¶ L4T Ubuntu 18.04 installation guide
Current version: 3.4.0
If you need help you can ask in our Discord Server
You should also take a look at our FAQ which may already answer to some of your questions
The important parts of the guide are the Installation and Update sections.
You can skip the rest if you don't want extra informations about the project.
For a fresh install, go here
For an update only, go here
¶ Prerequisites
- A 16GB SD Card MINIMUM
- A computer
¶ Installation
- Download the standard image from here
- Backup your SD Card:
- Backup normal files from FAT32
- If emuMMC exists, use Hekate to back it up (Tools -> Backup eMMC)
- If android exists, do a TWRP backup
- WARNING: This following will wipe everything on your SD card.
Partition your SD card in Hekate (Tools -> Partition SD Card) leave at least 7GB for FAT32 for installation files downloaded in step 1 AND recreate any partition that may have backed up.
- From your PC, extract 7z to your SD FAT32 partition (Suggestion: Use Hekate UMS (Tools->USB Tools) with a USB-C cable connecting your switch and PC to mount your SD card instead of swapping your card from Switch to PC).
- In Hekate, go to Tools -> Partition SD -> Flash Linux.
- In Hekate, (Nyx Options -> Dump Joy-Con BT) to dump joycon pairing data, with joycons connected to console, after being paired in hos.
- You can now restore your backup
- Copy your normal files to FAT32
- For emuMMC use Hekate to restore your backup (Tools -> Restore eMMC)
- For Android, copy your TWRP backup to your FAT32 partition then follow the steps and 4 of our android BUT instead of installing "Lineage zip, followed by your GApps zip" at step 4.g restore your backup in TWRP
¶ Updates for previous 3.0+ installs
If you come from a previous release and need to update.
- Download the version 3.4.0 Update Files from here
- Remove
l4t-ubuntufolder andbootloader/ini/01-ubuntu.inifrom fat32 partition on sdcard if present.
- Extract update 7z to fat32 partition on sdcard.
- In Hekate, (Home -> Nyx Options -> Dump Joy-Con BT) to dump joycon pairing data, with joycons connected to console, after being paired in hos.
¶ Extras
Pairing procons
- Pair procons by opening the bluetooth menu in settings and pressing the + button in the bottom left corner. Then press the sync button on the controller and select its name in the pairing window.
L4T Megascript
- You can use the L4T-Megascript app, available in your apps list (installed by default in 3.4.0+)
You can get or build various essential stuff, apps or emulators with a single click. All configured and optimized for Switch.
¶ Misc.
Current Features
- Full USB Power Delivery/On-The-Go/HDMI/Displayport Docks
- Bluetooth/Wifi (both controllers and audio)
- Full Joycon Support (Excluding NFC, and IRcamera)
- Nvidia Tegra GPU drivers - Vulkan, OpenGL, OpenGLES, and CUDA
- Audio - Headphones, Speakers, HDMI when docked, and Microphone (version 3.4.2+)
- Touchscreen
- Handheld (720p @ 60) and Docked Display (up to 4K @ 30 or 1440p @ 60)
- CPU frequency scaling - Frequency depends on the Nvidia Applet Power Mode, automatic Console and Handheld Profiles
- Automatic Overclocking through the Nvidia Indicator Applet (select an OC mode)
- Full sdcard speed
- Hardware video acceleration when using the new SMPV player app (smpv), ffmpeg-l4t, mpv-l4t, and the built in videos/totem app (means you can watch videos without battery draining massively)
- LP0 (lowest power) Sleep mode
- IMU/Ambiant Light sensor support
- reboot2payload
- Minerva Memory Training
- Support for Moonlight-QT (stream games/desktop from your Nvidia (nvidia gamestream) or AMD (sunshine moonlight host) GPU to your Switch)
- Initramfs updates (fix partition resize, add boot logo, and error screens)
Ubuntu Bionic 3.4.0 Full Changelog
- Better performances in many scenarios (As always that should affect apps/games/emus/etc)
- Significant better deep sleep. (Measured at 582 hours. 440% better).
- Faster wake up from sleep.
- Saved 240MB ram (fb and active file page pool, aka always used pool)
- Memory remapping 800%-2000% speed up. Mostly used by emulators and VMs (and lot in android).
