Ubuntu on Wintel W8 / Ainol Mini PC

Recommended BIOS Settings for Ubuntu 14.04 on Wintel W8 Boards
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The Wintel W8[1] mini PC (also sold as the Ainol Mini PC[2]) comes pre-loaded with Android 4.4 (64-bit) and Windows 8.1 (32-bit).  At boot, an icon-based dual-boot loader will ask which OS you want to boot into.

I wanted to have a single-boot (not dual-boot) installation of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, the latest LTS release at the time of this writing.  This paste documents the steps I needed to take to successfully accomplish this.

[1] http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/04/27/wintel-w8-review/
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Mini-PC-7000mAh-Computer-Bluetooth/dp/B00ZUJ6ALO

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Step 1:  Boot up.
If you want to install a 32-bit flavour of Linux, you will need to boot the mini PC, and at the dual-boot screen you should select Windows.
If you want to install a 64-bit flavour of Linux, you will need to boot the mini PC, and at the dual-boot screen you should select Android.

Once the selected OS has been booted, just yank the power cable out of the device (don't shut it down gracefully.)

This step is necessary because when Android is selected, the 64-bit UEFI firmware is uploaded/flashed/whatever, and ditto for 32-bit firmware when Windows is selected.


Step 2:  Enter BIOS.
Power on your mini PC with a USB keyboard attached, and immediately, repeatedly press the ESC key (don't hold it down, tap the key frequently).  This should throw you into the modern blue and white/black BIOS screen (see the images in [1] for examples).


Step 3:  Reset Defaults.
Head over to "Save & Exit" tab, and select the option to restore to factory settings/defaults.  Once this is done, don't save nor exit, just continue immediately on to step 3.


Step 4:  "Boot" tab.
Head to the "Boot" tab and set "Quiet Boot" to Disabled.


Step 5:  "Security" tab.
Look for the "Secure Boot" setting and set it to Disabled.


Step 6:  "Chipset" tab.
Look for the "RPMB Provision" setting and set it to Disabled.

This will stop the Ubuntu installer from trying to probe the /dev/mmcblk0rpmb block device and erroring out.


Step 7:  "Advanced" tab.
This is the most important setting, and will fix the eMMC speed from being ~128KB/sec to ~42MB/sec reads.  Change the "SCC eMMC 4.5 HS200 Support" setting to Disabled.

The rest of the settings should read:
LPSS & SCC Devices Mode: ACPI mode
SCC eMMC Support: Enable eMMC 4.5 Support
eMMC Secure Erase: Disabled
eMMC Write Protect: Enabled
SCC eMMC 4.5 DDR50 Support: Enabled
SCC eMMC 4.5 HS200 Support: Disabled (this is the one setting we changed in this step)
SCC SDIO Support: Enabled
SCC SD Card Support: Enabled
SDR25 Support for SDCard: Enabled
DDR50 Support for SDCard: Disabled (note: this is greyed out on my screen)
MIPI HSI Support: Enabled

Step 8:  Save and Reset.
Head to the "Save & Exit" tab and select "Save and Reset".

You should press ESC again just like you did in step 2 to re-enter BIOS, and select an installation media from the "Save & Exit" tab to boot from.  This should be either a USB FLASH drive with installation files on it or USB CD-ROM drive with the installation CD inserted).

TIP: Use the Desktop ISO so you can "Try Ubuntu without installing" and just confirm that eMMC speeds are in the tens of MB/sec, and that any other devices you require are functional.

NOTES:
- The WiFi (RTL8723BS) isn't working out-of-the-box.  Once you have Ubuntu successfully installed you will need to source these and install them just like any other kernel modules.
- Audio over HDMI on Linux is broken, however it looks like others have got it working with a lot of work: http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/05/08/minix-neo-z64w-intel-atom-z3735f-mini-pc-gets-hdmi-audio-in-ubuntu/
- Remember, this kit uses UEFI, so read up on installing Ubuntu on UEFI machines if it's not an area you're familiar with (TLDR is: use GPT partition table, and have the first partition be 100MB-200MB in size with the type set to EFI, then your usual Linux partitions thereafter.)