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Google Nexus 7 2013 (asus-flo)

From postmarketOS Wiki
Google (ASUS) Nexus 7 (2013) WIFI
Flo running Hildon
Flo running Hildon
Manufacturer Google (ASUS)
Name Nexus 7 (2013) WIFI
Codename asus-flo
Released 2013
Type tablet
Hardware
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (Snapdragon 600) (APQ8064-1AA)
CPU Quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait 300
GPU Adreno 320
Display 1200x1920 FHD IPS
Storage 16/32 GB
Memory 2 GB
Architecture armv7
Software
Original software
The software and version the device was shipped with.
Android 6 (Linux 3.4)
Extended version
The most recent supported version from the manufacturer.
Android
postmarketOS
Category testing
Mainline
Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.
yes
Device package device-asus-flo
Kernel package linux-asus-flo
Features
Flashing
It is possible to flash the device with pmbootstrap flasher.
Works
USB Networking
After connecting the device with USB to your PC, you can connect to it via telnet (initramfs) or SSH (booted system).
Works
Battery
Charging and battery level reporting works
Untested
Screen
Display works. Ideally with sleep mode and brightness control.
Works
Touchscreen
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Works
Audio
Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.
Untested
Camera
Untested
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Untested
GPS
Untested
Miscellaneous
FDE
Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.
Partial
Sensors
Accelerometer
Auto screen rotation works in desktops e.g. Phosh or Plasma Mobile
Untested
Flo running Plasma Mobile

Contributors

  • David Heidelberg (inactive)
  • montvid porting (inactive)
  • John Stultz Flo kernel patches maintainer (inactive)

Users owning this device

  • 0xB0D
  • Audunmg
  • Blacklight
  • Cherryband (Notes: usb port broken)
  • Clamor (Notes: Running Unlegacy Android Project Oreo ROM)
  • Devbrones
  • Deviled (Notes: Broken digitizer)
  • Dragon788 (Notes: mine is the LTE model system, but the info is spread across both pages and it will be nice to find the right page from my profile)
  • Ecloud
  • Hexaheximal (Notes: Currently runs an unofficial LineageOS 20 build, planning on installing postmarketOS on it at some point)
  • ImAdam
  • Lantizia
  • Manty (Notes: Android development)
  • Neilvandyke
  • Newbyte (Notes: Seems to have failing eMMC. Running Ubuntu Touch. Borrowed by girlfriend, so unavailable for testing things)
  • Okias (Notes: Damaged screen, but works)
  • Otto
  • Russanandres (Notes: Broken)
  • Stupidenbyace (Notes: Running LineageOS 19.1)
  • Yifei (Notes: not booting or charging)


Key combinations

  • Boot to bootloader: Power + Volume Down
  • Boot to recovery: Power + Volume Up
  • Shutdown: Power


Hardware revisions

First figure out, which HW revision do you have. You can do that from booted TWRP or original AOSP kernel by running

dmesg | grep "HW Revision"

Alternatively from bootloader (fastboot), run

fastboot getvar version-hardware

Known hardware revisions are:

* rev_e
* ??

Note: at present, the hardware revision does not seem to be of any consequence.

Flashing

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

Installation process

Is currently identical to Google_Nexus_7_2012_(asus-grouper)#Installation_process, just beware, that DATA partition numbers can differ!

Mainline status

  • 4.11 kernel with many workarounds works
  • 4.12-rc1 broke Adreno, not fixed at least until kernel 5.6 https://github.com/freedreno-zz/freedreno/issues/12
  • 4.14 kernel running, but when 3D or Xserver is used, it tends to stop working.
  • 5.4 - working
  • 5.10 (LTS) - currently being worked on, sometimes laggy touchscreen
  • 5.11 - 5.12 needs power button shortly pressed in initial booting process
  • mainline and -next should be working with correct configuration

Issues (WIP)

  • WIFI firmware sometimes does not load on boot. WIFI connection is very slow - probably to the wcn36xx driver still being a work in progress. You need to start WiFi#Start_WIFI_manually as the firmware loads late in the boot process.
sudo wpa_supplicant -u -Dnl80211 -B -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0
sudo nmcli device wifi connect "ssd" password "pass" ifname wlan0

Other information

  • Flash the system to a userdata partition to have 10GB free space. If you don't see 10GB install TWRP recovery and format system/all partitions and start again:
./pmbootstrap.py flasher flash_rootfs --partition userdata
./pmbootstrap.py flasher flash_kernel
  • When I tried flashing rootfs, it would fail almost immediately after erasing. I installed TWRP, and tried a few things to "wipe" it, which worked, and then permitted the good flash (with hildon UI) below. (Note that, although the instructions for TWRP 3.2.2-0 for asus-flo suggest that you might need to do "fastboot reboot" and then hold down the buttons, that only resulted in what appeared to be boot loops of TWRP -- what worked instead was to use the buttons to power off, and then use the buttons to boot recovery.)
(native) flash rootfs image
target didn't report max-download-size
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  0.977s]
sending 'userdata' (395264 KB)...
OKAY [395.414s]
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 19.449s]
finished. total time: 415.840s
  • When I tried flashing with the Hildon UI (on 2018-07-27), it booted to the blue Hildon wallpaper, but the wallpaper only filled a square subset of the display.
  • For unknown reasons, I'm seeing rootfs flash times that seem slow. For example, a flash of plasma-mobile ui (808 MB) took 850.323s, with 808.169s of that in sending phase. This is approx. 10 times the duration for flashing sony-amami from the same laptop.
  • I would recommend installing and using MATE as it is very complete
  • To run Internet via USB see USB Internet
  • Correct battery charge info appears to be in: /sys/bus/i2c/drivers/bq27xxx-battery/0-0055/power_supply/bq27541-0/charge_now

Links