Linux Tablet?

BuzzPCSOS

Axios well seeing as I have just installed from scratch I did not fancy starting again just yet.
So I ran the live environment instead and patched it with the brazen winter drivers. WiFi worked and all the local networks showed up but as soon as I tried to connect by entering a password I just got "Incorrect password for network ### please try again"
I know it's not a miss type because I can peek at password entered. Also same password works if I use it with a USB WiFi dongle.
So close and yet so far away.
I am pretty sure that the driver is right but there is another part not making the right connection, maybe because of a five years newer kernel. That's a long time in computer years.
Edit: Could this just be some other generic broadcom drivers getting in the way? I wonder if an install driver, uninstall driver, install driver sequence might clear the way to make the provided driver work properly. I remember there was a modprobe command to uninstall a specific driver. Might be worth a try seeing as with a live system boot I have an indefinitely resettable OS to experiment with.

Axios

BuzzPCSOS Delete the brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt
and sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac && sudo modprobe brcmfmac
Then see if it works
Did those entries show up in the directory?

Then if that didnt work try
cat /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113 > /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt
and sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac && sudo modprobe brcmfmac

BuzzPCSOS

Axios Very late for me now, going to try this tomorrow.
So from a clean boot into live environment, do I need to install all parts of the driver including the brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt part and then delete it again or can I just avoid installing the brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt file in the first place?

Axios

BuzzPCSOS install the other 2 files leave that .txt out and try it and also the second part to if that dont work.
After researching Not sure if its even needed
The second example is taking the sys eufi nvram and copying to broadcom (From what I call tell my system is using
the eufi nvram)

This is just info I watched a video today she didnt really go into how she installed it but she had (Nobara)
running on a linx12x64 dont know if thats another avenue I dont know anything about it.
Just thought I would mention it

BuzzPCSOS

Axios Thanks again.
The .txt file seems to be an instruction file, without that the tablet does not enable the WiFi.
I tried a few other .txt files, one lifted from my working Windows WiFi driver and another from a post about Linx12x64 on a Ubuntu forum. None made any difference. I also compared the Windows driver .txt file with the brazenwinter file, they both appear to be very similar and have the same reference date 29/05/2015. I think the driver from brazenwinter might well have been a converted version of the Windows driver and therefore the right one for my tablet although that still doesn't explain why I cant enter a WiFi password.
I tried cat /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113 > /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt which just returned permission denied.
I am going to try Nobora quickly and see what I get out of the box. I wonder how old the video featuring the Linx was. An old video with working WiFi could well point to built-in wireless getting broken by a Kernel update. Just a thought.

BuzzPCSOS

I hope this is the final fix.
Used the driver from brazenwinter and did the following running Nobara-40-KDE-2024-08-15.iso Live.
Unzipped the driver file and opened the files folder.
Used "Open Terminal here" command from the context menu.
In the terminal ran sudo cp 4345r6nvram.txt /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt and then sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac && sudo modprobe brcmfmac
That was it. The WiFi worked I entered the password and connection was established.
Running the installer now. I don't know if the patch will carry itself across to the installed version but it is as close as I have got.
I tried to run the same patch on the installed Manjero first but I seemed to have lost root for my user name. I didn't want to waste time trying to fix things so went ahead on Nobara install as I knew that it seemed to work there.
This should work on most up-to-date OS's and compatibility can be tested in the Live environment without committing to an install.
Many thanks @Axios you have been an absolute superstar, feeding me with new ideas and directions. If it wasn't for you I would still be using the USB dongle plugged in the only port it has.

Axios

BuzzPCSOS Ahh cool
Progress always makes one happy.
I guess biggest thing we know is it can work.
Stuff has to match with that file kernel and board if it dont shit happens..
Thats how it knows what drivers to use.
Seems from what you posted it was a file name issue Interesting

BuzzPCSOS

Turns out that the same fix did not work for Manjero so I will be keeping Nobara for the Linx 12x64.
At some time in the future I will have to try the patch on Solus Live but I think there was no support for battery status so that is less of a priority.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed with help, advice or an opinion, Although I didn't find a tablet that would work well on Solus I do have a fully working Linux powered tablet PC which I am very happy with.

Axios

BuzzPCSOS Just for your info I forgot something..lol

sudo cat /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113 > /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt

BuzzPCSOS

Axios confused.
I tried cat /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113 > /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt which just returned permission denied.
Anyhow now everything is working I'm not going to risk breaking it again. Updates took ages.
Really appreciated your efforts on this, I hope that some day I can return the gesture.

