1. Install Linux Dell Venue 8 Pro Manual
2. Install Linux Dell Venue 8 Pro Charger

Nov 13, 2013 They have an SD card slot and a micro USB (which I could boot a usb from with an adapter). The only thing I'm worried about is if I come up against some kind of weird driver or hardware issue. I've googled 'linux on dell venue 8 pro' but have just found a bunch of reviews. I don't want to buy it unless I can get rid of windows and run ubuntu. This is how to install/run Android on a Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet. It's a pretty involved process, but isn't too difficult. To do this, you'll need a Micro USB.

Last Updated: 20/07/2017

Hello World

As part of cleaning up, everything relating to the DV11 has moved to this sub-page.

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Running Linux on Dell Venue 11 Pro (7130)

• Device Status :: What works, what does not work.
• Preliminaries :: Start at the beginning.
• Power Management :: Stability and Battery life.
• X.org :: A GUI is not a bad thing to have.
• Wayland :: Nostalgia for the Future.
• Firmware :: Blobs, Binary Blobs everywhere.
• Near-Field Communication :: NFC on Venue 11.
• Wireless.alt.venue11 :: Swap Module, Results Get!
• Wireless 'ath6kl' :: The mystery of the dropping packets.
• Bluetooth :: Something's there, can't quite reach.
• Hardware Buttons :: 'Brave Press!'
• Fun with Industrial I/O :: Watch the little sensors.
• Venue 11 Pro Summary :: Silicon Insides.
• Revision Log :: How this article has grown.

Currently Running

Fedora 25 on Venue 11, Kernel 4.11.8
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on Venue 11, Kernel 4.11.8

Bug Reports

Dell Venue 11 Pro, 7130, on Kernel 4.11.8

• More or less like a normal PC in tablet form.
  - Performed stock install from USB stick.
• MicroSD card slot is NOT bootable.
  - System will only boot from USB or internal SSD.
  - System can PXE boot when combined with Venue Dock.
  - Untested: RootFS on MicroSD. Grub, Kernel, InitRD on SSD.
• Core i3-4020Y @ 1.50Ghz, 4GB, BIOS A12
• 64-bit UEFI, boots any X64 distro from USB.
• With keyboard flap / case, just like a Laptop.
• Keyboard flap can be 'hotplugged'.
  - Depends on flap having been there since cold-boot.
• Stock Intel Core-series hardware, just works™.
• MicroSD slot (O2 Micro), works with kernel flag. #109231
  - sdhci.debug_quirks2 = '0x10000'
  - hdparm -t: 57MB per second, 32GB Samsung Pro µSD.
  - Copying files to card, 50MB to 79MB per second.
• CPU frequency scaling / power states
• Battery Status
• Device Charging while Linux is operational.
• Reboot, Shutdown.
• Suspends AND wakes properly.
  - Works with keyboard flap folding and unfolding to screen.
  - Works with pressing keyboard keys or touching trackpad.
  - Temperamental when attempting wake power button. #102281
• X.org
• 2D, 3D and standard / accelerated video playback. (H264)
• WM's Tested: Gnome, XFCE
  
• Backlight Brightness / DPMS
  
• (Multi) Touchscreen and Stylus, Lanscape.
  - Pen input: alt-button, 255 pressure levels
• (Multi) Touchscreen and Stylus, alternate orientations.
  - Manual: Script talks to xrandr and evdev.
  - Automatic: Checkout iio-proxy.
• Gnome on Wayland
• Sound Output, Speaker / Headphones works.
  - Headphones automatically detected and switched.
• Sound Input, Internal microphones.
  - Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
• Sound Input, Apple earbuds mic.
  - 0x19 or 0x1a not reported for ALC3223?
  - ToDo: play with hdajackretask
• WiFi: Dell Wireless 1537, registers in kernel.
  - Chip is similar to Venue 8, different revision.
  - Needs kernel patch as Device ID is not yet in mainline.
  - Barely registers WiFi networks.
  - Pretty much useless at this point in time.
• WiFi: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462
  
• WiFi: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565
  
• WiFi: Intel Wireless 7260
  
• WiFi: Intel Wireless 8260
  
• Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Gyro, etc.
• Hardware Buttons: Power, Volume Up, Volume Down, Meta
  
