• Dell Venue 8 Pro Will Not Turn On
• Dell Venue 8 Pro Specifications
• Install Linux Dell Venue 8 Pro Charger

Every attempt to load a new install from USB requires a full power-off (usually holding the power button down for about 20 seconds) and booting into BIOS (holding the Volume-Down and Power until the DELL logo shows, then release power and hold or tap the Volume-Down a time or two until the BIOS menu shows up), then going to Boot Boot Priority.

• It is possible to use ndiswrapper, or windows network tool in linux, to use the windows.inf file to ensure your wireless works. Just make sure you have the.inf file handy and it should work. Dell Venue 8 Pro (5830):: Kingston 64GB mSDHC Class 10:: Plugable UD-PRO8 Dock.
• Sep 30, 2017 I downloaded the Dell Venue 8 Pro 5830 System BIOS file from this Dell support page. Installation is painless; just have your tablet plugged in, launch the downloaded file (in my case that was 5830A14.exe), and allow the tablet to reboot if/when prompted. Preparing the Bootable Windows 10 Installer.
• 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.
• Linux for a Dell Venue 8 Pro. And even though I am doing an arch install I noticed Ubuntu is going to be using Wayland. My question is, now that this supposed to.

Last Updated: 20/07/2017

Hello World

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

Google Bait

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)

Dell Venue 8 Pro Will Not Turn On

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.

Public Service Announcements

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)

Dell Venue 8 Pro Specifications

• 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

Install Linux Dell Venue 8 Pro Charger

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

July/2017
- Migrated DV11 to sub-page

I've always thought it'd be kinda cool to be able to run Fedora on a tablet. There are some others who'd like this too, and we've had the 'Fedora Mini' and 'Fedora Mobility' sub-projects sort of targeting this in the past, but we never really quite got there. I call this mythical tablet on which Fedora works well 'the Fedlet'. We still haven't quite got there...but there are some interesting new possibilities arising. There's a new Intel platform commonly referred to as 'Bay Trail'. It's basically a very low power Atom CPU with a chipset and GPU all optimized for low power consumption, aimed at tablet use. It's a proper x86 CPU and, in contrast to earlier low-power Intel platforms, it uses Intel's own graphics architecture, not a nasty PowerVR chip (remember those things?) This means it's at least theoretically feasible that Bay View-based systems could be viable targets to run mainstream Linux distros on. In the last month or two, Bay Trail-based systems have started showing up in the market (all pre-loaded with Windows 8.1). One that a lot of people seem to be playing with is the Asus T100 - Phoronix took a shot at it, this guy kinda got it working, and there's discussion on XDA. But that's not the only one out there. There's also a crop of 8' tablets: the Toshiba Encore, the Lenovo Miix 2, and the Dell Venue 8 Pro. I read a review of the Venue 8 Pro a few days ago and was intrigued, and did a bit of research. Today I happened to notice that my local Best Buy had it in stock. So, pretty impulsively, I bought one. I've spent this afternoon trying to boot Fedora on it. Executive summary: it doesn't really work. But it's interestingly close. The first and biggest bear trap with, as far as I can tell, all the Bay Trail-based hardware available so far is that they use 32-bit UEFI firmwares. Yes, they didn't listen to Matthew. (I've checked; he's weeping over a bottle of gin, like he does every day of the week with a 'y' in it.) Up till now the only other systems with 32-bit UEFI firmwares are some very old Macs, and Fedora has had a policy of just not doing UEFI on 32-bit at all. We're now going to have to change that, but it'll take time (the plan is to set things up so a 32-bit UEFI grub2 can boot a 64-bit kernel, and ship images with a 32-bit bootloader but 64-bit system, AIUI). In the mean time, I have hacked it up very very dirtily myself, by whacking on livecd-tools with a hammer until it did something that appears to work. I cut shim out of the loop entirely and just convinced it to create 32-bit live images with an EFI bootloader included; this involves editing livecd-tools' live.py, taking out a check for shim, dropping the shim files and switching up a couple of file names, more or less. After I got that working, with a bit of trial and error, I had images that I can actually boot in the Venue 8 Pro. So that's pretty cool. The V8P (and also the Miix2, I believe) only has a single micro-USB port and doesn't appear to be able to boot from a micro SD card, so you need a USB OTG converter (which is a full-size USB female port on one end and a micro-USB male connector on the other end) to boot from a USB stick. I write my hacked-up live image to the USB stick with livecd-iso-to-disk --format --reset-mbr --efi , plug it into the OTG adapter, plug that into the tablet, press the power button and hold down the 'volume down' key for a couple of seconds (this is how you get into the firmware), go to the Boot tab, disable Secure Boot, and promote the USB stick to #1 in the boot order. Then I quit the firmware interface and it goes ahead and boots the stick. Glorious success!... ...well, not really. I haven't yet hit on an image that will make it to a graphical desktop, or even a console. I've built images with kernels 3.13.0-0.rc1.git0.1.fc21 and 3.12.1-2.fc21 (from rawhide-nodebug) so far. With the 3.12 kernel and default settings it actually boots all the way into GNOME, but the display is very garbled; it looks like modesetting doesn't quite work right for the system, picks the wrong output mode or something. With the 3.13 kernel and default settings, the screen just goes completely blank as soon as modesetting kicks in. If I edit the grub.cfg to pass 'nomodeset' and boot either kernel, it hits a kernel trace quite a long way into the boot process, but before making it either to X or to a console (if I try runlevel 3). I'm trying an image with kernel 3.11 right now, but I doubt that'll help. I guess I'll start bugging kernel people with reports tomorrow. I'll need to pick up a USB hub so I can have both the USB stick and a keyboard plugged in at the same time, too. Still, I'm kinda optimistic that I might be able to get something that actually works quite soon, if I can find people to fix the kernel issues. It looks like it's pretty close to working. Then we'll see just how much GNOME 3 is built for tablets ;) As a piece of hardware, it's pretty nice - unlike previous generation Intel-based tablets, which felt a lot like early lab prototypes which someone had accidentally released into the wild, it seems credible. It's light and thin and has a decent screen and doesn't have any heat issues I've heard about. It's exactly the right form factor to fit in my little travel bag I carry around on trips and stuff. So I'm hoping I'll be able to make practical use of it pretty soon. Edit: With kernel 3.11, modesetting is no better, but it boots successfully with 'nomodeset' and gets to a non-garbled X: The touchscreen doesn't work, so I can't really do anything until I get a USB hub. But I got something to work with, at least.