On 2009 Genesi Tech had announced the production of a Arm Notebook based on Ubuntu gnu/linux OS, in 2010 Genesi Efika Mx Smartbook was in production and I had ordered one. Genesi Tech was the only one that produce , that days, an Arm netbook with gnu/linux.
From 2010 other manufacturers have produced Arm netbooks, not gnu/linux based, like Toshiba ac 100 (with Android 2.x), Samsung Arm Chromebook ( with chrome os), so Genesi remain the unique arm based notebook producer that preinstalled Ubuntu gnu/linux os. Genesi had donated 55 efika mx smartbooks to Linaro.
Efika Mx Smartbook was sell with Ubuntu Maverick with a personalized Genesi and Freescale core ( video acceleration, kernel ,etc…) , many distros have supported Efika Mx, I had installed Debian that was very much updated than Ubuntu Maverick. Some days ago some former Genesi engineer have provided a new installer image derived from Ubuntu 12.04 lts (Precise Pangolin), which is a long-term support release and will receive updates until April 2017 or later.
In addition to a newer and more secure operating system core, this distribution also features a customized dock-centric user interface as well as more recent versions of essential applications (Firefox, for example). It retains key functionality of Genesi’s official Maverick-based distribution such as hardware acceleration for video playback.
Please note that, while this release builts heavily on the work of current or former Genesi engineers, this is an experimental “community distribution” and will receive no official support from Genesi. If you have comments, questions or recommendations, please share them in this discussion thread.
Download
- Ubuntu Derivative: Precise Pangolin 12.04 LTS (March 31, 2014) (external link)
Locate inside the web page:
http://www.powerdeveloper.org/platforms/efikamx/community
Installation:
- Unpack the .xz archive and write the unpacked .img file to an SD card. To unpack xz fuke use linux command: unxz. To copy extracted .img file use linux command: dd if=<.img file name> of=/dev/<SD card device> , where <SD card device > you could see using command df and looking at the <dev name> of your SD card, WARNING: if you put the wrong device name you could format your HDD. More info.
- Make backups of any files on your Efika MX device that you would like to retain. (The installation will erase all data on your computer.)
- Insert the SD card in your Efika MX device and power it on / reboot.
- When asked, press the “Y” key on your keyboard to start the installation. (Depending on your keyboard layout, you may have to press whatever key is in the same position as the “Y” key on a US keyboard even if it has a different label.)
With this Ubuntu 12.04 LTS OS we have not a full video acceleration support, and at the moment the brightness regulation doesn’t work, over that you have more updated packages and gnu/linux distro with update supported until 2017!
Update: The kernel version used by Genesi for this smartbook is 2.6.31 , that is the one where Freescale have provided the blob files for the 2D/3D GPU engine..
At the moment is not yet completed the joining with this Ubuntu version ( the oem Ubuntu version which was born with Efika mx was Ubuntu Maverick)
For Efika mx there is in progress even the kernel 3.7 that works fine (keyboard, mouse, display, USB, SD card reader). The things that don’t work are sound and camera. http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17487&sid=#p17487
Humanize Technology 
Hello, I have an EFIKA MX smartbook and need to re-image it but I don’t know linux that well. Where do I start?
Hi zocorp, I have updated the post with more deep instruction how to make the installation process, hope to help you
Hi , i have one efika and i thinked in update for the problem with browsers update and another useful things, But i stop because the note point about the sound and camera problem , do you have any patch for this problem.?
Yesterday I have tested that updating the OS ( apt-get update , apt-get upgrade) the sound work perfectly. I have tested in particular the sound with youtube where the video works with wrong colours and not exactly in a smoothly way.
i can´t understand waht do you mean with -…Insert the SD card in your Efika MX device and power it on / reboot.?
I can´t found what is the right way to upgrade the new img of precise pangolin in efika mx . I made all of the sd cards img and whatever but how i can do this “”Insert the SD card in your Efika MX device and power it on / reboot.”” nothing happen the machine continue boot the old maverick merkat .
Use the dd command to write the image to /dev/sdb not /dev/sdb1 (or wherever your sd card is). That was a mistake I made.
I’m the guy that is responsible for this image. I hope someone found it useful. it was actually a shelved project of mine that never saw the light of day until fairly recently.
Hi William, it’s very useful! Please update us and give details about. 😀
Thanks for making this. It made the machine useful again.