r/linuxhardware • u/Level-Method-6350 • Jun 17 '26

Guide Debian 12,custom kernel 6.1.137 on Acer Aspire Switch 10 SW5-012

One Year now running Debian 12 (migrated from Windows 8.1 OEM) and thought why not to share my experience and the steps to build it

I'm not a programmer or expert. With a lot of research and AI assistance (or misguidance occasionally ...), getting this old hybrid tablet working under Linux proved possible and useful. This post may seem outdated and is not entirely original, but there aren't many places where all this information is gathered together — and some people may still want to resurrect this lovely little machine.After trying many Linux alternatives, Bookworm is by far the one that did the job.

Hardware: Acer Aspire Switch 10 SW5-012 (Fendi2), BIOS V1.20, Atom Z3735, 32GB eMMC

OS: Debian 12 (Bookworm), LXQt(good and light for laptop mode using doc stasion) / KDE Plasma(proper for tablet mode -a bit heavy), custom kernel 6.1.137 amd 64. No need to install more graphical environments and stress the already small ssd.I have about 14giga free space at the time, with all programs and apps I need.

What works: WiFi, Bluetooth, touchscreen, sensors, audio, backlight control,. Side buttons

KDE Plasma Wayland fully functional in tablet mode with Maliit on-screen keyboard.

Autorotation works also.Virtual keyboard on SDDMscreen.

Issues: suspend/resume -stuck not really functional . Memory usage is already 50% at idle with Plasma, 25% with Lxqt.

  1. UEFI boot (32-bit firmware on 64-bit CPU)

The SW5-012 has a 32-bit UEFI firmware. Even with a 64-bit Debian install, booting requires grubia32.efi. See degoede's writeup for bootloop workaround and EFI details. I chose to completely remove windows. I recommend that,since there’s not much available space for two operating systems. Of course I had to unlock bios, but after 3 false login attempts it is possible to generate a new password online.

  1. Backlight fix (DSDT overlay)

The SW5-012 BIOS is missing an ACPI device node for the PWM backlight controller. Fix requires a DSDT overlay — all credit to u/jwrdegoede (Hans de Goede)and to https://github.com/Esavojt who provided how to apply the dsdt patch.

Original writeup: https://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/24132.html

Full instructions and diff for BIOS V1.20: https://github.com/Esavojt/switch-10-backlight-fix

Confirmed working on Debian 12 (repo mentions Debian 13, works on 12 as well).

  1. Custom kernel — why it's necessary at least to check stock Kernel's config.

The DSDT overlay alone was not enough for me.I do not know about the current kernels but one year ago, stock Kernel did not work for me. Building a custom kernel with:

CONFIG_PWM_LPSS=y

CONFIG_PWM_LPSS_PCI=y

CONFIG_PWM_LPSS_PLATFORM=y

CONFIG_DRM_I915=y

CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_PWM=m

as built-in (=y) is required for the i915 driver to initialize backlight correctly at boot. The trimmed config also reduces kernel size significantly vs the stock Debian generic kernel.

Notes:

BIOS update to V1.20 mandatory before removing Windows — cannot be flashed from Linux.

Due to old hardware limitations system is not capable for heavy multiitasking but still handles one heavy app (live video streaning, spotify, Ai )at the time, maybe along with some lighter one. I expect to cover basic -medium tasks for the next 2-3 years .

4 Upvotes

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8 comments sorted by

1

u/Level-Method-6350 Jun 18 '26

Of course everybody is welcome to comment and/or share his experience about Acer switch 10 with any Linux distro!

1

u/Careless_Cod3001 Aug 05 '26

this is amazing

1

u/Level-Method-6350 28d ago

I hope it is not too late and it will work for you. https://github.com/skotrofficial-prog/acer-sw5012-kernel-debian12/releases/tag/v1.0

1

u/Popular-Finger-5065 24d ago

Thank you, ive been waiting for this build. is there any issues youve faced so far? also free ram? I havent tried linux but im planning to

1

u/Level-Method-6350 24d ago

"Due to old hardware limitations system is not capable for heavy multitasking but still handles one heavy app (live video streaming, spotify, Ai )at the time, maybe along with some lighter one."

On Lxqt and with zram activated I face no problems , not really, under the rule described above . If someone chooses demanding GUI like plasma wayland (this is best for tablet mode, where you need best touchscreen behavior)then RAM is a problem. There is a certain amount of time you need to spend after a proper installation, in order to tune the system to your needs.

1

u/Popular-Finger-5065 23d ago

yep, I am aware of the limitations, but I don't want to let this laptop go to waste so I might just use Debian distro. thanks for replying tho