• Touch sensitive front 'branded' button
• Front 'Status' LED
  - Turns on with Camera.
  - Suppose it could be coaxed for status purposes.
• Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 1537.
• Bluetooth: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462
• Bluetooth: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565
• Bluetooth: Intel Wireless 7260
• Bluetooth: Intel Wireless 8260
• Bluetooth Tested with Apple Keyboard and Mouse.
• Bluetooth at Gnome Login Screen, so KB + Mouse work:
  - systemctl enable bluetooth.service
• NFC: According to Dell, stock on all Venue Pro 11's.
  - NXP PN544 NFC chip on a i2c bus.
  - Needs Intel NFC Middleware to function.
• Front Camera - OV 2722, Yes.
  - USB, 0bda:5751, V4L2, Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  - Patch is now merged by Uncle Torvalds.
  - Pre 4.10 Kernels, need patch
  - Confirmed by by Infernix, 09/2016
• Back Camera - IMX 175, Yes.
  - USB, 114d:1000, V4L2, Alpha Imaging Technology Corp.
• Mini HDMI port:
  - Primary, Extend and Mirror modes.
  - Hotplug DVI monitor 1920x1080
  - Hotplug HDMI television 1920x1080 + Audio
  - Use 'pavucontrol' to direct audio to HDMI port

Dell Venue 11 Pro, Camera Test Commands

• Front Camera:
  [~]$ mpv tv:// --tv-driver=v4l2 --tv-device=/dev/video0
• Back Camera:
  [~]$ mpv tv:// --tv-driver=v4l2 --tv-device=/dev/video1

Dell Venue 11 Pro, Dock Functionality

• Working Correctly
  - Ethernet via USB, ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88772X
  - Charging
  - Headphone Port
  - USB Hub
• Non Functional
  - HDMI output, monitor detected correctly but no output.
  - DisplayPort output, monitor detected but no output.
  - drm/i915: *ERROR* Timed out waiting for DP idle patterns
  - drm/i915: *ERROR* failed to train DP, aborting. (4.9)

MicroSD Card Slot Notes

Per Dell: SD card slot speeds on Dell Venue Tablets
Thread: Dell Venue 128GB MicroSD card support

• uSD Cards used for testing
  - 8GB, SanDisk Ultra (SDSDQUA-008G-UQ46A)
  - 16GB, G.Skill (FF-TSDG32GA-C10)
  - 32GB, Samsung Pro (MB-MG32D)
  - 64GB, G.Skill (FF-TSDXC64GA-U1)
  

• Venue 11 Pro (7130)
  - SDHC, SDXC Support
  - Bus Speed: 50MB/s (SDR50, DDR50), 104MB/s (SDR104)
  - Tested: 32GB, 64GB card sizes.
  - Untested: 128GB
  

Overall Experience

Apart from power button / keyboard flap quirks, no complaints.

The Venue 11 will basically run anything, because it's effectively behaving like a normal PC.

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Install Linux Dell Venue 8 Pro Manual

GDM / LightDM notes.

Suspend / Hibernate Fine.
Power Button Bug.

Just works.

Likewise, works.

Atheros 6K / Dell 1537 wireless

For wifi to work we need a newer release of the ath6kl firmware then iscurrently shipped in the Linux firmware package.
Qualcomm has these in their ath6kl firmware repo.
The AR6004 folder sits in /lib/firmware/ath6k/ on your filesystem.

Hardware Requirements

The Venue 11 Pro series ship with an NXP PN544 NFC chip.

Software Requirements

Be advised, libnfc is not compatible with PN544 hardware.
The NFC module can be poked at if you go through the effort of compiling the Linux-NFC middleware made by Intel. Fedora doesn't seem to have this package in the default repo.
Everything else is already in place from Kernel 3.12 onward.
For other distributions you may be able to find the 'neard' package:
- In AUR for Arch.
- In Sid (Unstable) for Debian.
- In the Offical Repo for OpenSuse.
The 'neard' application manages everything pretty much but more importantly it contains a number of tools that allow us to verify NFC functionality.
Perhaps a source of enlightenment, the Intel NFC bugtracker.

TL;DR; nfctool

Working with 'neard'

Assuming you've succesfully compiled / package installed the middleware here's a series of commands that may offer some insight.
First start the monitoring tool.

Then launch 'neard' in another terminal

The monitor output should now have been updating like thus

You should now be able to read out the basics of the NFC hardware

Proceed to turn the hardware on and it will trigger the loading and initialization of the PN544 module + friends.

Enable Polling mode so the NFC radio will be able to 'scan' for a tag and (facing the front of the unit) swipe something with RFID along the back of the right hand side.
Keep in mind that while testing polling will automatically get disabled again after an NFC activity has completed. Likewise scanned information is immediately discarded when using these test tools.

Alternatively with NFCard on Android sending a URL 'record' to the Venue 11 Pro.

Again with NFCard but now we use Peer to Peer mode, receiving a 'P2P' URL from the app upon tapping the Android device screen to initiate communication.

Lastly, we'll send a test message via Peer to Peer mode to the Android device. Now the moment you hold your device to the Venue Pro 'neard' will start to establish a device entity.

You'll now have a short window of opportunity to verify the device entity and send a test example over. There are a number of options which can be found by doing a dry run with the 'test-device' tool but here we opt for simple text.

