L4T Ubuntu - A fully featured linux on your switch

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L4T Ubuntu
Intro
L4T Ubuntu is a version of Linux based on nvidia's linux for tegra project. It uses a different kernel compared to previous releases which allows it to use features not yet in mainline. Such as audio, docking support and vulkan.

Join our discord: https://discord.gg/53mtKYt

We have a wiki !
To facilitate our work we will only update our wiki from now on in order to avoid multiple outdated references, please refer to the following link instead of this page

https://wiki.switchroot.org/en/Linux/Ubuntu-Install-Guide

Credits

Bylaws,
Langerhans,
Ave,
Natinusala,
CTCaer(most of the hard stuff),
Gavin_Darkglider,
DanielOgorchock(Joycon drivers/joycond),
stary2001 (reboot2payload),
NVIDIA,
Azkali
Everyone else in switchroot - more info on that in the future.
 
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TheCasualties

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Odd, my setup boots into Hekate when choosing 'reboot' from Ubuntu. I'm still on 3.0.0 though. Maybe you need to put latest Hekate onto the SD? I'm not sure.

I've never seen the screen change orientation in Ubuntu, so there's not much I can say about that. Other than It doesn't happen to me. Sorry.

Maybe try setting up the SD card again from the start? Or try staying on 3.0.0 (if you updated to 3.0.1) and see if you still have these issues.
Having some issues getting this working well.
I followed the guide, got it all installed, and I can boot to the Ubuntu login screen.
When I get to the login screen, the system goes nuts and just rotates the screen back and forth between Landscape and Portrait orientation, making it impossible to login. Not sure if it's a gyroscope (does this even support the gyro) issue or a graphics issues.

One time I did manage to get logged in, and it was fine, but it didn't see any wifi signals. So I tried rebooting, but after Ubuntu shuts down it just cuts the power to the console; it doesn't reboot me back to Linux or Hekate or RCM or anything. Anyone know what's going on?

Edit: if you have a different SD card, you could try that too. I know certain cards don't seem to play well with Android, maybe the same is true for Ubuntu?
 
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OkazakiTheOtaku

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Odd, my setup boots into Hekate when choosing 'reboot' from Ubuntu. I'm still on 3.0.0 though. Maybe you need to put latest Hekate onto the SD? I'm not sure.

I've never seen the screen change orientation in Ubuntu, so there's not much I can say about that. Other than It doesn't happen to me. Sorry.

Maybe try setting up the SD card again from the start? Or try staying on 3.0.0 (if you updated to 3.0.1) and see if you still have these issues.
I tried flashing it again. I don't have the same issue but there's lots of incorrect graphical artifacts and the whole thing just runs like crap. I don't know what the deal is. It's slow, freezes constantly while doing nothing, etc.

Maybe I just have a terrible SD card. Who knows. I just with I could get this up and running to run some of my AARCH64 compilations. I don't like Ubuntu anyway, when people were first starting to get Linux running on the Switch it was Arch with a better DE like XFCE and LXDE, which was perfect. I can't find an up to date guide to getting Arch with the L4T fixes so I'm stuck with Ubuntu. No idea what the issue is.
 

TheCasualties

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Not sure, but that does sound like a problem with the SD card. I picked up a 64gb Samsung Evo for Ubuntu and it works fine. They are rather cheap, might be worth trying if you can't get it working on your current card.

Good luck!
 
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OkazakiTheOtaku

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Not sure, but that does sound like a problem with the SD card. I picked up a 64gb Samsung Evo for Ubuntu and it works fine. They are rather cheap, might be worth trying if you can't get it working on your current card.

Good luck!
Thanks. Do you know what speed yours is rated at? So I can find a card with the same spec.
 

OkazakiTheOtaku

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It has a 3 inside the "U". An Evo Select. It's one of these:

View attachment 216691
Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you. I'm not well-versed in the technology and hierarchy of SD cards but mine has a "1" where yours has a "3" so I assume that means it is significantly inferior.
I'll pick one of those up sometime soon. I still do wish there was a L4T Arch Linux though. Oh well.
 
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Gavin_Darkglider

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Having some issues getting this working well.
I followed the guide, got it all installed, and I can boot to the Ubuntu login screen.
When I get to the login screen, the system goes nuts and just rotates the screen back and forth between Landscape and Portrait orientation, making it impossible to login. Not sure if it's a gyroscope (does this even support the gyro) issue or a graphics issues.

One time I did manage to get logged in, and it was fine, but it didn't see any wifi signals. So I tried rebooting, but after Ubuntu shuts down it just cuts the power to the console; it doesn't reboot me back to Linux or Hekate or RCM or anything. Anyone know what's going on?
Not sure about your reboot issue, or your wifi issue, but rotation is attached to internal imu, just set it flat on a table, then disable autorotate in menu on login screen.
 

