Arch Linux on MeegoPad

I wanted to replace a Raspberry Pi as a media center with something more powerful, so that the video and the UI doesn't stutter. So I found an Intel Compute Stick clone - MeegoPad T5.

For the impatient: still isn't working properly, but maybe someone else can figure something out.

Booting Linux

Surprise number one: it's a 64-bit platform with 32-bit UEFI. To boot from the standard Arch image, put a 32-bit GRUB next to the 64-bit systemd-boot EFI loader already there (or any other loader which can pass parameters to the kernel) and choose it through the UEFI Shell (F7 during startup shows the boot menu).

Wi-Fi module isn't visible during installation, see below - I had an Android phone acting as an access point.

The installation itself is going fine - 64-bit GRUB can install a 32-bit version of itself. But the booting of the installed system stops at:

Loading Linux ...
Loading initial ramdisk ...

Here's what helped me:

Remove load_video from grub.conf. It's not enough (?) to edit /etc/default/grub, had to remove it from /etc/grub.d/10_linux.
Turn off Quiet Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS.

Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi module is a Realtek RTL8723BS. It is detected and started when rtl8723bs-dkms-git is installed from AUR (also see package comments there). Unfortunately the connection isn't stable and after some time stops working entirely. Applying the recommended patches from the driver page didn't help.

Time

(See update below.)

Despite the awful Wi-Fi transfer speed, ping results were looking interesting:

PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=0.00 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=0.00 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=50 time=0.00 ms
...

Turns out time on MeegoPad is passing... strangely (lanmei in this example):

$ while sleep 1; do echo "Local: $(date) Lanmei: $(ssh lanmei date)"; done
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:37:53 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:17 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:37:54 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:17 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:37:56 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:17 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:37:57 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:18 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:37:59 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:18 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:00 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:18 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:01 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:18 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:03 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:19 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:04 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:19 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:05 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:19 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:07 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:19 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:08 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:20 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:10 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:20 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:11 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:20 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:12 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:21 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:14 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:21 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:15 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:21 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:16 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:21 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:18 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:22 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:19 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:22 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:20 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:22 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:22 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:22 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:23 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:23 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:25 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:23 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:26 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:23 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:27 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:36:23 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:29 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:38:29 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:30 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:38:29 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:31 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:38:29 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:33 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:38:29 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:34 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:38:30 AEDT 2016
Local: Sun Jan 31 19:38:35 AEDT 2016 Lanmei: Sun Jan 31 19:38:30 AEDT 2016

The two minute jump near the end is systemd-timesyncd discovering (how?) that something is wrong and synchronizing via NTP.

Conclusion

HDMI, X11, hardware acceleration work.
Built-in Wi-Fi is no good.
Kodi, which was the target of it all, plays video with continuous stuttering.

Update

The time problem was caused by the kernel patches from RTL8723BS driver. Vanilla kernel keeps the time fine.