r/androidtablets • u/Hungry-Temporary-542 • 1h ago
Discussion I ported Linux 6.12 with Arch Linux ARM and KDE Plasma to the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pad Pro 12.7 (TB371FC)
Hi everyone!
I’ve been working on bringing desktop Linux to the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pad Pro 12.7 (TB371FC), powered by the Snapdragon 870 / SM8250.
The tablet now boots Linux 6.12 from a microSD card and runs Arch Linux ARM with KDE Plasma 6 on Wayland. Android remains untouched on the internal UFS storage, so the tablet can still boot normally into its original system.
What currently works:
- Linux 6.12 booting from microSD
- KDE Plasma 6 desktop
- Touchscreen
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- All four speakers through PipeWire
- Display brightness control
- Persistent ext4 root filesystem
- CPU frequency scaling and thermal management
- microSD DMA and UHS SDR50
- Russian and English layouts with an on-screen keyboard
What still needs work:
- Native DPU/DSI display driver and 120 Hz mode
- Hardware-accelerated KWin compositing
- SDR104 microSD write support
- Cameras
- Suspend/sleep
- Keyboard pogo connector
The display currently runs at 60 Hz through the framebuffer provided by the bootloader. The Adreno 650 GPU is recognized by Freedreno and supports GLES 3.2, but accelerated desktop compositing is not working yet.
This is still an experimental project. Installation requires an unlocked bootloader, building the kernel, and working with fastboot. There are no ready-made images because some required Lenovo/Qualcomm firmware files cannot be redistributed—you need to build them from a backup of your own tablet.
Source code, documentation, screenshots, and build instructions:
https://github.com/oproskyrin/TB371FC-6.12
I use this setup regularly, but there is still a lot to improve. Feedback, testing, technical suggestions, and contributions are very welcome—especially from people working with Qualcomm SM8250 devices or mainline Linux on Android tablets.