- Some other memory optimizations, plus enabled huge ram pages
- Faster kernel and OS boot.
- Fixed tearing issues for NVDEC/NVENC. (video hw accel)
- Lower latency for frame end calcs for builtin display
- Fixed Hori pads for joycond
- Fixed an issue where it would make railed jc to disconnect on rumble
- Joycon/Procon rumble was improved and intensity tuned for better user experience
- Kernel now uses the proper display panel init/deinit by checking panel id
- Improved dock/undock script
- Touch stays enabled now in dock mode. Users that use docks that do not cover the screen can use it as alternative input.
- Added low ram protection. Now instead of hanging for minutes it will only stutter for seconds until oom occurs and recovers ram
- Better seamless display on boot
- uenv.txt changed, read uenv_readme.txt. It's simple to transfer over custom settings.
- Reboot action can now be defined in new uenv.txt. Reboot back into Linux by changing `reboot_action=` from `bootloader` to `via-payload`.
Apps Changes:
- Full video HW decoding via new SMPV Player app (also supports youtube links)
- Full video HW encoding via ffmpeg-l4t
- Added L4T-Megascript app
You can get or build various essential stuff, apps or emulators with a single click. All configured and optimized for Switch.
- Nvpmodel was updated to include Battery charging protection limits options
Useful when you are constantly docked and want to protect battery's life.
Limit gets saved and applied on boot.
Reminder that discharging can't happen when plugged in. Even when charging is off, usb power is used to supplement system.
So you need to discharge first if you want the battery % to go inside the limit.
That also disables charging in sleep in order for the feature to work.
If you reboot/shutdown, it gets disabled and re-enabled at the next L4T boot.
As always the source is public and all L4T based projects for Switch will benefit (L4T linux distros/Lakka/Android)
Ubuntu Bionic 3.3.0 Full Changelog
- Significant performance improvements
CPU arch, RAM, GPU, general latency, etc optimizations.
Affects gui, apps, games, emus, etc
- Significant deep sleep power draw fixes
Now almost all non-needed devices power off on deep sleep and ram is set to appropriate frequency.
(Touch panel, LCD, Joycon charging and many more devices now power off in deep sleep as they should)
- IO scheduler was changed to provide way faster storage IO
- Released 15 MiB extra ram
- Fixed voltage calculation for OC. It should provide more stable overclocking
- Refactored thermal management
Fan profiles are now the same with HOS
Added failsafes, throttling and force power off when very high temps for the board are reached
- Faster boot times
- Fixed issues with Joycon charging and Hori power on resume
- Fixed Power button issues
- Touch improvements
- Added Hori and Obirds rail support
- OTG now allows deep sleep, even if linux resides in a USB SSD.
- Various USB fixes
- Allow fuel gauge to wake up system and power off gracefully on empty battery
- Added support for many 3rd party docks
These include Genki, Zenscreen, Nexdock and anything else that uses similar methods
Basically, the support should reach 100% (docks that support DP via pin D)
- Fixed issues with fast charging when docked on boot
- Fixed other issues with charging on certain edge cases
- Fixed DP/HDMI when plugging console while sleeping
- Fixed DP/HDMI when already docked and waking up
- Dock led indicator now has a breathing light when sleeping
- Add exFAT partition support (boot driver still needs to be FAT32)
- Enabled 1GB ZRAM swap
- Status messages on booting
- Seamless display booting (needs hekate higher than v5.5.4)
- Disabled screen blanking on idle. Dimming/Screensaver is still there and can be disabled in Brightness & Lock.
This will help with games/emus where gamepad is used and it does not reset idle times like mouse/keyboard.
- Fixed apt repo urls
- NVPModel is revamped
Allow changing power profiles via touch
Added handheld power profile
Added fan profiles
Added automatic profiles based on handheld or docked
Added USB 3.0 disable toggle for boosting WiFi 2.4G and Bluetooth signal
OC profiles now do not require enabling overclock flag in sysfs
Sources
¶ Credits
Bylaws,
Langerhans,
Ave,
Natinusala,
CTCaer(most of the hard stuff),
Gavin_Darkglider,
DanielOgorchock(Joycon drivers/joycond),
stary2001 (reboot2payload),
NVIDIA,
Azkali,
theofficialgman and cobalt2727 (L4T-Megascript)
Everyone else in switchroot