Useful information. I tried a live USB version of Kubuntu 16.04.1 LTS. It recognized the wireless card on my Switch Alpha 12 right off, so I didn't need an external WiFi adapter.
Thanks.. Would you do an updated video on loading linux mint onto tablet...also what tablet would u recommend for uploading linux onto.. Any help appreciated... Just keen to use linux on a tablet... But also wsnt to know thst it will b fully functional and worth it.. Cheerd
great review. i'd wish onscreen keyboard pops up automatically, and auto screen rotate. those are huge things for 2 in 1's. i have to put keyboard icon thing for me to click everytime i need to enter text and set up custom key press to rotate screen from keypress. i had trouble reading the accelerometer automatically to rotate screen
I bought it from Costco Us, but then I travelled to india and this laptop started developing issues. The rear camera has stopped working and the keyboard automatically disconnects. I have to disconnect and reconnect keyboard. It connects sometimes and doesn't connect sometimes. Do you also face this issue ??
i get a black screen the second i click install linux mint on this specific laptop (the switch alpha 12 from acer if it wasnt clear enough) , anyone know any way to help?
Hello Lliputing, The Aspire Switch Alpha 12 I got had some problem booting regardless of distro (can happen both on Ubuntu and Mint and Clonezilla): the Kernel sometimes is not detecting the internal SSD as /dev/sda . Booting from an external USB key is always OK, but when this problem happens, the internal SSD will not show up in the Live session and the external USB key will become /dev/sda (instead of /dev/sdb). I filed a bug (along with a duct-tape fix accidentally discovered) (bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=189471). The maintainer mentioned this may be the BIOS messing things up and that there exist similar workarounds for some other hardware, so this might probably be the fix that will be used for the Aspire Switch Alpha 12 (at least I will use it on mine, haha) I hope this may be useful for those who want to run Linux on the Acer Aspire Switch Alpha 12. Can I know if you have observed similar problems on your Aspire Switch Alpha 12? Thanks!
Hi there... Can I just confirm that your bluetooth also works? Also, can you work with pure console (without the GUI, like ALT-SHIFT-1, or ALT-SHIFT-2, etc)? If I can get a pure full screen shell, gcc, gbd, and emacs... I'm a happy man and I am sold.
You probably need libwacom2. For some reason the main libwacom driver that comes with Mint doesn't have full feature support. Installing the extra driver seems to fill in and patch what is broken otherwise. Thus you'll get access to driver settings, pressure sensitivity, stylus rocker and eraser that the basic driver fails on. Other than that, setting scaling for desktop fonts and icon display may help with the itty bitty stuff at high res. Of course doing this on other hardware so YMMV.
Mr. Liliputing, Thank you. Very interesting video. You have just proven to the world with factual evidence that Linux Mint 18 is better than Windows 98, Windows Me and Mac OS 7.6, and all versions of Linux prior to Kernel 2.6. Right ? So I guess my question is: have you proven that Mint 18 is better than Windows XP, and Mac OS 8, and other versions/distros of Linux with the 3.1 kernel. Is Mint 18 substantially better than Mint 17.3, enough that new Linux users should choose 18 over 17.3, and should people like me using 17.3 install 18 over it or wait for the upgrade-method ? I think what I am trying to say is that a person can state as a fact that Mint 18 is so good that anyone using a computer OS prior to 2010, should reformat their hard-drive and install Mint 18 as the primary operating system, or remove the hard-drive and install a new one and load Mint 18. I guess my next question is would the latest releases of other distros like Deepin 15.2, and Peppermint 7 work just as good on a touchscreen portable computer? I have been using Mint 17.3 for about 175 hours and have not yet got past the newbie stage.
I personally think that Android is the best Linux OS which is suited for tablet computers. There are plenty of applications available, and they're all made in a touch-friendly way: word processors, spreadsheets, slides, photo editing, coding (AIDE), browsing, and many more. If you need more control over your device it is easy to get root privileges and modify it as you like, in fact you can run almost any command line Linux program after rooting it. I'm very satisfied with my Android tablet.
Mint feels more like a natural successor to XP than the current Windows offerings. (Feels like a hybrid of XP and Win7.) Some conventions underneath the hood are different (as expected being Linux), but software workflow and how to navigate the desktop and GUI parts of the OS is practically the same as in XP.
Well, IDK how is Linux Mint made, but I'm not sure if is it very suitable for touch devices like shown in the video, or at least without modifying it. I use Debian with LXDE Desktop on my laptop for everyday work and Android on my tablet because the UIs are made specifically for those input methods. Anyway LXDE is really customizable, so maybe one day I will try to see how would it feel on a tablet, e.g. by making the icons and elements bigger.
I was trying to install linux on another tablet and it needs a 32bit uefi bootloader thank to windows you cant install anything on your device. i was looking for another and wanted to know if this guy can install linux and not just run it live. but yes i can boot it and get it to run live.
any luck on permanently loading mint on rom ? there was a very good offer on s1003, but ijust let it go, for this crazy uefi thing. i want to use linux in the laptop.
This particular version DOES. Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon. Just go for it! Look under under Settings - General, the option called 'Desktop scaling'. Author of this video seems totally unaware of it. Also after changing that setting to Hi-DPI you can fine tune font scaling and rendering until everything looks bold and crisp for ANY screen by navigating to: Settings - Fonts.
I tried that.. but there is no preferences/general setting in the version I tested, and there's no mention of scaling in the display settings. The best I could do was change the font sizes. There may very well be a way, but the point of this video was really just to post a follow-up to my review of this Windows tablet to show that you *can* load alternate operating systems pretty easily. Choosing the best one and/or customizing it is beyond the scope of this video. liliputing.com/2016/07/running-linux-acer-switch-alpha-12.html#comment-2769225318
I'd love to see a follow on video demonstrating UI scaling. I tried a Dell Chromebook 13, and I had to lower the resolution, and bump up to 125% magnification to get the UI elements comfortable for me.
Oh! Perhaps I'm talking about 18 Cinnamon edition, and you have shown us 18 Mate edition (they are two different desktop environments). Interface scaling is only available for Linux Mint 17/18 'Cinnamon' edition, I easily mix them up since the default interface is quite similar :) Either way if you want to test Linux on Hi-DPI devices I would still recommend those options with Mint 18 x64 Cinnamon edition.