BuzzPCSOS

OK so this is my last post on the Linux Linx 12x64 WiFi fix, posting this just in case someone else ends up here after searching for a replacement OS for their Linx.
I finally used Fedora Workstation which has not been optimised for gaming like Nobara and runs much better on the Linx which is not a gaming machine.
Download the drivers from Github
Download Fedora Workstation, create your boot medium and run the Live environment. Don't try to install just yet.
Extract the drivers and copy the folder to the Documents folder on the Live environment.
Open the "files" folder. Right click and select "Open Terminal Here".
Write these two instructions into the terminal pressing enter after each entry.
sudo cp 4345r6nvram.txt /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.txt
sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac && sudo modprobe brcmfmac
You should now have networks available and can connect to the internet and carry on with the install.
You will need to run the same procedure again after rebooting into the installed environment to enable your WiFi one last time, after that everything should be fine. The only thing that obviously did not work was the camera - no great loss for me as it wasn't up to much anyway. Other cameras will work via the USB port if you really need one. On-screen keyboards are all configured to run straight away although sometimes you need to wait a moment for them to appear, it is only an Atom CPU after all. Battery life is more than ten hours and you can charge up via USB so an ideal computer to travel with.

Axios

BuzzPCSOS I think you be happier with fedora the camera doesnt work on mine either
never found a solution for it either but its something I dont use so nothing was lost.
(Cameras in tablets seem to be oddball ones)

Glad its working.

BuzzPCSOS

Axios Well I know the previous was meant to be my last post on this subject BUT....
If you are using Fedora workstation then ZRAM is enabled by default, the same as Solus. However SWAPPINESS in Solus is set to 100 as spoken about here, whereas in Fedora it is set to 60. I changed the value in Fedora to 100 which seems to have improved the feel and stability of this fairly low end tablet.
Try it out (resets after a reboot) sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=100
Or
Make a permanent change sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf
Then add the following at the bottom

# Disable swap read-ahead
vm.page-cluster = 0

# Be more proactive in swapping pages to zram
vm.swappiness = 100

I hope this makes the same positive improvement for you as it did for me.

EDIT: Improved the code.

Axios

BuzzPCSOS Interesting it does make a difference.
Thanks.

Axios

BuzzPCSOS Those 2 settings are nifty also set cpu to performance might just be able to use
it now..lol (I dont use it for long periods so battery life isnt critical
I have fedora 34 prob image it and try fedora budgie or update gnome whats on it now.
Which one did you go with?

BuzzPCSOS

Axios I installed Fedora Workstation 40 which worked well straight away and only needed the WiFi to be patched. The workstation has a bit of a strange GUI but it works well with the touch screen and the onscreen keyboard worked without needing to be configured. I have also installed Koodo Reader for reading ebooks which seems to work well. I think version 41 should be coming up in November so will be interested to see how the new build runs on it. I tried some of the spins before deciding on Workstation but was spending so much time trying to set up all the features that Workstation shipped with it just became the obvious choice.
The only issue I have is using Files (nautilus) to cut and paste with using just a touch screen. There must be a touch friendly file manager or perhaps I just need to get up to speed with file operations using Terminal.
I wonder why Solus seems to be the only OS that ships with ZRAM enabled and SWAPPINESS set to 100. The logic described by @ReillyBrogan makes good sense and always seems to make a positive improvement even on low end machines. Perhaps the majority of PCs are of sufficient power that most users are no longer bothered about getting the best performance.

inkbug

Glad to hear things worked out for you 🙂
I hope you enjoy your tablet henceforth.

For my own part, I booted my Surface Pro 6 into the PureOs live session, which didn't recognize the network hardware, so I decided to fall back on Fedora Plasma.
The installation went almost smoothly - for some reason the installer doesn't like you to prepare the partitions for it in advance and claims "not enough space", but if you set up the partitions through the installer it works well.
Installing the kernel patch also went smoothly and enabled the touch and stylus functions.

If I had the knowhow to patch the kernel myself, I would have used Solus, but it's currently beyond my skill set.

I followed the sufrace-linux guide for enabling Secure Boot post-installation, but this disabled hibernation, so I disabled it again afterwards.

Started a drawing on the Surface using MyPaint, which I plan to touch up later on it's Appimage Krita.

BuzzPCSOS

inkbug Like you, as much as I would like to have run Solus on my tablet many of the things required to get a fully functional OS are beyond my skill-set. One of the (many) joys of Linux is that there are so many distros, all with their own specific super powers so there is usually one that will have been made to suit your hardware. Also the help and advice from other forum users is a valuable resource that is greatly appreciated by myself.
I was very tempted by Fedora Plasma as I have been on Solus Plasma for a while now and know what to expect but there were various features that Workstation gave me without any extra work that were not available from the Plasma spin. I don't know what causes the problem but USB hub, keyboard, mouse, external storage and boot media did not play well together so I preferred to choose an OS where the maximum amount of features were available from stock.
I had similar problems with Fedora not 'seeing' my hard drive properly and it was discarded as an option for a while because of that. On the Linx it seemed that the live session did not always load cleanly. Perhaps that will get sorted in version 41. I would also like to try installing using f2fs but did not see that option, maybe something else to try when the next version comes out of beta.

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