Running Linux on the EZBook 2?

[Ricardo Simões]

Janus Reith wrote:

I used my android phone wih USB tethering…

BRILLIANT! (now why didn’t I think of that? LOL)

Please take a look at the info below, and see if it can help you figure out what wi-fi and sound card this EzBook 2 has

hwdetect result:

AGP      : intel-gtt
ACPI     : ac acpi_pad battery button dptf_power thermal video
BLOCK    : scsi_mod sd_mod uvcvideo usb-common usbcore xhci-hcd xhci-pci uas usb-storage
BLUETOOTH: btbcm btintel btqca hci_uart bluetooth
CPUFREQ  : acpi-cpufreq pcc-cpufreq
CRYPTO   : aesni-intel aes-x86_64 crc32c-intel crc32-pclmul crct10dif-pclmul ghash-clmulni-intel glue_helper ablk_helper cryptd gf128mul lrw
DRM      : drm_kms_helper drm i915
HWMON    : coretemp
I2C      : i2c-algo-bit i2c-designware-core i2c-designware-platform
INPUT    : evdev input-leds joydev soc_button_array mousedev sparse-keymap goodix silead hid-generic hid hid-multitouch i2c-hid usbhid
KVM      : kvm-intel kvm
MEDIA    : media uvcvideo videobuf2-core videobuf2-memops videobuf2-v4l2 videobuf2-vmalloc videodev
NET      : fjes bluetooth nci nfc rfkill-gpio rfkill
SOUND    : pcspkr ac97_bus snd-compress snd snd-pcm-dmaengine snd-pcm snd-timer snd-soc-rl6231 snd-soc-rt5640 snd-soc-rt5645 snd-soc-rt5651 snd-soc-sst-mfld-platform snd-intel-sst-acpi snd-intel-sst-core snd-soc-sst-match snd-soc-core soundcore
TPM      : tpm tpm_tis_core tpm_tis
WATCHDOG : iTCO_vendor_support iTCO_wdt
OTHER    : intel-cstate led-class mac_hid lpc_ich mmc_core sdhci-acpi sdhci fdp_i2c fdp intel-hid intel_rapl spi-pxa2xx-platform acpi_thermal_rel int3400_thermal int3403_thermal int3406_thermal int340x_thermal_zone 8250_dw fb_sys_fops syscopyarea sysfillrect sysimgblt crc16 irqbypass

Best regards
Ricardo

[Ricardo Simões]

… and following my previous post here is lspci -nn -vv and lscpi

http://pastebin.com/L3y2WMCx

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series SoC Transaction Register (rev 22)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCI Configuration Registers (rev 22)
00:03.0 Multimedia controller: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Imaging Unit (rev 22)
00:0b.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Power Management Controller (rev 22)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series USB xHCI Controller (rev 22)
00:1a.0 Encryption controller: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Trusted Execution Engine (rev 22)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCU (rev 22)

Best regards
Ricardo

[Janus Reith]

Well, wifi is alread figured out, See my previous post. After i compiled a patched kernel and changed the connection type to pci in bios, it is detected. We will probably need further patches as it wont find any networks.

 

Sound is still complicated, it could be an rt5640, which is used in Baytrail and also the z8500 cherrytrail. Maybe our z8300 SoC is using the same.

[Ricardo Simões]

Janus Reith wrote:

Well, wifi is alread figured out, See my previous post. After i compiled a patched kernel and changed the connection type to pci in bios, it is detected. We will probably need further patches as it wont find any networks. Sound is still complicated, it could be an rt5640, which is used in Baytrail and also the z8500 cherrytrail. Maybe our z8300 SoC is using the same.

Yes indeed the wi-fi it’s still not 100% but if it is already identified I think it’s a matter of time until it will be at 100%

Hope the sound sooner or later it will be to 100% ok

P.S: thanks to your wi-fi tethering  idea I’m now able to have internet on my EzBook 2 and I’ll be updating to kernel 4.9 and/or 4.10 rc1 and continue experimenting… ATM I’m using xubuntu 16.04.1 (screen brightness WOTB) since I could not install Antergos without a mouse (Lost my patience with the keyboard noob style), and I’ll report back if I have more news

Best regards
Ricardo

[Janus Reith]

The Touchpad worked out of the box in Antergos for me, also on the live usb. Sadly we cant rule out that the touchpad of the ezbook 2 and the yepo 737s differ…

[Ricardo Simões]

I’m currently on PANIC MODE right now!!!!

