Howto: Install Ubuntu on Toshiba AC100posted 22May2011 Tags: digital ac100 howto linux toshiba AC100 ubuntu

Updated: 2011/July/08 :using new ubuntu file package from markus, wifi, sound, suspend and much more functions work out of box!!! markus, Thanks!Toshiba AC100 (or Toshiba Dynabook AZ) is a lightweight smartbook. It only weights 860 grams with a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 screen and built-in keyboard. It runs Android 2.1 /2.2, which does not fit well with the book. The good news is some hackers are working on an Ubuntu linux system on it. Here I will show you how to install Ubuntu for Toshiba AC100.There are some instructions on installing Ubuntu on AC100 already, but I found most of them are outdated or uncompleted, so I write this one. Here I will show you how to install Ubuntu with 2.6.32 kernel to the internal storage of AC100 or external SD card.To Install Ubuntu on Toshiba AC100, you need to do two things. First, you need to copy Ubuntu system files to a SD card or to the internal storage. Second, update the bootloader, so that AC100 will look for linux system on the internal storage of the AC100. Below will show you the details.What do you need? A Toshiba AC100A miniUSBUSB cable A linux PC ( or a PC runs Ubuntu live CD / USB stick ) A 4GB+ SD-card or USB-flash stickPart Zero: Backup your Toshiba AC100After this Ubuntu system is installed, the original Android system on your Toshiba AC100 will be gone. With backup, you can restore android system back.1. Download linux4tegra (L4T) form scoopr, you need nvflash tools from the package. (It seems nvidia now have it removed from their official website and is preparing a new release)2. Turn you Toshiba AC100 off, use the miniUSB cable connect your AC100 to your linux PC.3. Holding down CTRL and ESC keys, press (and release) the power-on button, while the power-on LED turn on, release CTRL and ESC keys. The screen of AC100 should be black, and it is fine.4. On the Linux PC terminal, backup your AC100:switch to root user modesudo sucd path-to-your-linux4tegra/sudo LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./nvflash/ ./nvflash/nvflash --bl ./prebuilt/fastboot.stock.bin --read 6 partition_6_backup.bin --go5.Power off your Toshiba AC100 by holding power button for 5 seconds after all jobs are done.Part I: Prepare Ubuntu System Files to SD card or USB stick1.Download ubuntu system file package from:http://193.238.157.78/~markus/ac100/rootfs/I suggest this one for now: rootfs-32-maverick-5-test.tar.gz (readme from markus is here).2.Create a nilfs2 partition on the SD-card with the linux pc (cation: all data on the card will be deleted!!!, before the process, you may need to install nilfs-tools with "sudo apt-get install nilfs-tools" command first.):sudo mkfs.nilfs2 /dev/your-sd-card-device-name4.Mount this device onsudo mount -t nilfs2 /dev/your-sd-card-device-name /mnt5.Unpack Ubuntu files to it. This may take some time.sudo tar xavf Ubuntu-rootfs-file-package-you-downloaded.tar.gz --numeric-owner -C /mnt6.After the upacking is done, unmount the device.Now you have Ubuntu system file inside your SD card, but you still need a bootloader to make you book boot to the system.Part II: Update the Bootloader1.Download markit's new boot img from:http://markit.dyndns.org/ac100/32/boot.menu.img/32.boot.menu.v1.img (8M)2.Connected your AC100 to a Linux PC, and power it on with CTRL and ESC keys being held3.On the Linux PC, flashing partition 6 of your AC100 with markit's boot img:sudo LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./nvflash/ ./nvflash/nvflash --wait --bl ./prebuilt/fastboot.stock.bin --download 6 /the/path/to/32.boot.menu.v1.img --go4.When it is done, power off your Toshiba AC100 by holding power button for 5 seconds.5.Now insert the sd card to your AC100 and power it on. You should see the Android system is gone, and your book is booting Ubuntu system from SD card. Before you can use the Ubuntu system, you need to do some basic setup.Part III: install Ubuntu system into internal storage of Toshiba AC100 (Optional)If you don't like run