Dell venue 8 pro

Dell Venue 8 pro (3845)

Manufacturer	Dell
Name	Venue 8 pro (3845)
Codename	generic-x86_64
Released	2014
Type	tablet
Hardware
Chipset	Intel Bay Trail T Z3735
CPU	Intel® Atom™ CPU Z3735 @ 1.832GHz (Quad-Core)
GPU	Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
Display	8" 800x1280 IPS LCD
Storage	32 GB + sdcard reader
Memory	1 GB
Architecture	x86_64
Software
Original software	Windows
Original version	8.1
FOSS bootloader	yes
postmarketOS
Category	testing
Pre-built images	no
Mainline	yes
postmarketOS kernel	Latest edge

Features

USB Networking
Internal storage
SD card
Battery	Partial
Screen	Works
Touchscreen	Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Works
Audio	Works
Camera	Broken
Camera Flash
Connectivity
WiFi	Works
Bluetooth	Broken
Miscellaneous
FDE
USB-A	Works
USB OTG	Works
Sensors
Accelerometer
Magnetometer
Ambient Light
Proximity
Hall Effect
Haptics
Barometer
Power Sensor

Contributors

• Iliketwertles
• craftyguy

Users owning this device

• Anh0516 (Notes: 5830, not 3845, it has 2GB RAM and an Atom Z3740D but is otherwise identical)
• Craftyguy
• Iliketwertles
• Neko (Notes: Dead SD, running Windows 8.1)

Information

• This tablet is essentially a small 32bit UEFI computer, suffers from 32bit UEFI with 64bit CPU
• Holding down the Windows button (above volume) holds the boot process, allowing you to:
  • Enter bios (volume down)
  • Select a boot device (volume up)
  • Continue normal boot (wait or press windows button again)
• This tablet has no ability to flash via a computer, therefore installing has to be done manually on the tablet

Installation

Preparation

• Ensure secure boot is turned off
• Make the bootable usb
  • Use pmbootstrap to make the usb, Use the generic-x86_64 codename and everything else is preference.

Flashing To Internal Storage

• Boot the flashed usb
  • Hold down the windows button as before, power on the device, press volume up
  • Then select the usb in the boot menu, reading what is on the screen
• Ensure you have an internet connection
• Re-run pmbootstrap:
  • Install pmbootstrap and rerun the init process, then install with --disk=<DISK>

- The internal disk can be found with lsblk

Hardware status

Bluetooth

Bluetooth support is available in other distros such as fedora, this means it will likely work in the future but no promises. likely configuration or driver related.

Camera

No Camera support in any known linux distros. Hopeful future support.

Battery

Battery charges and discharges as expected, however normally it does not report the %, it has been reported to work however. More investigation is needed

USB-A

There is no usb port on this tablet, however there is a microusb port which when paired with an adapter works just like a normal usb port. Hence why it is labeled as Works

Software issues

Audio Playback

If you experience issues with audio, or weird things like video playback hanging and an audible beep being emitted from the speaker, this is likely due to a misconfigured Sound OpenFirmware (SOF) setup. There are two different workarounds for this:

• Disable SOF, by unsetting CONFIG_SND_INTEL_BYT_PREFER_SOF in the kernel or blacklisting the module(s) for it.

• Keep SOF and force a specific DSP driver when SOF loads:

$ echo "options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=2" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/byt-sof.conf

Tested DE

Gnome-mobile

Good, rare but possible lock-ups, assuming ram issue.

xfce4

Good, no complaints.

plasma-mobile

Works better with more recent updates, on the slow side but that should be expected with this device.

See also

• Linux on Dell venue 8 pro (3845)
• Linux on the Dell Venue 8 Pro (5830)