Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

Padfoot · 2011-10-29 07:25:58

Hi all,

As you can tell from the title, I just wanted to share my success story of getting Arch up and running on a tablet. I hope this can prove helpful to others looking to do something similar.

As we know, the touchscreen tablet market has only really kicked off in the last couple of years with the commercial success of the iPad. Unfortunately, as usual, being a mainly commercial game, linux tends to be left out in the cold - note I am not including Android in the definition of Linux here, until Google fully releases the source (as promised?? correct me if wrong) to allow true user control/portability/customisation, yet I do understand the commercial reason for them not doing so yet.

I did a lot of investigating to help me decide on which tablet I would buy, scouring various users success and failure stories. The vast majority of the information I could find all related to rooting Android devices to get another distro either running on top of, or along side of Android. It all looked horribly convoluted and prone to bricking your device should you get one simple thing wrong. I did not want to go down that path.

Then I stumbled upon the Acer Iconia Tab. I had read stories about them before, but until I went into a store and saw one running Windows, I has brushed them aside as another device to be rooted. I had no idea that the Acer Iconia Tab comes in a series of 2 varieties. The A series which runs Android, and the W series which runs WIndows. This led to some more intense investigation of the device and I discovered that the W series is a vastly different beast to the A series, most notably that you still have access to the device's BIOS to assist in recovering Windows should you (quite easily I might add ) totally bork it.

This looked promising, so I went back to the store, and did a re-start of the display machine to confirm that a) I could get into the BIOS, and B) it has the necessary options of booting from USB. It did on both counts.

I found my solution. I could to a 100% native Linux install on the Iconia Tab W series (bear in mind, not all the W series has this option, so check out the device carefully).

My device stats:
Acer Iconia Tab W501
10.1 inch capacative (read multi-touch) touch screen (1280x800)
32GB SSD
USB 2 x 2 ports
HDMI out x 1 port
3G sim slot
Wifi
Bluetooth
Stereo speakers
Headphone Jack
USB Keyboard dock which also includes inbuilt mouse (toggle stick and 2 buttons), 2 USB ports and ethernet.

I have installed Arch x86_64 core system and have Xfce4 for the DE, launched by LightDM.

If you can, install entirely from USB. You can use the netinstall image, but ethernet was not detected during install (in the DE it is working fine - thinking networkmanager has something to do with this) so you will have to configure wifi in the boot system (no firmware required, just wireless-tools and wpa_supplicant).

Also, it is handy to keep a live distro available as (I think this is by design) you cannot access Grub to select the fallback kernel. So if you are unable to boot, the live distro is handy for playing Mr Fix It.

What doesn't work:
Bluetooth - it is recognised by the system and all installed apps seem to report that it is on, but will not configure or connect - work in progress
Auto Screen Rotate - so far I have been unable to get the accelerometer recognised by Xorg - anyone who can offer help, it is greatly appreciated - in the mean time, I have a python script running 2 icons in my tray which rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise respectively.
Multi Touch - Xorg registers the screen as a tablet rather than a touch screen and I can not get Xorg to use xf86-input-synaptics either, so I am unable to set up multi touch gestures - have to use scroll widgets which is a little fiddly, but all I need to do is modify my gtk theme to provide chunkier widgets. Any help in the multi touch area is also appreciated - the touch screen is an eGalax.

Untested:
3G sim card - don't have one free to test - I believe it reports as a Huawei device, so I think firmware may be required - I'm not up to speed on the state of Huawei devices io the kernel.

The only other issue I had was the DM. I wanted to avoid GDM by all costs as it was just going to drag in too many dependencies for a light Xfce system. I really like LightDM. The only issue here was the gtk greeter for LightDM does not have on screen keyboard support. After a lot of fighting with the system to try and force a keyboard to work with LightDM, I bit the bullet and patched the sources - for someone with no C coding experience, I managed to have a patched version of LightDM up and running, complete with Florence on screen keyboard, in about 15mins.