system from sd-card or usb stick, you can install ubuntu directly into the internal storage of Toshiba AC100. Here is how:1. Power on your AC100, and boot ubuntu from sd-card.2. Install nilfs-tools on the system.sudo apt-get install nilfs-tools3. Umount internal storage of AC100 and formate it with nilfs2 file system. (cation: all data on the storage will be delete!, the device name of the internal storage of my AC100 is /dev/mmcblk3p6. Replace /dev/mmcblk3p6 with the name of your internal storage!)sudo umount /dev/mmcblk3p6sudo mkfs.nilfs2 /dev/mmcblk3p64. Mount the storage device and unpack ubuntu system files into it.sudo mount -t nilfs2 /dev/mmcblk3p6 /mntsudo tar xavf Ubuntu-rootfs-file-package-you-downloaded.tar.gz --numeric-owner -C /mnt5. All done! Remove the sd-card and reboot your Toshiba AC100, it should boot Ubuntu from internal storage now.How to remove Ubuntu system and restore Android back to your Toshiba AC100If it turns out that Ubuntu is not what you want, you can remove it from your ac100 and restore the original android system back.1. Restore the file system of internal storage back to vfat (You need to do this step only if you have installed ubuntu into the internal storage of AC100. Skip it if you only try ubuntu with a sd-card.):Boot ubuntu from SD-card, then umount internal storage of AC100, and formate it back to vfat file system:sudo umount /dev/mmcblk3p6-or-the-name-of-your-storage-devicesudo mkfs -t vfat /dev/mmcblk3p6-or-the-name-of-your-storage-device2. Restore the original android Bootloader back:Connect your AC100 to a linux PC, holding ESC and Ctrl keys and power it on, and run the following code under linux4tegra path:sudo LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./nvflash/ ./nvflash/nvflash --wait --bl ./prebuilt/fastboot.stock.bin --download 6 /the/path/to/partition_6_backup.bin --goYou should have you Toshiba AC100 with Android system back.Useful links on Ubuntu for AC100stuff from markit: http://markit.dyndns.org/ac100/gildean's ac100-portal: http://ac100.tunk.org/wiki/phhIf you have any problem on installing ubuntu on Toshiba AC100, chat here: irc://irc.freenode.net/ac100Also SeeHow to Install Native Ubuntu on EeePad Transformer!How to Install Ubuntu on Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android Tablet!Ubuntu on the Motorola Xoom

By Sen (not verified)Thanks for your post. Would like to get some value from otherwise useless (to me) android netbook. Got as far as this command;sudo mkfs.nilfs2 nilfs2 /dev/your-ac100-storage-device-namebut I get this error message;mkfs.nilfs2 ver 2.0Error: cannot find nilfs2: No such file or directoryI believe that I must have nilfsc-tools installed and, I do not. So I tried to install it with this;yum install nilfs-toolsall I got was;No package nilfs-tools available.I searched internet for nilfs-tools as an rpm but couldnt find one. I tried following command;apt-get install nilfs-toolsall I got was;E: Couldn't find package nilfs-toolsI do have nilfs-utils installed on my PC, but that may be a different package alltogether. Any suggestion,solutions are welcomeSln reply04 Jun01:46By yangmy mistake.The command should be :sudo mkfs.nilfs2 /dev/your-ac100-storage-device-namesorry. reply04 Jun01:43By yangtryyum install nilfs-utilsyum install nilfs-utils-devel reply04 Jun06:49By Anonymous (not verified)After formatting and mounting the usb-dev I cant write to it. All I got is an I/O-error. The big problem is that its impossible to turn on USB storage sharing again (because the partition is formatted with an unknown filesys), so I can't try to format it again and I cant use the disk in Android.I have root and shell-access in Android but I am not sure which partition I have to do mkfs on... Any idea? reply04 Jun22:40By yangI met the same problem before. The partition should be /dev/mmcblk3p6, but reformat it did not fix my problem. After restoring my android system backup the partition came back again. But I still don't understand why restoring would do the job.You may try restoring your backup system, or flashing android in different version (e.g. 