Fedora 37 / Pop OS / Xubuntu / Manjaro / RebornOS on Asus Transformer Mini T102HA

Following up my previous post, I decided to give it a try few other Linux distros. And I was deeply impressed by results.

What I did, is that I flashed my USB stick drive with Ventoy (highly recommend it) and then uploaded a bunch of different Linux ISOs to it. Thanks to modern standards of linux distributions, most of them are actually live cd distributions you can give a good test run, before deciding to install.

Before I move on, I need to point out something, which is in common for all Linux distributions, if we speak about this particular device - Asus Transformer Mini T102HA. In none of them, below things were working:

* Built-in camera
* Built-in microphone
* Brightness of the backlid is  not configurable from keyboard - fn+F5/F6 - these keys are just not sending any codes. You can still configure screen brightness with using software and the same you can remap it to be configurable from some different keys. Possible troubleshooting is described here - https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=229572

Fedora 37 with Gnome - 👍👍👍

Sound - works without issues

Screen orientation and touchscreen - is fine, when X boots up. In GRUB and system boot up the screen is still rotated - but we already know how to fix it (see "Fixing screen orientation in console" section here)

Automatic screen rotation -  works out of the box, but only with detached keyboard.
Screen brightness can be configured with applet

Couple of screen rotations - no issues
No screen tearing, thanks to Wayland
I noticed some strange backlid flickering on key presses, when it is set to low level and modal dialog is displayed, like prompting WiFi password

System information

# inxi -b
System:
  Host: localhost-live Kernel: 6.0.7-301.fc37.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Console: pty pts/0 Distro: Fedora release 37 (Thirty Seven)
Machine:
  Type: Detachable System: ASUSTeK product: T102HA v: 1.0
    serial: GAN0CX00Z313409
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: T102HA v: 1.0 serial: BSN12345678901234567
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: T102HA.303 date: 04/12/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BATC charge: 9.5 Wh (42.0%) condition: 22.6/31.6 Wh (71.4%) volts: 3.8
    min: 3.8
CPU:
  Info: quad core Intel Atom x5-Z8350 [MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 766
    min/max: 480/1920
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx
    Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
  Display: server: X.Org v: 22.1.3 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3 driver:
    dri: crocus gpu: i915 note: X driver n/a resolution: 1280x800~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.2 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (CHV)
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    driver: ath10k_pci
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 72.85 GiB used: 5.77 GiB (7.9%)
Info:
  Processes: 262 Uptime: 19m Memory: 3.66 GiB used: 2.44 GiB (66.7%)
  Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.24
 

Making fingerprint sensor to work in Linux on Asus Transformer Mini T102HA

I fiugured it out that my fingerprint sensor should be supported by fprint project:

[root@localhost-live ~]# lsusb | grep -i finger
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 04f3:0903 Elan Microelectronics Corp. ELAN:Fingerprint

You need to install and enable fprintd:

yum install fprintd.x86_64
systemctl enable fprintd.service

Then, if you want to, you can play with enrolling / testing / deleting fingerprints right from the CLI:

fprintd-list <user>
fprintd-enroll <user>
fprintd-verify <user>
fprintd-delete <user>

... or go directly to Gnome Settings -> Users and configure it from there

Manjaro XFCE  😕

Overall it seems to be less fancy than Gnome on Fedora, but given the sound works here without any issues, it is much more pleasant than Linux Mint 21. But I need to say, that with all my love to XFCE, the Gnome is much better choise for tablets with touchscreens.

Sound - working without issues

Screen orientation and touchscreen - same as in Mint, needs fixing 

Automatic screen rotation -  doesn't work
Brightness of backlid cannot be even configured via xfc4 power settings applet 

Couple of screen rotations - xfce4-terminal started to have some small issues after first rotation, but system remained stable

System information

$ inxi -b

System:

  Host: manjaro Kernel: 6.1.1-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce

    v: 4.18.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux

Machine:

  Type: Detachable System: ASUSTeK product: T102HA v: 1.0

    serial: <superuser required>

  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: T102HA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>

    UEFI: American Megatrends v: T102HA.303 date: 04/12/2017

Battery:

  ID-1: BATC charge: 8.2 Wh (36.3%) condition: 22.6/31.6 Wh (71.4%) volts: 3.7

    min: 3.8

CPU:

  Info: quad core Intel Atom x5-Z8350 [MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 516

    min/max: 480/1920

Graphics:

  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx

    Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel

  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.6 driver: X: loaded: modesetting

    dri: crocus gpu: i915 resolution: 1280x800~60Hz

  API: OpenGL Message: Unable to show GL data. Required tool glxinfo

    missing.