At this point your device should have received the test text string and 'neard' will return to idle.
It should be possible to write tags but I lack any further NFC elements bar the Android phone used for testing.
Tiny Hat Tip to this Texas Instruments PDF document which was helpful in getting the polling clues. Pages 7 to 15 show a series of NFC examples including writing RFID tags.

M.2 / NGFF Modules

The Venue 11 7130 has a user accessible M.2 slot in which we can swap a better functioning WiFi / Bluetooth module until the Dell Wireless 1537 is more functional. Dell's BIOS in this model doesn't seem to employ any form of white listing unlike other vendors (I'm looking at you here Lenovo & HP) so I've been able to test a number of 'unofficial' cards without limitations.
Seeing as my parts pile didn't get any interesting samples I went ahead and ordered a couple more cards to round out the list of options. This should statisfy both purists and those who favour Intel cards. I have no intention to look at Broadcom cards at this time unless one happens to come by and I have time.
ToDo: Note Bluetooth Kernel modules.

Atheros 'ath9k' cards

For further background information consult the ath9k Wiki

• Qualcomm Atheros AR9462, Kernel pre-4.8.6
  - Wifi only.
  - Bluetooth causes XHCI USB enumeration errors.
  
• Qualcomm Atheros AR9462, Kernel 4.8.6+
  - Full WiFi and Bluetooth support.
• Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565
  - Full WiFi and Bluetooth support.

Intel 'iwlwifi' cards

For further background information consult the iwlwifi Wiki

• Intel Wireless 7260
  - Full WiFi and Bluetooth support.
• Intel Wireless 8260
  - Full WiFi and Bluetooth support.

Swapping WiFi Cards

Proceed with the following at your own peril. Remember to be patient, don't force things and it's also a good idea to read the instructions in full first. If you don't feel confident you can perform this procedure ask someone with more skill to do it for you. Realistically it shouldn't take more then 5 - 10 minutes if that.

• Make sure your battery is more then 80% charged.
• Make sure you are working in an ESD-safe manner.
• Seriously, respect Electrostatic Discharge. Good hardware should not be wasted because you couldn't spend $10 on an ESD strap.
• Pop off the back panel.
• Remove the battery.
  1. Slide the lock button to the right.
  2. Lift battery out.
• Carefully remove the connected antennas.
• Remove the retaining screw holding the card in slot.
• Lift the current card slightly upwards and pull / lift.
• Insert new card with same slight angle.
  Protip: It will only fit one way.
• Push card all the way into slot and push down.
• Return the retaining screw back in place.
• Carefully connect antenna's again.
  Pay attention and you should feel a tiny 'click'.
• White Lead on the SSD oriented connector.
• Black Lead on the Battery oriented connector.
• Leave the battery out for a minute or two.
• Insert battery, connect charger.

At this point your Venue 11 may not immediatly respond to you pressing the power button. Don't Panic. What tends to happen in my case is the following after swapping cards. (PBP = Power Button Press)

• First PBP
  - Power light on side blinks once.
• Second PBP
  - Internal fan spins up in full.
  - Stops after a couple of seconds.
• Third PBP
  - Vibration motor whirs as you'd normally expect
  - But no POST.
• Fourth PBP
  - Vibration motor whirs
  - Unit POSTs succesfully.
  - May optionally complain about incorrect date and time.

I'm assuming the Venue 11 adjusting to a new hardware configuration is a multi-step process internally and thus the outlined behaviour. What ever you do, be patient between power button presses.

Wireless ID not in Kernel yet.
Found the wireless card again, will have a look at testing when I have time.
Easiest to install a supported Atheros or Intel card at the moment.

Works with third party card installed.

Just works.

For the Venue 11 the 'soc_button_array' module is needed
By default the mappings are thus:

• Power - ACPI power button.
  
• Volume Up
  - XF86AudioLowerVolume
  - X11: Keycode 123
  - TTY: keycode 115
  
• Volume Down
  - XF86AudioRaiseVolume
  - X11: Keycode 122
  - TTY: keycode 114
  
• Meta, 'home' button with branding.
  - Super_L
  - X11: Keycode 133
  - TTY: keycode 125

Power Button

On the Venue 11 the power button is not detected (#102281), everything else is.

See IIO segment on parent page.

Atheros SDIO Wifi (ath6kl)

Dell Venue 11 Pro

• cat /sys/bus/sdio/devices/mmc0:0001:1/device
  - 0x0419
• cat /sys/bus/sdio/devices/mmc0:0001:1/vendor
  - 0x0271
• cat /sys/bus/sdio/devices/mmc0:0001:1/modalias
  - sdio:c00v0271d0419

Install Linux Dell Venue 8 Pro Charger

July/2017
- Migrated DV11 to sub-page