So that is my story, long yes, but I really think others may find it useful in their quest for a native linux tablet experience.

The only things I really would like any possible help in is getting the accelerometer working and multi touch - oh, and if anyone has worked out how to get Xfce to use a long click as a right click please let me know. It is frustrating having to use app menus rather than right click context menus.

Cheers.

bernarcher · 2011-10-29 09:44:46

Interesting report, Padfoot.
But this is better suited in Laptop Issues than in Kernel & Hardware.
Moving it there.

Padfoot · 2011-10-30 08:08:39

Just a quick update:

Thanks to a Firefox plugin and an app from AUR I now have gestures set up.

Using Grab & Drag in Firefox gives me both horizontal and vertical scrolling by flicking my finger across the screen.

Using Easystroke from AUR, I now have right click by holding my finger down, I can rotate the screen by drawing a circle (left or right determines the diection) and by swiping left or right changes workspaces (visual confirmation is given by a background script that watches for workspace changes and changes background image on a new workspace).

I am half way through modifying the Clearlooks Gtk+ theme widget sizes to cater for touch. My Xfwm theme has already been adjusted to an appropriate size.

All in all, it has become a very enjoyable usability experience.

I knew Linux was able to handle all this, just had to do a lot of investigating.

Still working on bluetooth, in the meantime I have blacklisted bluetooth and a couple of other kernel modules that were causing boot errors. So now I have a clean boot as well, so time to put on fbsplash and theme it with LightDM to create a seamless boot.

Cheers.

jiyuu · 2011-10-30 16:09:49

As bernacher said, it's an interesting report.

Just one question: How is the battery life ?

Padfoot · 2011-10-31 07:00:28

@jiyuu

I have had it on mains since i got it, one less thing to worry about while i was setting it all up.

But the battery monitor is now reporting about 6 hours fully charged.

Cheers.

ant1-antuan · 2011-11-05 16:37:47

Hi all,
sorry for my poor english,
me too are using Arch on Acer Iconia Tab W, I'm using LXDE.
Here http://ant1-antuan.blogspot.com/search/ … tab%20W500 you can find my Italian blog.
I'm using EasyStroke to recognize gesture, I added a patch to tracking of project in sf.net to enable/disable recognition with simple left click. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=de … id=1078457
I have sent an e-mail asking to help me to implement multi-touch gestures, I have not received answer.
Then I coded alone to implement it and I think I can release a new version of EasyStroke with multitouch.

Are you intrested to test it?
I don't know if it can work on other touchscreen or with touchpad with multitouch feature.
How can I proceed to publish this patch?
Need I to fork the EasyStroke project?

Last edited by ant1-antuan (2011-11-05 16:44:04)

Padfoot · 2011-11-05 21:03:35

@ant1-antuan

Although the screen in the Iconia Tab is a multitouch screen, it is not recognised as such in the linux kernel/udev/xorg just yet. Using the generic evdev drivers, I only have single touch working.

If you have multitouch working on your screen, I am very interested in knowing how you got it set up (drivers xorg config etc).

So while easystroke with multitouch gestures would be great, I don't think it will work with the eGalax touch screens just yet.

Regarding your multitouch patch for easystroke, I would post in the bug tracker on the project page in sourceforge (I believe you can mark a bug as a patch/feature request etc), with a link to your patch. That way the devs can investigate it, and implement it if it conforms to the goals of their project.

Cheers.

ant1-antuan · 2011-11-05 21:50:20

@Padfoot

Padfoot wrote:

Although the screen in the Iconia Tab is a multitouch screen, it is not recognised as such in the linux kernel/udev/xorg just yet. Using the generic evdev drivers, I only have single touch working.

This is true, if you try to touch the screen on your desktop with two fingers you you obtain the same effect as you quickly move a single finger from one position to other and again...

Padfoot wrote:

If you have multitouch working on your screen, I am very interested in knowing how you got it set up (drivers xorg config etc).

