Ebay Windows Dev Kit 2023 - 24.10 installation hangs at "configuring keyboard"

[staticnom]

Ebay'd one of these things because of this project. Would really like to get Ubuntu on the device:

I have booted to bios and:

1. Disabled Secure Boot
2. Enabled USB boot (obviously)

I'm able to boot the from the installer, and it starts to install however it hangs at "configuring keyboard". Expanding the console I'm met with:

tail: can't open '/var/log/installer/debug/': No such file or directory
tail: can't open '/var/log/syslog': No such file or directory
tail: no files

Is this an issue with windows somehow? Bitlocker says it's disabled in control panel, but in diskmgr it says "bitlocker enabled". Should I reset Windows? I have created a 256gb partition of free space when i booted to windows as well. Should I unfree that space since the installer is trying to do that already?

The same issue happens with the older 22.4 images as well.

[jglathe]

Hi @staticnom , first of all congratulations, those boxes hold up quite well. The first one I bought in October of '22 is still my daily driver and main console in the living room, going strong. Now for the issue you're describing.

Which install media do you use that actually boots on the WDK? I've made a few over time, but they don't really "install". There are Ubuntu Concept images for 24.10 / 25.04 /25.10 that theoretically could boot and install, although the last one I tried a few months ago didn't. Since the WDK is supported by dtbloader, it could be possible that it will be supported as the device tree is upstream.

If you're talking about the Ubuntu_Desktop_wdk2023_6.13rc.img.xz image, then yes, you need a completely decrypted windows partition. Those newfangled Windows11 versions do interesting stuff, they come pre-encrypted, regardles of UEFI settings (afaict). The way to actually disable bitlocker is:

• boot with windows, secure boot on
• login with Microsoft Account
• explicitly enable bitlocker (let it encrypt the whole disk)
• explicitly disable bitlocker (let it disable the whole disk)
• disable secure boot in UEFI BIOS
• reboot into Windows and check with HWInfo64 that secure boot is actually off and Bitlocker disabled
• enable USB boot
• start with a freshly written USB image (the error @ configuring keyboard has the image in an undesired state). First boot will copy over firmwares from the Windows partition to the stick,then automatically reboot
• second boot should bring up the Ubuntu Desktop setup. Which is actually only personalization.

After you're up, we could consider making the "install" on the local nvme. Don't entirely remove Windows, though, you need it from time to time for frimware upgrade and EC resets.

Current kernels that are compatible are pre-built here. I would recommend to use 6.16-el2 ones, that's currently tip of development.

[jwijenbergh]

hi sorry, to chime in, but I am a bit lost. Would this (the ubuntu concept x1e image) be the best image to use if I want to install linux on the WDK? Do I still need to copy firmware over from windows?

[jglathe]

Yes (latest version) and yes, although qcom-firmware-extract should be able to do it.

[e-stjernstrom]

Hi, I'm just wondering that, after I installed the iso and dpkg -i the debs download from Google Drive, what else should I do to get the rc kernel boot? I tried the auto generated boot option in grub but didn't work.

[jglathe]

Argh I'm afraid this may be a bit more complicated, here's why:

• The ISO might just use Stubble (not sure), and screw the original install path somewhat. For example, flash-kernel is probably not installed. In that case, we need to add an extra line in /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
• very probably the required .dtb file wasn't copied into the path /boot/dtbs/<version>/qcom/

So the way to get it to boot after install is to do just that. Find the right path where the dtb is located:

find /lib/ -name *blackrock*

• Copy over the file file to the /boot/dtbs/<version>/qcom/ (not required, but IMO cleaner).
• Symlink the file in /boot: dtb-6.16-el2-jg-5-qcom-x1e -> dtbs/6.16-el2-jg-5-qcom-x1e/qcom/sc8280xp-microsoft-blackrock.dtb
• add the line to the menu entries for this kernel in grub.cfg: devicetree dtb-6.16-el2-jg-5-qcom-x1e

That's it. Awkward, but works. I would recommend to take a backup of this grub.cfg for further reference.

Stubble has machine detection (via smbios) and all the supported dtbs linked into the kernel. Apparently something is not working, this needs to be fixed. And for not yet supported devices, there needs to be a way to get this running via flash-kernel.

[e-stjernstrom]

Updated initramfs and used your script to copy the files from windows partition and now everything works. Cheers.