L4T Ubuntu
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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To facilitate our work we will only update our wiki from now on in order to avoid multiple outdated references, please refer to the following link instead of this page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.

 

[stick267]

After leaving the console in suspend mode while on L4T Ubuntu, in a few hours I tried to turn it on but it gave me a black screen.
I tried to restart it and it was still on the black screen. When placing my MicroSD on the PC, I tried to see what was happening, I resigned myself to format it and to my surprise, it gave me an error. Later I realized that I ended up with a write protected MicroSD, which will not allow me to format it, or anything ...

I have tried using low level formatting software. But nothing. For now, I put the MicroSD on my Switch with the Payload memloader to mount the MicroSD on the PC it is formatting me at a low level, but it is slow ... unfortunately I do not think I will use L4T Ubuntu again if these things happen and not they seem easy to remedy.

Are you sure that the read-only toggle on the microSD adapter didn't get turned on? It can get switched over by accident pretty easily and I've pulled my hair out plenty of times trying to figure out what was wrong only to find out that it was the adapter.

 

[Imancol]

Are you sure that the read-only toggle on the microSD adapter didn't get turned on? It can get switched over by accident pretty easily and I've pulled my hair out plenty of times trying to figure out what was wrong only to find out that it was the adapter.

I don't use adapters (other than they got lost). I even verified by placing it on an Android SmartPhone, where it told me that it was damaged and when I tried to format, I got an error and I ejected the MicroSD. Note that even though I did everything, I still had 500MB free with the files still intact.

 

[Deleted User]

VLC is always crashing when loading videos.
Flatpack is not working because the wi fi always disconnect after a certain time.
How to fix it?

 

[Imancol]

God ... I really don't know what to do. I was unable to unlock write only. I have to install Ubuntu on another MicroSD and mount this with an adapter in Dock mode, if there is something that can be done ... but now it gives me something to throw away the other MicroSD

 

[Worldblender]

God ... I really don't know what to do. I was unable to unlock write only. I have to install Ubuntu on another MicroSD and mount this with an adapter in Dock mode, if there is something that can be done ... but now it gives me something to throw away the other MicroSD

Is it possible that the microSD card you previously used has reached its maximum amount of write cycles, which means that no more data can be written to it? That happened to me at one time, after I wrote too many disk images to a Lexar 16 GB microSD card.

 

[Imancol]

Is it possible that the microSD card you previously used has reached its maximum amount of write cycles, which means that no more data can be written to it? That happened to me at one time, after I wrote too many disk images to a Lexar 16 GB microSD card.

So it just crashes because a limit is reached ?. The strange thing is that it still allows me to read the content.

 

[Worldblender]

So it just crashes because a limit is reached ?. The strange thing is that it still allows me to read the content.

That's my best guess. Flash memory in general have a limited amount of read/write cycles before they eventually become unusable, but what likely happened in your case is that the write cycles have been exhausted before the read cycles have.
Here are some more links that could help you understand better (although for SSDs, they also apply to USB flash drives and memory cards):

• https://askubuntu.com/a/1165544/1052069
• https://askubuntu.com/q/652337/1052069

 

[Imancol]

That's my best guess. Flash memory in general have a limited amount of read/write cycles before they eventually become unusable, but what likely happened in your case is that the write cycles have been exhausted before the read cycles have.
Here are some more links that could help you understand better (although for SSDs, they also apply to USB flash drives and memory cards):

• https://askubuntu.com/a/1165544/1052069
• https://askubuntu.com/q/652337/1052069

Oka, thanks. At least with this I am resigned to spending hours already solving a Hardware problem.

The memory is a 64GB Adata MicroSD. I already said that they are very cheap ... I have another one, maybe it won't last.

 

[Deleted User]

Always having wi-fi issues. No wifi after average 30 seconds of wifi.
How to fix them?

 

[Worldblender]

VLC is always crashing when loading videos.
Flatpack is not working because the wi fi always disconnect after a certain time.
How to fix it?

Always having wi-fi issues. No wifi after average 30 seconds of wifi.
How to fix them?

First part, this could be due to 3D acceleration not working properly or the libraries to utilize it on the built-in GPU are missing.
Second part, if your signal reception is poor, you might have to move closer to the source. Alternatively, you can use a USB to Ethernet adapter (preferably at least using USB 3 and supporting Gigabit Ethernet) to get a wired internet connection (if there are working Ethernet ports wherever you are) that will likely have better performance.

 

[Chrisssj2]

How do I enable Vulkan in regular Dolphin (not Ishiikura)? Just installed it and my only options are OpenGL and software renderer

Edit- nevermind, installed a different build and Vulkan is there, but games just crash. OpenGL works but it's unplayable

Unplayable how?

 

[Worldblender]

How do I enable Vulkan in regular Dolphin (not Ishiikura)? Just installed it and my only options are OpenGL and software renderer

Edit- nevermind, installed a different build and Vulkan is there, but games just crash. OpenGL works but it's unplayable

It looks like that regular Dolphin is trying to use desktop OpenGL. It might be supported on the Nvidia Tegra X1, but I have no idea of what's going on, unless you run Dolphin in a command-line/terminal, where it will display some more output, including the final messages before it force closes.

