Windows 7 on the Viliv S5 UMPC – an Update
The process of putting the newly released Windows 7 RC on the Viliv S5 UMPC touched a nerve with a lot of people and I’m being pinged by folks for additional details. I had intended to produce a step-by-step guide for putting Win7 on the S5, but as the entire process hasn’t gone as well as I hoped, this update will have to suffice.
Installing Windows 7 on the S5 was pretty easy when done with a USB stick. I created a bootable USB using the ISO image of Windows 7 RC I downloaded from Microsoft yesterday. This went as expected and it was a simple matter of configuring the S5 to boot from the USB first via the BIOS. Viliv has made accessing the BIOS very simple: You just push the D-pad button in the middle quickly, as soon as you see the VILIV boot screen.
The primary problem I had with the install was the lack of Wi-Fi out of the box. This made accessing Windows Update impossible and the lack of an Ethernet jack played into this difficulty. I had downloaded all the XP drivers from Viliv prior to the install so I was able to get Wi-Fi going manually to proceed with the rest of the process.
The only step that was out of the ordinary involved the touchscreen driver; it’s a PS/2 device and you have to manually install the driver via the Device Manager to get it properly recognized for touch. This method isn’t ideal; since the touchscreen isn’t detected during the Windows 7 install process, none of the touch nor tablet bits were installed and activated. I’m not sure how to get those going after the fact; maybe you can’t.
This is a moot point with me as the touchscreen support on the S5 under Windows 7 falls short in one very key area: The touchscreen does not rotate along with the display. You can still rotate the display in the different orientations just like in WinXP, but the touchscreen doesn’t rotate. This means that you cannot use the touchscreen at all, in anything other than the primary landscape orientation, and this is a deal-breaker for me. I rotate the screen all the time during normal usage and I can’t live with the touchscreen not working. Bear in mind that there is no keyboard on the S5 and if the touchscreen doesn’t rotate you can’t even use an on-screen keyboard.
This is such a big deal to me that late last night I ran the recovery utility and put WinXP back on the S5. To tell you the truth, XP runs so solidly on the S5 that while the Win7 interface is very nice, the system is so bullet-proof with XP that I’ll be happy to wait for better driver support. I should have real Win7 drivers from Viliv soon so I will try the Win7 process again when I have them firmly in hand.
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How did you get the xp drivers? I went to myviliv.com and there was nothing under the support downloads page… Maybe I’m missing something?
And I assume you contacted them directly asking for Win7 driver support? Any idea if they’ll release those publicly?
The XP drivers are on the link on this page:
http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=2451&page=3
The Viliv drivers are in beta and I’m sure they will release them as soon as they can.
This slashgear article also mentions installation went without a hiccup… with a chinese version of what looks like an earlier-than-rc1 version of chinese win7.
http://www.slashgear.com/viliv-s5-mid-gets-windows-7-2038341/
I saw that but I have not seen anyone who’s gotten the touchscreen rotation to work properly as described in my article.
Assuming you hadn’t had any other problems, you would have been able to add the tablet features from within Programs and Features in Control Panel (Turn Windows Features On and Off)
I suspect that’s right but I didn’t have Win7 on long enough to try it.
Hi James, I (hope) successfully pre-ordered a Viliv S5 during the Dynamism promotion and now anxiously waiting for it to ship. Just out of curiosity, I remember that you gave the Sony Vaio P a very good review for its usability. Disregarding the price difference and just speaking in terms of usability, would you rather carry a Vaio P with extended battery or the Viliv S5 plus the BT keyboard/Mouse?
The S5, largely due to its ability to be used in the hand as a slate. Like right now. :)
“I should have real Win7 drivers from Viliv soon so I will try the Win7 process again when I have them firmly in hand.”
That is exciting. Is Viliv supplying the drivers? Does “soon” mean days? weeks? months?
Yes and days, although they will be beta and not forwardable.
I think its great that Windows 7 runs in this UMPC, i only have one question, has anybody been able to run linux on it (i have alredy google it)? Im interested in buying one, whats keeping me from doing it, its two things. Linux and the fact i wasnt able to make the purchase on time (out of stock).
It’s basically a netbook as far as h/w components go so I don’t see why Linux wouldn’t work just fine. The main issue might be the touchscreen though.
Please post your experience with the Viliv S5 with Windows 7 and Windows 7 specific drivers. There is a
-tf
growing community at pocketables.net, http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=2451, that would like to hear about better Windows 7 support.
Does anyone have a list of chipsets for this? Knowing the touchscreen’s chipset make+model, wireless chipset, IDE, etc, should make it easy to work out how well Linux might run on it.
Touchscreen support in kernel 2.6.28+ and latest X.Org is very solid and seems to cover quite a few more touch-screens cf. when I orginally fought with my Samsung Q1….
I also noticed Viliv’s X7O supports Linux, and I’m guessing they’re sharing several chipsets across models to control costs.
Pressing the d-pad button gets me to the AMI preboot with 2 options, normal boot, and “recovery boot”. NEITHER of which gets me to a BIOS screen.
So what’s the _real_ magic to getting to the BIOS screen w/out having to attach a keyboard. Which defeats the purpose as I can’t, then, select to boot off of the usb because no usb drive is attached.
you have to attach a keyboard and press the delete key during the Viliv splash screen to get to BIOS. pressing the D pad during boot only gets you to the AMI rescue screen