Alfawise X5 Mini PC - Intel Atom X5-Z8350 2GB DDR3 + 32GB ROM Gig LAN Windows 10 Android 5.1

[syd28]

Just a tip: open the mini pc and remove the battery for a minute or two.

Thanks, I open it and took of the battery few minutes et even a more than a day but it didn't work.
try also to boot without the battery but I still got the boot loop.
I can see a message in red on the left bottom few seconds underneath the Intel logo staying bios table error

[syd28]

Do you know if I can safely flash Beelink BT3 BIOS (V16_64bit) to Alfawise X5? This devices seem to be the same except ROM and RAM capacity. Is it possible to recover device if the flashing fails?

I may have lost the bios or something like that, do you know how can I flash it straight during the boot as I have no access to the bios and neither windows, I am pretty sure the Beelink BT3 have the same bios.

Thanks

[Shimon]

If you look at the posted "windows only" archive, the bios files are all there in a separate directory. The question is: how do you flash them?

[syd28]

If you look at the posted "windows only" archive, the bios files are all there in a separate directory. The question is: how do you flash them?

Hi, did you find an answer ?
I thought it may be possible using an usb key or connected to an other computer like with an android box, but nothing this on internet. The only I found was with buying a bios programmer with connectors, but not sure it will work in our case as the mini-pc start and boot loops after intel logo.

[reevox]

After trying to erase the Android part, something went wrong and at the next reboot, in the BIOS menu the 32GB SSD was not recognized anymore.

Using Clonezilla and a working image, i successfuly "restored" access to the ssd, and the SSD now appears in the BIOS again.

[poul50]

have anybody a link to an updated bios i miss support for powermanagement in current bios

[filnirv]

Intel hd graphics continue crashing windows. Uninstalled at the moment, but no sound. Any fix for this?

[filnirv]

From Gearbest Support:

Windows 10 Drivers: https://beelink-my.sharepoint.com/personal/firmwareservice_beelink_onmicrosoft_com/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=0588313200f694b109a011f31ab 8ae93e&authkey=AdzFxGsSAyegRS6pWSaDasA

Android: there is no procedure

Please can you update the link? Thanks

[rkpisanu]

Please can you update the link? Thanks

I verified the link...it works. What is the issue ?

[rkpisanu]

Hi,

i have no luck with ubuntu, still no sound and bluetooth with or without isorespin.sh tool. Someone can share linux/ubuntu iso that works with x5 ? Thanks.

ps: with androidx86 sound and bluetooth works

[rkpisanu]

Hi,

i have no luck with ubuntu, still no sound and bluetooth with or without isorespin.sh tool. Someone can share linux/ubuntu iso that works with x5 ? Thanks.

ps: with androidx86 sound and bluetooth works

Goodnews for Ubuntu/Linux users: thanks to Gereon Schomber (IncredibleLaser)

i installed old kernel: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.12.12/ and now there is a sound from HDMI.
The procedure is:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...100316_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...0316_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...0316_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-*.deb
sudo reboot

and on grub menu choose this kernel to boot.

[rkpisanu]

Goodnews for Ubuntu/Linux users: thanks to Gereon Schomber (IncredibleLaser)

i installed old kernel: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.12.12/ and now there is a sound from HDMI.
The procedure is:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...100316_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...0316_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...0316_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-*.deb
sudo reboot

and on grub menu choose this kernel to boot.

Now i resolve bluetooth issue too with isorespin.sh tool.
This is the simple procedure:
1) Download the respun iso: https://netix.dl.sourceforge.net/pro...d64_tested.iso
2) Burn iso to usb stick and install ubuntu on external usb drive/stick
3) After installation open terminal and type:
4) sudo apt-get update
5) sudo apt-mark hold linux-headers-4.12.12-041212-generic linux-image-4.12.12-041212-generic linux-firmware
6) sudo apt-get upgrade
7) install your software as usual

That's all.

