Legend :
= OK ; Unsupported(No Driver) ; = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
= Configuration Required; = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Important Note

In this setup I used a Generic USB to 1Gb Ethernet Adapter as I could not get the WiFi to work. I would recommend having one handy.
In this setup I used the Debian 9.7 Gnome Desktop Live CD image.
In this setup I assume that you have the Keyboard/Touchpad Dock. If you don't then you will need a USB C OTG Adapter and USB 3 or 4 way Hub for a Keyboard, Mouse and USB Key (and a USB to Ethernet Adapter for network access).
In this Setup there is a requirement for BIOS configuration.
I am currently testing an LXDE image and experimenting with a Debootstrap installation method.

Installation Procedure

BIOS

• - To get into the BIOS power off and then simultaneously press/hold power + vol-up
  - Select Boot on the side menu and make sure Secure Boot is Enabled.
  - Select Security on the side menu and then Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing, select the USB device, navigate to and select the *.efi file, give it a name, Ok.
  - Select Boot again and disable secure boot and move USB HDD/Device to the top of the boot order.
  - Select Exit on the side menu, Save and Exit.

Installing Debian using Debian 9.7 Gnome Desktop Live CD image

• - Choose your method of installation and follow prompts until you get to disk partitioning.
  - Select Partition Disks Manually.
  - Delete all Partitions under eMMC or /dev/mmcblk0.
  - Create a 100MB EFI Partition, 28GB ext4 / Partition and 2GB SWAP Partition then Finnish and Write Changes.
  - Continue the setup as normal then allow to reboot with the USB Key still in.

Finalising Installation

• - In Grub menu highlight an installer option and press 'e'.
  - Amend 'linux ~/vmlinuz ~' line to 'linux ~/vmlinuz root=/dev/mmcblk0p2' and press f10. This will boot you to the newly installed Debian environment.
  - If graphical open a terminal window.
  - Like the T100TA to get the WiFi working, if at all, you need to run

# mkdir /lib/firmware/brcm
# cp /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113 /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.txt

- If the WiFi still is not working then a USB to Ethernet Adapter will be required for access to the internet otherwise you will have to create a local repository on a USB Key. You could of course try a USB WiFi Adapter but I didn't have any luck with mine.
- To boot without the USB Key you need to install Grub EFI.

# apt install grub-efi
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi

- Shutdown the system and return to the BIOS by simultaneously holding power + Vol-up.
- Select Boot and turn on Secureboot.
- Select Security then Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing, Select EMMC, <EFI>, <debian>, grubx64.efi, give name ?GrubX64 and press YES, Select Exit, Exit Saving Changes.
- You should now be able to boot without the USB Key. If not then follow the steps below.
- Press and hold the power button to switch of the tablet.
- In Grub menu highlight an installer option and press 'e'.
- Amend 'linux ~/vmlinuz ~' line to 'linux ~/vmlinuz root=/dev/mmcblk0p2' and press f10. This will boot you to the newly installed Debian environment.
- Open a terminal window and run as root.

# apt install grub-efi-ia32 grub-efi-ia32-bin
# grub-install --target=i386-efi

- Shutdown the system and return to the BIOS by simultaneously holding power + Vol-up.
- Select Boot and turn on Secureboot.
- Select Security then Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing, Select EMMC, <EFI>, <debian>, grubx64.efi, give name ?GrubX64 and press YES, Select Exit, Exit Saving Changes.
- You should now be able to boot without the USB Key.

Configuration

Display

• Seems to work out of the box without any user configuration although I would note that the auto rotate feature has a glitch where when landscape it orientates to portrait? I haven't found a fix for that yet.

Audio

• The Audio is not working yet.

Touchpad & Keyboard Dock and Touchscreen

• The Dock works splendidly, USB Port works. Touchscreen and Touchpad works but the multitouch doesn't.

Power Management

• (not covered yet)

WiFi

• Not Working although I believe that in this instance that there is a physical fault in this SDIO Card not the driver as before migrating to Debian I had the same issue in Windows 10?

Modem

• Not working yet but it may be carrier locked and haven't test "said carrier" Sim Card yet.

System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series SoC Transaction Register [8086:2280] (rev 22)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series SoC Transaction Register [1025:1021]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Kernel driver in use: iosf_mbi_pci

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCI Configuration Registers [8086:22b0] (rev 22) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCI Configuration Registers [1025:1021]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 301
        Memory at 90000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at 80000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at 1000 [size=64]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915

00:03.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Imaging Unit [8086:22b8] (rev 22)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Imaging Unit [1025:1021]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255
        Memory at 91000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:0b.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Power Management Controller [8086:22dc] (rev 22)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Power Management Controller [1025:1021]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 298
        Memory at 91818000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: proc_thermal
        Kernel modules: processor_thermal_device

00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series USB xHCI Controller [8086:22b5] (rev 22) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series USB xHCI Controller [1025:1021]
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 297
        Memory at 91800000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
        Kernel modules: xhci_pci

00:1a.0 Encryption controller [1080]: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Trusted Execution Engine [8086:2298] (rev 22)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Trusted Execution Engine [1025:1021]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255
        Memory at 91700000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        Memory at 91600000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCU [8086:229c] (rev 22)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCU [1025:1021]
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
        Kernel modules: lpc_ich

lsusb

lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null

Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
  bDeviceProtocol         3 
  iProduct                2 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 12d1:15bb Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  iProduct                5 
      (Bus Powered)
      (Bus Powered)
      (Bus Powered)
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 06cb:73f5 Synaptics, Inc. 
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  iProduct                2 
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  iProduct                2 
      (Bus Powered)
      (Bus Powered)
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct                1 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct      

USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.

Resources

Attachments

Some configuration files and sample outputs.

Useful Links

Credits