OkazakiTheOtaku

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Not sure about your reboot issue, or your wifi issue, but rotation is attached to internal imu, just set it flat on a table, then disable autorotate in menu on login screen.
I tried that, it didn't work. Even when the device wasn't moving literally at all, it was still doing it. I couldn't even get to a point where I could select the autorotate disable.
 

iotdevnet

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Hello today i decided to try the new 3.0 version i download it also put update for 3.01 and bluetooth is not working :(( with 2.0 all was good also i see they enable wired joycon conention but only left joycon seems to work the right one not working for me feel frustrated really ...

dmesg | grep -i bluetooth

nothing detected ....

wifi is working

update -right joycon is working but only for scrolling ... buttons for left and right click not work ... as it was before

update2 - bluetooth is working problem was now L4T folder from old fat32 partition had to be there :) do battery indicator and bluetooth to work only do not understand why buttons on second joycon not work as mouse click by default need to reconfigure them in some way ... any help will be good!

update 3 right joycon fix

copy this in usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-joystick.conf

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "joystick catchall"
MatchIsJoystick "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "joystick"
Option "MapButton1" ""
Option "MapButton2" ""
Option "MapButton3" "button=2"
Option "MapButton4" ""
Option "MapButton5" "button=1"
Option "MapButton6" "button=3"
Option "MapButton7" ""
Option "MapButton8" ""
Option "MapButton9" "disable-all"
Option "MapButton10" "key=122"
Option "MapButton11" "key=123"
Option "MapButton12" "key=232"
Option "MapButton13" "key=233"
Option "MapButton14" "key=22"
Option "MapButton15" "key=36"
Option "MapButton16" "key=9"
Option "MapButton17" ""
Option "MapButton18" ""
EndSection

All good :))) for now after this small fixes i hope this will help other people!
 
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villalobos

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Hi! Is it possible to anyone help me?
I don't know what the issue is, i've installed using this: tool-script-to-set-up-android-l4t-ubuntu-cfw-emummc-on-the-same-sd-card.561551/
Everything works great (android, emummc, lakka, and ubuntu), however I had a power energy indicator error and don't have bluetooth icon (after a lot of reading it seems wired joycons broke bluetooth). I physically removed them, don't know if I need to do anything else.

Tried purging bluez bluetooth and reinstalled, now I get the bluetooth icon, but no adapter. Don't know what else to do.

On a side note, noticed that the boot.scr doesn't come with initramfs, is it needed somehow? Tried making my own with dd and mkimg adding the original switchroot ubuntu but I get only a black screen if I add initramfs info.
Using ubuntulite and ubuntu update, both boot just fine if I remove initramfs info from boot.scr.
Do i need to use something with modules.tar.gz that comes with the update? As I see it have the bluetooth adapter, but it doesn't seem to install.
Can anyone help me?

Edit:
When I boot with no update i've managed to make it work with: switchroot-l4t-ubuntu-3.0.0-lite-2020-03-02.img, however editing boot.scr to remove initramfs from update-3.0.1-for-switchroot-l4t-ubuntu-3.0.0-2020-03-02.zip to make it boot breaks bluetooth once again. And if I don't remove initramfs from boot.scr i just get black screen.

Edit:
Side note: nvdec_enabled=0 at boot.scr, what is it for? Should I leave or remove this argument?
I'm trying to optimize it to moonlight-qt, if it matters, I think i don't have hardware acceleration, video stuttering no matter what bitrate or config I use. Works fine android wise, so no bandwidth issue.
 
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iotdevnet

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Hi! Is it possible to anyone help me?
I don't know what the issue is, i've installed using this: tool-script-to-set-up-android-l4t-ubuntu-cfw-emummc-on-the-same-sd-card.561551/
Everything works great (android, emummc, lakka, and ubuntu), however I had a power energy indicator error and don't have bluetooth icon (after a lot of reading it seems wired joycons broke bluetooth)

L4T folder from old fat32 (before 3.01 update) partition had to be there, also make sure your card is formated like this:

emunand (hiden) | fat32 | linux ext4 ubuntu| ... and add more part if you want more for other android and lakka
 
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AshleyCummings

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Loving this exists but Does this run wine apps/games?

if not any chance there is a way this could run The Sims 2 UC
Or The Sims 1 UC
The Switch has more ram then my Nextbook 10 tablet pc & that can run both these collections. Was hoping the Switch could with Linux in some way.
 

iotdevnet

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Loving this exists but Does this run wine apps/games?

if not any chance there is a way this could run The Sims 2 UC
Or The Sims 1 UC
The Switch has more ram then my Nextbook 10 tablet pc & that can run both these collections. Was hoping the Switch could with Linux in some way.

Technically is possible as i saw diablo 2 ruining on exagear on raspberry pi3 i think but it seems this Russian guys stoped the project the emulator was available for android also.





