Linx Tablet drivers and BIOS downloads

nightmare99 · 19 Dec 2014 at 09:29

Is it not a good idea to install windows in wimboot mode on these devices?

(I have not tried it myself but wimboot is for devices with not a lot of storage space)

Vimes · 19 Dec 2014 at 12:30

Trying to find a reasonable case for m newly ordered 10.1" version, hopefully not a generic one so that it will still have the camera opening at the back.

Pandobear · 19 Dec 2014 at 14:20

Just picked up a Linx 10 for £79 and a Linx 8 for £49.99 if anyone is keen on getting one, today seems like a good day.

Vimes · 19 Dec 2014 at 14:26

I think that you mean Staples - lol.

Mine will be delivered by them, a 10" for £79 and then a £50 cash back for a trade in.

jjp2701 · 19 Dec 2014 at 21:17

linx10

i have just got the linx10 today but screen response is a bit hit and miss i after hit the close web browser a few times anyway of making it respond quicker guys ?

Skynet5 · 19 Dec 2014 at 21:33

Geez. Staples. How did they do them that cheap!

Good find - could it have been a mistake?

All gone now at that price.

Vimes · 19 Dec 2014 at 21:42

Worth ringing their stores as mine is due for delivery on Tuesday but I just grabbed another from the Stockport store. Just paid an extra 9.99 for two years accidental warranty.

jjp2701 · 19 Dec 2014 at 22:18

mine is faulty ithink speakers are really low

illusion786 · 20 Dec 2014 at 21:17

Hi,

Hi guys, i purchased one of the 10" version. Unfortunately mine was a display model which they had resrved for me over the phone at staples. I got it home only to find it looping at automatic recovery and then it just freezes.

Contacted staples and they just said to have it refunded, which i didnt want to do as it was the last one available for the offer price.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to boot into recovery via bios? As i cant access it from the desktop.

Or the procedure to clean format.

I really appreciate any advice.

Thank you

AthlonXP1800 · 21 Dec 2014 at 13:00

illusion786 said:
Hi,

Hi guys, i purchased one of the 10" version. Unfortunately mine was a display model which they had resrved for me over the phone at staples. I got it home only to find it looping at automatic recovery and then it just freezes.

Contacted staples and they just said to have it refunded, which i didnt want to do as it was the last one available for the offer price.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to boot into recovery via bios? As i cant access it from the desktop.

Or the procedure to clean format.

I really appreciate any advice.

Thank you

Well on my Linx 10, I can booted to recovery option menu from desktop fine. I found other way to boot into recovery, just open cmd or command prompt and type in "shutdown /r /o" without quote. After entered command and Windows will inform you it will shutdown in a minute then PC shutdown and restart boot into recovery option menu.

knobbly · 24 Dec 2014 at 09:04

I'm curious if anyone has managed to get one of these tablets to boot from a USB stick?

Before I install much I wanted to get a clean backup image of the recovery partition + Windows partition of my Linx 10.

I can't boot from either Acronis True Image 2015 bootable USB types (that's the linux boot and WinPE boot). Nothing in the BIOS seems to let me do this - have tried disabling Secure Boot with no luck. None of my other bootable sticks work either.

A quick Google tells me that in addition to disabling Secure Boot I should also change "UEFI Boot" to "CSM Boot", but I can't see this option in the BIOS.

^Andy^ · 24 Dec 2014 at 09:12

Ive booted both the 8 inch and 7 inch from usb sticks

With the 8 inch - you need to use rufus to create a gpt partitioned uefi boot disk (fat32) and then with the tablet off press volume up and power until you see the boot menu.

With the 7 inch - you need to use rufus to create a gpt partitioned uefi boot disk (fat32) but from then on you need a keyboard connected to boot with and hit del to enter the bios, select the usb stick as boot override device and away you go - this does mean you need a y cable to have both the keyboard and usb stick connected at boot though.

thenewoc · 24 Dec 2014 at 10:59

Would you be able to use clonezilla on a desktop and connect the tablet via usb?

^Andy^ · 24 Dec 2014 at 14:16

Unlikely - the tablet wont show up as a storage device when connected over usb

knobbly · 25 Dec 2014 at 11:04

^Andy^ said:
Ive booted both the 8 inch and 7 inch from usb sticks

With the 8 inch - you need to use rufus to create a gpt partitioned uefi boot disk (fat32) and then with the tablet off press volume up and power until you see the boot menu.

