This device is supported as part of a generic port. Refer to Nvidia Tegra armv7 (nvidia-tegra-armv7) for installation instructions and more information.

This device is based on the Tegra 3. See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps

This page documents the status of mainline Linux on the Nexus 7. This document should cover all tablets from first generation (codenamed grouper and tilapia).

Currently all supported features should work as they're supposed to, no known bugs except few not-yet supported features (3D, GPS, cameras and modem).

Hardware revisions

grouper rev. PM269 - without GSM (older, less frequent)
grouper rev. E1565 - without GSM (modern)
tilapia rev. E1565 - with GSM

Do I have grouper or tilapia?

TWRP (adb shell) $ grep androidboot.baseband=unknown /proc/cmdline && echo grouper || echo tilapia

Which hardware revision of grouper do I have?

TWRP (adb shell) $ find /sys/devices/ | grep -c max776 && echo You have E1565
TWRP (adb shell) $ find /sys/devices/ | grep -c tps6591 && echo You have PM269

Flashing

When flashing (flashing the kernel or rootfs) the target device must be in flash mode.

How to enter flash mode

Connect a USB cable
Power the device off
Hold Power + Volume Down
fastboot should work when the green android appears on the screen

Hardware status (mainline)

There is multiple hardware revisions, so this status may not apply to all of them. This status apply for tilapia (Bach revision).

Status	Hardware	Info
Y	Booting	... but when is kernel larger than approx 4MB, initfs must be packed directly inside kernel (not into boot.img as usual), otherwise kernel won't boot. Older downstream kernels was smaller, so no issue there.
Y	Touchscreen	Works.
Y	USB & USB OTG	Works.
Y	SDHCI	Works.
Y	NFC	wired, not tested yet. Please update if it'll work for you.
P	GPS	Broadcom BCM4751 GPS is unsupported by the kernel and gpsd. Pangelo works on it.
Y	WiFi and Bluetooth	Wi-Fi works (best with IWD daemon: apk add iwd; rc-update del wpa_supplicant; rc-update add iwd; and HOWTO), Bluetooth does work as well (tested with BT 4.2 and 5.0 devices).
Y	GPIO keys	There is 3 keys on GPIO: Power, Volume up, Volume down.
Y	Battery and Charger	Battery status and charging works as expected.
Y	Sound	Works, ALSA UCM configs are included into alsa-ucm-conf package
Y	Temperature sensor	temperature sensor works
Y	Proximity sensor	(tilapia only) Disabled, but works (boolean state, on/off). Would be nice to have this driver work with IIO framework (TODO)
Y	Light sensor	Driver Dyna-Image AL3010. Brightness regulation works, install iio-sensor-proxy . It's slightly oversensitive.
N	Front camera
N	3D support	See Nvidia_Tegra_2_(tegra20)#Graphics
N	Modem	(tilapia only) contribution welcome, no work done yet.

User Interfaces

Multiple, but due to not yet implemented HW acceleration, some of them are currently unavailable (like Phosh)

Recommended interfaces:

Phosh: Purism Librem 5 compositor and GNOME based environment, needs performance optimization, but works.
Xfce4: GTK-based desktop environment aiming to be fast and lightweight. Follow the guide at https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/XFCE4 for adjustments.

Development Notes

Bootloader

There is some progress on u-boot for Tegra devices. Check u-boot repository
The default images for android provided by google have the bootloader broken, meaning it can't be flashed. It does not seem to affect the install process of postmarketOS, but is something to take into account. If you need a working bootloader image version 4.23 can be found [here], or can be 4.18 can be grabbed from the factory images for KitKat

Kernel

Currently used mainline kernel:

Grate kernel, where tegra development ongoing. It does follow official linux-next branch.

References to older kernels:

Old Android kernels: LineageOS kernel sources Unlegacy kernel sources
Ubuntu Nexus 7 Kernel wiki (old, last updated 2012)

Graphics

The touchscreen input device is named elan-touchscreen.
(legacy) CONFIG_VT had to be enabled for graphics to work. In menuconfig this is located under Device Drivers -> Character devices -> Virtual terminal.
(legacy) ~~/sys/class/graphics/fb0/mode is empty on boot, it must have U:800x1280p-0. This uses the same initfs hook as many other devices.~~ Update: Seems to be correctly set now
(legacy) weston with fbdev-backend.so uses pixman-type=3 (PIXMAN_TYPE_ABGR), which now does not require configuration.