I have not changed Xorg setup, I have modified the EasyStroke software in order to count the fingers over the screen.

Padfoot wrote:

So while easystroke with multitouch gestures would be great, I don't think it will work with the eGalax touch screens just yet.

The gesture recognised are the same as accepted by original EasyStroke, the difference is now you can record the stroke with one, two, three or four fingers. Are not supported gestures as "pinch" or "rotate" or "enlarge", the fingers have to move together to draw the stroke.

Padfoot wrote:

Regarding your multitouch patch for easystroke, I would post in the bug tracker on the project page in sourceforge (I believe you can mark a bug as a patch/feature request etc), with a link to your patch. That way the devs can investigate it, and implement it if it conforms to the goals of their project.

I'll try to submit the patch to dev on sf.net, when I submitted previous patch to enable/disable with left click, I have not received reply.
I need to clear the code and then I'll submit them.

Cheers

Padfoot · 2011-11-05 22:21:28

Sounds very promising. I would be interested in trying out you patch. Could you post a link?

ant1-antuan · 2011-11-06 15:31:46

Padfoot wrote:

Sounds very promising. I would be interested in trying out you patch. Could you post a link?

Ok, I have submitted the patch on sf.net, this is the ticket:
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/easystroke/ticket/107
Try it and notify me on bug, issues or success.
Thanks

Padfoot · 2011-11-26 21:33:08

ant1-antuan wrote:

Padfoot wrote:
Sounds very promising. I would be interested in trying out you patch. Could you post a link?
Ok, I have submitted the patch on sf.net, this is the ticket:
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/easystroke/ticket/107
Try it and notify me on bug, issues or success.
Thanks

Hi ant1-antuan,

Sorry I haven't replied in a while. I have been busy doing a lot of compiling myself.

I have patched lightdm to enable the use of an on screen keyboard at the login screen and submitted a package on AUR https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54208

I have also been working on a cifs mounts issue with suspend/hibernate https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130868

A grub2 annoyance: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 7#p1021607

And bluetooth, there are no longer any errors generated with the bluetooth modules on boot, but I still can't get it to work.

So, the only things that are not working with this tablet is autorotate (accellerometer is not recognised), bluetooth, and multitouch. Otherwise everything else works as expected.

Are you able to apply your patch to the easystroke AUR package and submit a multitouch package for it in AUR? As you could understand, I am a little over compiling code at the moment...lol (I am also coding a new version of the xfce menu to look something similar to the new mint menu in their latest release - more touch friendly than just re-sizing the menu items in my gtk theme).

Also, if you have bluetooth or the accellerometer working, I would be interested in that too.

Cheers.

Last edited by Padfoot (2011-11-26 21:34:42)

ant1-antuan · 2011-12-02 12:53:30

Hi Padfoot,
I have just published the package in the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54495
This is just a version tested on Acer Iconia Tab W500, I don't know if other hardware is supported.
There are a short video to show sample/simple gestures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmcTue1nSZA
Bye

Padfoot · 2011-12-03 09:31:08

Hi ant. nice work.

The only issue I have is it seems to be a little too precise. This is fine for single touch gestures, but it is more difficult with multitouch. I find I have to repeat the stroke multiple times before I get close enough for it to be recognised.

Do you know if there is a way the stroke precision can be reduced?

Cheers on your hard work getting multitouch working without the ability being in the current xorg drivers!

ant1-antuan · 2011-12-06 23:00:38

Hi Padfoot,
I have just published a new version of easystroke-mt package following your hint to improve recognising of single or multiple finger gestures.
Try, please, th new package, I think this version can be more usable.

As reported on comment to package on AUR site, these are the notes:
Gestures can be with one finger, two, three or four.
Only two fingers gestures can be drawn in different way with each finger.
With three or four fingers the gesture have to be drawn as single stroke.

Thanks to you for hint and for any test and issue you want to report.