With the 7 inch - you need to use rufus to create a gpt partitioned uefi boot disk (fat32) but from then on you need a keyboard connected to boot with and hit del to enter the bios, select the usb stick as boot override device and away you go - this does mean you need a y cable to have both the keyboard and usb stick connected at boot though.

Thanks Andy, still no luck though,
I built a Rufus gpt uefi boot stick (booting to DOS).
On the 10 inch I tried;
- setting the BIOS boot order with the USB stick first
- overriding the BIOS boot device to the USB stick
- Booting to USB recovery device from within Windows 8.1

Feels like I'm doing something silly wrong, but for the life of me I can't see what!

(The USB stick boots fine on a laptop)

thenewoc · 25 Dec 2014 at 12:03

knobbly said:
Thanks Andy, still no luck though,
I built a Rufus gpt uefi boot stick (booting to DOS).
On the 10 inch I tried;
- setting the BIOS boot order with the USB stick first
- overriding the BIOS boot device to the USB stick
- Booting to USB recovery device from within Windows 8.1

Feels like I'm doing something silly wrong, but for the life of me I can't see what!

(The USB stick boots fine on a laptop)

Linux is 64-bit so that includes Acronis AFAIK. It's a known issue with Intel Atom (Bay Trail) CPU's. Issue in the sense that due to a bug in Windows, since been fixed, many devices such as these ship with 32 bit UEFI firmware.

https://www.change.org/p/tablet-makers-fix-the-lack-of-64-bit-firmware-on-early-bay-trail-tablets

Some have managed to install Ubuntu by creating a 32 bit UEFI grub loader but there might be some other steps. I think this is the approach that might bare some fruit for you.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1341944

Your laptop most likely has a 64 bit UEFI and hence why it works on the laptop and not currently on the tablet.

^Andy^ · 27 Dec 2014 at 07:38

knobbly said:
Thanks Andy, still no luck though,
I built a Rufus gpt uefi boot stick (booting to DOS).
On the 10 inch I tried;
- setting the BIOS boot order with the USB stick first
- overriding the BIOS boot device to the USB stick
- Booting to USB recovery device from within Windows 8.1

Feels like I'm doing something silly wrong, but for the life of me I can't see what!

(The USB stick boots fine on a laptop)

The instructions on this site worked for me to create bootable install media for windows technical preview that I went on to install on the Linx8 and Windows 8.1 install media that I used on the Linx7..http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html
Ignore the comment that 32bit install images are not supported as that didn't appear to be the case for me. The boot procedure is different between the 7 and 8 inch tablets - the 7 being a bit retarded and not allowing any easy way into the boot settings without either a keyboard attached or having a working os in which to restart into uefi from. The 8 and I believe 10 are far more sensible and allow access to the uefi boot options from a cold boot by either holding volume up or down (don't recall which so try both) and power until the boot screen is displayed - you can then select the usb stick to boot from assuming it has been correctly partitioned and formatted.

Rroff · 27 Dec 2014 at 15:40

^^ Power + volume up is the "standard" way to get into the BIOS with most Baytrail based tablets.

^Andy^ · 27 Dec 2014 at 16:02

Rroff said:
^^ Power + volume up is the "standard" way to get into the BIOS with most Baytrail based tablets.

Yup but thought it worth mentioning because the Linx7 doesn't follow that standard, the 8 does and I don't own a 10 so can't vouch for that one

knobbly · 31 Dec 2014 at 11:21

Thanks for your responses.

Even though the WinPE boot version of TrueImage (as opposed to the Linux boot version) has both the 32 bit (BOOTAI32.EFI) and 64 bit (BOOTx64.EFI) loaders there was no way I could get it to boot off a usb stick.

I tried Macrium backup (free edition) and it booted and worked first time.

Interestingly neither power-on + vol up, or power-on + vol down did anything on the Linx 10, went straight into Windows 8.1

Anyone tried/thought about running Ubuntu or Android under a VBOX virtual machine on these tablets? Sorry if this is a dumb question, it's my first adventure into Windows Tablets, I've only used Android tabs previously.