Wifi

There's a proper firmware subpackage now, wifi device should work out-of-the box.
"Desktop" Linux firmware are outdated. Check here for latest one.
To connect follow the instructions on this page.
(legacy)It is possible to manually get wifi working by manually copying fw_bcmdhd.bin and nvram.txt to their kernel-specified locations and configuring /etc/network/interfaces. At this point, running /etc/init.d/networking restart, gave an error about being unable to get a MAC address. After restarting the device to find that wifi Just Worked™, it was possible to successfully scan for wireless networks and establish a connection to secured wireless APs.

Pending Issues

pmbootstrap#60: Use the system and userdata partition on Android with LVM
pmbootstrap#1422: The system partition is too small to hold rootfs images over 650Mb (e.g. Plasma Mobile is about 1.1Gb). Flashing to userdata partition fails.
pmaports#201: With legacy kernel, device seems to reboot spontaneously under heavy load. For better experience, please use mainline kernel.

Community Info

U-Boot
Primary Bootloader	Works
Secondary Bootloader	Broken
Mainline	Works
Internal Storage	Works
USB Host	Broken
USB Peripheral	Works
Display	Works
Buttons	Works

Features
Flashing	Works
USB Networking	Works
Internal storage
SD card
Battery	Works
Screen	Works
Touchscreen	Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Partial
Audio	Works
Camera
Camera Flash
Connectivity
WiFi	Works
Bluetooth	Works
GPS	Partial
NFC	Works
Miscellaneous
FDE	Works
USB OTG	Works
HDMI/DP
Sensors
Accelerometer	Works
Magnetometer	Works
Ambient Light	Works
Hall Effect	Works
Haptics
Barometer

Google (ASUS) Nexus 7 (2012)
	; Google Nexus 7
Manufacturer	Google (ASUS)
Name	Nexus 7 (2012)
Codename	asus-grouper
Released	2012
Type	tablet
Hardware
Chipset	Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L)
CPU	Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9
GPU	ULP GeForce
Display	800x1280 IPS
Storage	8/16/32 GB
Memory	1 GB
Architecture	armv7
Software
Original software	Android
Original version	4.1.2 on Linux 3.0
FOSS bootloader	yes
postmarketOS
Category	community
Pre-built images	yes
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score	1364.3
Generic port	Nvidia Tegra armv7 (nvidia-tegra-armv7)

Users owning this device

00p513
Antonok
Baonks81 (Notes: Hw rev.E1565 no GSM - 6 tablets software 3d accelerate on ALARM with grate-driver LLVMpipe built)
Bczeman
Blitztide
BogdanTheGeek (Notes: E1565 no GSM)
Clamor (Notes: pmOS with Grate kernel and U-Boot)
Ecloud
Eloy
GloomyJD (Notes: Works, very weak battery)
Gull Code (Notes: OK,daily use with XFCE4. See my profile if you want to have automatic rotation and light with Asus grouper sensor daemon or jump to https://gitlab.com/gullradriel/asus-grouper-nexus-7-sensor-daemon)
Hilledkinged (Notes: Revived from corrupt bootloader)
Isot42 (Notes: OK PM269 version)
Joshaspinall (Notes: PM269)
LongnoseRob (Notes: 2x E1565 type, pmOS (edge) w/ u-boot, UI: mate)
Maff (Notes: Multiple)
Misopog (Notes: Like new, unlocked, stock)
Nergzd723 (Notes: emmc dead, bct partition intact, possible to fusee-gelee)
Okias (Notes: OK, HW rev.E1565 (asus-tilapia))
Pangelo (Notes: original grouper (non-GSM) model)
Pojntfx
Progressnoize (Notes: Screen broken)
Roboe (Notes: (borrowed) variant: grouper, version-hardware: ER3; HW rev. E1565; running pmOS edge with U-Boot bootloader)
Roboe (Notes: (borrowed) variant: grouper; version-hardware: ER3; HW rev. E1565; broken battery)
Russanandres (Notes: Cyanogenmod 11, using for old gaiming)
Segfault (Notes: x3 - 2 16GB and 1 32GB)
The Arjdroid (Notes: Impressive! Works with phosh & xfce4, but not daily driveable yet. It needs 3D acceleration for smoother UI, & firefox fix crashes. Great for running it as a no display server like a raspberry pi. Running with xfce4 can make it usable as a smart display like a calendar or something.)
Yifei (Notes: bad battery)

Maintainers

David Heidelberg

Fun Fact

grouper was the first tablet to run postmarketOS!

Google Nexus 7 2012 (asus-grouper)