I’ve changed the BIOS to pci and now my EzBook 2 just doesn’t boot anymore… the blue light comes on but the screen is always black… I have to press the power button for 5 secs to go off. When I turn it on the blue light stays on but the screen remains all black 🙁

I’ve opened it and disconnected the battery cable for more than 3 mins and connected it again, but still the same… power button responds but screen remains black :((((

Is it bricked?

Does anyone know how I can do a factory reset? Is it even possible like this?

Best regards
Ricardo

[Janus Reith]

Relax, it is most certainly not bricked.

Can you still reach the bios by pressing ESC during Boot? Which device did you switch to PCI? – there are many options in the bios.

If you can still reach bios, connect an external display using the mini HDMI or try to use the bios “blind” or reset CMOS. Is it possible that you changed the Gfx to PCI and not SDIO?

[Ricardo Simões]

I changed more than one setting like graphics… I can not reach BIOS with ESC, blue light stays on, screen stays black for ever

I remember I changed GPU to 256MB and touchpad to gottix or something similar

Best regards
Ricardo

[Janus Reith]

Well, last Ressort would always be to manually flash the eeprom.

Maybe this thread is helpful: http://techtablets.com/forum/topic/bios-cmos-reset/

[Ricardo Simões]

Janus Reith wrote:

Well, last Ressort would always be to manually flash the eeprom. Maybe this thread is helpful: http://techtablets.com/forum/topic/bios-cmos-reset/

Yep I was reading that thread too, but it seems there’s 2 options short some pins or buy a device to flash it… the two guys are having an argument I don’t know who to believe

Best regards
Ricardo

[Ricardo Simões]

Well folks this is goodbye for me… I’m very very sad… this laptop worked flawlessly for 6 months on windows 10…

being a Linux user I’ve been patiently waiting for Linux support, and on the very first day I got my xubuntu surfing the web via Android tethering, I went further and tried to contribute to this community who has helped me so much… went to the BIOS in order to try to connect wi-fi via pci so it can be detected, saved BIOS settings and then… black screen… and no more EzBook ever…

I can power on and off (blue light) but the screen is always black… it’s bricked!!!!!

I’ve opened and shorted legs 5 and 6 from BIOS chip more than 20 times now, and it’s useless 🙁

Thank you all for helping to get this working on Linux, but you’ve lost me, I’ll never again buy such a piece of crap!

One change in BIOS and it bricks !?!?!?!?

My advice to you all: don’t touch anything or you risk bricking your computer by simply saving your BIOS settings. Right here on this forum there are many many guys that bricked their EzBooks the same way… I only wished I read those threads before 🙁

I really hope this could someday reach 100% Linux support, I really liked this laptop, it’s a cheap Mac clone on the outside, but yeah it was beautiful for me (at least) and it ran super fast on Linux, today I could use thunderbird, firefox, libreoffice, surf the web and watch HD videos on youtube flawlessly and then… pufffff all gone… it was a brief moment of glory…

In the end I truly regret to have bought this, because even if it would revived somehow, I would always live in fear to brick it again just by going into the BIOS and change something…

I’ve learn my lesson, before I buy my next laptop I must ensure that that machine has 100% Linux compatibility.

So long now… best of luck to you all that are still in this fight.

Best regards
Ricardo

[Janus Reith]

A suitable usb to spi flasher should probably cost less than 10 bucks. The bios image is available in this forum.

Dont overdramatize this, you will get it back to work again somehow 😀

[Ricardo Simões]

Janus Reith wrote:

A suitable usb to spi flasher should probably cost less than 10 bucks. The bios image is available in this forum…

Does it involve desoldering/soldering?

Best regards
Ricardo

[Janus Reith]

No it should not. I had a similar issue on my Teclast X98 Air II when i updated using a wrong bios and bricked it. I just had to open the back, connect the flasher to the USB of my PC, and place the clip on the chip – Just like a clothespin. If it doesnt work, just try again and place it to the opposite site/turn it 180 degree. Sounds more complicated than it actually is.

[Ricardo Simões]

Janus Reith wrote:

No it should not. I had a similar issue on my Teclast X98 Air II when i updated using a wrong bios and bricked it. I just had to open the back, connect the flasher to the USB of my PC, and place the clip on the chip – Just like a clothespin. If it doesnt work, just try again and place it to the opposite site/turn it 180 degree. Sounds more complicated than it actually is.

Ok if it doesn’t involve desoldering/soldering I might be able to think about it… can you point me to a good tutorial/youtube video?

Also take a look at these pics I took yesterday after opened the EzBook 2 https://goo.gl/photos/yF3at4cXunVoMufT8

Can you identify where is the correct chip?

Best regards
Ricardo

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