switchroot-ubuntu-l4t-broken-lcd.md

Notice

Please follow https://wiki.switchroot.org/en/Linux/USB-or-eMMC-Boot instead.

Nintendo Switch install switchroot Ubuntu with broken LCD

I had trouble setting up Ubuntu on my Nintendo Switch because I borked the screen. That means no automatic partitioning and install using Hekate.

Thanks to theofficialgman/gman#3709 from Switchroot Discord for the advice https://discord.com/channels/521977609182117891/588138053735022632/1019272797169668226

This guide will help you manually configure the sdcard partitions, hekate autoboot and switchroot Ubuntu.

1. To start we'll format our sdcard. I partitioned my 128 GB sdcard to 2 partitions. Partition 1 is 1 GB FAT32 and partition 2 is ext4 with all the rest of the remaining storage.

2. Download hekate from https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/releases (hekate v6.0.1 & Nyx v1.5.1 on creating this guide)

3. Copy bootloader/ and switchroot/ directories to partition 1.

4. Download switchroot-ubuntu-5.0.0-2022-12-23.7z from https://download.switchroot.org/ubuntu/.

5. Extract files and go to switchroot/install/ directory and concatenate l4t.00 and l4t.01

cat l4t.00 l4t.01 > l4t.img

6. Identify partition 2 using fdisk -l and write the l4t.img to partition 2 of the sdcard

sudo dd if=l4t.img of=/dev/sdX2 conv=fsync status=progress

7. On bootloader/ini/L4T-bionic.ini copy the boot entry for Ubuntu L4T Bionic and create and configure bootloader/hekate_ipl.ini on partition 1.

[config]
autoboot=1
autoboot_list=0
bootwait=3
noticker=0
backlight=100
autohosoff=1
autonogc=1
updater2p=1
bootprotect=0

[L4T Ubuntu Bionic]
l4t=1
boot_prefixes=/switchroot/ubuntu/
uart_port=0
id=SWR-UBU
r2p_action=self
icon=switchroot/ubuntu/icon_ubuntu_hue.bmp
logopath=switchroot/ubuntu/bootlogo_ubuntu.bmp

8. Finally use fusee-launcher.py with your payload hekate_ctcaer_x.bin