[KY69]

Hi all.

SUSE Tumbleweed from around Christmas 2017 had both HDMI sound and wifi working out of the box. Unfortunately this seems not to be true anymore with the latest updates. One install I made with the (Tumbleweed) image from 180313 did work, but previous and subsequent images did not (I only downloaded a few images, there may have been others that worked, but I do not know where to get images other than the current one).

One thing that I have not been able to figure out yet is that after installing Linux for the first time on a USB HDD I was never able to boot Android anymore. This happened with two different boxes, both with the same BIOS from 2017/08/01, core 5.011. The partitions on the flash drive were untouched, so the EFI partitions were not modified in any way. Even removing the USB disk, thus leaving the X5 again only with the internal flash drive, it initializes to the original boot manager with the Android/Windows menu, but enters a loop if I choose Android. Windows seems to be fine. Windows is even recognized during Linux installation and is an option at the GRUB menu. Android is not detected by GRUB2.

I tried booting the X5 with a rEFInd CD, and just as with the original boot manager, it gives me both options (Android and Windows), but Android gets stuck on the Intel logo screen and loops for some reason. I had never messed around with EFI before this, but my guess it that somewhere, somehow, something was changed in some EFI variable. Has anyone been able to install Linux on an external USB disk and still boot Android from the flash drive afterwards? Any ideas why this is happening?

Thank you for any suggestions.

[eldonT]

One thing that I have not been able to figure out yet is that after installing Linux for the first time on a USB HDD I was never able to boot Android anymore. This happened with two different boxes, both with the same BIOS from 2017/08/01, core 5.011. The partitions on the flash drive were untouched, so the EFI partitions were not modified in any way.

Not realy related to your problem but i'd like to know if you managed to get your usb install to boot directly (without getting to the android/windows menu) ?
Meaning that when booting the box you directly get to grub ?

i want to install/boot a win10 on usb3 SSD and boot directly, but can't get existing usb devices to boot directly, i always need to get to the boot menu (F7 or bios override menu) which is not what i need.
I'm also wondering if it would change something for the external disk to be on a usb2 port or the usb3 one..

Concerning your problem my guess is that your linux installation and grub "update" did change something on the internal emmc (only on the uefi partiton probably), no idea why android gets stuck in the process..

thx for your comments.

[KY69]

Yes, my boxes boot directly into GRUB. I made a few changes in the boot section of the BIOS, which should not affect any OS as far as being able to boot or not, just the boot order and devices available for booting. I enabled Fast Boot, set USB Support to Full Initial, and set Boot option #1 to my Linux installation in the USB HDD. I have not tried to boot with the system HDD on a USB 2.0 port, simply because it is a USB 3.0 disk holding the OS, so the faster the better. I can try that later, but as my (also USB 3.0) DVD drive was connected to a USB 2.0 port when I used it to install (and repeatedly reinstall) Linux, I suspect it would work just the same, as I booted from the DVD in order to install Linux. I have used a second USB 3.0 HDD connected to one of the USB 2.0 ports, but just as a data disk (there is no OS in this second disk, at least not for the Intel architecture anyway).

Just for completeness of information, I have tried disconnecting everything and undoing every change in the BIOS when trying to boot Android, even resetting the box back to its defaults, but Android simply loops after the first time I installed Linux in each box. As I stated previously, I had never fooled around with EFI before, so my ignorance in this is definitely the problem, but if even resetting the box does not get Android back to boot, I wonder where EFI has some information/variable that prevents Android from booting.

When in Linux, and with the USB devices back in the bootable devices list, the output of efibootmgr gives me:

Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0001,0003,0000,0004,0005,0006
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* Android-IA
Boot0002* opensuse
Boot0003* UEFI: TSSTcorpCDDVDW SU-208BB TE00
Boot0004* UEFI:CD/DVD Drive
Boot0005* UEFI:Removable Device
Boot0006* UEFI:Network Device

I don' t know what to try next.