I have discovered another piece of software that may be useful for running OpenGL programs with only OpenGL ES, but it will require compilation: https://github.com/ptitSeb/gl4es
It is a library providing OpenGL 2.x functionality for GLES2.0 accelerated Hardware (and of course also support OpenGL 1.5 function, sometimes better then when using GLES 1.1 backend) There is also support for GLES 1.1 Hardware, emulating OpenGL 1.5, and some OpenGL 2.x+ extensions.

 

[RiskyDingo]

I've followed the guide, but seem to be unable to get the joycons to work. I can connect them to bluetooth and I can get that one solid light but....nothing happens. There's no mouse pointer or anything going on.

I reflashed l4t a couple times already in case I screwed things up. Did the updates and am currently installing Dolphin.

 

[TheCasualties]

I've followed the guide, but seem to be unable to get the joycons to work. I can connect them to bluetooth and I can get that one solid light but....nothing happens. There's no mouse pointer or anything going on.

You need a new joycon map file, the one on page 113 called 50-joystick.zip worked for me. Or there is one on page 117 that adds a deadzone in case you have drift. Haven't tested that one.

Here is the post from page 113 you need to find:

Spoiler

Hello everyone, i've made some basic mappings to use the joycons as a mouse on L4T Ubuntu 3.0 since the previous mappings do not work with the new joycon driver. My mappings are to be used with xorg. To install xorg joystick: sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-joystick. After installing you extract the zip file and move 50-joystick.conf to usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d (do it with sudo mv) and then you either reboot or log out and log in again. The mappings are as follow: Left click mouse is B , Right click is A, L and R control volume, ZR and ZL control brightness, Screenshot button enables or disables mouse mode , Home button is Escape, Plus button is enter, Minus button is back.

That's it. This should make most DE pretty usable on switch (like cinnamon which doesn't work well with touchscreen) and help with things like dolphin standalone since that doesn't have a gamepad interface.

Also many thanks to gavin_darkglider and the rest of the switchroot team for giving us an amazing linux experience on switch!

Follow the instructions in that post (installing xorg), and download the zip with the web browser on your L4T install, extract it, then you have to move the file to usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d

To move it, command would look something like this:

sudo mv '/home/USERNAME/Downloads/50-joystick.conf' '/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d'

Replace USERNAME with your username.It is case sensitive. Good luck.

 

[RiskyDingo]

You need a new joycon map file, the one on page 113 called 50-joystick.zip worked for me. Or there is one on page 117 that adds a deadzone in case you have drift. Haven't tested that one.

Here is the post from page 113 you need to find:
Follow the instructions in that post (installing xorg), and download the zip with the web browser on your L4T install, extract it, then you have to move the file to usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d

To move it, command would look something like this:

sudo mv '/home/USERNAME/Downloads/50-joystick.conf' '/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d'

Replace USERNAME with your username.It is case sensitive. Good luck.

Perfect this worked, thank you!

 

[Deleted User]

I just fixed Flatpak for L4T Ubuntu by using some of those commands :
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/3642#issuecomment-636092330
Now GIMP is runing perfectly (but only launched as root) :

@Gavin_Darkglider
I said you this was an easy fix.

 

[Skrombie]

Question; is there a way to move the dock to the bottom of the screen, instead of being locked to the left-hand side? I looked through the settings and couldn't find anything. Not a huge deal but if it's possible it would be nice!

 

[donquixotedoflamingo]

Hi, i am trying to run the godot game engine on the switch, but i'm getting the following error:

ERROR: initialize: Condition "!fbc" is true. Returned: ERR_UNCONFIGURED
At: platform/x11/context_gl_x11.cpp:158.
ERROR: initialize: Condition "!fbc" is true. Returned: ERR_UNCONFIGURED
At: platform/x11/context_gl_x11.cpp:158.
ERROR: is_viable: Error initializing GLAD
At: drivers/gles2/rasterizer_gles2.cpp:166.
Gtk-Message: 23:05:04.022: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: 23:05:04.024: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

and a popup saying "unable to initialize video driver". Any advice on how to fix this. Thanks.

 

[Deleted User]

I have a few questions about this:

- Has dolphin improved since this was first released? Is it now able to run games at their native framerate at 720p?

- How well does it run Linux ports of PC games?

- Can it play 720p 60fps videos without stuttering?

- Can you turn the WiFi off?

- Does this make any changes to the Switch's NAND? Does using it come with any realistic risk of getting banned?

 

[mortintoj]

I have a few questions about this:

- Has dolphin improved since this was first released? Is it now able to run games at their native framerate at 720p?

- How well does it run Linux ports of PC games?

- Can it play 720p 60fps videos without stuttering?

- Can you turn the WiFi off?

- Does this make any changes to the Switch's NAND? Does using it come with any realistic risk of getting banned?

When all the drivers are working properly, you can only count on the performance optimization of the emulator, the hardware will not become faster out of thin air, and the emulator optimization is very long.
PC is X86_X64 architecture, not AARCH64 (arm64), PC games will not run on the switch, because of architectural limitations, the program is compiled for a specific architecture. Unless this is an open source game, you can compile a usable game for the switch's aarch64 architecture.
720p 60fps is still very easy.
Of course, this is Linux, and you have absolute control.
This is another system, another system that has nothing to do with the original NS system, only runs on the memory card, system, you do not have to worry about anything.