2.1/2.2) . ( you may need to reformat the partition to ext3 or ext2 first, -- just like I did)Or, You can find a SD card, and format the SD card nilfs2 file system, and exact Ubuntu files into the card, then (after Updating the Bootloader) you can boot Ubuntu from the card. Then, if you still want to install Ubuntu into the internal storage, you can format the storage partition to nilfs2 with the Ubuntu system running from the SD card, then exact Ubuntu file into the Internal storage of AC100. Removing the SD card, you Thoshiba AC 100 should boot Ubuntu from the internal storage. reply06 Jun06:17By Anonymous (not verified)Yes that works, almost... There is no nilfs-tools for arm, so I formatted the internal storage with an ext3-filesys instead. Now it's booting fine. reply07 Jun01:44By yangThere is nilfs tools for arm. http://launchpadlibrarian.net/48280071/nilfs-tools_2.0.18-2_armel.debBut I think ext3 should be ok too. reply05 Jun04:46By Den (not verified)Hello!I'm stuck at the Part I, Step 3. I installed nilfs-tools and nilfs2-tools through Ubuntu Software Center. What exactly do you mean by Unmount the internal storage? Eject, safely remove the device or something else? And how to format the dev, what is my ac100 storage device name -how to find it?Thanks in advance!Have a nice day!Best regards! reply05 Jun14:13By yangI believe ejecting, safely removing the device may do the same with umounting, but I use the umount command. To use the umount command, you need to do it in a Terminal, and you also need to know the name of you storage device.To find out the name of your AC100 storage device's name, you can try this:First, eject / safely remove and unplug your AC100from your Ubuntu PC.Open a Terminal.Re-plug You AC100 back in, then run below command on the Terminal:sudo dmesg | tail -20You can figure out the storage's name from the output. It should be something like: mmcblk3p6.To umount a device named mmcblk3p6, you can do:sudo umount /dev/mmcblk3p6in the Terminal.You are welcome. reply05 Jun22:44By Anonymous (not verified)Hi!I use how-to from http://salaliitto.com/~gildean/ac100/wiki/phh/Then I decided to make a clean internal install.I deleted all partitions on my AC100 and made just one 8GB partition.How can I now install ubuntu on this partition?Both how-to's doesn't work (anymore), not even gildean's from USB stick.Please advise... reply06 Jun01:04By yangSorry, I don't know how to install Ubuntu on this new partition. Maybe you should try restoring the original system back. reply06 Jun15:08By Anonymous (not verified)Another, maybe stupid question... How do I play mp3's? Rhythmbox cant find any suitable plugin. reply07 Jun01:41By yangI know mplayer can play mp3 files. reply11 Jun03:06By Alexandre (not verified)Thanks for those clean instructions.To be able to start up, linux4tegra can currently be found here :http://scoopr.fi/dump/linux4tegra_10.9.3.tar.gzCheers, reply18 Jun17:10By Anonymous (not verified)I follow these steps and it works fine from USB stick, but when I do the same thing for internal storage of my AC100, this problem occurs:PRESS ANY KEY TO SEARCH eMMC (if not it is only used if for 15 seconds no external boot media got ready)search for rootfs on SD/MMC/USB (1/5) ...search for rootfs on SD/MMC/USB (2/5) ...search for rootfs on SD/MMC/USB (3/5) ...search for rootfs on SD/MMC/USB (4/5) ...search for rootfs on SD/MMC/USB (5/5) ...still nothing found -> trying internal eMMChmm, mount rootfs to /root yourself and press ctrl-d/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off/ # _What should I do to make it work from internal storage?Thanks for any help! reply18 Jun23:11By yangYou can boot ubuntu from your USB stick, and then do the job of Part I: Prepare Ubuntu System Files on the system. reply08 Jul20:57By d Beni (not verified)I run into exactly the same problem and found out, that my internal storage is named "mmcblk3", but this init-script only looks for "mmcblk0" and "mmcblk3p*". I tried to extract the script from the boot.img but i failed (extracting initrd.img worked - but it won't mount it - nilfs2 problem i