install ubuntu touch on dell venue 8 pro

Then I started playing with Debian and discovered the firmware files.

Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts Log In Sign Up User account menu 1 LinuxAndroid on Dell Benue 8 Pro 5830.

I set out a few weeks ago following several posts accross the web.

Much of this came from, the rest is from dozens of threads on and various support forums on Android-X86, Ubuntu and other Linux Distros.

I originally bought my DV8 for a fair chunk of change to use as a DMX Light Controller using FreeStyler ( ) for my band.

Over the years I keep digging the DB8 out and try to use it around the house for quick Google searches, web reading, email, controlling household devices, etc, but Windows is just too clunky, too damn small for my terrible eyes, or just wont freaking work with my stuff to be useful and it winds up battery dead, laying in a corner.

Really is a shame this device is still capable of doing so well but it is so crippled by a 32bit UEFI, firmware-laden wifi and such.

Now the Linux kernel, several distros and some Android variants have support for these devices and with the right amount of tinkering, knowledge, skill and sheer luck these things are on the verge of being salvageable and entirely useful again.

I initially tried Android-x86, Bliss OS and Phoenix, shooting for Android.

After a few more days of tinkering and learning about EFI partitions I was finally able to use a GParted stick to repartition and format the drive and be able to try different distros.

Along the way I also learned the following caveatsrequirements: You must disable Secure Boot and Windows Fast Boot You must either have a distro release that includes a 32-bit UEFI boot image or a script like that will rework the ISO to add the 32-bit EFI boot.

Ive used that with Etcher ( ) on an Ubuntu 18.04 VM to create my USB sticks, and also used Rufus ( ) and Universal USB Installer ( ) to burn sticks on Windows 10.

You must partition the drive to have an EFI partition with flags for espboot or the BIOS will not even report a hard drive.

Most distros can not seem to format the EFI partition during their install, so you have to do it with GPartED and tell the distro NOT to format it.

The drive will be seen as an MMCSSDSOC by any distro, so you have to treat it like youre installing do an SD card, not a normal drive that would be seen as devsd(x) Booting ANY distro on this device requires the nomodeset argument being passed to the kernel on boot.

Normally this is by booting up your install stick, getting the initial menu, choosing a boot option from their list, hitting the e key and adding nomodeset right before the quiet option in the boot arguments.

SO moving forward, Ive tested Bliss, Android-x86, Ubuntu 18.04 and now Debian 9.5.

Bliss seems to have major issues with Google Play Services and locked into a constant loop of warnings and reboots that I couldnt seem to get stopped so I gave up.

Android x86 7.1 rc2 actually installed and ran, but the wifi indicator always shows no signal, battery indicator always shows Charging, and screen doesnt stays asleep so it kills the battery.

I went back and forth with the developers a bit but didnt get anything worked out.

In their defense theyre working on Android 9 Pie right now, and this buggy piece of junk is not really worth their time, but I am very appreciative they tried.

Ubuntu booted and installed properly once I learned the drive partitioning and nomodeset tricks.

But it didnt have the wifi firmware and the onscreen keyboard was really buggy - i.e.

I couldnt type the or characters, which means you cant do squat in a shell.

Install Ubuntu Touch On Dell Venue 8 Pro