Network:

  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter

    driver: ath10k_pci

Drives:

  Local Storage: total: 72.85 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)

Info:

  Processes: 195 Uptime: 8m Memory: 3.67 GiB used: 2.48 GiB (67.6%)

  Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.24

Xubuntu 22.10 😖

Sound - same issues as in Mint

Screen orientation and touchscreen - same as in Mint and Manjaro, needs fixing 

Automatic screen rotation -  doesn't work. I'm starting to think that XFCE just doesn't have this feature
Brightness can be configured via xfc4 power settings applet, so there's something wrong with just Manjaro alone

Couple of screen rotations with xrand - worked fine

System information

 

$ inxi -b
System:
  Host: xubuntu Kernel: 5.19.0-21-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce
    v: 4.17.0 Distro: Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu)
Machine:
  Type: Detachable System: ASUSTeK product: T102HA v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: T102HA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: T102HA.303 date: 04/12/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BATC charge: 4.8 Wh (21.2%) condition: 22.6/31.6 Wh (71.4%)
    volts: 3.7 min: 3.8
CPU:
  Info: quad core Intel Atom x5-Z8350 [MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 504
    min/max: 480/1920
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx
    Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1280x800~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (CHV) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.1
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    driver: ath10k_pci
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 72.85 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
Info:
  Processes: 231 Uptime: 17m Memory: 3.67 GiB used: 2.04 GiB (55.7%)
  Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.21

Sound issues

I decided to dig a bit deeper to see what is the difference between various audio components to narrow it down. In short, the issue looks like this - after a while of playing sound, like playing a video from YouTube, the sound stops at some random and very loud note and system sound controls cannot help you here.

xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ apt list --installed | grep -i pipew

libpipewire-0.3-0/kinetic,now 0.3.58-2ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libpipewire-0.3-common/kinetic,now 0.3.58-2ubuntu1 all [installed,automatic]
xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ apt list --installed | grep -i alsa

alsa-base/kinetic,now 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu7 all [installed,automatic]
alsa-topology-conf/kinetic,now 1.2.5.1-2 all [installed,automatic]
alsa-ucm-conf/kinetic,now 1.2.6.3-1ubuntu2 all [installed,automatic]
alsa-utils/kinetic,now 1.2.6-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ apt list --installed | grep -i pulse

gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio/kinetic,now 1.20.3-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libpulse-mainloop-glib0/kinetic,now 1:16.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libpulse0/kinetic,now 1:16.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libpulsedsp/kinetic,now 1:16.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth/kinetic,now 1:16.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
pulseaudio-utils/kinetic,now 1:16.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
pulseaudio/kinetic,now 1:16.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin/kinetic,now 0.4.5-0ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]

RebornOS  😖

Sound - works fine

Screen orientation and touchscreen - same as in Mint, Xubuntu and Manjaro, needs fixing 

Automatic screen rotation -  doesn't work. I'm starting to thing XFCE just doesn't have this
Brightness cannot be configured via xfc4 power settings applet, so there's something wrong with all Arch-based distributions

Screen rotations with xrand - system got unresponsive 

System information

 inxi -b
System:
  Host: rebornosiso Kernel: 6.1.2-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce
    v: 4.18.0 Distro: RebornOS Linux
Machine:
  Type: Detachable System: ASUSTeK product: T102HA v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: T102HA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: T102HA.303 date: 04/12/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BATC charge: 3.6 Wh (15.9%) condition: 22.6/31.6 Wh (71.4%) volts: 3.7
    min: 3.8
CPU:
  Info: quad core Intel Atom x5-Z8350 [MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 1210
    min/max: 480/1920
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx
    Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.6 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.7 driver: X:
    loaded: intel unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915
    resolution: 1280x800~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.2 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (CHV)
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    driver: ath10k_pci
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 72.85 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
Info:
  Processes: 211 Uptime: 10m Memory: 3.67 GiB used: 1.88 GiB (51.3%)
  Shell: Zsh inxi: 3.3.23

PopOS 😐

Automatic screen rotation works out of the box, with and without keyboard attached

No backlid flickering on low levels in modal dialog, as it was in Fedora
Youtube in Firefox doesn't work right out of the box, however Odysse does. Sound crashes the similar (but not the same) way as in Xubuntu and Mint.

I was experiencing occasional freezes on Firefox, and it even crashed once. System is overall not very responsive.
Bad screen tearing, while playing dynamic videos.
Worst of all, that after playing with is for 20-30 minutes, system freezes completely.

Few additional notes, related to PopOS:
Touchpad jestures in COSMIC are not that comfortable as in Gnome. Gnome is miles ahead.
As soon as you start to use touchscreen, it's kind a hard to get your mouse pointer back, if you switch to touchpad/mouse

System information

 

$ inxi -b
System:
  Host: pop-os Kernel: 6.0.12-76060006-generic x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: GNOME 42.3.1 Distro: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS
Machine:
  Type: Detachable System: ASUSTeK product: T102HA v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: T102HA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: T102HA.303 date: 04/12/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BATC charge: 22.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 22.6/31.6 Wh (71.4%)
CPU:
  Info: quad core Intel Atom x5-Z8350 [MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 480
    min/max: 480/1920
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx
    Integrated Graphics
    driver: i915 v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1280x800~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (CHV) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.0
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    driver: ath10k_pci
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 72.85 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
Info:
  Processes: 241 Uptime: 10m Memory: 3.66 GiB used: 1.43 GiB (39.0%)
  Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.13

Ubuntu 22.04 😐

Automatic screen rotation works out of the box, with and without keyboard attached

No backlid flickering on low levels in modal dialog, as it was in Fedora
Same issues with sound as in Xubuntu and Mint

No screen tearing
Very limited support of touchpad / touchscreen gestures of Ubuntu Gnome compared to say Fedora 37 Gnome. Fedora is really the clean winner for tablets like Asus Transformer Mini T102HA.