orientation
Desktop is scaled at 15% by Settings, System Settings, Display & Monitor,Scale
RAM swapping to the SSD has been disabled by:
sudo swapoff -a
sudo dnf remove zram-generator-defaults
Installed TLP to save battery time
sudo dnf install tlp
Result:
Applications start fast.
Touch screen works.
WiFi works.
Sound works.
Special Keys for sound, brightness etc. work.
Bluetooth mouse works (never worked well with Ubuntu)
Battery indicator works.
Automatic screen rotation doesn’t work. Hopefully in Fedora 41.
Yo, literally got here to ask for a thing to do, and here you are with another post x)
fbcon and video parameter are working for me in gnome manjaro, the only thing that is not rotated is disk decryption screen, which is totally fine by me since i just need to enter password, and thats it. Boot logo is always landscape in my case. So, i honestly do not know what could be done here.
About thing i was to ask, can you please do “extreme test” benchmark on silver.urih.com? Extreme one specifically, because it is prolongated in order to stress thermals a bit better. I did a bit of modding to cooling of minibook, but forgot to do a baseline run. Would be cool to know a score and approx. temperatures throughout the run (via lm-sensors, or any other means). Also need info about cpu governor (cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor), because that can and will matter a lot.
Also, i got autorotation and autodisabling of keyboard and touchpad in other positions different from landscape via manually written scripts with hooks from the autorotation plugin written for gnome… So yeah, kinda wonky, but if someone wants to try it out, i can try to make it easier to install. Needs mainline kernel though (6.9.0-rc4 and higher), so a lot of hassle already.
Choosing a Linux distribution for your Chuwi Minibook X depends on your specific needs and preferences. Since the Minibook X is a compact device with limited resources, you might want to consider a lightweight and optimized distribution.
Here are a few options you might consider:
Ubuntu MATE: Ubuntu MATE is known for its lightweight nature and user-friendly interface. It’s a good choice for older or less powerful hardware.
Lubuntu: Lubuntu is another Ubuntu-based distribution that uses the LXQt desktop environment, which is even lighter than MATE. It’s designed to be fast and energy-efficient, making it suitable for low-spec devices.
Linux Mint Xfce: Linux Mint with the Xfce desktop environment is another lightweight option that offers stability and ease of use. It’s based on Ubuntu and comes with a variety of pre-installed software.
Manjaro XFCE: Manjaro is an Arch Linux-based distribution known for its rolling release model and user-friendly experience. The XFCE edition is lightweight and customizable, making it suitable for older hardware.
Peppermint OS: Peppermint OS is a lightweight distribution that combines the LXDE desktop environment with elements from Xfce. It’s designed for cloud-based applications and offers a good balance of speed and functionality.
Before choosing a distribution, consider your specific requirements, such as hardware compatibility, software availability, and desktop environment preference. You may also want to try running different distributions from a live USB to see which one works best for you on the Minibook X.
@alexcray Why do you post this here? Do you have any experience installing each of them on the minibook? What are your recommended actions if they don’t run out of the box?
I have installed fedora 39 and 40 KDE. They work fine with the recommended actions I shared here.
I have installed Ubuntu and got nothing but trouble.
Hi, just bought Minibook X n100 and installed ubuntu 24.04 + mainline kernel-6.9.0-rc6. Mostly seems to work OK so far except screen rotation (and video output on usb-c enabled 4K monitor). Could you please share your scripts. Thank you