Padfoot · 2011-12-09 05:54:10

Hi ant.

I have tested the latest update and, for me, unfortunately even single finger gestures were no longer recognised.

Also, you might want to add a 'warning' to your AUR package for users of the original to backup their ~/.easystroke directory first. After reverting to the original package, easystroke was seg faulting until I deleted my easystroke-mt config. It appears the mt config is no longer compatible with the original.

I really do appreciate the massive effort you have put into this. Hopefully others can get more mileage out of the package than I did.

For now, I am going to stick with the original, and monitor efforts to get mt compatibility flowing through from the kernel and into Xorg.

Cheers.

ant1-antuan · 2011-12-15 22:24:05

Hi Padfoot,
can I ask you to invoke easystroke from the shell using the following command?

easystroke -vvvvv >easystroke.trace

with 5 'v' will record very verbose traces in easystroke.trace, with these I can deeply investigate about bug.
Send me, please, the trace file, by e-mail or as you prefer.
Remember, before to draw any stroke, to enable gesture recording and recognition, by clicking on icon in tray in order to colorize the eventually grayed tricicle.
Reading again your initial post I seen you have installed x86_64, I'm using 32bit distrib.

Cheers.

Last edited by ant1-antuan (2011-12-15 22:25:41)

Padfoot · 2011-12-16 06:55:22

Hi ant, good news. eGalax have released an updated driver. I have it working on my 3.1.5 kernel, and multi touch is working through evdev.

Perhaps a modified easystroke to use proper mt input would be something to look at?

There is sample C code with the driver demonstrating how to read multiple inputs.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=35045 see the posts on this package for install info. The link to the binary is also on that page.

Cheers.

ant1-antuan · 2012-03-13 23:21:45

Hi Padfoot,
sorry for delay, I waited release of XI2 2.2 with libxi 1.6 libraries available on testing repo.
Now the server I'm using (xorg 1.11 compatible with catalyst driver) is not compatible with XI 2.2, I want to migrate from catalyst (proprietary driver) to xorg-video-ati (OSS driver) and update xorg-server to 1.12 (compatible with XI 2.2).
Which one are you using on your Iconia Tab? Do you think it is a good idea to migrate to OSS driver? I don't need to play games and speed of 3D is not important for me.
How can I replace the the driver without uninstall all packages with dependency on catalyst (xorg-server and so on...)?

Next step for me is to modify easystroke to real multitouch.

Cheers

Padfoot · 2012-03-14 06:21:50

Hi ant, good to hear from you.

I am using the oss raedon driver without issue. The 3d performance, even with a low powered cpu, is fine. I have been playing around with sandbox http://www.sandboxgamemaker.com/ without any lag.

So, definitely change to the raedon driver so you can get xi2 2.2.

# pacman -R catalyst-utils catalyst

should remove catalyst but leave it's dependencies.

# pacman -S xf86-video-ati

will get you going with raedon

# pacman -Qdt

will remove packages that were installed as dependencies, but are no longer required.

The above should leave your xorg install alone.

Cheers.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-10-29 07:25:58

Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#2 2011-10-29 09:44:46

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#3 2011-10-30 08:08:39

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#4 2011-10-30 16:09:49

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#5 2011-10-31 07:00:28

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#6 2011-11-05 16:37:47

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#7 2011-11-05 21:03:35

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#8 2011-11-05 21:50:20

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#9 2011-11-05 22:21:28

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#10 2011-11-06 15:31:46

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#11 2011-11-26 21:33:08

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#12 2011-12-02 12:53:30

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#13 2011-12-03 09:31:08

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#14 2011-12-06 23:00:38

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#15 2011-12-09 05:54:10

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#16 2011-12-15 22:24:05

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#17 2011-12-16 06:55:22

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#18 2012-03-13 23:21:45

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

#19 2012-03-14 06:21:50

Re: Acer Iconia Tab W series....success!

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