guess). My workaround for the moment: mount the internal storage manually and after press "CTRL-D"... reply20 Jun16:56By Anonymous (not verified)I did exactly what you said and I got this above mentioned error.Or did I miss something? reply20 Jun23:41By yangWhen you boot from your usb stick, can you mount internal storage and see files on it? reply04 Jul22:04By Anonymous (not verified)No. Why? reply01 Jul18:48By gildean (not verified)For the people that fin this tideous:I have a modded rootfs and a guide regarding it, which has everything done in advance, so things work out of the box, with no need to fiddling around.The guide can be found on my ac100-portal here: http://ac100.tunk.org/wiki/phhYou're welcome. reply06 Jul04:35By Richard (not verified)I'm considering this for a lightwieght solution/ a bit of fun. Is there a list of what is and isn't working currently? Most importantly, what is battery life like running ubuntu? I guess this will be changing all the time as you guys work on it and if/when Nvidia updates their linux4tegra stuff.Many thanks,Richard reply06 Jul14:53By Richard (not verified)Hi,Thanks for putting this up. I'm really interested in picking one of these up as a lightweight solution and a bit of fun. Before I take the plunge can you give me an idea of battery life and disk space after installing ubuntu?Many thanks,Richard reply09 Jul00:42By yangUbuntu system files take around 2 GB space. Battery life is not bad with ubuntu. I did not test it. reply08 Jul19:44By Anonymous (not verified)Internal setupInstalling on the internal emmc works the same way.... don't create a new partition, just umount and format /dev/mmcblk3p6 ...I deleted all existing partitions and created just one, brand new partition.Could this be a problem now?Thanks for any advice! reply09 Jul00:43By yangI don't know. Does it work fine? reply08 Jul21:19By Anonymous (not verified)I booted rootfs-32-maverick-5-test.tar.gz from SD-card, but WiFi doesn't work. How come? reply09 Jul00:46By yangI tested the same ubuntu rootfs from sd-card, wifi worked fine. What is the model of your AC100? reply09 Jul19:10By Anonymous (not verified)AC100-10V reply09 Jul20:00By yangHave you try install wifi driver manually? Download the driver from http://markit.dyndns.org/ac100/32/wifi/2.3/, then copy the three files to /lib/modules/2.6.32.../kernel/drivers/net/wireless and runsudo depmodinsmod rtutil3070sta.ko && insmod rt3070sta.ko && insmod rtnet3070sta.ko reply19 Aug21:46By Anonymous (not verified)It can't copy these files into this folder. I get "Error moving file: Permision denied". reply20 Aug11:40By yangDo it as a root user. If you want to use nautilus, trygksu nautilusor use the command line:sudo cp /path/from/file /target/path reply15 Jul06:08By Robert (not verified)Hi,I am a novice with the Ubuntu - Terminal commands, so it took a while untill I get it to browse through directories and copy/paste the sentences. Still, I'm stuck on a big problem. When I try to backup (or to change the bootloader) I get the message "Cannot find device".How come?I must mention that I use a laptop instead of a desktop PC, but I guess that don't matter. I also use a mini-USB to regular USB cable (the mini USB goes in the ac100 and the regular USB in the laptop; the laptop doesn't come with a mini_USB port).If I conect the two machines with the ac100 being on, then I can view it's content on the laptop. So there is communication between ac100 and the laptop. Still, "cannot find device" when I hit enter after "sudo LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./nvflash/ ./nvflash/nvflash --bl ./prebuilt/fastboot.stock.bin --read 6 partition_6_backup.bin --go".One more thing: if I install Ubuntu will I have 3G support? Because, for me, this is the reason to drop Android - I cannot use an external modem with this model (ac100-10d) because of its operation system.Thank you.all the best, robert reply15 Jul21:15By yangUsing a desktop or a laptop do not matter.The way you connect your AC100 to the laptop was right.Did you powered your AC100 on with CTRL and ESC keys being pressed? If