The State of Fedora Linux on GPD Win Max (Contd)

Hello again!

Now it lives!

As you can tell, things are working now! After realizing my prior error

drm.edid_firmware=eDP-1:edid/gpdwinmax.bin: no such file or directory

was due to improper formatting in the grub file, I rewrote it according to this reddit poster's instructions and things are working now! Looks like I'm not the only one running Fedora! I've also learned that Minecraft Java Edition can run at a solid 45-60 fps with fancy settings, and Stardew Valley runs like a dream! I'll do some more game tests and Phoronix benchmarks in the future as the games all install. Thanks for reading!

Fedora Linux on the GPD Win Max

Hello there again! I’m working to get Fedora Linux up and running on the GPD Win Max this time around.

I’ll be brief; most Linux distros don’t configure the display properly at all, though all hardware functions as intended. I’ve tested Manjaro, Ubuntu and Fedora successfully with all the hardware buttons/sticks/wifi etc performing spectacularly.

It’s mainly the below issue that I’m figuring out now:

I will add a dedicated page on this site when I get everything up and running. I’m not much in the way of automating system changes yet on Fedora, so perhaps in the future either I’ll script this or someone can learn from what I’ve done and build a neat little script to do this.

So far it seems Martin Wimpress is working on scripts that allow Ubuntu respins to work on these GPD Win devices, but I’d love to get it running on Fedora or Manjaro more…especially Fedora, since I deem dnf to be a far more sane package manager, but I digress…

So far I have been following this reddit post on how to get the firmware for the screen loaded as well as get the proper grub parameters for this device. Having not edited grub files in at least a year, I had to relearn that Fedora uses the grub2-mkconfig command.

After changing the grub parameters accordingly for the display resolution and to load the edid firmware file (that I copied from their pasta in the post), I’m now stuck here:
drm.edid_firmware=eDP-1:edid/gpdwinmax.bin: no such file or directory

So I’ll probably have a future blog post here, when I get further! Feel free to comment and thanks for reading my struggles hahaha.

An Uncertain Future

Well there it is.

The Covid-19 pandemic has finally swooped in and affected not just my job, but the jobs of many others. Sorry I haven’t really updated this site in a while. I was quite busy with work and all sorts of other things my scatterbrained self was looking into.

Unemployment is definitely a new stage in life…here’s hoping it doesn’t last too long. Perhaps I’ll coreboot some old Thinkpads and Macbooks I have, and sell them through here or /r/hardwareswap or some place…

Perhaps I’ll finally get that RHCSA or Linux Academy certification of some sort I was talking about in the past with coworkers or family…who knows?

This is definitely a new chapter in my life. Time to apply to jobs and work on some side projects!

The Pi 4 Laptop and C201 Failures

Back at it again with the new things to tinker with!

This time I nabbed a Raspberry Pi 4 plus a FLIRC Case and various accessories to see if I could replicate a Pi 4 Lapdock project someone did already. Looks pretty much plug and play….

This Pi 4 laptop was meant to hold me over until the Pinebook Pro December Batch ships out. Here’s a shot of the Omars cheap external battery I’ll be using. This one has Power Delivery through USB-C so I know for sure it can power the Pi 4.

Here’s a shot of the Pi 4 in its case on top of the Motorola Lapdock I grabbed for super cheap on eBay.

The Lapdock was once used as a docking station of sorts for the failed Motorola Atrix phone project from Motorola. Fear not, my friends! It lives on through projects!

With the proper connectors (linked above when I mentioned the Pi 4 Lapdock project) you can easily plug in the Pi 4, though this more powerful unit needs power from an external battery due to the improvements over the prior model. The good news is that we’ll be going straight from Micro-HDMI to Micro-HDMI so you likely won’t need an adapter!

After plugging up the connections, and later on powering up the Pi 4……I realize I ended up losing the power adapter for the Motorola Lapdock D: so it looks like I’ll be waiting a while for a replacement to arrive.

…….however…

I took apart a replacement ASUS C201 Chromebook I found on eBay and removed the write-protect screw again…but forgot to plug the trackpad in before I left for home….we’ll see if we can properly enable Developer Mode on this next time and see if we can Libreboot it!

Progress on Librebooted T400 with Advanced Dock 2503

Hello there again!

I had to ditch my permanently-managed Chromebook C201 for a replacement, since there seemed there was nothing I could do. The replacement was $20 and it looks like I’ll actually be able to Libreboot that one!

In other news, I’ll be spinning up a Linode droplet soon to see if I can host a Joplin instance and connect to it with my phones. I also have made progress on the T400 project.

After failing to flash Libreboot roms to the hardware various times, as well as physically damaging another W500 by overextending the motherboard, I ended up buying a pre-Librebooted unit from a friend, with the Atheros wifi card installed, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Regarding getting the Advanced Dock 2503 working….it seems a bit hit or miss now

I’ll detail more in the dedicated page for it, but MX Linux was installed and I succesfully got it booted up, but some other problems have come up….

More info on the status of my 2019 projects, here. (also in Projects dropdown “Progress”)

I also posted on a forum my status of this project, here.

I’ll also be receiving a Librem 5 and a Pinebook Pro either by the end of this year, or sometime early next year! Hope you enjoyed this update. Peace!