 
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Gavin_Darkglider

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Hi! Is it possible to anyone help me?
I don't know what the issue is, i've installed using this: tool-script-to-set-up-android-l4t-ubuntu-cfw-emummc-on-the-same-sd-card.561551/
Everything works great (android, emummc, lakka, and ubuntu), however I had a power energy indicator error and don't have bluetooth icon (after a lot of reading it seems wired joycons broke bluetooth). I physically removed them, don't know if I need to do anything else.

Tried purging bluez bluetooth and reinstalled, now I get the bluetooth icon, but no adapter. Don't know what else to do.

On a side note, noticed that the boot.scr doesn't come with initramfs, is it needed somehow? Tried making my own with dd and mkimg adding the original switchroot ubuntu but I get only a black screen if I add initramfs info.
Using ubuntulite and ubuntu update, both boot just fine if I remove initramfs info from boot.scr.
Do i need to use something with modules.tar.gz that comes with the update? As I see it have the bluetooth adapter, but it doesn't seem to install.
Can anyone help me?

Edit:
When I boot with no update i've managed to make it work with: switchroot-l4t-ubuntu-3.0.0-lite-2020-03-02.img, however editing boot.scr to remove initramfs from update-3.0.1-for-switchroot-l4t-ubuntu-3.0.0-2020-03-02.zip to make it boot breaks bluetooth once again. And if I don't remove initramfs from boot.scr i just get black screen.

Edit:
Side note: nvdec_enabled=0 at boot.scr, what is it for? Should I leave or remove this argument?
I'm trying to optimize it to moonlight-qt, if it matters, I think i don't have hardware acceleration, video stuttering no matter what bitrate or config I use. Works fine android wise, so no bandwidth issue.

Don't mess with boot.scr, decoder works fine, most applications have issues with Nvidia's choice for gstreamer, and don't support jetson-ffmpeg.... Moonlight qt does, which is why it works. As for boot issue, if you remove the nvdec line from boot.scr, it disables the decoder. If you have issues with boot, in 3.0.1, move boot.scr back to l4t-ubuntu folder from switchroot/Ubuntu, and use old boot.scr. this is a known issue, and will be fixed eventually.... Probably won't bother working on it much with hekatf on the way, which will remove coreboot completely from the equation anyway....
 
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BaffledBatsandSlother

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How to install:
  1. Download the image(Full with extra dev/cuda stuff, lite like old image) you want from the downloads section and extract.
  2. Write it to your sdcard using a program such as etcher or dd
  3. Apply any updates from the updates section in the thread, IMPORTANT as images don't EVER come with them

How am I supposed to apply the updates? After I wrote the image to my sd card it no longer shows up in windows explorer.
 

villalobos

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Don't mess with boot.scr, decoder works fine, most applications have issues with Nvidia's choice for gstreamer, and don't support jetson-ffmpeg.... Moonlight qt does, which is why it works. As for boot issue, if you remove the nvdec line from boot.scr, it disables the decoder. If you have issues with boot, in 3.0.1, move boot.scr back to l4t-ubuntu folder from switchroot/Ubuntu, and use old boot.scr. this is a known issue, and will be fixed eventually.... Probably won't bother working on it much with hekatf on the way, which will remove coreboot completely from the equation anyway....

I'm using a multiboot setup, I need to edit boot.scr or I can't boot.
Initramfs doesn't work for me (no clue why), so I need to take it out too, or I just get black screen.
Nice to know there will be some other way with hekate.
Thanks for helping me out too.
 

Omar0131

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Is there anyway to boot into ubantu without using a separate SD card, because I don't want go through the hastle of swapping out my SD cards. I could also loose one of them.

I'm new to gbatemp btw.
 

Gavin_Darkglider

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I'm using a multiboot setup, I need to edit boot.scr or I can't boot.
Initramfs doesn't work for me (no clue why), so I need to take it out too, or I just get black screen.
Nice to know there will be some other way with hekate.
Thanks for helping me out too.
Extract modules.tar.gz to root if Ubuntu partition, but preserve permissions, then erase the modules.tar.gz file, and initramfs should work.

Also, only change in boot.scr, is you need propper path to partition as root.... I overlooked handling partlabel in the initramfs....
 
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The Official GMan

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Has anyone else been having issues with Bluetooth on 3.0.0 and 3.0.1. My joycons disconnect after only being two feet from my console (they work great in the regular switch OS)?

Edit: just checked hciconfig hci0 inqtpl in terminal which gives transmit power level of 0 (the lowest request power level when checking for bluetooth packets) so something is definitely wrong.

Edit2: Would anyone mind testing out on your own switch to see when your joycons disconnect? I use (https://gamepad-tester.com/) to test that my controller inputs make it to the console.
 
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