so, its screen should be back.From this table: http://tosh-ac100.wetpaint.com/page/Hardware , I see AC-10D does not support 3G connection. It is not because the operation system, but the hardware. If so, installing Ubuntu will not bring the 3G support. reply18 Jul16:26By mike (not verified)Excellent guide, worked right away for my AC100-10G. Just one correction: command at PART I step 3 has an extra "nilfs2"! WiFi may not connect right away, but works if BT is off, 3G asks for PIN but still not sure if it works. My 1st try to upgrade to 11.04 failed, but thanks to your excellent instructions, it's very easy to re-extract the files on the SD and try again. reply18 Jul23:27By yangThank you for your correction! reply30 Jul04:42By Richard (not verified)Everything is up and running nicely except I have no sound (even through headphones). From what I can tell the sound card is installed and recognized, there is just no output. If it helps there is no sound icon in the panel with internet connection and time etc. Any ideas what has gone wrong? reply31 Jul00:42By yangThere should be a sound icon in the status menu. How do you tell the sound card is installed? You can join the irc channel irc://irc.freenode.net/ac100 and ask for help there. reply05 Aug02:33By daniele (not verified)thanks for the guide ... i've got only a question if i flash it on the v4b by silver alx everythink work in the same way? reply05 Aug16:08By yangI believe so. reply07 Aug18:52By Pierre (not verified)I have an AC100-114 with Android 2.1 (not upgraded). If I follow the instruction herehttp://people.canonical.com/~ogra/tegra/2.6.37/It is very unstable, but it works (which proves that the AC100 is booting from the partition 6).I then followed the instruction in this page, but the AC100 does not boot the sd or usb card with the 32.boot.menu.img (I tried 3 version: 32.boot.menu.img, 32.boot.menu.v1.img and 32.boot.menu.v3.img). I always have a black screen after the (short: 1 sec.) "Toshiba" logo. reply08 Aug10:39By yangI installed ubuntu on a 2.2 AC100, it worked well. I think you should upgrade your AC100 to android 2.2 and try again. reply10 Aug01:07By krooto (not verified)Wow! it works perfectly except sound!How to fix this? reply12 Aug11:43By yangI'm sorry to hear that. Richard had the same problem. Can you see the sound icon in the status menu? reply10 Aug02:29By daniele (not verified)ok i've installed the nilfs tool but i don't understand a thing: the string sudo mkfs.nilfs2 /dev/your-sd-card-device-nameis to format the sd in nilfs???if not how can i do ?i've got a sd with 2gb of space and a usb stick with 16 gb can i use the sd or i have to use the usb stick??? reply12 Aug11:38By yangYou need to use the usb stick, because I think 2GB space will not be enough to install the ubuntu system.Thesudo mkfs.nilfs2 /dev/your-sd-card-device-namecommand is to formatting sd card or usb stick device. Replace your-sd-card-device-name with your real device name. reply12 Aug20:31By daniele (not verified)i don't know how to find the name sorry .... i can use the application to format it or only the comand?? reply12 Aug22:35By yangread my reply above:To find out the name of your AC100 storage device's name, you can try this:First, eject / safely remove and unplug your AC100from your Ubuntu PC.Open a Terminal.Re-plug You AC100 back in, then run below command on the Terminal:sudo dmesg | tail -20You can figure out the storage's name from the output. It should be something like: mmcblk3p6.I used the command line. Maybe you can use GUI application, but I haven't tried it. reply13 Aug00:18By karl (not verified)Hi,I did a stupid mistake and followed your instructions, but I forgot the backup.Now I need to restore the original android 2.1 to it,how can I do it? reply13 Aug10:28By yangGet a backup files from other people (The hardware model should be the same), or download a flash rom from sites like 4pda.ru. reply 1 2 next last Post new commentYour name:AnonymousE-mail:The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.Homepage:Comment: *

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