Tutorial  Updated

Booting Linux on your Switch from Windows - one script, nothing to build, only downloads

THIS GUIDE IS DEPRECATED
THIS IS BETTER https://github.com/natinusala/painless-linux

This guide will show you how to boot Linux on your Switch from a Windows PC. If you're on Linux, you can directly use the shofel2_linux repository.

Credits :
  • @kombos for the pre-built binaries
  • @rajkosto for TegraRcmSmash and Windows imx_usb binaries
  • Fail0verflow for their Linux port
What you'll need :
  • A Switch
  • A Windows PC
  • Another SD card of at least 8Gb
    • you can use the same SD card that you already have on your Switch but be careful when partitioning !
  • A USB A-to-C or C-to-C cable to plug your Switch into your PC
Step 1 : installing the driver
  1. Get your Switch in RCM mode and plug it into your PC
    • It should appear as "APX" in Windows
  2. Download and run the Zadig Driver Installer from here : https://zadig.akeo.ie/
  3. In the list, choose the device "APX"
    • If it's not showing up, check "List all devices" in the options
  4. At the right end of the green arrow, choose "libusbK (v3.0.7.0)"
  5. Click on the big "Install driver" button
Step 2 : creating the root filesystem

Yes, this is still necessary. Yes, this will always be.

Open my another guide and follow the "Building the rootfs" section.
On Windows you'll have to use a IMG file and burn it with Etcher, or find a way to create an ext4 partition by hand (good luck with that).
I recommend the latest LXDE image which has the correct format for Etcher - it's a zip containing a bin, flash the .bin using Etcher.

You should be left with a SD card with two partitions on it.

Step 3 : a whole bunch of downloads
  1. Download and extract this : https://github.com/SoulCipher/shofel2_linux/archive/master.zip
  2. Download this : https://files.sshnuke.net/TegraRcmSmash1101.zip
  3. Extract the executable for your architecture in the shofel2_linux-master folder
  4. Download this : https://github.com/rajkosto/imx_usb_loader/releases/download/08daaa/imx_usb.zip
  5. Extract the executable and DLL in the shofel2_linux-master folder
  6. Download this : http://launchmycraft.fr/boot_linux.bat
  7. Put it in the shofel2_linux-master folder
This is what you should have in the linux_shofel2-master folder before continuing :
2d13fc7c7d.png


Step 4 : actually booting Linux
  1. Put your Switch in RCM mode and plug it in your PC
  2. Go in the shofel2_linux-master folder and open boot_linux.bat
  3. It wasn't that hard, wasn't it ?
 
Last edited by natinusala,
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D

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Not to be a party pooper but is it legal to distribute shofel2_linux-master.zip?
More specifically, in coreboot.rom it contains the tegra_mtc.bin which is the only closed source component and is probably copyrighted by Google.
 
natinusala

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Well, I don't really know. Closed source doesn't mean that it's forbidden to distribute. Anyone can download the Pixel image and extract the file by themselves, it's not like it's really protected.
 
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wiiarctus said:
I only tried and did it with VMware because it was stated that VirtualBox can't passthrough USB devices. As it turned out it worked just fine with VMware ("VM" tab > "Removable Devices" > "Your USB microSD card reader").^^
Click to expand...
I'm know how to attach but VMware cant detect this.
Im specially boot to the linux to make SDCard and Gnome. The issue is that wont help.

Edit:
I'm sick, I've specifically launched Ubuntu on my PC to do it. No matter what image i use, the problem is the same back to RCM.
 
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I tried using etcher but I get an error while trying to boot saying it can't initialize the sd card now. So now I have tried with arch_lxde using win32di or etcher and with kde_rootfs3.tar.bz2 and manually creating a fat 32 partition and decompressing it to an ext4 partition. What could it be? The formatting process is being done correctly and the RCM payload seems to be working though I do get a lot of errors while booting but don't know if it's supposed to be like that.

edit: after loading the sd card in the stock os and 'resetting' the fat32 partition, it manages to initialize the card like normal until it kernel panics and goes back to RCM like before :/ Most likely it's TegraRcmSmash at fault here? I wish I could run the exploit on Linux but I don't know how to apply the kernel patch to make usb 2.0 work on linux.
 
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For the record, I used the Arch Linux LXDE disto and burned it to a 16GB microSD using a USB -> SD -> MicroSD Adaptor and Win32DiskImager. It worked fine right off the bat. (lol, that pun, get it???)
 
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Finally i booted the linux, the thing is Samsung EVO Plus they need special patches to boot. So you cannot use a ready image. You need to build with patches by yourself.
Big thanks to user from reswitched discord Dante who spend with me ~2hours to help me. He probably will make soon a image for samsung evo user cards.
 
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If anyone is tired of downloading all those files, I made config.txts for my configurable downloader program.

Just rename the one that corresponds to you to config.txt (e.g. rename config-x64.txt to config.txt), put it in the same folder as downloader.jar (extract it from the zip, I wasn't allowed to upload a jar file), and run downloader.jar. Pick a folder to save to then click Download Files. Everything will download itself and also tidy itself up, inside a folder called "stuff" in the location you picked.

If you know of any other project that requires multiple downloads please let me know and I will make a config.txt for it (or tell you how to)
 

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x0x0 said:
Finally i booted the linux, the thing is Samsung EVO Plus they need special patches to boot. So you cannot use a ready image. You need to build with patches by yourself.
Big thanks to user from reswitched discord Dante who spend with me ~2hours to help me. He probably will make soon a image for samsung evo user cards.
Click to expand...
My sd card is a Kingston 64 gb though.. I'm still not able to boot this thing.
 

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